Digital Commons Network^™

Spatial Downscaling Of Goes-R Land Surface Temperature Over Urban Regions: A Case Study For New York City, Abdou Bah, Hamidreza Norouzi, Satya Prakash, Reginald Blake, Reza Khanbilvardi, Cynthia Rosenzweig

Publications and Research

The surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect is among the major environmental issues encountered in urban regions. To better predict the dynamics of the SUHI and its impacts on extreme heat events, an accurate characterization of the surface energy balance in urban regions is needed. However, the ability to improve understanding of the surface energy balance is limited by the heterogeneity of surfaces in urban areas. This study aims to enhance the understanding of the urban surface energy budget through an innovation in the use of land surface temperature (LST) observations from remote sensing satellites. A LST database with 5–min …

Chlorine Taste Threshold And Acceptability As A Water Disinfectant Among Indigenous Ngäbe And Non-Indigenous In Rural Panama, Ashley Osler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

More than two billion people globally still lack access to safely managed drinking water (WHO & UNICEF, 2021). Although gains in access to water service over the past two decades have been large, universal access to safe and affordable drinking water (SDG 6, target 6.1) is not on track to be achieved. In Panama, safely managed drinking water access has not been measured. However, the data on basic water access illustrates the large disparities between rural and urban areas of Panama. While 98% of urban Panamanian households have basic access to water, only 86% of rural Panamanian households, and 54% …

Sustainable Land System Transformations In Shifting Cultivation Landscapes, Dominic Martin

Sustainability Seminar Series

During my talk, I will give a broad introduction on shifting cultivation, associated sustainability challenges, and the case of north‐eastern Madagascar. Thereafter I will focus on land system transformations in shifting cultivation landscapes – both in Madagascar and elsewhere – showing that their drivers and consequences are highly diverse and context‐dependent. This is calling for a critical and contextualized appraisal of the continuation of, as well as the transition away from shifting cultivation when designing land system

Angiotensin Blockade Therapy And Survival In Pancreatic Cancer: A Population Study, Scott W Keith, Vittorio Maio, Hwyda A Arafat, Matthew Alcusky, Thomas Karagiannis, Carol Rabinowitz, Harish Lavu, Daniel Z. Louis

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most aggressive and challenging cancer types to effectively treat, ranking as the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States. We investigated if exposures to angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) or angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors after PC diagnosis are associated with survival.

Methods: PC patients were identified by ICD-9 diagnosis and procedure codes among the 3.7 million adults living in the Emilia-Romagna Region from their administrative health care database containing patient data on demographics, hospital discharges, all-cause mortality, and outpatient pharmacy prescriptions. Cox modeling estimated covariate-adjusted mortality hazard ratios …

North American Breeding Bird Survey Underestimates Regional Bird Richness Compared To Breeding Bird Atlases, Roi Ankori-Karlinsky, Michael Kalyuzhny, Katherine F. Barnes, Andrew M. Wilson, Curtis Flather, Rosalind Renfrew, Joan Walsh, Edna Guk, Ronen Kadmon

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Standardized data on large-scale and long-term patterns of species richness are critical for understanding the consequences of natural and anthropogenic changes in the environment. The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) is one of the largest and most widely used sources of such data, but so far, little is known about the degree to which BBS data provide accurate estimates of regional richness. Here, we test this question by comparing estimates of regional richness based on BBS data with spatially and temporally matched estimates based on state Breeding Bird Atlases (BBA). We expected that estimates based on BBA data would …

Land-Surface Parameters For Spatial Predictive Mapping And Modeling, Aaron E. Maxwell, Charles Shobe

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Land-surface parameters derived from digital land surface models (DLSMs) (for example, slope, surface curvature, topographic position, topographic roughness, aspect, heat load index, and topographic moisture index) can serve as key predictor variables in a wide variety of mapping and modeling tasks relating to geomorphic processes, landform delineation, ecological and habitat characterization, and geohazard, soil, wetland, and general thematic mapping and modeling. However, selecting features from the large number of potential derivatives that may be predictive for a specific feature or process can be complicated, and existing literature may offer contradictory or incomplete guidance. The availability of multiple data sources and …

The World As We Know It: Maps And Atlases From Special Collections, Archives And Special Collections, Luke Meagher

Library Exhibits

Selections of maps and atlases from Sandor Teszler Library’s Special Collections are presented in this exhibit to show how, over time, cartographers have represented the world as we know it.

Charcoal Value Chain As A Complimentary Livelihood Activity For Pastoralists In The Rangelands, S. Teyie, Oliver Vivian Wasonga, C. Bergmann, M. Petersen

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Global charcoal production has more than tripled over the past 50 years from 17.3 million tons in 1964 to 53.1 million tons in 2014. 61% of the present global charcoal production occurs in Africa, mostly to satisfy demand for cooking fuel from urban and peri-urban households. Despite the adverse environmental impacts associated with charcoal production, a significant global population relies on it for energy needs, while many producers depend on it as a livelihood source. Whereas this calls for efforts to promote sustainable charcoal production practices, this has to be informed by in-depth understanding of the charcoal value chain to …

Allodb: An R Package For Biomass Estimation At Globally Distributed Extratropical Forest Plots, Erika Gonzalez-Akre, Camille Piponiot, Mauro Lepore, Valentine Herrmann, James A. Lutz, Jennifer L. Baltzer, Christopher W. Dick, Gregory S. Gilbert, Fangliang He, Michael Heym, Alejandra I. Huerta, Patrick A. Jansen, Daniel J. Johnson, Nikolai Knapp, Kamil Král, Dunmei Lin, Yadvinder Malhi, Sean M. Mcmahon, Jonathan A. Myers, David Orwig, Diego I. Rodríguez-Hernández, Sabrina E. Russo, Jessica Shue, Xugao Wang, Amy Wolf, Tonghui Yang, Stuart J. Davies, Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Allometric equations for calculation of tree above-ground biomass (AGB) form the basis for estimates of forest carbon storage and exchange with the atmosphere. While standard models exist to calculate forest biomass across the tropics, we lack a standardized tool for computing AGB across boreal and temperate regions that comprise the global extratropics. Here we present an integrated R package, allodb, containing systematically selected published allometric equations and proposed functions to compute AGB. The data component of the package is based on 701 woody species identified at 24 large Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) forest dynamics plots representing a wide diversity …

An Equity-First Approach To Climate Adaptation, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, San Diego Association Of Governments

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

The Equity-First Approach to Climate Adaptation guidance document (Equity Guidance; document) serves as a general framework for local agency planners and transportation planning professionals. The Equity Guidance’s overall goal is to provide best practices for designing, planning, and implementing a climate adaptation process that supports equitable outcomes. This document identifies trends, assumptions, emerging practices, indicators, metrics, and implementation opportunities, that support and operationalize an equitable climate adaptation planning process.

Reykjanes Mantle Convection And Climate: Crustal Objectives, Ross E. Parnell-Turner, Anne R. Briais, Leah J. Levay, Ying Cui, Anita Di Chiara, Justin P. Dodd, Deborah E. Eason, Sarah A. Friedman, Katharina E. Hochmuth, Boris T. Karatsolis, Danielle E. Leblanc, Melody R. Lindsay, David D. Mcnamara, Sevasti E. Modestou, Bramley Murton, Suzanne B. O’Connell, Gabriel T. Pasquet, Paul N. Pearson, Sheng Ping Qian, Yair Rosenthal, Sara Satolli, Jose M. Cuevas, Jamie L. Shamrock, Takuma Suzuki, Saalim M. Syed, Nicholas J. White, Alexandra Yang Yang

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The five primary sites proposed for International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 395, which was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, were cored during IODP Expedition 395C. The Expedition 395C operations, shipboard measurements, and sampling were adjusted to account for the absence of a sailing science party. The Expedition 395/395C objectives are (1) to investigate temporal variations in ocean crust generation at the Reykjanes Ridge and test hypotheses for the influence of Iceland mantle plume fluctuations on these processes, (2) to analyze sedimentation rates at the Björn and Gardar contourite drifts, as proxies for Cenozoic variations of North Atlantic deepwater …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, February 2022, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 3, Issue 2

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards & Recognition
Page 3-4 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 5- 6 Local Boy Scouts Earn Their Chemistry Merit Badges
Page 7-8 Mount Vernon Teacher Wins 2022 South Dakota Outstanding Physical Science Teacher Award
Page 9 Middle Schoolers Visit SDSU
Page 10 Microbiology Club Tours POET
Page 11 53rd Geography Convention
Page 12 Open PRAIRIE Data

Including Everyone, Everywhere: Understanding Opportunities And Challenges Of Geographic Gender-Inclusion In Oss, Gede Artha Azriadi Prana, Denae Ford, Ayushi Rastogi, David Lo, Rahul Purandare, Nachiappan Nagappan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The gender gap is a significant concern facing the software industry as the development becomes more geographically distributed. Widely shared reports indicate that gender differences may be specific to each region. However, how complete can these reports be with little to no research reflective of the Open Source Software (OSS) process and communities software is now commonly developed in? Our study presents a multi-region geographical analysis of gender inclusion on GitHub. This mixed-methods approach includes quantitatively investigating differences in gender inclusion in projects across geographic regions and investigate these trends over time using data from contributions to 21,456 project repositories. …

Blockchain: Key Principles, Nadezda Chikurova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Blockchain: Key Principles” is an interactive visual project that explains the importance of data privacy and security, decentralized computing, and open-source software in the modern digital world through the history of the underlying principles of blockchain technology. Some of these key concepts have their roots in the time before the Information Age. By explaining the history of these principles, I want to present the fact that over the past centuries, humanity has been fighting for their privacy, security, and the ability to efficiently express themselves one way or another. Blockchain technology, which was introduced to the public in 2008 through …

Witnessing Climate Change: What I Have Learned From My Expeditions To The Greenland Ice Sheet, Åsa Rennermalm

Sustainability Seminar Series

Greenland ice sheet and the Arctic region are experiencing some of the largest impacts of climate change on Earth. Since the 1990s, Greenland ice sheet surface melting has increased and is now one of the leading drivers of global sea‐level rise. For over a decade, my team and I have traveled to Greenland to study how climate change transforms the surface melting of the ice sheet. In this talk, I will share what we have learned from observing rivers on the ice sheet and tundra, and from extracting shallow ice cores high up on the ice sheet. Our ice cores …

Snow Cover Variability And Trend Over The Hindu Kush Himalayan Region Using Modis And Srtm Data, Nirasindhu Desinayak, Anup K. Prasad, Hesham El-Askary, Menas Kafatos, Ghassem R. Asrar

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Snow cover changes have a direct bearing on the regional and global energy and water cycles and the change in the Earth's climate conditions. We studied the relatively long-term (2000–2017) altitudinal spatiotemporal changes in the coverage of snow and glaciers in one of the world's largest mountainous regions, the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, including Tibet, using remote sensing data (5 km grid resolution) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Terra satellite. This dataset provided a unique opportunity to study zonal and hypsographic changes in the intra-annual (accumulating season and melting season) and interannual variations in …

Potential Of Croton Megalocarpus Nut As An Alternative Protein Supplement For Feeding Of Ruminants In The Tropics, E. K. Njoroge, C. C. Wambui, C. B. Wasike

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Croton megalocarous is a tree native to the arid and semi-arid rangelands of East Africa that produces nuts reported to contain high crude protein (CP). However, they are often neglected as a potential feed due to lack of information on how best to utilize them. This study was conducted to evaluate the chemical composition and in sacco dry matter (DM) degradability of four forms of croton namely whole nut (WN), peeled nut (PN), De-husked nut (DhN) and Defatted seed (DfS). DM of all forms was above 89%, ash content was highest in WN (5.9%) and least in PN (2.2%). Crude …

Water Insecurity, Water Borrowing, And Psychosocial Stress Among Daasanach Pastoralists In Northern Kenya, Leslie Ford, Hilary J. Bethancourt, Zane Swanson, Rosemary Nzunza, Amber Wutich, Alexandra Brewis, Sera Young, David Almeida, Matthew J. Douglass, Emmanuel K. Ndiema, David R. Braun, Herman Pontzer, Asher Y. Rosinger

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This article quantifies Daasanach water insecurity experiences in Northern Kenya, examines how water insecurity is associated with water borrowing and psychosocial stress, and evaluates if water borrowing mitigates the stress from water insecurity. Of 133 households interviewed in 7 communities, 95% were water insecure and 74.4% borrowed water three or more times in the prior month. Regression analyses demonstrate water borrowing frequency moderates the relationship between water insecurity and psychosocial stress. Only those who rarely or never borrowed water reported greater stress with higher water insecurity. The coping mechanism of water borrowing may help blunt water insecurity-related stress.

P3k14c, A Synthetic Global Database Of Archaeological Radiocarbon Dates, Erick Robinson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Archaeologists increasingly use large radiocarbon databases to model prehistoric human demography (also termed paleo-demography). Numerous independent projects, funded over the past decade, have assembled such databases from multiple regions of the world. These data provide unprecedented potential for comparative research on human population ecology and the evolution of social-ecological systems across the Earth. However, these databases have been developed using different sample selection criteria, which has resulted in interoperability issues for global-scale, comparative paleo-demographic research and integration with paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental data. We present a synthetic, global-scale archaeological radiocarbon database composed of 180,070 radiocarbon dates that have been cleaned according …

A Comparison Of Sporadic-E Occurrence Rates Using Gps Radio Occultation And Ionosonde Measurements, Rodney Carmona, Omar A. Nava, Eugene V. Dao, Daniel J. Emmons

Faculty Publications

Sporadic-E (E_s) occurrence rates from Global Position Satellite radio occultation (GPS-RO) measurements have shown to vary by a factor of five between studies, motivating the need for a comparison with ground-based measurements. In an attempt to find accurate GPS-RO techniques for detecting E_s formation, occurrence rates derived using five previously developed GPS-RO techniques are compared to ionosonde measurements over an eight-year period from 2010–2017. GPS-RO measurements within 170 km of a ionosonde site are used to calculate E_s occurrence rates and compared to the ground-truth ionosonde measurements. The techniques are compared individually for each ionosonde site …

Future Of Winter In Northeastern North America: Climate Indicators Portray Warming And Snow Loss That Will Impact Ecosystems And Communities, Elizabeth Burakowski, Alix Contosta, Danielle Grogan, Sarah Nelson, Sarah Garlick, Nora Casson

Faculty Publications

Winters in northeastern North America have warmed faster than summers, with impacts on ecosystems and society. Global climate models (GCMs) indicate that winters will continue to warm and lose snow in the future, but uncertainty remains regarding the magnitude of warming. Here, we project future trends in winter indicators under lower and higher climate-warming scenarios based on emission levels across northeastern North America at a fine spatial scale (1/16°) relevant to climate-related decision making. Under both climate scenarios, winters continue to warm with coincident increases in days above freezing, decreases in days with snow cover, and fewer nights below freezing. …

Editorial: Geospace Observation Of Natural Hazards, Dimitar Ouzounov, Jann-Yenq Liu, Patrick T. Taylor, Katsumi Hattori

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

"This collection of technical papers aims to bring recent data from many sources into the study of natural hazards. They represent a multi-instrumental approach using both ground observations: Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS); and Low Earth Orbiting Electromagnetic (LEO EM) satellites missions together with Earth Observations (EO), which could reveal new information. Results from latest satellite missions, [(NPP/NASA/NOAA(US), CENTINEL, Swarm/ESA (EU), HIMAWARI (JMA, Japan), FORMOSAT-5 (Taiwan, August 2017), CSES1 (China/Italy, Feb 2018), and FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 (Taiwan/United States, May 2019)], are represented in this volume."

Influence Of Grazing Intensity On Nutrient Concentrations In Grass Tissue: Evidence From Two Savannah Grass Species, C. Munyati

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

High grazing intensity can accelerate the recycling of animal nutrients on savannah rangelands through the deposition of dung and, subsequently, nutrient mineralisation, uptake and concentration in grass tissue. The actual magnitude of this influence can vary depending on the grazing system. This study derived grazing system-dependent magnitudes of the influence of grazing intensity on concentrations of major (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na) and trace (B, Co, Cu, Cr, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Se, Zn) animal nutrients in above ground grass tissue. Two grass species were examined: Brachiaria nigropedata, a decreaser, and Eragrostis lehmanniana, an increaser. For the …

A Surrogate Assisted Quantum-Behaved Algorithm For Well Placement Optimization, Jahedul Islam, Amril Nazir, Moinul Hossain, Hitmi Khalifa Alhitmi, Muhammad Ashad Kabir, Abdul-Halim Jallad

All Works

The oil and gas industry faces difficulties in optimizing well placement problems. These problems are multimodal, non-convex, and discontinuous in nature. Various traditional and non-traditional optimization algorithms have been developed to resolve these difficulties. Nevertheless, these techniques remain trapped in local optima and provide inconsistent performance for different reservoirs. This study thereby presents a Surrogate Assisted Quantum-behaved Algorithm to obtain a better solution for the well placement optimization problem. The proposed approach utilizes different metaheuristic optimization techniques such as the Quantum-inspired Particle Swarm Optimization and the Quantum-behaved Bat Algorithm in different implementation phases. Two complex reservoirs are used to investigate …

Spatial And Seasonal Variations Of Microplastic Concentrations In Portland's Freshwater Ecosystems, Rebecca Talbot

Dissertations and Theses

Microplastics are a pollutant of growing concern and are ubiquitous in a variety of environmental compartments. The majority of microplastics research to date has been conducted in marine waters, and less is known regarding the sources and delivery pathways of microplastics in urban rivers. The first chapter is comprised of a review of the scientific literature regarding the spatial and temporal factors affecting global freshwater microplastic distributions and abundances. Microplastic spatial distributions are heavily influenced by anthropogenic factors, with higher concentrations reported in regions characterized by urban land cover, high population density, and wastewater treatment plant effluent. Temporal variables of …

Directions For The Development Of Personal Subsidiary Farms And Increasing Sources Of Income In The Future, Yakupov Kabil

Karakalpak Scientific Journal

This article discusses the features of the development of personal subsidiary farms in modern conditions, defines their functions in the agrarian economy and in the life of society as a whole. Modern agrarian policy provides for the development of various forms of management, including personal subsidiary farms. Personal subsidiary farms are an organic part of the agricultural sectors and make a significant contribution to solving the food problem of the country. The provision of the population with food products is carried out by personal subsidiary farms through their own consumption, as well as the sale of surplus products.

Tibetan Dust Accumulation Linked To Ecological And Landscape Response To Global Climate Change, Xianmei Huang, Xiaodong Miao, Qiufang Chang, Jiemei Zhong, Joseph A. Mason, Paul R. Hanson, Xianjiao Ou, Liubing Xu, Zhongping Lai

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is a hotspot of earth system research, and understanding its landscape and ecosystem evolution has been hampered by the lack of time-constrained geological records. Geochronological data from 14 loess sites covering a large region in the Tibetan interior show that the TP loess, rather than accumulating during glacial periods, began aggrading at either 13.4 ± 0.4 or 9.9 ± 0.2 ka. An ecological threshold was crossed, when warmer and wetter conditions resulted in increased vegetation cover enabling dust trapping. This dust accumulation model is out of phase with that of the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) where …

Effects Of Cattle Grazing On A Perennial Legume, Bitumen Trefoil (Bituminaria Bituminosa (L.) Stirton), In A Mediterranean Grassland, M. Gutman, M. Sternberg, A. Perevoltsky

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

A six-year study was conducted in a Mediterranean grassland in north-eastern Israel to investigate the effects of cattle grazing management on a perennial legume, Bitumen Trefoil (Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) Stirton). The relationship between grazing pressure and its relative plant cover was studied in the context of inter-annual variation in rainfall. Treatments included manipulations of stocking rates (moderate, heavy and very heavy) and of grazing regimes (continuous vs. seasonal), in a factorial design. The results showed that inter-seasonal rainfall variation was a dominant factor in the expression of plant cover changes of this species. Grazing showed no significant effect on …

Heat, Wildfire And Energy Demand: An Examination Of Residential Buildings And Community Equity, Chrissi Argyro Antonopoulos

Dissertations and Theses

Extreme heat and wildfire events are becoming more prolific and exacerbated by climate change, carrying significant implications for environmental and social systems. Residential buildings play a central role in protecting people from heat and pollutant exposure during extreme weather events, but the level of protection varies dramatically depending on building energy efficiency and technology availability. Low-income and communities of color have higher energy burdens compared to affluent populations, and underserved communities often do not have financial resources for, or access to, advanced building technologies. This dissertation explores the impacts of extreme heat and wildfire on residential buildings, focused specifically on …

Catastrophic Ice-Debris Flow In The Rishiganga River, Chamoli, Uttarakhand (India), Vijendra Kumar Pandey, Rajesh Kumar, Rupendra Singh, Rajesh Kumar, Suresh Chand Rai, Ramesh P. Singh, Arun Kumar Tripathi, Vijay Kumar Soni, S. Nawaz Ali, Dakshina Tamang, Syed Umer Latief

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

A catastrophic flood occurred on 7 February 2021 around 10:30 AM (local time) in the Rishiganga River, which has been attributed to a rockslide in the upper reach of the Raunthi River. The Resourcesat 2 LISS IV (8 February 2021) and CNES Airbus satellite imagery (9 February 2021) clearly show the location of displaced materials. The solar radiation observed was higher than normal by 10% and 25% on 6 and 7 February 2021, respectively, however, the temperature shows up to 34% changes. These conditions are responsible for the sudden change in instability in glacier blocks causing deadly rock-ice slides that …