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2018

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Articles 1 - 30 of 1151

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Disrupting Desalination: Novel Energy Efficient Technologies For Hypersaline Brines, Ngai Yin Yip Dec 2018

Disrupting Desalination: Novel Energy Efficient Technologies For Hypersaline Brines, Ngai Yin Yip

Sustainability Seminar Series

Management and treatment of hypersaline brines, e.g., produced water from oil and gas extraction, zero liquid discharge effluent, and flue gas desulfurization wastewater, are of growing environmental importance. Prevailing practice of distilling brines is highly energy-intensive and costly because the evaporation of water is enthalpically unfavorable. Here, we present two novel technologies for hypersaline desalination: cascading osmotically mediated reverse osmosis (COMRO) and temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE). The first technology, COMRO, utilizes the novel design of bilateral countercurrent reverse osmosis stages to lessening the osmotic pressure difference across the membrane, thereby simultaneously depressing the hydraulic pressure needed and reducing energy …

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Incentives For Coastal Persistence, Porter Hoagland Dec 2018

Incentives For Coastal Persistence, Porter Hoagland

Sustainability Seminar Series

Inundation, erosion, and property damages and losses are being observed at increasing rates in coastal areas. It is now well-recognized that rising sea levels, increases in storm intensities, and inadequate structural protections are contributing to the significant physical destruction of and economic losses to coastal properties. Scientists, coastal zone managers, and the general public have begun to call for implementing policies of resilience and adaptation to these losses, including retreating from the coast, yet humans continue to live—and even increase their presence—along the nation’s shorelines. What causes such persistence? It has become commonplace to identify lower-than-actuarially-fair premiums for participation in …

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How Do Polar Ice Sheets And Sea Level Behave Under A Changing Climate?, Sandra Passchier Nov 2018

How Do Polar Ice Sheets And Sea Level Behave Under A Changing Climate?, Sandra Passchier

Sustainability Seminar Series

Nearly 3 billion people live within 100 km of the coastline, many in large urban centers. In predictions of sea level rise, the future role of polar ice sheets is one of the most critical uncertainties under the present extreme rise in greenhouse forcing of the climate system. This talk will show how geoscientists address the Earth system processes involved in melting ice sheets under warmer climates, and introduce the objectives of an upcoming deepsea drilling expedition to the area with greatest ice loss in West Antarctica.

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Observing Soil Changes Under Common Cropping Practices In Kentucky, Samantha Peterson, Iin Handayani, Alyx Shultz Dr, Brian Parr Nov 2018

Observing Soil Changes Under Common Cropping Practices In Kentucky, Samantha Peterson, Iin Handayani, Alyx Shultz Dr, Brian Parr

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Cropping production and tillage systems lead to loss of soil organic matter (SOM), lowering soil pH, and soil compaction in Kentucky. However, the magnitude of the changes varied among the soil properties. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the changes in SOM, soil pH, and soil compaction under different cropping systems like corn-soybean-tobacco rotation (Field #1), continuous corn field (Field #2), hemp field (Field #3), wheat field (Field #4), pasture with animal grazing (Field #5), and canola field (Field #6). The prominent soil textures in all fields are silt loam and silty clay loam. Disturbed soil samples …

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Distance And Intersection Number In The Curve Complex Of A Closed Surface, Nancy C. Wrinkle Nov 2018

Distance And Intersection Number In The Curve Complex Of A Closed Surface, Nancy C. Wrinkle

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Spiral Waves Modeling, Paulo H. Acioli Nov 2018

Spiral Waves Modeling, Paulo H. Acioli

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Measuring The One-Way Velocity Of Light, Charles Nissim-Sabat Nov 2018

Measuring The One-Way Velocity Of Light, Charles Nissim-Sabat

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Arsenoplatins Vs. Combination Of Platinum Drugs And Arsenic Trioxide, Denana Miodragovic Nov 2018

Arsenoplatins Vs. Combination Of Platinum Drugs And Arsenic Trioxide, Denana Miodragovic

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Structural Characterization Of Bacterial Red Light Photoreceptors By Atomic Force Microscopy, Kenneth T. Nicholson Nov 2018

Structural Characterization Of Bacterial Red Light Photoreceptors By Atomic Force Microscopy, Kenneth T. Nicholson

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Linear Analysis Of Tumor Morphology During Growth Using Bending Energy, Emma A. Turian Nov 2018

Linear Analysis Of Tumor Morphology During Growth Using Bending Energy, Emma A. Turian

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Enabling The Social Internet Of Things, Ahmed E. Khaled, Sumi Helal Nov 2018

Enabling The Social Internet Of Things, Ahmed E. Khaled, Sumi Helal

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Punctuated Cognitive Psychological Interventions On Student's Disposition To Learn And The Effects On Mathematical Achievement, Matthew D. Graham Nov 2018

Punctuated Cognitive Psychological Interventions On Student's Disposition To Learn And The Effects On Mathematical Achievement, Matthew D. Graham

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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The Neiumatic Shake Table: A New Tool, Elisabet M. Head, John Papiewski Nov 2018

The Neiumatic Shake Table: A New Tool, Elisabet M. Head, John Papiewski

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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A Study Of Text Simplification On Breast Cancer Information Targeting A Low-Health Literacy Population, Francisco D. Iacobelli, Xiwei Wang Nov 2018

A Study Of Text Simplification On Breast Cancer Information Targeting A Low-Health Literacy Population, Francisco D. Iacobelli, Xiwei Wang

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Molecular Origami For Biochemistry: Paper Models Of Proteins, Carbohydrates, And Nucleic Acids, Charles Abrams Nov 2018

Molecular Origami For Biochemistry: Paper Models Of Proteins, Carbohydrates, And Nucleic Acids, Charles Abrams

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Singular And Ill-Conditioned Linear Systems, Zhonggang Zeng Nov 2018

Singular And Ill-Conditioned Linear Systems, Zhonggang Zeng

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Elevated Calcium Levels In Kentucky Lake: A Possible Emerging Problem With An Invasive Species, Adam T. Martin Nov 2018

Elevated Calcium Levels In Kentucky Lake: A Possible Emerging Problem With An Invasive Species, Adam T. Martin

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are an exotic and invasive mollusk that have spread extensively through various rivers and lakes in the United States. These mussels are notorious for their “biofouling” capabilities costing billions of dollars in their removal from industrial, public, and power plant water supply lines. While having been present in the Tennessee River drainage with occasional small reproducing populations since the early 1990s, zebra mussels were never abundant or widespread. In 2017, high densities were found on structures and solid substrates throughout the lower portion of Kentucky Lake. Calcium is one of the essential elements that contributes …

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Creating A Computational Tool To Simulate Vibration Control For Piezoelectric Devices, Ahmet Ozkan Ozer, Emma J. Moore Nov 2018

Creating A Computational Tool To Simulate Vibration Control For Piezoelectric Devices, Ahmet Ozkan Ozer, Emma J. Moore

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Piezoelectric materials have the unique ability to convert electrical energy to mechanical vibrations and vice versa. This project takes a stab to develop a reliable computational tool to simulate the vibration control of a novel “partial differential equation” model for a piezoelectric device, which is designed by integrating electric conducting piezoelectric layers constraining a viscoelastic layer to provide an active and lightweight intelligent structure. Controlling unwanted vibrations on piezoelectric devices (or harvesting energy from ambient vibrations) through piezoelectric layers has been the major focus in cutting-edge engineering applications such as ultrasonic welders and inchworms. The corresponding mathematical models for piezoelectric …

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Consumption Profiles Of Illicit And Neuropsychiatric Drugs In Urban And Rural Communities In Kentucky Using Sewage Epidemiology, Tara Croft, Katelyn Foppe, Rhiannon Huffines, Bikram Subedi Nov 2018

Consumption Profiles Of Illicit And Neuropsychiatric Drugs In Urban And Rural Communities In Kentucky Using Sewage Epidemiology, Tara Croft, Katelyn Foppe, Rhiannon Huffines, Bikram Subedi

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The drug overdose deaths in the USA increased by ~20% from 2015 to 2016 to the total >63,600 drug overdose deaths in 2016. Kentucky is among the highest rate of drug overdose death states in the USA. The current estimates of the prevalence of substance abuse are based on the self-reported surveys, overdose/toxicological reports, and drug-related crime statistics. Survey-based conventional approaches are not only cost and time-intensive but also underestimate the actual consumption of drugs. As “wastewater never lie,” the drug residues in raw wastewater collected from the centralized wastewater treatment plants were utilized to determine the consumption rate of …

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The Fate Of Sulfur During Melting And Crystallization: Implications For Sulfur Transfer From Mantle To The Crust-Atmosphere System, Shuo Ding Nov 2018

The Fate Of Sulfur During Melting And Crystallization: Implications For Sulfur Transfer From Mantle To The Crust-Atmosphere System, Shuo Ding

Sustainability Seminar Series

Sulfur (S) is one of the most abundant volatiles; one that has a fundamental impact on various magmatic processes, from the mantle to the Earth’s surface. Ocean island basalts (OIB) are one of the critical probes for understanding the chemical, lithological and thermal variations in the Earth’s mantle. Therefore, S abundances of primary OIB that sample peridotite partial melts, as well as deeply recycled components, can provide a better understanding of the long-term S cycle on Earth. In this study, we developed a model to describe the behavior of sulfide and copper (Cu) during decompression melting of the mantle by …

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Climate Futures, Design And The Just Transition Schedule, Liberal Arts Division Nov 2018

Climate Futures, Design And The Just Transition Schedule, Liberal Arts Division

Climate Futures Symposium

Schedule of events distributed at the Symposium.

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Performance Of The Parallelized Monte-Carlo Tree Search Approach For Dots And Boxes, Pranay Agrawal, Uta Ziegler Nov 2018

Performance Of The Parallelized Monte-Carlo Tree Search Approach For Dots And Boxes, Pranay Agrawal, Uta Ziegler

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The Monte-Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a method designed to solve difficult learning problems. MCTS performs random simulations from the current situation and stores the results in order to distinguish decisions based on their past success. MCTS will then select the best decision and finally repeat the process. Parallelizing the MCTS means to divide the learning process among independent learners. Then, after a fixed number of simulations, the data is shared and combined. Past research has shown that this approach is faster than non-parallelized approaches. Therefore, we anticipated that the time reduced from dividing the learning outweighs the potential costs …

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Variations Of Soil Qualities In Urban And Rural Areas, Gabby Barnes, Iin Handayani, Steve Still Nov 2018

Variations Of Soil Qualities In Urban And Rural Areas, Gabby Barnes, Iin Handayani, Steve Still

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the variations of soil characteristics under different management practices in rural soils versus urban soils. In this study, soil samples from rural areas in Kentucky were collected from a woodland plot, a no-till plot, and a tilled plot. The soil samples from the rural were taken from two depths in order to better evaluate the effect of tillage on the soil. A shallow depth of 0-7cm and a deep depth of 7-15cm were used. Soil samples were also taken from urban plots in Memphis, TN. The sampled plots included were an animal …

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Dance Of Two Supermassive Binary Black Holes, Karishma Bansal Nov 2018

Dance Of Two Supermassive Binary Black Holes, Karishma Bansal

Shared Knowledge Conference

Black holes exist in a various range of masses ranging from stellar mass (~ 10 Solar Mass) to Supermassive black holes (SMBHs, million to billion Solar Mass). It is expected that as the separation between the black holes decreases, emission of gravitational waves will grow stronger, which makes binary black holes one of the most promising sources for gravitational radiation detection. Gravitational waves from merging stellar-mass black holes have recently been discovered by LIGO; however, we are yet to detect them from binary SMBHs. These massive black holes reside at the heart of most of the galaxies and when two …

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High-Resolution Digital Surface Characterization Of The Rio Chama In New Mexico, Rowan L. Converse Nov 2018

High-Resolution Digital Surface Characterization Of The Rio Chama In New Mexico, Rowan L. Converse

Shared Knowledge Conference

Over the past eighty years, the Rio Chama, a major tributary of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, has been subject to significant disruption of historic hydrological flow regimes due to water use demands. In recent years, a multiagency management effort has been initiated to restore some measure of historic flow regimes in the 39.6 km congressionally designated Wild and Scenic stretch through the Rio Chama Canyon Wilderness. We collaborated with managers at the US Army Corps of Engineers to collect approximately 15,870 frames of 10cm resolution multispectral imagery of the 82 km stretch of the river between El Vado …

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Are The Oxygen Isotope Values Of The Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway Different From The Open Ocean?, Camille H. Dwyer, Corinne Myers, Viorel Atudorei Nov 2018

Are The Oxygen Isotope Values Of The Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway Different From The Open Ocean?, Camille H. Dwyer, Corinne Myers, Viorel Atudorei

Shared Knowledge Conference

The Western Interior Seaway (WIS) was a North American epicontinental sea that was connected to the open ocean through the passage of the northern Boreal Sea and the southern Tethys Sea from the early Albian (~113 million years ago) to the early Paleogene (~65 million years ago). The WIS began to recced and lost its connection to the southern Tethys Sea in the late Campanian (~72 million years ago). In the early Paleogene, the WIS dried up completely. The oxygen isotopic composition (δ18O) of benthic bivalves was measured from the upper Campanian and lower Maastrichtian (75 million years ago to …

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Assessing Water Policy Implications Of The Changing Agriculture In New Mexico, Trevor A. Birt Nov 2018

Assessing Water Policy Implications Of The Changing Agriculture In New Mexico, Trevor A. Birt

Shared Knowledge Conference

Agriculture is the dominant water sector in New Mexico, responsible for more than 80% of water withdrawals in 2015 (USGS 2018). Water policy needs to be extremely adaptive and informed to meet the needs of not only farmers, but cities, industry and riparian uses. Since 1840, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has conducted census surveys assessing all levels of agriculture. These data are physically published at the county, state, and national level on a 5-year cycle, detailing various material counts such as acreage, yields, and water usage, as well as socioeconomic estimates of farm costs, revenues, and hired workers. …

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Plasmon-Enhanced Quadrupolar Transitions With Nanostructured Graphene, Stephen Sanders Nov 2018

Plasmon-Enhanced Quadrupolar Transitions With Nanostructured Graphene, Stephen Sanders

Shared Knowledge Conference

Many important molecules have quadrupolar excitations which occur at much slower rates than the competing dipolar transitions and hence are termed forbidden. In this work, we propose a new approach to enhance quadrupolar transitions using graphene nanostructures. We provide a detailed investigation of the enhanced transition rate in the vicinity of graphene nanoislands and use rigorous computational methods to analyze how this quantity changes with the geometrical and material parameters of the nanoisland. To support these calculations we also provide a semi-analytic approach. Finally, we investigate the performance of arrays of graphene nanoribbons, which constitutes a suitable platform for the …

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Genetic Algorithm Design Of Photonic Crystals For Energy-Efficient Ultrafast Laser Transmitters, Troy A. Hutchins-Delgado Nov 2018

Genetic Algorithm Design Of Photonic Crystals For Energy-Efficient Ultrafast Laser Transmitters, Troy A. Hutchins-Delgado

Shared Knowledge Conference

Photonic crystals allow light to be controlled and manipulated such that novel photonic devices can be created. We are interested in using photonic crystals to increase the energy efficiency of our semiconductor whistle-geometry ring lasers. A photonic crystal will enable us to reduce the ring size, while maintaining confinement, thereby reducing its operating power. Photonic crystals can also exhibit slow light that will increase the interaction with the material. This will increase the gain, and therefore, lower the threshold for lasing to occur. Designing a photonic crystal for a particular application can be a challenge due to its number of …

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Nonthermal Dark Matter From Early Matter Domination, Jacek Ksawery Osinski Nov 2018

Nonthermal Dark Matter From Early Matter Domination, Jacek Ksawery Osinski

Shared Knowledge Conference

Dark matter (DM) production in the early universe traditionally assumes a standard thermal history where the universe is in a radiation-dominated phase after the end of inflation until matter-radiation equality. However, the presence of additional scalar fields (which is a generic prediction of explicit string constructions) can lead to an epoch of early matter domination (EMD) that ends before the onset of big bang nucleosynthesis. Such an EMD phase has important cosmological consequences and renders thermal production of DM irrelevant. We present three scenarios for DM production involving an era of EMD: evaporation of primordial black holes into DM, DM …

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