Digital Commons Network^™

Campus Carbon Footprint Study At A South Texas University, Monica Garcia, Christian Florez, Diego Lopez, Jongmin Kim, Maysam Pournik

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

A campus carbon footprint study was conducted at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a Southern Texan university. This initiative was the school’s strategic plan to set a baseline for overall campus resource utilization status as well as to answer global requests to track and reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions and achieve greater sustainability on campus. For fiscal years of 2016 to 2018, an overall increase of campus carbon footprint was about 0.6%. The biggest increase was observed from sources owned or controlled by the school while the emissions associated with power usage decreased. The university’s carbon footprint was …

Pressure-Induced Site Swapping, Luminescence Quenching, And Color Tunability Of Gd2hf2o7:Eu3+ Nanoparticles, Santosh K. Gupta, Hisham Abdou, Yuanbing Mao

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

High-pressure (HP) studies have been an active research area in fundamental physics and to meet demand of several technological applications. In this paper, we have explored the HP effect on optical properties of pyrochlore Gd2Hf2O7:5%Eu3+ (GHOE) nanoparticles (NPs). We have investigated several aspects of their optical properties under HP such as charge transfer transitions, emission dynamics, asymmetry ratio, excited state lifetime, and color coordinates. HP photoluminescence (PL) spectra indicate the irreversible and complete disappearance of charge transfer beyond ~5.4 GPa (up to 53 GPa) owing to the reduced charge density around O2− ion in the GHOE NPs. Elevated pressure induces …

Carbon Combustion Synthesis Of Janus-Like Particles Of Magnetoelectric Cobalt Ferrite And Barium Titanate, Carlos Trevino De Leo, Gamage Chamath Dannangoda, Mkhitar A. Hobosyan, J. T. Held, F. Safi Samghabadi, Mohammad Khodadadi, Dmitri Litvinov, K. A. Mkhoyan, Karen S. Martirosyan

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Carbon combustion synthesis of oxides was applied for quick and energy efficient production of multiferroic composite of cobalt ferrite and barium titanate to form Janus-like particles matrix structure. The exothermic oxidation of carbon nanoparticles with an average size of 5 nm and a specific surface area of 110 m2/g generates a self-propagating thermal wave with peak temperature of up to 1000 °C. The thermal front rapidly propagates through the mixture of solid reactants (magnetic- CoFe2O4 and ferroelectric-BaTiO3) and results in localized hot-spot sintering of magneto-electric phases to form a nanocomposite structure. Carbon is not incorporated in the product and is …

Nuclear Niño Response Observed In Simulations Of Nuclear War Scenarios, Joshua Coupe, Samantha Stevenson, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Tyler Rohr, Cheryl S. Harrison, Alan Robock, Holly Olivarez, Charles G. Bardeen, Owen B. Toon

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The climate impacts of smoke from fires ignited by nuclear war would include global cooling and crop failure. Facing increased reliance on ocean-based food sources, it is critical to understand the physical and biological state of the post-war oceans. Here we use an Earth system model to simulate six nuclear war scenarios. We show that global cooling can generate a large, sustained response in the equatorial Pacific, resembling an El Niño but persisting for up to seven years. The El Niño following nuclear war, or Nuclear Niño, would be characterized by westerly trade wind anomalies and a shutdown of equatorial …

Huygens' Principle For The Generalized Dirac Operator In Curved Spacetime, Karen Yagdjian

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this article we give sufficient conditions for the generalized Dirac operator to obey the incomplete Huygens principle, as well as necessary and sufficient conditions to obey the Huygens principle by the Dirac operator in the curved spacetime of the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker models of cosmology.

A Multi-Modal Approach To Measuring Particulate Iron Speciation In Buoyant Hydrothermal Plumes, Brandy D. Stewart, Jeffry V. Sorensen, Kathleen Wendt, Jason B. Sylvan, Christopher R. German, Karthik Anantharaman, Gregory J. Dick, John A. Breier, Brandy M. Toner

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Processes active within buoyant hydrothermal plumes are expected to modulate the flux of elements, such as Fe, to the deep ocean; however, they are yet to be described in a comprehensive manner through observations or models. In this study, we compare observed particulate Fe (pFe) speciation with thermodynamic (equilibrium) reaction path modeling for three vent fields in the Eastern Lau Spreading Center (ELSC). At each site, particles were collected from the buoyant rising portion of hydrothermal plumes using in situ filtration with a Remotely Operated Vehicle. Filter bound particles were analyzed by synchrotron micro-probe X-ray fluorescence mapping (XRF), X-ray diffraction …

The Rider (2021-01-18), Jacqueline Peraza

The Rider Archives

Vol.6 No.16

Arithmetic Properties Of Septic Partition Functions, Timothy Huber, Mayra Huerta, Nathaniel Mayes

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Congruences and related identities are derived for a set of colored and weighted partition functions whose generating functions generate the graded algebra of integer weight modular forms of level seven. The work determines a general strategy for identifying and proving identities and associated congruences for modular forms on the principal congruence subgroup of level 7. Ramanujan's partition congruence modulo 7 serves as a prototype for the process used to prove new congruences for modular forms of level 7.

Co-Phosphorylation Networks Reveal Subtype-Specific Signaling Modules In Breast Cancer, Marzieh Ayati, Mark R. Chance, Mehmet Koyuturk

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Motivation Protein phosphorylation is a ubiquitous mechanism of post-ranslational modification that plays a central role in cellular signaling. Phosphorylation is particularly important in the context of cancer, as down-regulation of tumor suppressors and up-regulation of oncogenes by the dysregulation of associated kinase and phosphatase networks are shown to have key roles in tumor growth and progression. Despite recent advances that enable large-scale monitoring of protein phosphorylation, these data are not fully incorporated into such computational tasks as phenotyping and subtyping of cancers.

Results We develop a network-based algorithm, CoPPNet, to enable unsupervised subtyping of cancers using phosphorylation data. For this …

Carbon Fibers Coated With Ternary Ni-Co-Se Alloy Particles As Low-Cost Counter Electrode For Flexible Dye Sensitized Solar Cell, Brishty Deb Choudhury, Chen Lin, Sk Md Ali Zaker Shawon, Javier Soliz-Martinez, Jose Gutierrez, Muhammad N. Huda, Federico Cesano, Karen Lozano, Jin Zhong Zhang, M. Jasim Uddin

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

Compared to flat devices based on rigid substrates, cable-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells hold advantages of smaller size, light weight, facile fabrication, flexibility, and low cost, thus a promising direction for applications such as wearable electronic devices. However, most reported fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells use Pt wires as counter electrodes, which are high in cost. Herein, a flexible Pt-free counter electrode is fabricated via depositing ternary nickel cobalt selenide (Ni–Co–Se) particles on the surface of carbon fibers. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction are used to characterize the counter electrode and alloy material. Results from bare and modified carbon fiber counter …

Contextual And Organizational Factors In Sustainable Supply Chain Decision-Making: Grey Relational Analysis And Interpretative Structural Modeling, Zhaojun Yang, Xiaoting Guo, Jun Sun, Yali Zhang

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Sustainable supply chain emerges as a major business trend essential to long-term competitive advantage. Relevant corporate decisions concern a broad range of factors and require novel analytical models for critical control. This study conducts mathematical analyses to identify the factors that are vital yet receiving insufficient attention from researchers and practitioners. Valid survey observations were collected from 113 enterprises in China, the biggest emerging economy that faces the dilemma between development and sustainability. Grey relational analysis (GRA) and interpretative structural modeling (ISM) assess the importance levels of contextual and organizational factors and explore their joint effects. Validated with conventional expert …

Modeling And Optimization Of Process Parameters In Face Milling Of Ti6al4v Alloy Using Taguchi And Grey Relational Analysis, Al Mazedur Rahman, S M Abdur Rob, Anil K. Srivastava

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Titanium alloys are extensively used in aerospace, missiles, rockets, naval ships, automotive, medical devices, and even the consumer electronics industry where a high strength to density ratio, lightweight, high corrosion resistance, and resistance to high temperatures are important. The machining of these alloys has always been challenging for manufacturers. This article investigates the combined effect of radial depth, cutting speed and feed rate on cutting forces, tool life, and surface roughness during face milling of Ti6Al4V alloy. This study focuses on the significance of radial depth of cut on cutting force, tool life and surface roughness compared to that of …

Enhancing Student Learning In Introductory Physics Through Funds Of Knowledge, Liang Zeng, Guang Zeng

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Researchers have reported the funds of knowledge (FK) pedagogical approach effective in engaging minority students in learning. However, there are a lack of studies connecting FK to introductory college physics or physical science classes. By using examples from regional Mexican-American lived experiences at an Hispanic-serving institution located along the recently politicized U.S.-Mexico border, this paper provides evidence to show how physics educators can use FK to engage students in learning introductory college physics concepts.

Development Of A Real Time Human Face Recognition Software System, Askar Boranbayev, Seilkhan Boranbayev, Mukhamedzhan Amirtaev, Malik Baimukhamedov, Askar Nurbekov

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

In this study, a system for real-time face recognition was built using the Open Face tools of the Open CV library. The article describes the methodology for creating the system and the results of its testing. The Open CV library has various modules that perform many tasks. In this paper, Open CV modules were used for face recognition in images and face identification in real time. In addition, the HOG method was used to detect a person by the front of his face. After performing the HOG method, 128 face measurements were obtained using the image encoding method. A convolutional …

Acknowledging And Affirming University Students’ Linguistic And Cultural Capital In An Education Course, J. Joy Esquierdo

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

In order to effectively prepare K-12 teachers to serve linguistically and culturally diverse students, it is vital to provide opportunities for them to develop their intra- and intercultural understandings. This paper describes how a faculty member designed and delivered a teacher preparation class centered on culturally relevant approaches. Students enrolled in this course completed assignments that were designed to guide them through an intracultural reflection to then expand their understandings to an intercultural context. Considering the students’ diverse linguistic and cultural experiences, assignments and projects provided opportunities for them to recognize their linguistic and cultural wealth in order to build …

Machine Learning Model Optimization With Hyper Parameter Tuning Approach, Md. Riyad Hossain, Douglas Timmer

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Hyper-parameters tuning is a key step to find the optimal machine learning parameters. Determining the best hyper-parameters takes a good deal of time, especially when the objective functions are costly to determine, or a large number of parameters are required to be tuned. In contrast to the conventional machine learning algorithms, Neural Network requires tuning hyperparameters more because it has to process a lot of parameters together, and depending on the fine tuning, the accuracy of the model can be varied in between 25%-90%. A few of the most effective techniques for tuning hyper-parameters in the Deep learning methods are: …

The Power Of Words In Crowdfunding, Yuanqing Li, Sibin Wu

Management Faculty Publications

In this chapter, the authors first provide an overview of the crowdfunding phenomenon. Through the literature review of crowdfunding success factors in the four models, the authors then summarize that the current entrepreneurial research focused on success factors has failed to sufficiently examine how the power of words would affect crowdfunding. Therefore, the authors propose that non-verbal and verbal cues are crucial to entrepreneurial financing success. Based on the insufficient research related with those cues, especially the non-verbal ones, the authors open an area of study on non-verbal and verbal cues in the entrepreneurial financing process by conducting and writing …

Edsc: An Event-Driven Smart Contract Platform, Mudabbir Kaleem, Keshav Kasichainula, Rabimba Karanjai, Lei Xu, Zhimin Gao, Lin Chen, Weidong Shi

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This paper presents EDSC, a novel smart contract platform design based on the event-driven execution model as opposed to the traditionally employed transaction-driven execution model. We reason that such a design is a better fit for many emerging smart contract applications and is better positioned to address the scalability and performance challenges plaguing the smart contract ecosystem. We propose EDSC’s design under the Ethereum framework, and the design can be easily adapted for other existing smart contract platforms. We have conducted implementation using Ethereum client and experiments where performance modeling results show on average 2.2 to 4.6 times reduced total …

An Algorithm To Compute Cvts For Finitely Generated Cantor Distributions, Carl P. Dettmann, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Centroidal Voronoi tessellations (CVTs) are Voronoi tessellations of a region such that the generating points of the tessellations are also the centroids of the corresponding Voronoi regions with respect to a given probability measure. CVT is a fundamental notion that has a wide spectrum of applications in computational science and engineering. In this paper, an algorithm is given to obtain the CVTs with n-generators to level m, for any positive integers m and n, of any Cantor set generated by a pair of self-similar mappings given by S1(x)=r1x and S2(x)=r2x+(1−r2) for x∈R, where r1,r2>0 and r1+r20 and p1+p2=1.

Analysis Of Intervention Effectiveness Using Early Outbreak Transmission Dynamics To Guide Future Pandemic Management And Decision-Making In Kuwait, Michael G. Tyshenko, Tamer Oraby, Joseph C. Longenecker, Harri Vainio, Janvier Gasana, Walid Q. Alali, Mohammad Alseaidan, Susie Elsaadany, Mustafa Al-Zoughool

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a World Health Organization designated pandemic that can result in severe symptoms and death that disproportionately affects older patients or those with comorbidities. Kuwait reported its first imported cases of COVID-19 on February 24, 2020. Analysis of data from the first three months of community transmission of the COVID-19 outbreak in Kuwait can provide important guidance for decision-making when dealing with future SARS-CoV-2 epidemic wave management. The analysis of intervention scenarios can help to evaluate the possible impacts of various outbreak control measures going forward which aim to reduce the effective reproduction …

Internet-Based Cognitive–Behavioural Therapy For Tinnitus: Secondary Analysis To Examine Predictors Of Outcomes, Hansapani Rodrigo, Eldré W. Beukes, Gerhard Andersson, Vinaya Manchaiah

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Objectives The current study examined predictors of outcomes of internet-based cognitive–behavioural therapy (ICBT) for individuals with tinnitus.

Design Secondary analysis of intervention studies.

Setting Internet-based guided tinnitus intervention provided in the UK.

Participants 228 individuals who underwent ICBT.

Interventions ICBT.

Primary and secondary outcome measures The key predictor variables included demographic, tinnitus, hearing-related and treatment-related variables as well as clinical factors (eg, anxiety, depression, insomnia), which can have an impact on the treatment outcome. A 13-point reduction in Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) scores has been defined as a successful outcome.

Results Of the 228 subjects who were included in the …

Majorization And Minimal Energy On Spheres, Oleg R. Musin

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In the present paper, we consider the majorization theorem (also known as Karamata's inequality) and the respective minima of the majorization (the so-called M-sets) for f-energy potentials of m-point configurations on the unit sphere. In particular, we show the optimality of regular simplexes, describe some M-sets of small cardinality, define and discuss spherical f-designs.

Tri-Hamiltonian Duality System Of Merola-Ragnisco-Tu Equation, Mengxia Zhang, Bao-Feng Feng, Jiawen Liu

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

The tri-Hamiltonian method is applied to the Merola-Ragnisco-Tu equation. This enables us to construct a new integrable system, whose continuum limit is related to the AKNS system. Moreover, the system is proved to have linear spectral problems (Lax pair), bi-Hamiltonian structure and Darboux-Bäcklund transformation. Through the Darboux-Bäcklund transformation, we construct some exact solutions for the system.

Enhancing The Seed Germination Process Of Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium Mucronatum Ten.), Alejandro Fierro-Cabo, August Plamann

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Montezuma cypress (Taxodium. mucronatum) is an ecological, cultural and economically valuable riparian tree species. Two experiments evaluating the effectiveness of various seed treatments were conducted to identify germination best practices and to evaluate the dynamics of the germination process. Seeds were collected on two occasions, one year apart, from the only remaining natural T. mucronatum tree stand in the United States. The seeds were subjected to various soaking and stratification conditions. Across all treatments, germinability ranged between approximately 30%-40%, with slightly higher values occurring among the second seed cohort. Overall, no significant differences in germinability were detected in either …

New Amphibian And Reptile Distribution Records From Eastern South Dakota, Usa, Drew R. Davis

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Over recent years, the continued collection of voucher specimens has helped to better document the distributions of South Dakota’s amphibians and reptiles. Despite large increases in our knowledge of these distributions, it remains clear that gaps in our understanding remain. Here, I report 17 new county records of six species of amphibians and reptiles from eastern South Dakota (east of the Missouri River) that are the result of fieldwork conducted in September 2020. The majority of these records are from the northern portions of the James River Lowland, Missouri Coteau, and Drift Plains ecoregions (Bryce et al. 1998), which are …

Importance Of Low-Relief Nursery Habitat For Reef Fishes, Michael A. Dance, Ray R. Rooker, Richard Kline, Antonietta Quigg, Gregory R. Stunz, R. J. David Wells, Kirsten Lara, Jessica Lee, Bobbie Suarez

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Coastal restoration projects to mitigate environmental impacts have increased global demand for sand resources. Unfortunately, these resources are often extracted from sand/shell banks on the inner continental shelf, resulting in significant alteration or loss of low-relief reefs in coastal oceans. Experimental reefs (oyster shell, limestone rubble, composite) were deployed in the western Gulf of Mexico to assess their potential value as nurseries for newly settled reef fishes. Occurrence, abundance, and species richness of juvenile fishes were significantly higher on all three types of low-relief reefs compared with unconsolidated sediment. Moreover, reefs served as nursery habitat for a range of reef …

On The Road To Translanguaging In A Dual Language Classroom: Teaching Math And Science In Mandarin And English, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This article examines the evolving instructional practice of one Chinese dual language instructor in the US as she employs a translanguaging-inspired approach in her math and science Mandarin medium classes. Contrary to the school language allocation policy requiring 90% Mandarin in her Chinese classes, she encourages the utilization of English as well as Mandarin in her instruction. This offers comprehensible input to learners, also making possible greater student participation. Findings from observations and interviews reveal how a focus on meaning-making in instruction resulted in the gradual evolution of bilingual language use and effective communication of content by students and the …

Sentiment Analysis Of Long-Term Social Data During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sophanna Ek, Marco Curci, Xiaokun Yang, Beiyu Lin, Pinchao Liu, Hailu Xu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has bringing the “infodemic” in the social media worlds. Various social platforms play a significant role in instantly acquiring the latest updates of the pandemic. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook produce vast amounts of posts related to the virus, vaccines, economics, and politics. In order to figure out how public opinion and sentiments are expressed during the pandemic, this work analyzes the long-term social posts from social media and conducts sentiment analysis on tweets within 12 months. Our findings show the trend topics of long-term social communities during the pandemic and express people’s attitudes towards …

Multi-Actor-Attention-Critic Reinforcement Learning For Central Place Foraging Swarms, Ning Yang, Qi Lu, Kele Xu, Bo Ding, Zijian Gao

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Multiple agents with relatively low cost, decentralized control, and robustness have the advantages of completing a foraging task more efficiently than a single advanced robot. Despite many foraging algorithms are efficient in multiple robot systems, most are pre-designed or not very adaptive to different environments since they have to evolve the parameters of the foraging algorithm in each different environment. Besides, designing an efficient collision avoidance strategy for multiple agents is a challenge. Addressing these issues, we introduce the multi-actor-attention-critic(MAAC) reinforcement learning method into the multiple foraging agents. We train the foraging strategy for multiple simulated agents. We compare our …

Quantization For Uniform Distributions On Hexagonal, Semicircular, And Elliptical Curves, Gabriela Pena, Hansapani Rodrigo, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury, Josef A. Sifuentes, Erwin Suazo

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, first we have defined a uniform distribution on the boundary of a regular hexagon, and then investigated the optimal sets of n-means and the nth quantization errors for all positive integers n. We give an exact formula to determine them, if n is of the form n = 6k for some positive integer k. We further calculate the quantization dimension, the quantization coefficient, and show that the quantization dimension is equal to the dimension of the object, and the quantization coefficient exists as a finite positive number. Then, we define a mixture of two uniform distributions on …