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Cubic Spline Interpolation By Solving A Recurrence Equation Instead Of A Tridiagonal Matrix, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

The cubic spline interpolation method is proba- bly the most widely-used polynomial interpolation method for functions of one variable. However, the cubic spline method requires solving a tridiagonal matrix-vector equation with an O(n) computational time complexity where n is the number of data measurements. Even an O(n) time complexity may be too much in some time-ciritical applications, such as continuously estimating and updating the flight paths of moving objects. This paper shows that under certain boundary conditions the tridiagonal matrix solving step of the cubic spline method could be entirely eliminated and instead the coefficients of the unknown cubic polynomials …

Common Hazards In Karst Terrain, Benjamin J. Currens, Alan Fryar, Carmen T. Agouridis

Agriculture and Natural Resources Publications

Karst refers to terrain largely drained by subsurface conduits and caves. Karst landscapes are characterized by surface features such as springs, sinkholes, shallow depressions, and rolling hills (Figure 1). Karst regions are also known for their subsurface or below-ground features such as conduits and caves (Figure 2). What makes a karst region unique is the way runoff drains from the land. In karst regions, some of the runoff flows into surface features such as sinkholes where it then travels underground. Some of this infiltrated water re-emerges at springs (Figure 1a), and some continues moving underground.

Mineral And Protein Blocks And Tubs For Beef Cattle, Jeff Lehmkuhler, Roy Burris, Donna M. Amaral-Phillips

Agriculture and Natural Resources Publications

Nutritional supplement blocks and tubs are convenient for beef producers, require no investment in feeding troughs and require a limited area for storing. One of the most attractive features is that they lower the labor needed to supplement livestock. Many producers use these products to provide supplemental nutrients to cattle consuming low-quality forages or as a mechanism to promote a more consistent intake of minerals. These products are also attractive to producers who have off-farm employment as they eliminate the need for daily feeding. Yet, they often come at a greater cost per unit of nutrient than more conventional feedstuffs. …

Restoration Of Bison (Bison Bison) To Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, A Feasibility Study, Daniel S. Licht

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is a 3,057-acre park located in western Nebraska. The unit is comprised of northern mixed-grass prairie vegetation, typical of the Northern Great Plains. Weather, fire, and grazing are generally considered to be the ecological drivers of prairie ecosystems and critical for prairie health. However, grazing has essentially been absent since the 1960s. In 2014, a Department of the Interior report explicitly listed the park as a high priority for bison restoration. This report evaluates the feasibility, management options, benefits, and challenges of restoring bison to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.

A potential bison …

Development And Evaluation Of A Model For Secondary Evolution Educators’ Professional Development Needs, William L. Romine, Ellen Barnett, Patricia J. Friedrichsen, Aaron J. Sickel

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Professional development (PD) efforts have improved acceptance and pedagogical practice related to the theory of evolution in high school biology teachers. However, these teachers express need for more PD related to evolution. It therefore becomes necessary to understand teachers’ PD needs prior to structuring PD efforts.

Methods

We formulated and validated a model to explain secondary teachers’ PD needs using data from a survey of 276 secondary biology teachers who reported teaching evolution.

Results

In addition to reliable subscales, we found that obstacles to teaching evolution, school and community support for evolution instruction, confidence in evolution instruction, and prior …

Teaching The Islamic Worldview Of Environmental Ethics To Students Of Science In Malaysia, M. Hasbullah, R. Sadri, M.H. Shah, S.A. Azizan, S.N. Mohd Noor

Research Publications (2011 to 2015)

Religion is an important cultural resource in Malaysia particularly for environmentalists who are engaged in creating new paradigms of thinking about managing the current ecological or environmental crisis. This paper presents the course content of an undergraduate course for science students entitled 'Philosophy of Islamic Science and Technology' of which a component on the 'Islamic Philosophy of Environment' is emphasized. The course is designed to particularly groom students who recognize the importance of environmental conservation and hence would act ethically towards nature. The Islamic view of nature perceives the environment in a rather different way from the modern view of …

Conducting Scaffolds For Liver Tissue Engineering, Armin Tahmasbi Rad, Naushad Ali, Hari Shankar R. Kotturi, Mostafa Yazdimamaghani, Jim Smay, Daryoosh Vashaee, Lobat Tayebi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

It is known that there is a correlation between a cell membrane potential and the proliferation of the cell. The high proliferation capacity of liver cells can also be attributed to its specific cell membrane potential as liver cell is recognized as one of the most depolarized of all differentiated cells. We hypothesized that this phenomenon can be emphasized by growing liver cells in conducting scaffolds that can increase the electrical communication among the cells. In this article, using tissue engineering techniques, we grew hepatocyte cells in scaffolds with various compositions. It was found that the scaffolds containing conducting polymer …

Meeting Summary Of Colloquium On Policy, Law, Contracts, And Sustainable Development, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In November 2014, CCSI and the Institute for Human Rights and Business co-convened a colloquium on policy, law, contracts, and sustainable development, with a particular focus on large-scale investments in the extractive industries and the agriculture sector. The colloquium provided an opportunity for practitioners to share information on their related work, as well as to reflect on current practices and remaining gaps regarding efforts to embed sustainability and human rights into large-scale deals. This outcome document provides a summary of the discussion, while its annex includes information on participants’ relevant programs, initiatives, and tools.

Caveolin-1 Deletion Exacerbates Cardiac Interstitial Fibrosis By Promoting M2 Macrophage Activation In Mice After Myocardial Infarction, Pooja Shivshankar, Ganesh V. Halade, Cheresa Calhoun, Gladys P. Escobar, Ali J. Mehr, Fabio Jimenez, Cindy Martinez, Harshita Bhatnagar, Corey H. Mjaatvedt, Merry L. Lindsey, Claude Jourdan Le Saux

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Adverse remodeling following myocardial infarction (MI) leading to heart failure is driven by an imbalanced resolution of inflammation. The macrophage cell is an important control of post-MI inflammation, as macrophage subtypes secrete mediators to either promote inflammation and extend injury (M1 phenotype) or suppress inflammation and promote scar formation (M2 phenotype). We have previously shown that the absence of caveolin-1 (Cav1), a membrane scaffolding protein, is associated with adverse cardiac remodeling in mice, but the mechanisms responsible remain to be elucidated. We explore here the role of Cav1 in the activation of macrophages using wild type C57BL6/J (WT) and Cav1tm1Mls/J …

Neural Stem Cells As A Model To Study Huntington’S Disease, Rawan Bakhsh

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a heritable neurodegenerative disorder that affects muscle coordination and diminishes cognitive abilities, by affecting the medium spiny neurons in the brain. In HD patients, neurons are damaged and destroyed because of the toxicity of the mutant Huntington protein (mHtt). The mechanism of how mHtt protein affects the neurons is unknown. In this study we explored the effects of mHtt expression by looking at changes in huntingtin localization, changes in the expression and co-localization of related proteins and differences in cell morphology. We examine how this expression affects the cytoskeletal structures using neural stem cells Q7 (wild …

Genetic Dominance & Cellular Processes, Robert D. Seager

Faculty Work

In learning genetics, many students misunderstand and misinterpret what “dominance” means. Understanding is easier if students realize that dominance is not a mechanism, but rather a consequence of underlying cellular processes. For example, metabolic pathways are often little affected by changes in enzyme concentration. This means that enzyme-producing alleles usually show complete dominance. For genes producing nonenzymatic proteins such as collagen or hemoglobin, the amount of product matters, and dominance relationships are more complicated. Furthermore, with hemoglobin, dominance can change depending on what aspect of the phenotype is being studied and on the environmental conditions. X-linked genes are a special …

Indigegogy: A Transformative Indigenous Educational Process, Gus Hill Phd, Alicia Wilkinson Msw

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

Social work training programs have not been able to keep step with the needs of Indigenous people since the advent of the profession. As former agents of government assimilation, social workers now find themselves in difficult positions where they are unable to help Indigenous people, despite their best intentions. Indigenous Social Work Education has become a necessary response to the growing needs of Indigenous people, and increasing social problems in Canada. Furthermore, Indigenous people who practice Indigenous social work have become vital to the survival of Indigenous people and their communities. The teaching and practice of Indigenized, social work education …

Protein Recycling In Bering Sea Algal Incubations, Eli K. Moore, H. Rodger Harvey, Jessica F. Faux, David R. Goodlett, Brook L. Nunn

OES Faculty Publications

Protein present in phytoplankton represents a large fraction of the organic nitrogen and carbon transported from its synthesis in surface waters to marine sediments. Yet relatively little is known about the longevity of identifiable protein in situ, or the potential modifications to proteins that occur during bloom termination, protein recycling and degradation. To address this knowledge gap, diatom-dominated phytoplankton was collected during the Bering Sea spring blooms of 2009 and 2010, and incubated under darkness in separate shipboard degradation experiments spanning 11 and 53 d, respectively. In each experiment, the protein distribution was monited over time using shotgun proteomics, …

Teaching An Old Jaw New Tricks: Diet-Induced Plasticity In A Model Organism, From Weaning To Adulthood, Jeremiah E. Scott, Kevin R. Mcabee, Meghan M. Eastman, Matthew J. Ravosa

Publications

Many organisms exhibit a decrease in the ability to modify their phenotypes in response to shifts in environmental conditions as they mature. Such age-dependent plasticity has important implications in a variety of evolutionary and ecological contexts, particularly with respect to understanding adaptive responses to heterogeneous environments. In this study we used experimental diet manipulation to examine the life-history trajectory of plasticity in the feeding complex of a model organism, the white rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). We demonstrate that, contrary to expectations derived from previous cross-sectional studies of skeletal plasticity, the jaws of weanlings and young adults exhibit similar increases …

The Spinnaker November 2014, University Of North Florida

Spinnaker

Student newspaper for the UNF community. Date: November 2014

Ascorbic Acid, Thiamin, Riboflavin, And Vitamin B6 Contents Vary Between Sweetpotato Tissue Types, Wilmer A. Barrera, David H. Picha

Faculty Publications

Sweetpotato is considered a good source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and certain B vitamins. These water-soluble vitamins (WSV) play essential roles in sustaining human health. Besides the root, sweetpotato vegetative tissues are also edible and considered high in nutritional value. Despite the availability of general reference values for sweetpotato WSV content in the root and leaves, little is known about the distribution of these vitamins in specific sweetpotato root and vegetative tissues. The objective of this study was to determine the ascorbic acid (AA), thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), and vitamin B6 content in a range of foliar tissues including …

Majority Of Cells Lining The Walls Of The 3rd Ventricle In The Adult Rat Brain Are Not Neural Progenitor Cells, C. Hasken, S. Vermilyea, M. Hendrickson, R. Kalil

Annual Student Research Poster Session

No abstract provided.

Helping Families With Rare Diseases: Finding Disease-Causing Variants In A Wealth Of Genomic Data, Tyler Huff

Annual Student Research Poster Session

No abstract provided.

Tandem Cancer Drug Delivery Via Gold Nanoparticle Targeting Platforms, Jeffrey Schulte, Sam Lohmar, Daniel Scott

Annual Student Research Poster Session

No abstract provided.

Anticancer Drug Delivery Via Unique Properties Of Gold Nanoparticles, Sam Lohmar, Jeffrey Schulte, Daniel Scott

Annual Student Research Poster Session

No abstract provided.

Skin Graft Acceptance Rates In Xenopus Laevis, Madelyn Lee, Scott Espich, Erika Kischuk, Skyler Majors, Kevin Kinney

Annual Student Research Poster Session

No abstract provided.

A Parallel Genetic Algorithm For Tuning Neural Networks, Nathan Chadderdon, Ben Harsha, Steven Bogaerts

Annual Student Research Poster Session

One challenge in using artificial neural networks is how to determine appropriate parameters for network structure and learning. Often parameters such as learning rate or number of hidden units are set arbitrarily or with a general "intuition" as to what would be most effective. The goal of this project is to use a genetic algorithm to tune a population of neural networks to determine the best structure and parameters. This paper considers a genetic algorithm to tune the number of hidden units, learning rate, momentum, and number of examples viewed per weight update. Experiments and results are discussed for two …

Automatic Animation Of Molecular Motion Using Python And Cinema 4d, Diana Zajac, Nathaniel Smith, Dan Gurnon

Annual Student Research Poster Session

No abstract provided.

Measuring Immune Responsiveness In Xenopus Laevis Using Phytohaemagglutanin (Pha), Kevin Kinney, Skyler Majors, Madelyn Lee, Scott Espich, Erika Kischuk

Annual Student Research Poster Session

Phytohaemagglutanin (PHA) is a red kidney bean extract that has been used to stimulate an immunological T cell response in a variety of animals. This procedure has become very popular method to analyze an individual animal’s ability to trigger an immunological response.(Brown 2014) PHA skin testing has been used in a variety of avian, mice, lizard, and amphibian species where it is injected into the muscle, skin, or webbing of an animal and then recording the amount of swelling before and after the injection.(Smits 1999) We are using the amphibian Xenopus laevis to test 1) their immune reaction under normal …

Learning About Being A Scientist From The Vitamin B-12 Structure Collaboration, Susan White

Chemistry Faculty Research and Scholarship

This historical note reviews the work that resulted in the publication of the structure of Vitamin B12. The collaborations and resulting friendships that developed during this time made a strong impression on the author and encouraged her to pursue a scientific career.

A New Type Of Jarosite Deposit On Mars: Evidence For Past Glaciation In Valles Marineris?, Selby Hearth

Geology Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights: Ethical Insights For Marketers, Ann-Marie Kennedy, Gene R. Laczniak

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Present copyright laws do not protect Indigenous intellectual property (IIP) sufficiently. Indigenous cultural artefacts, myths, designs and songs (among other aspects) are often free to be exploited by marketers for business' gain. Use of IIP by marketers is legal as intellectual property protection is based on the lifetime of the person who has put the IP in tangible form. However, Indigenous groups often view ownership in a very different light, seeing aspects of their culture as being owned by the group in perpetuity. Misuse of their cultural heritage by marketers in products often denies the Indigenous group a monetary benefit …

Efficacy Of Plastic Mesh Tubes In Reducing Herbivory Damage By The Invasive Nutria (Myocastor Coypus) In An Urban Restoration Site, Trevor R. Sheffels, Mark D. Sytsma, Jacoby Carter, Jimmy D. Taylor

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The restoration of stream corridors is becoming an increasingly important component of urban landscape planning, and the high cost of these projects necessitates the need to understand and address potential ecological obstacles to project success. The nutria (Myocastor coypus) is an invasive, semi-aquatic rodent native to South America that causes detrimental ecological impacts in riparian and wetland habitats throughout its introduced range, and techniques are needed to reduce nutria herbivory damage to urban stream restoration projects. We assessed the efficacy of standard Vexar® plastic mesh tubes in reducing nutria herbivory damage to newly established woody plants. The study was conducted …

Federal Visions Of Private Family Support, Laura A. Rosenbury

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article offers a new perspective on the relationship between family and federalism by analyzing why the government — whether state or federal — recognizes family at all. The Article examines the current balance between state and federal authority over family by reviewing the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Astrue v. Capato, upholding the Social Security Administration’s deference to states’ intestacy laws when distributing benefits to posthumously conceived children, and United States v. Windsor, in which the Court struck down a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Although each decision affirmed the states’ primary role in defining family …

Ecosystem Services Valuation For Estuarine And Coastal Restoration In Florida, Susanna Blair, Carrie Adams, Thomas T. Ankersen, Maia Mcguire, David Kaplan

UF Law Faculty Publications

This study reviews the available ecosystem-service valuation literature for a number of Florida's coastal natural communities including oyster reefs, beach dunes, mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and salt marshes. We summarize the services provided by these five commonly restored natural communities in Florida and provide an analysis intended to support two main objectives: 1) to enumerate the range of ecosystem services provided by coastal natural communities as a way to educate stakeholders and support prioritization of habitat restoration; and 2) to inventory ecosystem measurements from the literature for each of the five natural communities and provide specific metrics for their measurement. …