Digital Commons Network^™

Toward Mapping Multiphase Multicomponent Mixtures With Neural Networks, Kristen L. Hallas, Melissa De Jesus, Christine J. Wu, Jianzhi Li, Jason Bernstein, Philip C. Myint

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Equation of state (EOS) tables are commonly used in hydrodynamic simulations of high-pressure, high-temperature phenomena in fields like planetary science, astrophysics, and high-energy-density science. However, generating and storing EOS tables for multiphase, multicomponent mixtures over a wide range of pressures and temperatures is computationally infeasible due to their memory-intensive nature. To address this issue, we have developed a neural network-based machine learning model to predict new EOS tables for binary mixtures. In particular, a deep feedforward neural network trained on a set of ten EOS tables at particular mixture compositions is able to predict nine new (hold-out) EOS tables at …

Long-Term Analysis Of Pm2.5 Elemental Composition And Source Contributions In Coastal Urban Environments Of Corpus Christi And Houston In Texas, Sai Deepak Pinakana, Jeremy A. Sarnat, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Long-term assessments of fine particulate matter play a key role in identifying persistent and emerging emission contributors. Coastal urban areas are highly susceptible to transboundary dust and wildfire events in addition to local pollution sources. Multi-decadal assessments in these regions using chemical speciation data could offer insights into major pollutant sources and their trends. This study utilizes nearly two decades of PM2.5 elemental composition data at two major coastal cities in Texas: Houston and Corpus Christi. Fourteen trace elements were analyzed to characterize the seasonal variability and long-term source evolution using a combination of Spearman’s correlation analysis, principal component analysis, …

Evaluating The Transformation Of Land Cover, Land Surface Temperature, And Urban Heat Island In Sylhet Division Through Geospatial Analysis, Md Fazle Rabbi Joy, Md Abdur Rahim, Md Mahfuzar Rahman, Sumiaya Amin Preota, Mohammed Mahathee Hossain

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Rapid and unplanned urbanization has significantly transformed land use/land cover (LULC), contributing to increased land surface temperature (LST) and the emergence of urban heat islands (UHIs), especially in ecologically fragile regions. This study focuses on the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, assessing LULC changes, LST dynamics, and UHI expansion from 1994 to 2024 using Landsat satellite imagery, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference water index (NDWI) indices, and field-based LST validation. Unsupervised classification reveals a 191.75% increase in settlement areas and a 25.65% loss in forest cover. Correspondingly, the highest LST zones (> 30 °C) were absent in 1994 but …

A Critical Review Of Pharmaceutical Pollutants In Soil And Air: Ecotoxicological Impacts On Animal, Plant And Microbial Communities - Health Hazards And Waste Management, Md Faisal Amin, Md. Saydur Rahman

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Pharmaceutical contamination in soil and air has become a critical environmental concern due to its widespread sources, complex behavior, and long-lasting ecological impacts. This review comprehensively explores the presence, fate, and effects of pharmaceutical compounds in soil, highlighting their entry routes, environmental persistence, and biological consequences. Pharmaceuticals infiltrate terrestrial and aquatic environments through various pathways, including agricultural application, pharmaceutical manufacturing waste, sewage sludge, hospital and household discharges, irrigation with contaminated water, and atmospheric deposition. A wide range of drug classes, such as antibiotics, analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants, anticancer drugs, and hormones, have been identified in both soil and air …

Peakon Solutions And Analytical Properties For The Camassa–Holm-Type Equations With Quadratic Nonlinearities, Yonghong Chen, Zhijun Qiao, Mingxuan Zhu

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we derive the multi-peakon dynamical system of a class of Camassa-Holm-type equations with quadratic nonlinearities. We also consider the analytical properties for the Cauchy problem. Firstly, we establish local well-posedness of solutions in Besov spaces and then provide the blow-up criteria. Subsequently, we impose appropriate sufficient conditions on the initial data to guarantee that the corresponding solution either exists globally or blows up in a finite time. Finally, we prove the ill-posedness in the Besov space B2,∞^3/2 by utilizing the non-traveling wave solutions.

Managing Collaboration Under Conservation Crisis: Trust, Risk, And Control In The Gulf Of Maine Fishery Management Network, Evelyn Roozee, Owen Temby, Dongkyu Kim, Antonia Sohns, Anthony Rocha Lima, Jasper R. De Vries, Gordon M. Hickey

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Transboundary fishery management and the intertwined conservation of critically endangered species represent significant governance challenges that require ongoing inter-organizational communication, collaboration, and collective action to achieve shared objectives. Previous research suggests that inter-organizational collaborative performance depends heavily on different dimensions of trust and complementary control mechanisms to mitigate the perceived risks of collaborating and enable the reciprocal sharing of resources and the coordination of activities. However, it is unclear how proposed relationships between trust, risk, and control are shaped by disruptions to established transboundary management networks. This study presents the results of survey research conducted in the Gulf of Maine …

A Finite Element Model For Thermomechanical Stress-Strain Fields In Transversely Isotropic Strain-Limiting Materials, Saugata Ghosh, Dambaru Bhatta, S. M. Mallikarjunaiah

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper presents a comprehensive computational framework for investigating thermo-elastic fracture in transversely isotropic materials, where classical linear elasticity fails to predict physically realistic behavior near stress concentrations. We address the challenge of unphysical strain singularities at crack tips by employing a strain-limiting theory of elasticity. This theory is characterized by an algebraically nonlinear constitutive relationship between stress and strain, which intrinsically enforces a limit on the norm of the strain tensor. This approach allows the development of very large stresses, as expected near a crack tip, while ensuring that the corresponding strains remain physically bounded. A loosely coupled system …

Pattern Formation In Quantum Hierarchical Cellular Neural Networks, Wilson A. Zuniga-Galindo, B. A. Zambrano-Luna, Chayapuntika Indoung

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We present a new class of quantum neural networks (QNNs) whose states are solutions of p -adic Schrödinger equations with a non-local potential that controls the interaction between the neurons. These equations are obtained as Wick rotations of the state equations of p -adic cellular neural networks (CNNs). The p -adic CNNs arise as continuous limits of large discrete hierarchical neural networks (NNs). The CNNs are bio-inspired by the Wilson–Cowan model, which describes the macroscopic dynamics of large populations of neurons. We provide a detailed study of the discretization of the new p -adic Schrödinger equations, which allows the construction …

Geometric Puzzles On A Circular Track: A Recreational Introduction To Quantization, Sayandip Pandit, Amit Priyadarshi, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Imagine a circular running track with several water stations placed around it. If only a few stations may remain open, or if a few new stations may be built, where should they be located so that runners travel the shortest possible distance to reach one? This simple question leads to a collection of recreational geometry puzzles involving distance, symmetry, optimization, Voronoi regions, and quantization. Quantization is the mathematical problem of replacing a large collection of points by a smaller set of representative points while minimizing the approximation error. Using only elementary mathematics, we investigate several configurations of points on a …

From Homes To Classrooms: Cultural Wisdom As A Guide For Stem Lesson Planning, Miriam Ortiz, Uma Ganesan, Angela Chapman, William Medina-Jerez, Ruby Lynch Arroyo, Mourat Tchoshanov

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This article describes innovative elementary science instructional approaches based on cultural wisdom developed by preservice teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program at a university in the U.S.-Mexico border region. As a part of a larger study, three Latina preservice elementary teachers were a part of a teacher residency in conducting community interviews and reflection activities to uncover cultural backgrounds that could inform culturally relevant STEM lesson planning, centering on family and home knowledge. This project began with family interviews during winter break and culminated in lesson planning and implementation during their science methods course in the spring semester. The …

First Evaluation Of Contrast-Enhanced Micro-Xct As A Tool For Organismal And Reproductive Trait Observations In Corals Based On Scans Of Thesea Nivea Deichmann, 1936, Erin E. Easton

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Micro-X-ray computed tomography (micro-XCT) with contrast enhancement is considered a non-destructive tool that is increasingly being applied to explore the internal and external structures of vertebrates and invertebrates. Although micro-XCT has been applied to corals to study skeletal features, contrast enhancement has not been applied to evaluate the utility for visualization of soft tissue structures in corals. This study is the first to evaluate the utility of contrast enhancement to visualize internal and external features, including soft tissue features, of octocorals. Contrast staining of a Thesea nivea specimen with 2.5% Lugol's iodine permitted visualization of soft tissues with sufficient density …

Quantum Mechanics, Non-Locality, And The Space Discreteness Hypothesis, Wilson A. Zuniga-Galindo

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

The space discreteness hypothesis asserts that the nature of space at short distances is radically different from that at large distances. Based on the Bronstein inequality, here, we use a totally disconnected topological space X as a model for the physical space at short distances. However, we consider the time as a real variable. In this framework, the Dirac–von Neumann formalism can be used. This discreteness hypothesis implies that given two different points in space, there is no continuous curve (a world line) joining them. Consequently, this hypothesis is not compatible with the theory of relativity. We propose R×(R×X)3 as …

Study Of A Nonlinear Delayed Parabolic Model For Prion Disease Dynamics With The Unfolded Protein Response, Gangadhara Boregowda, Laurent Pujo-Menjouet, Zhaosheng Feng, Michael R. Lindstrom

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Prion diseases are neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the dynamic spread of misfolded toxic proteins in the brain. In this process, the normal cellular prion protein (PrPC) produced by neurons misfolds into a toxic form known as scrapie prion protein (PrPSc). These misfolded proteins propagate through the brain by converting healthy prions into their toxic form. This biological mechanism can be modeled by a system of nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations, accompanied by a nonlinear delayed integral boundary condition. Our primary objective is to establish the existence of nonnegative classical solutions to this system. Furthermore, we derive a priori estimates for …

Blue Carbon Ecosystems As Climate Solutions: Sequestration Across Coastal And Marine Environments, Allison K. White, Richard J. Kline, Md. Saydur Rahman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses, sequester significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. These ecosystems capture and store carbon in biomass and sediments over long periods. Other marine ecosystems, including the open ocean, kelp forests, bivalve reefs, and coral reefs, have been excluded from the BCEs, but they have the potential to serve as crucial blue carbon sinks or to support adjacent BCEs. Climate change, however, poses severe threats to these ecosystems. Rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and ocean acidification can lead to habitat loss, reduced biodiversity, and impaired carbon sequestration capacity. Consequently, anthropogenic …

K 1-6 Is A Photoionised Interstellar Medium Nebula Shaped By A Fast-Moving Hot White Dwarf In A Triple System, Jaroslav Merc, David Jones, Ana Escorza, Henri M. J. Boffin, Nicole Reindl, Michael Abdul-Masih, Thomas Masseron, Paulina Sowicka, Jan Kára, Jorge Jorge García-Rojas

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Aims. K 1-6 has long been classified as a planetary nebula (PN) hosting a binary central star; however, it has remained poorly studied due to its faintness. The central star exhibits pronounced photometric variability whose origin is still unclear. We present a comprehensive characterisation of the K 1-6 system, including the physical properties of its stellar components and the nature of the surrounding nebulosity.

Methods. We conducted a multi-wavelength analysis combining optical and UV spectroscopy obtained with the Gran Telescopio Canarias, the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, the Nordic Optical Telescope, and the Hubble Space Telescope. We also present long-term multi-band ground- …

White Shark Occurrence In Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Revealed From Acoustic Telemetry In An Offshore Mpa, Michael A. Dance, Jay R. Rooker, R. J. David Wells, Megan V. Winton, Landes L. Randall, Marissa F. Nuttall, Brondum M. Krebs, Creed C. Branham, Brett B. Sweezey, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) is characterized by unique bathymetric features that provide critical habitat for marine fauna. Here, we demonstrate the utility of large-scale acoustic telemetry for monitoring an oceanic marine protected area (MPA) and document the first known occurrences of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) within Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). White sharks were tagged with acoustic transmitters in the western North Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States and Canada. Nine white sharks were detected along the outer shelf ecosystem associated with FGBNMS over a three-year …

Automated And Quantitative Characterization Of Benthic Habitat And Associated Biological Communities Of An Unknown Southeast Pacific Seamount, Yakufu Niyazi, Denise J. B. Swanborn, Jan M. Tapia-Guerra, Javier Sellanes, Erin E. Easton, Germán Zapata-Hernández, Heather A. Stewart, Alan J. Jamieson

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Seamounts are prominent seafloor features that strongly influence geological processes, ocean circulation, and benthic biodiversity. Despite their importance, most seamounts remain unmapped and poorly characterized, particularly in the southeast Pacific Ocean, a region recognized for high marine endemism and ecological isolation. In this study, we present a quantitative habitat characterization of a previously undocumented seamount, informally named Solito Seamount, located between the Nazca–Desventuradas Marine Park and the Juan Fernández Archipelago, within Chile’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The seamount is a conical volcanic edifice approximately 37 km wide, rising >3,500 m above the surrounding abyssal plain. High-resolution multibeam bathymetry and backscatter intensity …

A New Bubblegum Coral From The Nazca Ridge Reveals Chitin As The Structural Scaffold Of Skeleton-Less Paragorgia Colonies, Juan Armando Sánchez, Erin E. Easton, Nayeli Elizavet Garcia, Yony Román-Ochoa, Julia Kaled Cáceres, Javier Sellanes

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Bubblegum corals (Paragorgia; Corallidae) form among the largest branching colonies in deep-sea environments despite lacking an axial skeleton. How these octocorals maintain structural cohesion using only sub-millimeter sclerites has remained unexplained. Here we describe Paragorgia quitinosa Sánchez & Easton n. sp., collected at 670 m depth on the Nazca Ridge (southeastern Pacific) during the Schmidt Ocean Institute RV Falkor (too) expedition FKt240708, and report the first evidence of visible chitin in octocoral tissues. The new species is diagnosed by autozoids and siphonozoids retracted on prominent, rounded mounds, large 8-derived radiate capstan sclerites (mean 0.095 mm), and canal walls …

Constrained Multiview Contrastive Learning For Jointly Supervised Representation Learning, Siyuan Dai, Kai Ye, Kun Zhao, Yang Du, Haoteng Tang, Liang Zhan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Purpose

Materials and Methods

Pseudo-Traveling Waves And Bumps In Quantum And Classical Hierarchical Cellular Neural Networks, Wilson A. Zuniga-Galindo, B. A. Zambrano-Luna, Chayapuntika Indoung

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We study the existence of pseudo-traveling waves and bump solutions for two classes of hierarchical cellular neural networks (CNNs) defined over the ring of p-adic integers Zp. The first type is a p-adic CNN described by a reaction-diffusion equation, while the second type is its quantum analog obtained via Wick rotation. The p-adic CNNs are hierarchical versions of the classical Chua-Yang CNNs; these networks have a tree-like hierarchical architecture with infinitely many cells and hidden layers. The states are governed by integro-differential equations on Zp. The p-adic traveling waves behave fundamentally differently from their Archimedean counterparts. A traveling wave restricted …

Sea-Level Rise And Regional Economic Adjustment On The U.S. Gulf Coast, Md A M Hasif, Juhee Lee, Robin A. Choudhury

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Sea-level rise (SLR) poses escalating risks to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where critical industries, infrastructure, and populations are concentrated in low-lying areas. This study estimates the short- and long-run economic effects of SLR using a panel autoregressive distributed lag-pooled mean group framework applied to county-level data from 26 coastal counties across five Gulf Coast states from 2005 to 2021. Over this period, mean sea level increased by approximately 11 cm on average across counties, with cumulative changes ranging from about 4 cm to over 24 cm and substantial cross-county variation, providing a meaningful empirical setting for identifying economic adjustment. We …

The Rider (2026-08-31), Daniela Chapa-Reyes

The Rider Archives

Vol. 12, No. 2

Interpretable Multimodal Learning For Integrating Neuroimaging And Genetic Data In Alzheimer’S Disease, Kun Zhao, Siyuan Dai, Yingying Zhang, Guodong Liu, Pengfei Gu, Chenghua Lin, Paul M. Thompson, Alex D. Leow, Heng Huang, Haoteng Tang

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Introduction: Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) requires models that combine brain structure changes with genetic risk, but existing methods struggle to align these different data types.

Methods: We present R-GenIMA, an interpretable multimodal large language model that pairs a region-of-interest vision transformer with genetic prompting to jointly analyze structural MRI and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Each brain region becomes a visual token and SNP profiles are encoded as structured text, letting the model link regional atrophy to genetic factors through cross-modal attention. Tested on the ADNI cohort, R-GenIMA performs well in classifying four groups: normal cognition, subjective memory concerns, …

A Stochastic Nonlinear Dynamical System For Smoothing Noisy Eye Gaze Data, Thoa Thieu, Roderick Melnik

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this study, we address the challenges associated with accurately determining gaze location on a screen, which is often compromised by noise from factors such as eye tracker limitations, calibration drift, ambient lighting changes, and eye blinks. We propose the use of an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to smooth the gaze data collected during eye-tracking experiments and systematically explore the interaction of different system parameters. Our results demonstrate that the EKF significantly reduces noise, leading to a marked improvement in tracking accuracy. Furthermore, we show that our proposed stochastic nonlinear dynamical model aligns well with real experimental data and holds …

Land-Use Transitions And Carbon Emissions Of Aquaculture Expansion In The Brazilian Amazon, Felipe S. Pacheco, Sebastian A. Heilpern, Rafael M. Almeida, Suresh A. Sethi, Marcela Miranda, Nicholas Ray, Laura Greenstreet, Joshua Fan, Brendan H. Rappazzo, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Accounting for land-use change underlying food sector expansion is critical for conserving ecosystem integrity. This challenge is particularly acute in the Amazon, where the conversion of forests for food production is pronounced and has broad implications for global biodiversity and the cycling of water and carbon. Here, we analyze land-use transitions associated with aquaculture development in the Brazilian Amazon. We found that a 450-fold increase in aquaculture pond area from 1985 to 2022 occurred primarily on pasturelands (87%) but also included wetland conversion (4%) and deforestation (5%). Notably, continued growth can be sustained within already altered landscapes: In Rondônia, the …

Sustainability Challenges And Opportunities In A University Police Fleet: A Case Study Of Idling, Emissions, And Electrification Potential, Van Slusser

School of Political Science, Public Affairs, Legal and Security Studies Faculty Publications

This case study examines fleet sustainability challenges within the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Police Department, a multicampus public safety agency operating aging gasoline vehicles central to daily patrol and administrative functions. Rising maintenance costs, increased vehicle downtime, and extensive idling created both operational strain and avoidable environmental impacts. Aging internal-combustion vehicles contributed to elevated emissions and fuel consumption, particularly under high-heat conditions and equipment demands typical of campus policing. Telematics monitoring indicated that approximately 48% of total engine-on time consisted of idling, highlighting a substantial source of avoidable fuel use and emissions. The study employed a qualitative case …

Hidden Symmetries Of The Classical 3×3 Magic Square, Vijender Nallapu, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

The classical 3×3 magic square is one of the most famous objects in recreational mathematics. Its defining feature is that every row, every column, and the two main diagonals have the same sum. However, beyond this well-known property, the square contains several hidden symmetries involving rotations, reflections, complementary pairs, parity, and balance around the central entry. In this article, we present an elementary exploration of these symmetries and show how the classical magic square provides a beautiful introduction to mathematical structure and pattern recognition.

The Mathematics Of Calendar Patterns: Day-Of-Week Phenomena, Number Patterns, And Recreational Investigations, Vijender Nallapu, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Calendars are among the most familiar mathematical structures encountered in everyday life. Beyond their practical use in organizing dates and measuring time, calendars contain a rich collection of numerical patterns, symmetries, and arithmetic relationships. Many of these patterns can be explored using only elementary mathematics, making calendars an attractive subject for recreational investigation and mathematical enrichment.

In this article we examine several mathematical properties arising from the structure of monthly calendars. We investigate arithmetic patterns associated with rows, columns, and rectangular blocks of dates, establish properties of calendar squares, and explore connections with modular arithmetic through day-of-week calculations. We also …

Vedic Mathematics And Mental Computation: Fast Multiplication Techniques, Algebraic Foundations, And Historical Perspectives, Rakesh Bhatia, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Mental computation has fascinated mathematicians, educators, and students for centuries. Various computational techniques allow arithmetic calculations to be performed rapidly without the use of calculators or computers. Among these methods, several popular techniques are associated with what is commonly known as Vedic Mathematics. In this article, we examine a collection of fast multiplication techniques, including multiplication near powers of ten, multiplication by eleven, squaring numbers ending in five, and the vertical-and-crosswise method. For each technique, we provide elementary mathematical explanations based on algebraic identities and place-value representations.

Curious Patterns And Identities Involving Consecutive Integers, Carlo Cattani, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Consecutive integers exhibit numerous surprising patterns and elegant identities. In this article, we investigate several classical properties involving products, sums, divisibility, perfect squares, cubes, pronic numbers, triangular numbers, sums of squares, and Pythagorean triples. Using only elementary algebra, symmetry arguments, and mathematical induction, we establish a collection of identities that reveal rich connections among these classical topics. The exposition is intended for students, teachers, and recreational mathematicians, illustrating how simple observations about consecutive integers can lead to beautiful mathematical patterns and deeper insights into elementary number theory.