Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

On The Links Between Sea Level And Temperature Variations In The Chesapeake Bay And The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc), Tal Ezer, Teresa Updyke

CCPO Publications

Recent studies found that on long time scales there are often unexplained opposite trends in sea level variability between the upper and lower Chesapeake Bay (CB). Therefore, daily sea level and temperature records were analyzed in two locations, Norfolk in the southern CB and Baltimore in the northern CB; surface currents from Coastal Ocean Dynamics Application Radar (CODAR) near the mouth of CB were also analyzed to examine connections between the CB and the Atlantic Ocean. The observations in the bay were compared with daily Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) observations during 2005–2021. Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) analysis was used …

Evidence For Large-Scale Climate Forcing Of Dense Shelf Water Variability In The Ross Sea, Zhaoru Zhang, Chuan Xie, Pasquale Castagno, Matthew H. England, Xiaoqiao Wang, Michael S. Dinniman, Alessandro Silvano, Chuning Wang, Lei Zhou, Xichen Li, Meng Zhou, Giorgio Budillon

CCPO Publications

Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), which supplies the lower limb of the thermohaline circulation, originates from dense shelf water (DSW) forming in Antarctic polynyas. Here, combining a long mooring record of DSW measurements with numerical simulations and satellite data, we show that significant correlation exists between interannual variability of DSW production in the Ross Sea polynyas, where DSW contributes between 20-40% of the global AABW production, and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). The correlation is largest when the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL) is weakened and shifted east of the Ross Sea. During positive SAM phases, enhanced offshore winds and lower air …

Western Boundary Current-Subtropical Continental Shelf Interactions, William B. Savidge, Dana K. Savidge, Frederico Brandini, Adam T. Greer, Eileen E. Hofmann, Moninya Roughan, Iison De Silvera, Iain M. Suthers

CCPO Publications

Western boundary currents (WBCs) adjacent to subtropical continental shelves (STCSs; between ~25° and 35° latitude; Figure 1) transport heat, nutrients, and biota poleward along the western margins of major ocean basins, interacting with the continental margins and influencing their physics and biology. Eddies and meanders along the shelf edge upwell deep, nutrient-laden water that can be advected onto the adjacent shelves with a corresponding export of particle-rich shelf water (e.g., Lee et al., 1991; Kimura et al., 1997; Campos et al., 2000; Roughan and Middleton, 2002, 2004; Lutjeharms, 2006; Savidge and Savidge, 2014). Despite their similarities, the various STCS regions …

Building A Coordinated Framework For Research And Monitoring In Large-Scale International Marine Protected Areas: The Ross Sea Region As A Model System, Cassandra Brooks, Sharon Stammerjohn, Grant Ballard, Alice K. Duvivier, Eileen Hofmann, Michelle Larue, Cara Nissen, Alexander J. Orona, B. Jack Pan, Annie E. Schmidt, Nathan Walker, George M. Watters, John Weller

CCPO Publications

To fulfill their conservation potential and provide safeguards for biodiversity, marine protected areas (MPAs) need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management through effective evaluation of ecosystem dynamics. However, coordination is challenging, often due to knowledge gaps caused by inadequate access to data and resources, compounded by insufficient communication between scientists and managers. We propose to use the world's largest MPA in the Ross Sea, Antarctica as a model system to create a comprehensive framework for an interdisciplinary network supporting research and monitoring that could be implemented in other remote large-scale international MPAs. Our proposed framework has three key components: …

Delayed Coastal Inundations Caused By Ocean Dynamics Post-Hurricane Matthew, Kyungmin Park, Emanuele Di Lorenzo, Yinglong J. Zhang, Tal Ezer, Fei Yi

CCPO Publications

Post Hurricane Abnormal Water Level (PHAWL) poses a persistent inundation threat to coastal communities, yet unresolved knowledge gaps exist regarding its spatiotemporal impacts and causal mechanisms. Using a high-resolution coastal model with a set of observations, we find that the PHAWLs are up to 50 cm higher than the normal water levels for several weeks and cause delayed inundations around residential areas of the U.S. Southeast Coast (USSC). Numerical experiments reveal that while atmospheric forcing modulates the coastal PHAWLs, ocean dynamics primarily driven by the Gulf Stream control the mean component and duration of the shelf-scale PHAWLs. Because of the …

Divergent Responses Of Nitrogen-Species Loadings To Future Climate Change In The Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Zihao Bian, Shufen Pan, Raymond G. Najjar, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Eileen E. Hofmann, Maria Herrmann, Kyle E. Hinson, Pierre St.-Laurent, Hanqin Tian

CCPO Publications

Study region: Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Study focus: Climate plays a critical role in regulating N loading from terrestrial ecosystems to coastal waters and further affecting the health and functioning of coastal ecosystems. However, the sensitivities of riverine exports of different N species to climate change have rarely been investigated. This study examines the response of riverine exports of ammonia (NH₄⁺), nitrate (NO₃^-), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) to future changes in precipitation and temperature. A suite of climate forcings was used to drive a processbased terrestrial-aquatic model, DLEM (Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model), …

Applications Of Ai/Ml In Maritime Cyber Supply Chains, Rafael Diaz, Ricardo Ungo, Katie Smith, Lida Haghnegahdar, Bikash Singh, Tran Phuong

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

Digital transformation is a new trend that describes enterprise efforts in transitioning manual and likely outdated processes and activities to digital formats dominated by the extensive use of Industry 4.0 elements, including the pervasive use of cyber-physical systems to increase efficiency, reduce waste, and increase responsiveness. A new domain that intersects supply chain management and cybersecurity emerges as many processes as possible of the enterprise require the convergence and synchronizing of resources and information flows in data-driven environments to support planning and execution activities. Protecting the information becomes imperative as big data flows must be parsed and translated into actions …

Exploration Of Sulfonamides And Benzothiazoles As Peptide-Based Cleavable Linkers, Abigail Dalton

Honors Theses

Cleavable linkers have demonstrated great potential in various applications of medicinal organic chemistry, such as in modern therapeutic development. Linkers are stable compounds that cleave in specific conditions to release molecular cargo. We have developed cleavable linkers based on nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions on sulfonamide and benzothiazole substrates in small molecule and in peptide studies. Sulfonamides, commonly with an electron-withdrawing group, reacted in high conversion of starting material to the sulfide product in small molecule studies, but was unable to successfully cleave the sulfonamide linker on peptide in mild conditions. Next, a benzothiazole sulfone substrate was analyzed and optimized in …

Modeling The Opioid Crisis In Virginia: A Differential Equations Model Assessing The Impact Of Medication-Assisted Treatment On The Addicted Population, Maniha Zehra Akram

Honors Theses

The opioid epidemic is prevalent in countless communities throughout the United States and has yet to be mitigated. Treatments for OUD (opioid use disorder) include Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) and treatment without medication (non-MAT), with the former being judged as more effective in terms of lower relapse rates, death rates, and criminal activity (U.S. Food & Drug Administration, 2023; SAMHSA, 2024). Motivated by the promising research on MAT, this paper models the relationship

between the treatment and addicted populations using a system of ordinary differential equations. In addition to producing closed-form equilibrium solutions, the model leads to the conclusion that expanding …

The Impact Of U.S. News And World Report College Rankings On Prospective Students’ Decisions And Enrollment Outcomes, Camilla Schneider

Honors Theses

The following paper further expands on previous research using more recent data which is important given changes in the last decade. This paper will answer the question: How do U.S. News and World Report college rankings impact college application and enrollment decisions for prospective students within American public and private colleges and universities? Application decisions refer to the choice to apply to a school while enrollment decisions refer to the choice to attend a school after being accepted. This paper analyzes Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDs) admissions/applicant, fall enrollment, and financial data alongside historical USNWR rankings lists to investigate …

An Investigation Of The Correlation Between Polymer Solution Entanglement And Electrospun Polycaprolactone Fiber Mechanics, Manasa Sujatha Rajeev

Honors Theses

The aim of this study was to determine the role of entanglement in the mechanical properties of electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) fibers. PCL is a useful polyester due to its favorable properties such as its biocompatibility and biodegradability. Multiple concentrations of PCL were dissolved in a 3:1 acetic to formic acid solvent. Fibers were formed using an electrospinning technique. Entanglement is a required parameter to produce fibers, thus the number of entanglements per polymer (ne) was calculated, as well as the corresponding concentrations. Smooth continuous fibers were found to form between 13 w/v% and 17 w/v%. Mechanical analysis, such as three-point …

The Effect Of The Expanded Child And Dependent Care Tax Credit On Maternal Labor Supply, Abby Letocha

Honors Theses

Policies that subsidize childcare have many potential economic benefits such as mitigating the high cost of childcare, incentivizing families to have more children, increasing paid childcare participation, and increasing parental labor supply. In this paper, I focus on the effect of childcare subsidies on maternal labor supply through a tax policy expansion. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) is the primary federal childcare subsidy in the United States, and it was temporarily expanded in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act. This expansion increased the generosity of the credit and made it fully refundable for the 2021 tax …

The Effect Of Solvent Identity And Hydride-Donor On The Reduction Of Co2 Into Useful Fuels, Abigail Mcentire

Honors Theses

One possible strategy for decreasing CO2 emissions is through electrocatalytic reduction reactions to convert the CO2 back into combustible fuels , such as methane or methanol. However, it can be challenging to control the reaction to select one of these useful fuels as opposed to carbon monoxide or formate. Our strategy is to investigate a specific hydride donor and solvent combinations for which the reaction favors conversion to methanol. It was found that in acetonitrile , several hydride donors were capable of selective reduction of CO2 to the methanol oxidation state.

Updating Nuclear Recoil Models In The Noble Element Simulation Technique For The Lux-Zeplin Experiment, Ryan J. Mcmonigle

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

There is a substantial amount of evidence that a majority of the mass in the universe is comprised of a non-luminous substance, given the name dark matter. Many candidates have been theorized as the solution to the dark matter mystery, with the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) being a favorable candidate. WIMPs may be detectable via interactions with nucleons, a method known as direct detection. The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is a xenon-based dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC), that specializes in searching for WIMP-nucleon interactions. TPCs are used to reconstruct event information using scintillation and ionization, which are products of interactions …

Types Of Teacher-Ai Collaboration In K-12 Classroom Instruction: Chinese Teachers' Perspective, Jinhee Kim

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The advancing power and capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have expanded the roles of AI in education and have created the possibility for teachers to collaborate with AI in classroom instruction. However, the potential types of teacher-AI collaboration (TAC) in classroom instruction and the benefits and challenges of implementing TAC are still elusive. This study, therefore, aimed to explore different types of TAC and the potential benefits and obstacles of TAC through Focus Group Interviews with 30 Chinese teachers. The study found that teachers anticipated six types of TAC, which are thematized as One Teach, One Observe; One Teach, One …

Exploring Students' Perspectives On Generative Ai-Assisted Academic Writing, Jinhee Kim, Seongryeong Yu, Rita Detrick, Na Li

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), including large language models (LLM), has merged to support students in their academic writing process. Keeping pace with the technical and educational landscape requires careful consideration of the opportunities and challenges that GenAI-assisted systems create within education. This serves as a useful and necessary starting point for fully leveraging its potential for learning and teaching. Hence, it is crucial to gather insights from diverse perspectives and use cases from actual users, particularly the unique voices and needs of student-users. Therefore, this study explored and examined students' perceptions and experiences about GenAI-assisted academic …

The Manifesto For Teaching And Learning In A Time Of Generative Ai: A Critical Collective Stance To Better Navigate The Future, Aras Bozkurt, Junhong Xiao, Robert Farrow, John Y. H. Bai, Chrissi Nerantzi, Stephanie Moore, Jon Dron, Christian M. Stracke, Lenandlar Singh, Helen Crompton, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Evgenii Terentev, Angelica Pazurek, Mark Nichols, Alexander M. Sidorkin, Eamon Costello, Steven Watson, Dónal Mulligan, Sarah Honeychurch, Charles B. Hodges, Mike Sharples, Andrew Swindell, Isak Frumin, Ahmed Tlili, Patricia J. Slagter Van Tryon, Melissa Bond, Maha Bali, Jing Leng, Kai Zhang, Mutlu Cukurnova, Thomas K. F. Chiu, Kyungmee Lee, Stefan Hrastinski, Manuel B. Garcia, Ramesh Chander Sharma, Bryan Alexander, Olaf Zawacki-Richter, Henk Huijser, Petar Jandrić, Chanjin Zheng, Peter Shea, Josep M. Duart, Chryssa Themeli, Anton Vorochkov, Sunagül Sani-Bozkurt, Robert L. Moore, Tutaleni Iita Asino

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This manifesto critically examines the unfolding integration of Generative AI (GenAI), chatbots, and algorithms into higher education, using a collective and thoughtful approach to navigate the future of teaching and learning. GenAI, while celebrated for its potential to personalize learning, enhance efficiency, and expand educational accessibility, is far from a neutral tool. Algorithms now shape human interaction, communication, and content creation, raising profound questions about human agency and biases and values embedded in their designs. As GenAI continues to evolve, we face critical challenges in maintaining human oversight, safeguarding equity, and facilitating meaningful, authentic learning experiences. This manifesto emphasizes that …

Exploring Instructional Designers' Utilization And Perspectives On Generative Ai Tools: A Mixed Methods Study, Tian Luo, Pauline S. Muljana, Xinyue Ren, Dara Young

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has caused significant disruptions on a global scale in various workplace settings, including the field of instructional design (ID). Given the paucity of research investigating the impact of GenAI on ID work, we conducted a mixed methods study to understand instructional designers (IDs)’ perceptions and experiences of utilizing GenAI across a spectrum of ID tasks. A total of 70 IDs completed an online survey, and 13 of them participated in the semi-structured interviews. The survey results indicated IDs’ familiarity with and perceived usability of GenAI tools in performing various ID responsibilities in their …

The Promise And Pitfalls Of Genai In Education, Helen Crompton

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Since ChatGPT was made available to the public, artificial intelligence (AI) has had accelerated growth in the field of education at an unprecedented rate. This study examined the misuses and limitations of ChatGPT and similar generative AI as well as the affordances of these tools for teaching and learning. Using PRISMA protocol, this thematic systematic review examined extant literature from November 2022 to June 2024. The findings reveal five misuses and limitations trends in the literature of cheating, inaccuracies, plagiarism, bias, and data privacy. Affordances highlighted six areas of content creation, personalization, engagement, student coaching and assistance, assessment, and task …

Evaluating Road Environment Factors Impacting Cyclist Safety In Dublin City Using Geospatial Solutions, Niamh O' Reilly

Doctoral

Police Collision Reports (PCRs) are used as a measure of road safety but are subject to under reporting and biased to collisions involving motorised vehicles or serious injury outcomes. Understanding the extent and nature of cycling safety and how the road environment contributes to these requires detailed quality data on cyclist collisions. Hospital records, insurance claim records and travel diaries are frequently used to supplement these but provide little or no information about the road environment, particularly its location. This research investigates how effective alternative georeferenced bicycle safety data sources examined through a geospatial lens can address road safety issues …

A Comparison Of Arctic And Atlantic Basin Cyclone Predictability From A Climatology And Case Study Perspective, Peyton Capute

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Arctic cyclones (ACs) can transport warm, moist air into the Arctic region, which combined with strong winds may lead to rapid declines in sea ice during the summer. As a consequence, accurate sea ice predictions during the summer may rely on being able to predict cyclone-related wind speed and direction, which critically depends on the cyclone track and intensity. Despite this, there are relatively few studies that have documented the predictability of ACs during the summer, beyond a few case studies. In addition, there has been no extensive comparison of whether these cyclones are more or less predictable relative to …

Toward The Unified Theory Of Said-Linked Subauroral Arcs, Evgeny V. Mishin, Anatoly V. Streltsov

Publications

We present a unified approach to subauroral arcs within intense subauroral ion drifts (SAID), which explains the observed transition of a precursor Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arc into Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE). This approach is based on the short-circuiting concept of fasttime SAID as an integral part of a magnetospheric voltage generator between the innermost boundaries of the freshly injected plasma sheet electrons and ring current ions. Here, enhanced plasma turbulence rapidly heats the bulk plasma and accelerates suprathermal non-Maxwellian “tails.” Heat and suprathermal electron transport rapidly elevate the ionospheric electron temperature—the source of a bright SAR arc. …

Fundamentals Of Sustainability, Eva Maleviti

Publications

Fundamentals of Sustainable Aviation is the frst textbook to survey the critical feld of sustainability within the aviation industry. Taking a systems thinking approach, it presents the foundational principles of sustainability and methodically applies them to diferent aviation sectors. Opening with the basics of sustainability, emphasising the Sustainable Development Goals, the book then considers the environmental, economic and social dimensions of aviation. The following chapters apply these insights to aviation design, supply chains, operations, maintenance and facilities. The fnal chapter examines the concept of resilience in sustainable aviation. Overall, the textbook shows how future sustainability can be achieved by making …

Facilitating Mathematics And Computer Science Connections: A Cross-Curricular Approach, Kimberly E. Beck, Jessica F. Shumway, Umar Shehzad, Jody Clarke-Midura, Mimi Recker

Publications

In the United States, school curricula are often created and taught with distinct boundaries between disciplines. This division between curricular areas may serve as a hindrance to students' long-term learning and their ability to generalize. In contrast, cross-curricular pedagogy provides a way for students to think beyond the classroom walls and make important connections across disciplines. The purpose of this paper is a theoretical reflection on our use of Expansive Framing in our design of lessons across learning environments within the school. We provide a narrative account of our early work in using this theoretical framework to co-plan and enact …

Evidence That Ericoid Mycorrhizal Shrubs Can Outcompete Ectomycorrhizal Trees For Nitrogen In Tannin-Rich Litter, Kai C. Rains, Caroline Bledsoe, Tamara E. Kraus, Nina Wurzburger

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Mycorrhizal associations of trees play a key role in ecosystem biogeochemistry, yet we know relatively little about the nutrient acquisition strategies of ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) shrubs, despite their prevalence in forest understories. ErM shrubs tend to produce litter with high concentrations of polyphenols, which form decay-resistant complexes with organic nitrogen (N). Some ErM fungi appear capable of producing a diverse suite of extracellular enzymes, but it is unclear whether this enables ErM shrubs to acquire the N from their own litter, and whether this ability is greater than that of ectomycorrhizal (EcM) trees, with which they commonly co-occur. Here, we …

Uav-Based Wetland Monitoring: Multispectral And Lidar Fusion With Random Forest Classification, Robert Van Alphen, Kai C. Rains, Mel Rodgers, Rocco Malservisi, Timothy H. Dixon

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

As sea levels rise and temperatures increase, vegetation communities in tropical and sub-tropical coastal areas will be stressed; some will migrate northward and inland. The transition from coastal marshes and scrub–shrubs to woody mangroves is a fundamental change to coastal community structure and species composition. However, this transition will likely be episodic, complicating monitoring efforts, as mangrove advances are countered by dieback from increasingly impactful storms. Coastal habitat monitoring has traditionally been conducted through satellite and ground-based surveys. Here we investigate the use of UAV-LiDAR (unoccupied aerial vehicle–light detection and ranging) and multispectral photogrammetry to study a Florida coastal wetland. …

Artificial Intelligence- Driven Fvm-Ann Model For Entropy Analysis Of Mhd Natural Bioconvection In Nanofluid-Filled Porous Cavities, N. Elsedais, M. A. Mansour, A. M. Aly, Sara Abdelsalam

Basic Science Engineering

No abstract provided.

Wmu Roundtable On Port Energy Transition And Stakeholders Engagement, Aykut Ölçer, Fabio Ballini, Alessandro Schönborn, Monica Canepa, Anas Alamoush, Peyman Ghaforian, Natalia Calderón

Marener Reports

Shipping is the backbone of international trade. With a contribution of more than 80 per cent of cargo by volume and 70 per cent by value, it is the most efficient mode of transportation. The vital cargo it transports includes medical supplies and equipment, as well as food, energy, raw materials, and manufactured goods. At the same time, shipping contributes to approximately 3 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, a figure that is expected to rise if no action is taken to reduce emissions. The 2023 International Maritime Organization Strategy on Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions sets out …

Optimizing Field-Linked Simulations Of Dry Season Uptake And Monsoon Infiltration Within An Aspen-Mixed Conifer Forest, Raymond J. Hess

Master's Theses

Climate models forecast that headwater catchments in the western U.S. will undergo a reduction in snowpack, early season snowmelt, and increases in evapotranspiration. The resulting extended dry season will stress vegetation in mountainous watersheds throughout the Upper Colorado River Basin. We investigate infiltration patterns and root water uptake in response to dry season disturbances within the East River watershed in Colorado. To do this, we collected soil cores, measured matric potential and sap flow, and monitored tree xylem and soil for stable isotopes of water (2H, 18O) in two soil profiles to 90 cm depth (with three Engelmann spruce and …

Characterizing Probabilities Of Outbreaks Of Dengue In Central Argentina Using A Temperature-Dependent Stochastic Model, Morgan H. Jackson, Elizabet L. Estallo, Cheng Ly, Michael A. Robert

Graduate Research Posters

Dengue virus (DENV) causes over 390 million infections and around 40,000 deaths worldwide each year. DENV is primarily transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, and both the life cycle of these mosquitoes and dengue transmission are significantly impacted by temperature. In the temperate region of Central Argentina, where dengue outbreaks first began in 2009, outbreaks of dengue can only occur due to new introductions of DENV from other regions. Due to the relationships between temperature and dengue, the risk of outbreak changes throughout the year.

We develop a stochastic model including temperature-dependent mosquito life history traits and transmission-related parameters. …