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Biochar Enhances Nitrous Oxide Reduction In Acidic But Not In Near-Neutral Ph Soil, Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira, Jerome Lechot, Rafaela Feola Conz, Abmael Da Silva Cardoso, Johan Six

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

We quantified nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes and total denitrification (N2O + N2) in an acidic (Ferralsol) and a near-neutral pH soil (Cambisol) to determine whether biochar’s alkalinization effect could be the mechanism inducing potential reductions in N2O fluxes. In Ferralsol, decreases in N2O emissions and in the N2O to N2O + N2 ratio were observed in both biochar and lime treatments. In Cambisol, neither biochar nor lime decreased N2O emissions, despite significantly increasing soil pH. The abundance and community structure of nosZ gene-bearing microorganisms indicated that gene abundances did not explain biochar effects, but a higher diversity of nosZ gene-bearing …

Samarium-Activated La2hf2o7 Nanoparticles As Multifunctional Phosphors, Santosh K. Gupta, Maya Abdou, Jose P. Zuniga, Alexander A. Puretzky, Yuanbing Mao

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

Recent developments in the field of designing novel nanostructures with various functionalities have pushed the scientific world to design and develop high-quality nanomaterials with multifunctional applications. Here, we propose a new kind of doped metal oxide pyrochlore nanostructure for solid-state phosphor, X-ray scintillator, and optical thermometry. The developed samarium-activated La2Hf2O7 (LHOS) nanoparticles (NPs) emit a narrow and stable red emission with lower color temperature and adequate critical distance under near-UV and X-ray excitations. When the LHOS NPs are exposed to an energetic X-ray beam, the Sm3+ ions situated at the symmetric environment get excited along with those located at the …

Spatial And Seasonal Differences In The Top Predators Of Easter Island: Essential Data For Implementing The New Rapa Nui Multiple‐Uses Marine Protected Area, Naiti A. Morales, Erin E. Easton, Alan M. Friedlander, Euan S. Harvey, Rodrigo Garcia, Carlos F. Gaymer

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

1. Reef fishes are an important component of marine biodiversity, and changes in the composition of the assemblage structure may indicate ecological, climatic, or anthropogenic disturbances. To examine spatial differences in the reef fish assemblage structure around Easter Island, eight sites were sampled during autumn and summer 2016–2017 with baited remote underwater video systems.
2. To determine seasonal changes, quarterly (seasonal) sampling was conducted at five of those eight sites. Fifteen pelagic species of fishes were recorded during this study, some of which have not previously been recorded in scuba surveys, including the Galapagos shark (Carcharhinus galapagensis, Snodgrass & Heller, …

Pressure Effect On An Ocean-Based Humidification-Dehumidification Desalination Process, Yingchen Yang

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

A new humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination process is proposed and analyzed. Being ocean based, the process does not produce any brine. It is largely powered jointly by solar energy, wind energy, and various types of ocean energies in a nearly natural way. A vacuum pump is employed to drive the air circulation throughout the HDH process. It is the only unit that consumes electricity. The HDH process is analyzed under various conditions, including using a low pressure (as low as to 0.2 atm) for humidification and the ambient pressure for dehumidification, running the entire HDH process around a low pressure (as …

Multi‐Breather And High‐Order Rogue Waves For The Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation On The Elliptic Function Background, Bao-Feng Feng, Liming Ling, Daisuke A. Takahashi

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We construct the multi‐breather solutions of the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) on the background of elliptic functions by the Darboux transformation, and express them in terms of the determinant of theta functions. The dynamics of the breathers in the presence of various kinds of backgrounds such as dn, cn, and nontrivial phase‐modulating elliptic solutions are presented, and their behaviors dependent on the effect of backgrounds are elucidated. We also determine the asymptotic behaviors for the multibreather solutions with different velocities in the limit , where the solution in the neighborhood of each breather tends to the simple one‐breather solution. …

The Rider (2019-10-07), Victor G. Ramirez

The Rider Archives

Vol.5 No.7

Broadband Sound Propagation In A Seagrass Meadow Throughout A Diurnal Cycle, Kevin M. Lee, Megan S. Ballard, Gabriel R. Venegas, Jason D. Sagers, Andrew R. Mcneese, Jay R. Johnson, Preston S. Wilson, Abdullah Rahman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Acoustic propagation measurements were conducted in a Thalassia testudinum meadow in the Lower Laguna Madre, a shallow bay on the Texas Gulf of Mexico coast. A piezoelectric source transmitted frequency-modulated chirps (0.1 to 100 kHz) over a 24-h period during which oceanographic probes measured environmental parameters including dissolved oxygen and solar irradiance. Compared to a nearby less vegetated area, the received level was lower by as much as 30 dB during the early morning hours. At the peak of photosynthesis-driven bubble production in the late afternoon, an additional decrease in level of 11 dB was observed.

Precolumbian History, Part 1 People Of Antiquity​ Olmecs To Mayas, Servando Z. Hinojosa

Fall Workshop October 2019

No abstract provided.

Nextgen Advises "Trying To Manage", Douglass Steinhauff, Joel Henrique Ellwanger, Monika Lewinska, Edmond Sanganyado, Yongsheng Ji, Buddini Iroshika Karawdeniya, Naike Bochatay, Eric Britt Moore, Aminata Coulibaly, Shaima Ibrahim, Déna Skye Jansen, Joshua I. James, David M. Cole, Anna Lipkin, Beth Mckinnon Adamowicz, Science Management Associates, Shervin Fatehi, Maria Helena Holmstrom, Rosa Li

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

Peer mentors can provide crucial support to young scientists by asking questions to facilitate further reflection, assuring mentees that they are not alone, and suggesting potential next steps. We asked our readers to act as peer mentors to “Trying to Manage,” the anonymous student who posed the question above. Follow NextGen Voices on Twitter with hashtag #NextGenSci. Read previous NextGen Voices survey results at https://science.sciencemag.org/collection/nextgen-voices. —Jennifer Sills

Estimating The Angular Power Spectrum Of The Gravitational-Wave Background In The Presence Of Shot Noise, Alexander C. Jenkins, Joseph D. Romano, Mairi Sakellariadou

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

There has been much recent interest in studying anisotropies in the astrophysical gravitational-wave (GW) background, as these could provide us with interesting new information about galaxy clustering and large-scale structure. However, this information is obscured by shot noise, caused by the finite number of GW sources that contribute to the background at any given time. We develop a new method for estimating the angular spectrum of anisotropies, based on the principle of combining statistically-independent data segments. We show that this gives an unbiased estimate of the true, astrophysical spectrum, removing the offset due to shot noise power, and that …

Search For Eccentric Binary Black Hole Mergers With Advanced Ligo And Advanced Virgo During Their First And Second Observing Runs, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

When formed through dynamical interactions, stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) may retain eccentric orbits (e > 0.1 at 10 Hz) detectable by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. Eccentricity can therefore be used to differentiate dynamically formed binaries from isolated BBH mergers. Current template-based gravitational-wave searches do not use waveform models associated with eccentric orbits, rendering the search less efficient for eccentric binary systems. Here we present the results of a search for BBH mergers that inspiral in eccentric orbits using data from the first and second observing runs (O1 and O2) of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We carried out the search …

Effects Of Solvent Used For Fabrication On Drug Loading And Release Kinetics Of Electrosprayed Temozolomide-Loaded Plga Microparticles For The Treatment Of Glioblastoma, Daniel A. Rodriguez De Anda, Nareg Ohannesian, Karen S. Martirosyan, Sue Anne Chew

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and invasive form of malignant brain tumors and despite advances in surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the survival of patients with GBM still remains poor. Temozolomide (TMZ) is the chemotherapy drug that is most commonly given orally after surgical resection of these tumors. In this study, the effects of solvents (i.e., dichloromethane and acetonitrile) used for the fabrication of electrosprayed TMZ-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) on drug loading, loading efficiency, drug release kinetics, surface morphology, and particle size were investigated. The results from this study demonstrated that by using a larger volume of a solvent …

Joint Spectra Of Spherical Aluthge Transforms Of Commuting N-Tuples Of Hilbert Space Operators, Chafiq Benhida, Raul E. Curto, Sang Hoon Lee, Jasang Yoon

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Let be a commuting n-tuple of operators on a Hilbert space , and let be its canonical joint polar decomposition (i.e. ⁎ ⁎ , a joint partial isometry, and ). The spherical Aluthge transform of T is the (necessarily commuting) n-tuple . We prove that , where denotes the Taylor spectrum. We do this in two stages: away from the origin, we use tools and techniques from criss-cross commutativity; at the origin, we show that the left invertibility of T or implies the invertibility of P. As a consequence, we can readily extend our main result to other spectral systems …

Visible And Ultraviolet Upconversion And Near Infrared Downconversion Luminescence From Lanthanide Doped La2zr2o7 Nanoparticles, Santosh K. Gupta, Mitzy A. Penilla Garcia, Jose P. Zuniga, Maya Abdou, Yuanbing Mao

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

Single materials which have a multitude of photophysical processes by selective doping are in high demand in the community of material science due to their multifunctional applications. Upconversion (UC) and downconversion (DC) luminescence properties of lanthanide doped nanoparticles (NPs) are imperative for their broad application potentials. Here, we describe two series of either doubly or triply doped La2Zr2O7 NPs synthesized by a molten salt method. For the former, La2Zr2O7:Yb,Er NPs display bright red and moderate green UC (VUC) and NIR-B DC (NDC) at around 1550 nm, which are highly desirable for in-vivo bioimaging applications. For the latter, La2Zr2O7:Gd,Yb,Tm NPs demonstrate …

An Accelerated Hierarchical Approach For Object Shape Extraction And Recognition, Mahmoud K. Quweider, Bassam Arshad, Hansheng Lei, Liyu Zhang, Fitratullah Khan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present a novel automatic supervised object recognition algorithm based on a scale and rotation invariant Fourier descriptors algorithm. The algorithm is hierarchical in nature to capture the inherent intra-contour spatial relationships between the parent and child contours of an object. A set of distance metrics are introduced to go along with the hierarchical model. To test the algorithm, a diverse database of shapes is created and used to train standard classification algorithms, for shape-labeling. The implemented algorithm takes advantage of the multi-threaded architecture and GPU efficient image-processing functions present in OpenCV wherever possible, speeding up the running time and …

A Physically Based Constitutive Model For Dynamic Strain Aging In Inconel 718 Alloy At A Wide Range Of Temperatures And Strain Rates, George Z. Voyiadjis, Yooseob Song

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Dynamic strain aging has a huge effect on the microstructural mechanical behavior of Inconel 718 high-performance alloy when activated. In a number of experimental researches, significant additional hardening due to the dynamic strain aging phenomenon was reported. A constitutive model without considering dynamic strain aging is insufficient to accurately predict the material behavior. In this paper, a new constitutive model for Inconel 718 high-performance alloy is proposed to capture the additional hardening, which is caused by dynamic strain aging, by means of the Weibull distribution probability density function. The derivation of the proposed constitutive relation for the dynamic strain aging-induced …

A Comparison Of Three Types Of Permeable Pavements For Urban Runoff Mitigation In The Semi-Arid South Texas, U.S.A, Taufiqul Alam, Ahmed Mahmoud, Kim D. Jones, Juan Cesar Bezares-Cruz, Javier Guerrero

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

This study examines the hydrologic and environmental performance of three types of permeable pavement designs: Porous Concrete Pavement (PCP), Permeable Interlocking Concrete (PICP), and Interlocking Block Pavement with Gravel (IBPG) in the semi-arid South Texas. Outflow rate, storage, Normalized Volume Reduction (NVR), Normalized Load Reductions (NLR) of Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD₅) were compared to results obtained from adjacent traditional pavements at different regional parking lots. A notable percentage of peak flow attenuation of approximately 31–100% was observed when permeable pavements were constructed and implemented. IBPG was capable to hold runoff from rainfall depths …

Abiotic And Biotic Limitations To Nodulation By Leguminous Cover Crops In South Texas, Stephanie Kasper, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Pushpa Soti, Alexis Racelis

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Many farms use leguminous cover crops as a nutrient management strategy to reduce their need for nitrogen fertilizer. When they are effective, leguminous cover crops are a valuable tool for sustainable nutrient management. However, the symbiotic partnership between legumes and nitrogen fixing rhizobia is vulnerable to several abiotic and biotic stressors that reduce nitrogen fixation efficiency in real world contexts. Sometimes, despite inoculation with rhizobial strains, this symbiosis fails to form. Such failure was observed in a 14-acre winter cover crop trial in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas when three legume species produced no signs of nodulation or …

The Rider (2019-09-23), Victor G. Ramirez

The Rider Archives

Vol.5 No.5

Fast Equilibration Dynamics Of Viscous Particle-Laden Flow In An Inclined Channel, Jeffrey Wong, Michael R. Lindstrom, Andrea L. Bertozzi

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

A viscous suspension of negatively buoyant particles released into a wide, open channel on an incline will stratify in the normal direction as it flows. We model the early dynamics of this stratification under the effects of sedimentation and shear-induced migration. Prior work focuses on the behaviour after equilibration where the bulk suspension either separates into two distinct fronts (settled) or forms a single, particle-laden front (ridged), depending on whether the initial concentration of particles exceeds a critical threshold. From past experiments, it is also clear that this equilibration time scale grows considerably near the critical concentration. This paper models …

Locating An Optimal Site For A Controversial Facility, Jean-Baptiste Tondji

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

We consider a situation in which policymakers in a local community have to choose an optimal site for a controversial and essential project in a democratic setting. Policymakers have either single-dipped or multi-dipped preferences over a Euclidean space of possible locations. We provide two existence results for this issue. There exists at most two optimal sites if the size of policymakers is odd, and they have single-dipped preferences over a one-dimensional site space.

Binary Black Hole Population Properties Inferred From The First And Second Observing Runs Of Advanced Ligo And Advanced Virgo, B. P. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, Karla E. Ramirez, Satzhan Sitmukhambetov, D. Tuyenbayev, W. H. Wang, Adam Zadrozny

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present results on the mass, spin, and redshift distributions with phenomenological population models using the 10 binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected in the first and second observing runs completed by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We constrain properties of the BBH mass spectrum using models with a range of parameterizations of the BBH mass and spin distributions. We find that the mass distribution of the more massive BH in such binaries is well approximated by models with no more than 1% of BHs more massive than 45M(circle dot) and a power-law index of alpha = 1.3(-1.7)(+1.4) (90% credibility). …

Winslamm Simulation Of Hydrologic Performance Of Permeable Pavements—A Case Study In The Semi-Arid Lower Rio Grande Valley Of South Texas, United States, Taufiqul Alam, Ahmed Mahmoud, Kim D. Jones, Juan Cesar Bezares-Cruz, Javier Guerrero

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

his study used the Source Loading and Management Model for Windows (WinSLAMM) to develop a set of calibrated hydrologic models for three types of regional permeable pavements—porous concrete pavement (PCP), permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP), and interlocking block pavement with gravel (IBPG). The objective was to assess the hydrologic performance of permeable pavements, including the runoff depth, peak discharge, percentage increment in runoff reduction of pavements as a function of rainfall depth, development area, and base aggregate porosity, respectively. The permeable pavements were monitored over a wide range of rainfall events in the semi-arid Lower Rio Grande Valley of South …

Wallaby Early Science − V. Askap Hi Imaging Of The Lyon Group Of Galaxies 351, B. Q. For, L. Staveley-Smith, T. Westmeier, M. Whiting, S. -H. Oh, B. Koribalski, J. Wang, O. I. Wong, G. Bekiaris, Juan P. Madrid

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present an HI study of the galaxy group LGG 351 usingWidefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind Survey (WALLABY) early science data observed with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). LGG 351 resides behind the M 83 group at a velocity range (cz) of ∼3500–4800 km s−1 within the rich Hydra-Centaurus overdensity region. We detect 40 sources with the discovery of a tidally interacting galaxy pair and two new HI sources that are not presented in previous optical catalogues. 23 out of 40 sources have new redshifts derived from the new HI data. This study is the largest WALLABY …

Search For The Isotropic Stochastic Background Using Data From Advanced Ligo’S Second Observing Run, B. P. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, Robert Stone, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The stochastic gravitational-wave background is a superposition of sources that are either too weak or too numerous to detect individually. In this study, we present the results from a cross-correlation analysis on data from Advanced LIGO’s second observing run (O2), which we combine with the results of the first observing run (O1). We do not find evidence for a stochastic background, so we place upper limits on the normalized energy density in gravitational waves at the 95% credible level of ΩGW

Directional Limits On Persistent Gravitational Waves Using Data From Advanced Ligo’S First Two Observing Runs, B. P. Abbott, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, Karla E. Ramirez, Satzhan Sitmukhambetov, Robert Stone, D. Tuyenbayev, Wenhui Wang, Adam Zadrozny, Joseph D. Romano

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We perform an unmodeled search for persistent, directional gravitational wave (GW) sources using data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO. We do not find evidence for any GW signals. We place limits on the broadband GW flux emitted at 25 Hz from point sources with a power law spectrum at Fα;Θ < ð0.05–25Þ × 10−8 erg cm−2 s−1 Hz−1 and the (normalized) energy density spectrum in GWs at 25 Hz from extended sources at ΩαðΘÞ < ð0.19–2.89Þ × 10−8 sr−1 where α is the spectral index of the energy density spectrum. These represent improvements of 2.5–3× over previous limits. We also consider point sources emitting GWs at a single frequency, targeting the directions of Sco X-1, SN 1987A, and the Galactic center. The best upper limits on the strain amplitude of a potential source in these three directions range from h0 < ð3.6–4.7Þ × 10−25, 1.5× better than previous limits set with the same analysis method. We also report on a marginally significant outlier at 36.06 Hz. This outlier is not consistent with a persistent gravitational-wave source as its significance diminishes when combining all of the available data

Soil Indigenous Microbiome And Plant Genotypes Cooperatively Modify Soybean Rhizosphere Microbiome Assembly, Fang Liu, Tarek Hewezi, Sarah L. Lebeis, Vince Pantalone, Parwinder Grewal, Margaret E. Staton

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Plants have evolved intimate interactions with soil microbes for a range of beneficial functions including nutrient acquisition, pathogen resistance and stress tolerance. Further understanding of this system is a promising way to advance sustainable agriculture by exploiting the versatile benefits offered by the plant microbiome. The rhizosphere is the interface between plant and soil, and functions as the first step of plant defense and root microbiome recruitment. It features a specialized microbial community, intensive microbe-plant and microbe-microbe interactions, and complex signal communication. To decipher the rhizosphere microbiome assembly of soybean (Glycine max), we comprehensively characterized the soybean rhizosphere microbial …

Policy Memo: Political Violence And Terrorism On The Mexico-Us Border, Terence Garrett

Political Science Faculty Publications

The shooting and mass murder in El Paso that occurred recently is an example of a toxic mix of a number of elements typical of the USA political violence culture – a few of which will be analyzed in this memo. Two elements are permanent features and the third is subject to temporal and spatial limitations. These elements are: (1) extraordinary accessibility by almost anyone to military-grade weapons used in mass shootings; (2) white nationalist ideology and the propensity towards dehumanizing the “other” – or using Giorgio Agamben’s term, homo sacer,1 - those who may be sacrificed without rights, including …

Elevated Temperature Attenuates Ovarian Functions And Induces Apoptosis And Oxidative Stress In The American Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica: Potential Mechanisms And Signaling Pathways, Sarah Nash, Jackson Johnston, Md Saydur Rahman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Global climate change is predicted to intensify thermal stress in marine and coastal organisms, affecting their development, growth, and reproductive functions. In this study, we performed histological observations on ovarian development, immunohistochemical analyses of ovarian heat shock protein-70 (HSP70), nitrotyrosine protein (NTP, an indicator of reactive nitrogen species (RNS)), and dinitrophenyl protein (DNP, an indicator of protein oxidation) expressions, in situ TUNEL assay for cellular apoptosis, biochemical analyses of ovarian caspase-3/7 activity and protein carbonyl (PC, a measure of reactive oxygen species (ROS)) contents, nitrate/nitrite (NOx) levels, and extrapallial fluid (EPF, an important body fluid) pH in the American oyster, …

Elevated Temperature Attenuates Ovarian Functions And Induces Apoptosis And Oxidative Stress In The American Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica: Potential Mechanisms And Signaling Pathways, Sarah Nash, Jackson Johnstone, Md. Saydur Rahman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Global climate change is predicted to intensify thermal stress in marine and coastal organisms, affecting their development, growth, and reproductive functions. In this study, we performed histological observations on ovarian development, immunohistochemical analyses of ovarian heat shock protein-70 (HSP70), nitrotyrosine protein (NTP, an indicator of reactive nitrogen species (RNS)), and dinitrophenyl protein (DNP, an indicator of protein oxidation) expressions, in situ TUNEL assay for cellular apoptosis, biochemical analyses of ovarian caspase-3/7 activity and protein carbonyl (PC, a measure of reactive oxygen species (ROS)) contents, nitrate/nitrite (NOx) levels, and extrapallial fluid (EPF, an important body fluid) pH in the American oyster, …