Digital Commons Network^™

Harnessing The Potentials Of Blue Economy For Sustainable Development Of Nigeria, Hammed Damilare Ibrahim

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Cross-Modal Recipe Retrieval With Stacked Attention Model, Jing-Jing Chen, Lei Pang, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Taking a picture of delicious food and sharing it in social media has been a popular trend. The ability to recommend recipes along will benefit users who want to cook a particular dish, and the feature is yet to be available. The challenge of recipe retrieval, nevertheless, comes from two aspects. First, the current technology in food recognition can only scale up to few hundreds of categories, which are yet to be practical for recognizing tens of thousands of food categories. Second, even one food category can have variants of recipes that differ in ingredient composition. Finding the best-match recipe …

Carnivorous Pitcher Plants Eat A Diet Of Certain Spiders, Regardless Of What's On The Menu, Marc A. Milne, Deborah A. Waller

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, is a low-lying carnivorous plant that uses pitcher-shaped leaves to catch arthropod prey for nutrition. Spiders make up a significant portion of these prey. To determine the tendency of specific spider taxa to be captured by the plant, we compared the composition (by taxonomic family) of three spider assemblages: those captured by the plant, those residing on or over the plant, and those found nearby in the local environment. Although there were some broad similarities within the three spider assemblages, significant differences existed when specific families and guilds were considered. While some families …

Mass Spectrometry And Nuclear Magnetic Resonance In The Chemometric Analysis Of Cellular Metabolism, Eli Riekeberg

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The development and awareness of Machine Learning and “big data” has led to a growing interest in applying these methods to bioanalytical research. Methods such as Mass Spectrometry (MS), and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) can now obtain tens of thousands to millions of data points from a single sample, due to fundamental instrumental advances and ever-increasing resolution. Simple pairwise comparisons on datasets of this magnitude can obfuscate more complex underlying trends, and does a disservice to the richness of information contained within. This necessitates the need for multivariate approaches that can more fully take advantage of the complexity of these …

Importance Of Remotely-Sensed Vegetation Variables For Predicting The Spatial Distribution Of African Citrus Triozid (Trioza Erytreae) In Kenya, Kyalo Richard, Elfatih M. Abdel-Rahman, Samira A. Mohamed, Sunday Ekesi, Christian Borgemeister, Tobias Landmann

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Citrus is considered one of the most important fruit crops globally due to its contribution to food and nutritional security. However, the production of citrus has recently been in decline due to many biological, environmental, and socio-economic constraints. Amongst the biological ones, pests and diseases play a major role in threatening citrus quantity and quality. The most damaging disease in Kenya, is the African citrus greening disease (ACGD) or Huanglongbing (HLB) which is transmitted by the African citrus triozid (ACT), Trioza erytreae. HLB in Kenya is reported to have had the greatest impact on citrus production in the highlands, causing …

Lc-Ms/Ms Based Analysis Of Vitamins B3 And B6 In Healthy And Obese Emirati Population, Ghada Rashad Mohamed

Theses

Water-soluble vitamins like Vitamin B3, B6, and B9 are of utmost importance in human health and disease, as they are involved in numerous critical metabolic reactions. Not surprisingly, deficiencies of these vitamins have been linked to various disease states. For example, Vitamin B6 deficiency has been related to many diseases in humans especially in women with type 1 diabetes and in patients with systemic inflammation, liver disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and those infected with HIV. Similarly, derivatives of Vitamin B9 (such as folates), are needed to synthesize, repair, and methylate DNA as well as to act as a cofactor in certain …

Managing Risk In Grazing Operations, Christopher D. Teutsch, Kenneth H. Burdine

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Risk is an inherent part of agricultural production systems. Crane and coworkers (2013) identified five primary areas of risk in grazing operations: 1) MARKETING risk, 2) PRODUCTION risk, 3) LEGAL risk, 4) HUMAN risk, and FINANCIAL risk. These types of risk are described in the accompanying publication entitled “Controlling Risk in Grazing-Based Production Systems” by J. Parsons. This article will discuss the risk associated with “production” in grazing systems, focusing specifically on managing drought in grass based production operations.

Turning Grass Into Cash With Small Ruminants, Kenneth Andries

Kentucky Grazing Conference

As agriculture continues to change, it is important to consider sustainability before starting or expanding any enterprise. One critical factor in any animal agriculture enterprise is controlling feeding costs. Most research indicates feeding is the largest expenses in any livestock enterprise. However, nutrition is critical to overall productivity and the income of the enterprise. Because of this, producers need to find ways to improve nutrient availability while minimizing costs to optimize production and profitability for their livestock enterprise.

Considerations For Making A Profit With Stocker Cattle, Jeff Lehmkuhler

Kentucky Grazing Conference

The southeast is home to more than 7.3 million beef cows (USDA 2018). At an estimated 80% weaning rate and 20% heifer retention, the southeast region would be expected to produce more than 4.6 million feeder calves that would go to market in 2018. The cow-calf industry in the region provides an opportunity for the stocker and backgrounding operations to co-exist. Much of the land in the region is best suited for forage and pasture production, which at the current moment, provides a low cost feed for adding pounds to light weight feeder cattle. Yet, the stocker and backgrounding segments …

2018 Celebration Of Scholarship, Creativity And Engagement, Eastern Illinois University

Programs

Scholarship, creativity, innovation, and the many forms of collaborative engagement that shape faculty life and student learning are central to the mission of Eastern Illinois University. For that reason, our faculty, department chairs, college deans, the provost, and the entire campus community celebrate the achievements and outstanding contributions of our colleagues and students to their disciplines and professions every year.

And, as the following pages illustrate, faculty engaged in continuing scholarly and creative activities provide outstanding mentoring experiences for our undergraduate and graduate students.

In addition to recognizing faculty performances, shows, publications, grants and other professional efforts, the University will …

A Novel Shortwave Infrared Proximal Sensing Approach To Quantify The Water Stability Of Soil Aggregates, Azadeh Gholoubi, Hojat Emami, Scott B. Jones, Markus Tuller

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Soil structure and aggregate stability (AS) are critical soil properties affecting water infiltration, root growth, and resistance to soil and wind erosion. Changes in AS may be early indicators of soil degradation, pointing to low organic matter (OM) content, reduced biological activity, or poor nutrient cycling. Hence, efficient and reliable AS measurement techniques are essential for detection, management, and remediation of degraded soil resources. Here we quantify soil AS by developing a novel proximal sensing technique based on shortwave infrared (SWIR) reflectance measurements. The novel approach is similar to the well-documented high energy moisture characteristic (HEMC) method, which yields a …

Using Cyclical Components To Improve The Forecasts Of The Stock Market And Macroeconomic Variables, Kenneth R. Szulczyk, Shibley Sadique

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Economic variables such as stock market indices, interest rates, and national output measures contain cyclical components. Forecasting methods excluding these cyclical components yield inaccurate out-of-sample forecasts. Accordingly, a three-stage procedure is developed to estimate a vector autoregression (VAR) with cyclical components. A Monte Carlo simulation shows the procedure estimates the parameters accurately. Subsequently, a VAR with cyclical components improves the root-mean-square error of out-of-sample forecasts by 50% for a stock market model with macroeconomic variables.

With-In Host Dynamics Of L. Monocytogenes And Thresholds For Distinct Infection Scenarios, Ashrafur Rahman, Daniel Munther, Aamir Fazil, Ben Smith, Jianhong Wu

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

The case fatality and illness rates associated with L. monocytogenes continue to pose a serious public health burden despite the significant efforts and control protocol administered by private and public sectors. Due to the advance in surveillance and improvement in detection methodology, the knowledge of sources, transmission routes, growth potential in food process units and storage, effect of pH and temperature are well understood. However, the with-in host growth and transmission mechanisms of L. monocytogenes, particularly within the human host, remain unclear, largely due to the limited access to scientific experimentation on the human population. In order to provide insight …

Growth, Yield Performance And Quality Parameters Of Three Early Flowering Chia (Salvia Hispanica L.) Genotypes Cultivated In Southwestern Germany, Samantha J. Grimes, Timothy D. Phillips, Volker Hahn, Filippo Capezzone, Simone Graeff-Hönninger

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

The combination of consumer’s ongoing demand for chia (Salvia hispanica L.) alongside the increased demand for regionally produced food products provided the impetus for this study. Its aim was to test if a regional cultivation of new chia genotypes, which were adapted to day lengths greater than 12 h, is feasible under Central European conditions. Therefore, three early flowering chia genotypes (Sahi Alba 914, W13.1, G8) were cultivated in a randomized block design at two experimental stations in Southwestern Germany (Ihinger Hof, Eckartsweier) over the course of two years (2015, 2016). Mean yields ranged from 100 to 1290 kg …

Seeing And Understanding Data, Beverly Wood, Charlotte Bolch

Statistics and Probability

No abstract provided.

Makerspace Club, Carolyn Brady

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

This is a unique club that allows children to explore the world around them and make projects using materials provided by educators, and to get children thinking about how things work in the world, and how they do. They gain knowledge about success and failure of these things by recreating them.

Girls Who Code 3rd-5th, Khristina Polivanov

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

The goal of the club is to encourage girls to be confident in themselves and their abilities while teaching them basic concepts used in computer science.

Nebraska’S Wildlife Club; Nebraska Honors Program Clc Expanded Learning Opportunity Clubs, Alexandrea E. Otto

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

The goal of the club is to educate and explore with students the wildlife and nature that surrounds them every day. The main focus was to educate students on wildlife native to Nebraska; ranging all the way from West Nebraska to the wildlife found in cities such as Lincoln.

The Future Is Now Science Club, Shane Stan

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

The Future is Now! What will our planet look like in 10, 20, 50, or even 100 years? Where will we live, what will we eat, how will we travel? Believe it or not, in the coming decades, many ideas that were once science fiction will come through to realization. With this, many of the discoveries and technologies making all of this happen are being developed right now as we go about our daily lives.

In this club, appropriately titled, The Future Is Now Science Club, students will be inspired to think larger about the present world they live in. …

Imaging Spectroscopic Analysis Of Biochemical Traits For Shrub Species In Great Basin, Usa, Yi Qi, Susan L. Ustin, Nancy F. Glenn

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The biochemical traits of plant canopies are important predictors of photosynthetic capacity and nutrient cycling. However, remote sensing of biochemical traits in shrub species in dryland ecosystems has been limited mainly due to the sparse vegetation cover, manifold shrub structures, and complex light interaction between the land surface and canopy. In order to examine the performance of airborne imaging spectroscopy for retrieving biochemical traits in shrub species, we collected Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer—Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) images and surveyed four foliar biochemical traits (leaf mass per area, water content, nitrogen content and carbon) of sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata) and …

Alzheimer’S Disease And Alpha-Synuclein Neuropathology In The Olfactory Bulbs Of Children And Young Adults ≤40years Exposed To High Levels Of Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution In Metropolitan Mexico City: Apoe4 Carriers At Higher Risk Of Suicide Accelerate Their Olfactory Bulb Damage, Partha S. Mukherjee

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is growing evidence that air pollution is a risk factor for a number of neurodegenerative diseases, most notably Alzheimer’s (AD) and Parkinson’s (PD). It is generally assumed that the pathology of these diseases arises only later in life and commonly begins within olfactory eloquent pathways prior to the onset of the classical clinical symptoms. The present study demonstrates that chronic exposure to high levels of air pollution results in AD- and PD-related pathology within the olfactory bulbs of children and relatively young adults ranging in age from 11 months to 40 years. The olfactory bulbs (OBs) of 179 residents …

The Growing Sustainable Seaweed Industry: A Comparison Of Australian State Governance Directing Current And Future Seaweed Cultivation, Meagan E. Currie

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Seaweed is a critical part of natural marine ecosystems. In addition to supporting the marine environment, seaweeds are a significant global resource with nutritional, industrial and pharmaceutical applications. Seaweed also has the capacity to remediate excess nutrients in the water caused by agricultural or aquacultural waste of other organisms. Seaweed has demonstrated large potential as a remediation tool in land based polyculture and offshore Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems.

Seaweed is already worth over US$7 billion as a global industry, but as of 2013 over 93% of global seaweed is produced in Asia (Lorbeer, 2013, p. 718). Australia imports …

Using Gamification In Outreach Camps: Experience From An Information Systems Program, Swapna Gottipati, Venky Shankararaman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Reaching to young generation and attracting them to computing programs such as Information Systems (IS) and Computer Science (CS) is a key challenge faced by universities in Singapore. During their application process, many high quality students from junior colleges (JC) either don't choose IS program or choose IS program as the last option. School of Information Systems (SIS), Singapore Management University, decided to implement an innovative outreach program to reach and attract high quality JC students. A team of 30 faculty and staff worked on an outreach project to study and analyse the rationale behind the smaller numbers of applicants. …

The Viability Of Community Composting At The Melbourne Food Hub, Bailey Mcneill

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My research assessed the viability of a community compost site at the Melbourne Food Hub modeled after other successful compost hubs and based on local demand. I surveyed 72 people at the Alphington Farmer’s Market, located at the Food Hub site, and 31 people answered the survey online for a total of 103 responses. In addition, I interviewed ten people working with existing community compost hubs around Melbourne to find out what compost systems they use, how community members engage with the site, what their biggest problems have been, and their motivations for composting.

My survey found that the majority …

Deep Understanding Of Cooking Procedure For Cross-Modal Recipe Retrieval, Jingjing Chen, Chong-Wah Ngo, Fu-Li Feng, Tat-Seng Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Finding a right recipe that describes the cooking procedure for a dish from just one picture is inherently a difficult problem. Food preparation undergoes a complex process involving raw ingredients, utensils, cutting and cooking operations. This process gives clues to the multimedia presentation of a dish (e.g., taste, colour, shape). However, the description of the process is implicit, implying only the cause of dish presentation rather than the visual effect that can be vividly observed on a picture. Therefore, different from other cross-modal retrieval problems in the literature, recipe search requires the understanding of textually described procedure to predict its …

Capturing The Fast-Food Landscape In England Using Large-Scale Network Analysis, Magda Baniukiewicz, Zachariah L. Dick, Philippe J. Giabbanelli

Computer Science Publications

Fast-food outlets play a significant role in the nutrition of British children who get more food from such shops than the school canteen. To reduce young people’s access to fast-food meals during the school day, many British cities are implementing zoning policies. For instance, cities can create buffers around schools, and some have used 200 meters buffers while others used 400 meters. But how close is too close? Using the road network is needed to precisely computing the distance between fast-food outlets (for policies limiting the concentration), or fast-food outlets and the closest school (for policies using buffers). This estimates …

Vitamin D: Controversy Cancer And Beyond, Cristian J. Rosales, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Vitamins are an essential part to wellbeing. This was not something always known however, as the Germ theory was the accepted thesis of the 18th century. It was found that certain accessory factors helped mitigate and even cure these diseases such as beriberi, scurvy, and rickets. Accessory factors, later coined vitamins by Casimir Funk, are an essential constituent of the human diet. Vitamin D is technically not a vitamin but functions as a steroid hormone whose most well-known purpose is calcification of the human skeleton. This helps prevent osteomalacia in adults and rickets, a serious problem in children due to …

Sure 2018 Undergraduate Science Conference Booklet, Sure Network

Group Reports

The SURE Network hosted the First Annual Science Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Conferences (SURE 2018) on 28th September 2018 in Athlone Institute of Technology, Dublin Institute of Technology and Waterford Institute of Technology. The simultaneous conferences had a total of 27 oral presentations and 67 poster presentations, and were attended by over 500 students, academic staff, professional body and industry representatives.

The aims of the conference were to:

1. Provide current students with an opportunity to gain an understanding of the work which has been undertaken by recent graduates, and the career opportunities that exist for graduates in Scientific disciplines.
2. Provide …

The Effect Of The Position And Temperature Difference Of Local Radiant Asymmetry On Thermal Comfort: An Experimental Investigation, Stijn Van Craenendonck, Leen Lauriks, Cedric Vuye, Jarl Kampen

International Building Physics Conference 2018

In cold and moderate climates, poorly designed construction joints can lead to local low surface temperatures, which entails local radiant asymmetry. An experiment was set up to test the hypothesis that overall and local thermal sensation is influenced by temperature difference, and position and distance of local radiant asymmetry. In the experiment, 18 subjects participated where they were introduced in a room at 21°C and 45% relative humidity. The subjects were exposed to local radiant asymmetry created by a cooling plate. This plate was positioned at three different heights, and controlled for temperatures at 3, 6 or 10°C below room …

Marine Threats Overlap Key Foraging Habitat For Two Imperiled Sea Turtle Species In The Gulf Of Mexico, Kristen M. Hart, Autumn R. Iverson, Ikuko Fujisaki, Margaret M. Lamont, David Bucklin, Donna J. Shaver

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Effective management of human activities affecting listed species requires understanding both threats and animal habitat-use patterns. However, the extent of spatial overlap between high-use foraging areas (where multiple marine species congregate) and anthropogenic threats is not well-known. Our modeling approach incorporates data on sea turtle spatial ecology and a suite of threats in the Gulf of Mexico to identify and map “hot spots” of threats to two imperiled turtle species. Of all 820 “high” threats grid cells, our tracked turtles foraged at least 1 day in 77% of them. Although threat data were not available outside the U.S. Exclusive Economic …