Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Leveraging Systems Thinking For Global Environmental Health, Martha M. Mcalister

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental health inequities such as household air pollution, inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene, and chemical pollution persist globally and have myriad consequences on individual and societal well-being. Unfortunately, while billions of dollars and countless hours of research have been applied towards addressing these issues in development, humanitarian, and environmental justice contexts, attempts to reduce the environmental burden of disease can seem successful at first, but then backslide to pre-intervention conditions (or worse). This is indicative of policy resistance, a tendency of complex systems that makes it very difficult to enact change if the “rules” of the system are misunderstood. There …

Embedding Information Literacy Practices In An Upper Division Chemistry Lab Class At A University In The United States Of America, Christopher Randles, Matilynn Lamm, Katy A. Miller

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This poster discusses the implementation of information literacy into an upper division inorganic chemistry lab and the strategies employed to develop students’ information literacy in the laboratory course.

The Impact Of Data Preparation And Model Complexity On The Natural Language Classification Of Chinese News Headlines, Torrey J. Wagner, Dennis Guhl, Brent T. Langhals

Faculty Publications

Given the emergence of China as a political and economic power in the 21st century, there is increased interest in analyzing Chinese news articles to better understand developing trends in China. Because of the volume of the material, automating the categorization of Chinese-language news articles by headline text or titles can be an effective way to sort the articles into categories for efficient review. A 383,000-headline dataset labeled with 15 categories from the Toutiao website was evaluated via natural language processing to predict topic categories. The influence of six data preparation variations on the predictive accuracy of four algorithms was …

Quasistationary Distribution For The Invasion Model On A Complete Bipartite Graph, Clayton Allard, Iddo Ben-Ari, Shrikant Chand, Van Hovenga, Edith Lee, Julia Shapiro

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Cold And Traffic Tolerance Of Hybrid Bermudagrass And Kentucky Bluegrass In A Cool Season, Arid Climate, Caden J. Seely, H. Burgin, N. Hansen, G. Wear, Bryan G. Hopkins

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2024

• Due to climate change, warm-season Hybrid Bermudagrass (HBG) is beginning to be grown in northern climates.
• This is potentially desirable because it may use less water than traditional species.
• However, there is concern regarding winter kill and excessively long dormant periods.
• There is particular interest in HBG with regards to sports turf, but there is concern with its ability to withstand heavy traffic damage when grown in a cool-season climate.

Objective: Assess the cold and traffic tolerance of common Bermudagrass [CBG; Cynodon dactylon (L) Pers.] and seven triploid interspecific hybrids (HBG; Cynodon dactylon × C. transvaalensis Burtt Davy) in …

The Biomechanics Of Ursine Predation: Investigating The Force Generation And Mechanical Properties Of Bear Claws And Teeth In Predatory Behavior, Katie Dooley, Megan Doxey, Josh Jewell, Tom Smith

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2024

• Studied over 2,200 human-bear conflicts in North America and witnessed the shear force that bears can exert to access food and eliminate any threats.
• Polar bears at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City punctured and bent high density polyurethane (HDPE) objects when playing with them.
• This prompted research into the force it takes bears to puncture objects with their canines and claws.

Reproduce Or Live Longer?: A Life History Analysis Of Black Bears In A Semiarid Environment, Brenden M. Orocu, Cambria Armstrong, Janene Auger, Hal L. Black, Randy T. Larsen, Brock R. Mcmillan, Mark C. Belk

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2024

In population demographics, each population has an age stage vital rate (fecundity and survival) in its life history that has the greatest influence on the asymptotic population growth rate, λ.

American black bears (Ursus americanus) are found throughout North America. Other studies on population demographics have focused on populations in higher resource availability areas but none in semiarid environments where resource scarcity is a result of the variable climate.

Objective

Our objective was to determine if factors influencing population dynamics of black bears in semi-arid environments were similar to factors affecting population dynamics in mesic environments where …

Cell Motion And Multicellular Organization: A Mathematical Model For Pattern Formation In The Dictyostelium Discoideum Slug, Henry Tullis, Emily Evans, John Dallon

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2024

Understanding multicellular behavior is key to biology and medicine

• Embryonic development requires coordinated cell motion, differentiation
• Wound healing also relies on emergent multicellular processes
• Dictyostelium discoideum (Dd) has been identified as a model organism for biomedical research, partly because it is a simple example of multicellularity
• Understanding Dd can improve, inform approaches to these tricky problems

Artificial Intelligence Usage And Data Privacy Discoveries Within Mhealth, Jennifer Schulte

Research & Publications

Advancements in artificial intelligence continue to impact nearly every aspect of human life by providing integration options that aim to supplement or improve current processes. One industry that continues to benefit from artificial intelligence integration is healthcare. For years now, elements of artificial intelligence have been used to assist in clinical decision making, helping to identify potential health risks at earlier stages, and supplementing precision medicine. An area of healthcare that specifically looks at wearable devices, sensors, phone applications, and other such devices is mobile health (mHealth). These devices are used to aid in health data collection and delivery. This …

2024 March 21 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

Doubly Charged Dimers And Trimers Of Heavy Noble Gases, Gabriel Schöpfer, Stefan Bergmeister, Milan Ončák, Ianessa Stromberg, Masoomeh Mahmoodi-Darian, Paul Scheier, Olof Echt, Elisabeth Gruber

Faculty Publications

Many doubly charged heteronuclear dimers are metastable or even thermodynamically stable with respect to charge separation. Homonuclear dicationic dimers, however, are more difficult to form. He₂²⁺ was the first noble gas dimer predicted to be metastable and, decades later, observed. Ne₂²⁺ is the only other dicationic noble gas dimer that has been detected so far. Here, we present a novel approach to form fragile dicationic species, by post-ionization of singly charged ions that are embedded in helium nanodroplets (HNDs). Bare ions are then extracted by colliding the HNDs with helium gas. We detect homonuclear doubly charged …

Second Inflection Point Of Supercooled Water Surface Tension Induced By Hydrogen Bonds: A Molecular-Dynamics Study, Fawaz Hrahsheh, Inshad Jum'h, Gerald Wilemski

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Surface Tension Of Supercooled Water Is A Fundamental Property In Various Scientific Processes. In This Study, We Perform Molecular Dynamics Simulations With The TIP4P-2005 Model To Investigate The Surface Tension Of Supercooled Water Down To 220 K. Our Results Show A Second Inflection Point (SIP) In The Surface Tension At Temperature TSIP ≈ 267.5 ± 2.3 K. Using An Extended IAPWS-E Functional Fit For The Water Surface Tension, We Calculate The Surface Excess Internal-Energy And Entropy Terms Of The Excess Helmholtz Free Energy. Similar To Prior Studies [Wang Et Al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 21, 3360 (2019); Gorfer Et Al., …

Estimating Polarization Purity With Noise, Alex Kostinski, Dan Kestner, Jothiram Vivekanandan

Michigan Tech Publications

We formulate a problem of estimating and monitoring mismatch (unwanted departure from orthogonality) of two ostensibly orthogonal polarization channels in a fully polarimetric general device such as a polarimetric weather radar. A statistical approach is proposed by using thermal noise or, more generally, a 'polarimetric noise' class of sources. The suitable noise class of distributions is shown to be rooted in the complex multivariate Gaussian probability density function (pdf), the latter possessing a uniform pdf on the Poincare sphere (PS), with a probability measure given by a fractional surface area. To that end, we develop a parameter to estimate polarization …

The Homotopy Cardinality Of The Representation Category, Justin Murray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Given a Legendrian knot in (R^3, ker(dz − ydx)) one can assign a combinatorial invariants called ruling polynomials. These invariants have been shown to recover not only a (normalized) count of augmentations but are also closely related to a categorical count of augmentations in the form of the homotopy cardinality of the augmentation category. In this article, we prove that that the homotopy cardinality of the n-dimensional represen- tation category is a multiple of the n-colored ruling polynomial. Along the way, we establish that two n-dimensional representations are equivalent in the representation category if they are “conjugate homotopic”. We also …

Coastal Flooding Under Climate Change: Can Machine Learning Help?, Giovanni Coco

Sustainability Seminar Series

Sea-level rise is a consequence of climate change and the main driver of increasing coastal flooding over the twenty-first century. This presentation describes recent developments in downscaled wave climate, storm surge and sea-level rise modelling for Aotearoa New Zealand to project extreme total water. We assume that future total water levels can be calculated through the summation of tides, storm surge, wave runup and sea-level rise, allowing to investigate future overwash potential. Additionally, the presentation will explore how 'machine learning' techniques can enhance our studies, leading to better predictions and reduced uncertainty in understanding coastal flooding.

The Basel Problem And Summing Rational Functions Over Integers, Pranjal Jain

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

We provide a general method to evaluate convergent sums of the form ∑_{k∈Z} R(k) where R is a rational function with complex coefficients. The method is entirely elementary and does not require any calculus beyond some standard limits and convergence criteria. It is inspired by a geometric solution to the famous Basel Problem given by Wästlund (2010), so we begin by demonstrating the method on the Basel Problem to serve as a pilot application. We conclude by applying our ideas to prove Euler’s factorisation for sin x which he originally used to solve the Basel Problem.

Silvopastoral Agroforestry In Upland And Lowland Uk Grassland: Tree Growth And Animal Performance, W R. Eason, R Lavender, R O. Clements, C Duller, E Gill, M Hislop

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Trees, individually protected from herbivore damage using plastic shelters, were planted at two densities (100 and 400 stems/ha) into sheepgrazed pasture in upland and lowland UK grassland sites in 1988. Tree and animal performance were compared with conventional forestry (no sheep) and pasture (no tree) systems. Effects on tree growth and survival are highly species and site dependent although some treatment effects did emerge. Tree shelters encouraged rapid early height growth compared to forestry controls although in some cases tree form was also adversely affected. Generally tree performance within agroforestry treatments was better at the higher planting density. Eight years …

Use Of Annual Self-Reseeding Legumes In An Oak Forest In Central Italy, P Talamucci, G Argenti, A Pardini, S Piemontese, N Stagliano

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

A trial has been carried out for three years in an oak coppice geometrically thinned out of Mediterranean Central Italy, about the functioning of a pastoral system made by four different resources: native pasture, subterranean clover (Trifolium brachycalycinum Katzn. et Morley) in pure stand, strips thinned out and firebreaks improved with oversown subclover, all grazed by sheep. Subclover increased the forage yield and improved the palatabilty of the pasture and the regularity of grazing; the higher biomass intake by animals reduced the quantity of dried biomass in summer and contributed to keep low either fire hazards or flame diffusion …

The Effects Of Shelterbelts On Adjacent Pastures And Soils In A Temperate Climate, A G. Gillingham, M F. Hawke

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Two trials were conducted to differentiate the direct (exposure) from the indirect (modified soil fertility due to nutrient transfer by grazing animals) effects of farm shelterbelts on associated pasture growth.Soil from close to “unmanaged”shelterbelts with dense shelter to ground level had relatively high potassium (K) levels and, in a glasshouse situation, provided more pasture growth than soil from further distances, or from adjacent to “managed” shelterbelts. Pasture grown in boxes of a common soil implanted at increasing distances from a shelterbelt also produced highest growth rates close to shelter. These results generally explain the pattern of resident pasture growth, except …

Temperate Pasture And Sheep Performance Under Radiata Pine And In Open Pasture, K M. Pollock, R J. Lucas, D B. Pownall, S E. Thomson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Forage production from years 4 to 6 of an agroforestry system at 400-600 trees per ha and pasture alone were compared for a temperate sub-humid environment. Forage production was best for lucerne pasture followed by phalaris/clover and cocksfoot/clover, and least for ryegrass/clover and the ryegrass only pastures. Total pasture production in the agroforest relative to the open pasture was from 10% more for phalaris to 20% less for lucerne. Sheep carrying capacity over all pastures was 14.6 sheep/ha in the open and 11.8 sheep/ha in the agroforest and varied by ±15% according to the pasture types.

Grazing Management Of Tagasaste (Chamaecytisus Proliferus) For Sheep And Cattle Production In Southern Australia, N J. Edwards, G M. Allen, D M. Mcneill, C M. Oldham

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Direct grazing of hedgerows of tagasaste (Chamaecytisus proliferus) by sheep or cattle appear to be very robust systems. Tagasaste persists under a continuous grazing regime with cattle such that plant regrowth maintained between 5 and 10 cm in length produces in excess of 215 kg of animal liveweight/ha/year. This level of production is also sustained within a rotational grazing regime. Under both grazing systems cattle production within a year is highly seasonal, with liveweight gains from young cattle peaking at 1.0-1.5 kg/head/day in winter and spring, but dropping to maintenance only by late summer-autumn. Sheep, like cattle, can …

Shrub Palatability To Rusa Deer (Cervus Timorensis Russa) In New Caledonia, C Corniaux, S Le Bel, J M. Sarrailh

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The objective of this study was to determine a palatability scale of five shrub legumes to rusa deer during the dry season in New Caledonia. Acacia ampliceps and Samanea saman remain low in acceptability. Gliricidia sepium is more palatable but quite less than Leucaena leucocephala (native cultivar) and Calliandra calothyrsus (San Ramon). Therefore, since the regression of Leucaena leucocephala population, Calliandra calothyrsus could be very promising to replace it in the deer diet. On the other hand, Acacia ampliceps seems to be the most interesting shrub legume to plant in the west coast, where soil erosion, due to successive droughts …

Soil Nutrient Redistribution Pattern About The Tree In A Silvopastoral System, L C. Nwaigbo, H G. Miller, A R. Sibbald, G Hudson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The objective of this paper is to report the effect of animal-tree interactions on soil nutrient redistribution pattern in a grazed silvopastoral experiment site at Glensaugh, in NE Scotland. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L) tree species were planted in square lattice arrangements at 5 m x 5 m, spacing (400 stems/ha) on plots replicated over three blocks in Randomized Complete Block design on a predominantly rye grass (Lolium perenne L) pasture which was grazed by sheep yearly from April to October. Included in the design were grazed pasture plots without trees (Control). Soil samples were collected from around …

Trees For Shelter: The Implications In Agroforestry System, L C. Nwaigbo, A R. Sibbald, G Hudson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The objective of this study was to determine the horizontal and vertical variations in soil penetration resistance (PR) observed at tree-scale in silvopastoral plots that were grazed by sheep with and without trees. Sycamore trees (Acer pseudoplatanus L) were planted in the spring of 1988 at 10 m x 10 m spacing (100 stems/ha) at Glensaugh NE of Scotland on plots replicated over three blocks in Randomized Complete Block design on a predominantly rye grass (Lolium perenne L) pasture. Included in the design were pasture plots without trees (Control). The experiment is grazed by sheep yearly from April to …

A Silvopastoral System In The North Atlantic Zone Of Costa Rica: Combining Indigenous Timber Species With Dairy Pasture Swards, A Moulaert- Quiros, J P. Mueller, M Villarreal, R Piedra, L Villalobos

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The objective of this study was to design, establish and monitor a silvo pastoral experiment on a dairy farm in the northern Atlantic region of Costa Rica. Indigenous timber species, Vochysia guatemalensis and Hyeronima alchorneoides were used together with or without the tropical pasture legume, Arachis pintoi in a split plot design with a 4 x 2 x 2 factorial arrangement. First year establishment was good for the tree component (2.3 to 10 % mortality) but poor for A. pintoi (4 to 5 % of sward). Poor legume establishment was attributed to lax grazing management and excess competition from existing …

Productivity Of Three Tree Legumes Grazed By Cattle, R C. Gutterridge

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Three tree legumes Albizia chinensis, Leucaena leucocephala K 636 and Tipuana tipu were grown in conjunction with the grass Brachiaria decumbens and grazed by weaner cattle at a stocking rate of 2.5 animals per hectare for a total of 447 days. Albizia was best adapted to this acidic, poorly drained site in south east Queensland giving the highest yields of edible dry matter, high survival rate and moderate liveweight gains of 0.45 kg/head/day. The productivity of L. leucocephala K 636 was always poor but it gave the highest liveweight gains of all treatments in the first 280 days of grazing, …

Morphological And Physiological Response Of Planeleaf Willow (Salix Planifolia Pursh.) To Simulated Browsing, L Xu, J L. Dodd, M A. Smith, Q D. Skinner, W A. Laycock

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Morphological and physiological responses of planeleaf willow (Salix planefolia Pursh.) to simulated browsing were studied under controlled conditions. The treatments consisted of every combination of three clipping intensities (30%, 60% and 90% of current twigs length removal) and three clipping timings (late winter, early spring and mid-summer). Increased clipping intensity stimulated bud activation; increased total leaf area and leaf size and increased the length of current year’s twigs. Mid-summer browsing increased the total number of leaves, the number of current twigs and decreased the length of current twigs. Higher browsing intensity resulted in higher photosynthetic rate of recently matured …

Psyllid Resistance In The Leucaena Genus, B F. Mullen, H M. Shelton, F Gabunada, W W. Stur

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Leucaena species varied from highly susceptible to highly resistant in their response to the psyllid insect (Heteropsylla cubana) at 2 sites, a high psyllid environment at Brisbane, Australia and a moderate psyllid environment at Los Baños, Philippines. L. leucocephala was the most susceptible species. There was considerable intraspecific variation in psyllid resistance within L. collinsii, L. diversifolia and L. pallida. Plant reponse to psyllid challenge between environments was highly correlated but not linear. The higher psyllid challenge environment at Brisbane permitted greater discrimination between species and fewer Leucaena species were ranked as psyllid resistant.

Fodder Production Of Multipurpose Trees In A Maize Farming System Of Subhumid Southern Africa, B H. Dzowela, L Hove, P L. Mafongoya

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Ways to integrate fodder production into maize production systems under Southern Africa’s subhumid conditions have been studied. One way involves the planting of tree and grass fodder hedges along soil conservation contour-bunds in maize fields. Management factors that influence the productivity of maize and fodder components in the system are fodder spp., side-pruning and deferment of wet season cutting. The other option involves interplanting tree fodders with maize through the use of a coppicing tree such as Acacia angustissima. Practical applications of these methods in mixed crop-livestock production systems are discussed.

Differences In Chemical Composition Among Provenances Of Browse Species In A Subhumid Environment: Relation To Use As Supplements, B H. Dzowela, L Hove, P L. Mafongoya

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Studies were initiated in a subhumid Southern African environment to assess the chemical composition and nutritive value of Acacia angustissima (Mill.) Kuntze, Calliandra calothyrsus Meiss. and Leucaena species. The objective was to determine variability in crude protein (CP) concentration, acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), and soluble and insoluble proanthocyanidins from fodder samples of species, subspecies and provenances. A wide range was found in these parameters. The implications of these chemical composition factors, especially proanthocyanidins, on the use of these browse fodders in livestock feeding systems are discussed.