Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Within‑Marsh And Landscape Features Structure Ribbed Mussel Distribution In Georgia, Usa, Marshes, William K. Annis, Elizabeth A. Hunter, John M. Carroll

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Ribbed mussels, Geukensia demissa, are marsh fauna that are used in coastal management and restoration due to the ecosystem services they provide. Ribbed mussel restoration efforts may be improved with a greater understanding of the environmental drivers of ribbed mussel distribution at multiple spatial scales to predict areas where restoration could be successful. This study sought to estimate the effects of within-marsh (4 m) and landscape (500 m) factors on ribbed mussel distribution. Ribbed mussel densities were surveyed at 11 sites along the coast of Georgia, USA, and overlaid with spatial data for within-marsh factors (elevation, distance to marsh …

Raytheon Technologies Corporation: An Analysis Of Leadership, Ethics, And Social Responsibility, Jarett Monterio

Journal of Global Awareness

The purpose of this analysis is to examine Raytheon Technologies Corporation (RTC) in the context of its leadership structure, ethical issues and practices, stakeholder relationships, and position within the social responsibility realm. Undertaking an analysis of an aerospace and defense company such as RTC is perhaps timelier than ever. We live in a world of increasing global competition and confrontation. Simultaneously, we are experiencing unprecedented technological development. Combined, this has created a situation where the boundaries of conventional warfare have been redrawn. The questions of what appropriate offensive and defensive tactics are and how governments, and increasingly private sector companies, …

Contextualizing The Impact Of Faculty-Led Short-Term Study Abroad On Students’ Global Competence: Characteristics Of Effective Programs, Colleen Fisher, Laurel Iverson Hitchcock, Ashley Neyer, Stacy C. Moak, Sarah Moore, Scott Marsalis

Journal of Global Awareness

Short-term faculty-led study abroad programs are high-impact pedagogical practices designed to enhance students' global competency. However, there is a gap in our understanding regarding the specific educational components of short-term faculty-led study abroad programs that promote global competency. This systematic review examined nearly two decades of research on such programs (n=86) to assess the educational components associated with increases in students' global competencies using Steinberg's (2017) educational components as a framework. Results indicated that the educational components included in global competency-building education abroad courses varied substantially across programs and global regions. The components most strongly supporting enhanced global competency were …

Notes From The Editor, Jay Nathan

Journal of Global Awareness

No abstract provided.

Modeling Empirical Stock Market Behavior Using A Hybrid Agent-Based Dynamical Systems Model, Daniel A. Cline, Grant T. Aguinaldo, Christian Lemp

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

We describe the development and calibration of a hybrid agent-based dynamical systems model of the stock market that is capable of reproducing empirical market behavior. The model consists of two types of trader agents, fundamentalists and noise traders, as well as an opinion dynamic for the latter (optimistic vs. pessimistic). The trader agents switch types stochastically over time based on simple behavioral rules. A system of ordinary differential equations is used to model the stock price as a function of the states of the trader agents. We show that the model can reproduce key stylized facts (e.g., volatility clustering and …

Climatic Backdrop For Pueblo Cultural Development In The Southwestern United States, Victor J. Polyak, Yemane Asmerom, Matthew S. Lachniet

Geoscience Faculty Research

While climatic triggers for collapse and population migrations of ancestral Pueblo communities have been proposed, little is known about the overall climatic backdrop for the entire pre-Hispanic Pueblo period (ca. 1300 to 460 B2K). Here, we report data from stalagmite HC-1, from Hidden Cave, Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, covering the past 3400 years, showing an interval of increased frequency of droughts from 1260 to 370 yr B2K that is coeval with the entire pre-Hispanic Pueblo period. Our record suggests that this puebloan Late Holocene climatic interval was the most arid and highly variable climatic period of the last 3400 years. …

Draft Final 2021 Unreclaimed Sites Sampling Ur-01 Site Evaluation Summary Report, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Draft Final 2021 Unreclaimed Sites Sampling Ur-05 Site Evaluation Summary Report, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Effect Of Interactivity On Virtual Reality Second Language Learning, Christene Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Virtual Reality (VR) being used as a helpful tool in language education is widely supported by the current literature. It can provide a variety of stimulating scenarios that keep learner engagement high. The use of VR for language learning is a research area that has shown promise in recent years. This makes it necessary for further research to be conducted in the field to determine ways to maximize its potential. This thesis aims to determine if the level of interactivity present in a VR Language Learning Application is a factor that will impact a user's capability to successfully learn a …

Cysteine Metallochemistry And Metal Binding: Quantification Of The Thermodynamic Foundations Of Cellular Homeostasis, Matthew R. Mehlenbacher

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Metals are required for life. Many metalloproteins contain cysteine in their metal-binding site (MBS) and cysteines are unique in that they are reactive, and strongly bind certain metals, which aid in metal selectivity and specificity. Using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), the thermodynamic foundation for metal binding, cellular protection, and transcriptional regulation, which all utilize cysteines in their MBS, are quantified.

In bacteria there are metalloprotein pathways that actively uptake mercury, which are regulated by the metalloregulatory protein MerR. MerR de-represses the transcription of these mer proteins in a metal-dependent manner. Using ITC, the thermodynamic foundation of the negative allosteric coupling …

Mathematical Musings On The External Anatomy Of The Novel Coronavirus Part 2: Chasing After Quasi-Symmetry, Jyotirmoy Sarkar, Mamunur Rashid

Mathematics Faculty Publications

What is the shape of the novel Coronavirus which has turned our world upside down? Even though it looks dull, unattractive, and even disgusting under a microscope, creative artists have attributed to it bright colors, made it look pretty, and depicted it as a thing of beauty. What can a mathematician contribute to this effort? We take a purist’s point of view by imposing on it a quasi-symmetry and then deriving some consequences. In an idealistic world, far removed from reality but still constrained by the rules of mathematics, anyone can enjoy this ethereal beauty of the mind’s creation, beckoning …

Quantization For A Probability Distribution Generated By An Infinite Iterated Function System, Lakshmi Roychowdhury, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Quantization for probability distributions concerns the best approximation of a d-dimensional probability distribution P by a discrete probability with a given number n of supporting points. In this paper, we have considered a probability measure generated by an infinite iterated function system associated with a probability vector on R. For such a probability measure P , an induction formula to determine the optimal sets of n-means and the nth quantization error for every natural number n is given. In addition, using the induction formula we give some results and observations about the optimal sets of n-means for all n ≥ …

Food Insecurity And Suicidal Behaviors Among Us High School Students*, Andrea D. Brown, Hilary Seligman, Sarah Silwa, Ellen Barnidge, Kathryn L. Krupsky, Zewiditu Demissie, Angela D. Liese

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Food insecurity (FI) rates in the United States are particularly high among households with children. This research set aims to analyze if high school students experiencing FI had higher risk for mental health and suicidal behaviors.

METHODS: Using combined data from 11 states that conducted the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a total of 26,962 and24,051 high school students were used to estimate race/ethnicity and sex-stratified prevalence ratios (PRs) from Poissonregression models. A single-question was used to measure the exposure of FI and outcomes of mental health and suicidalbehaviors.

RESULTS: Overall, 10.8% of students reported FI. Students experiencing FI …

A New Insight Into Fungal Cell Wall Architecture By Functional Genomics And Solid-State Nmr Along With Recent Advancements In Dynamic Nuclear Polarization For Analyzing Biomolecules, Arnab Chakraborty

LSU Master's Theses

This dissertation summarizes the findings related to the way by which supramolecular architecture of fungal cell wall changes with genetic mutation, dispensing genes responsible for biosynthesis of cell wall polysaccharides. This is necessary because without perfect picture of how supramolecular assembly changes with genetic mutation it is hard to assess new anti-fungal targets. Alongside this we have highlighted how recent advancement into Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) methods improved characterization of biomolecules both in case of labeled and unlabeled samples.

First study utilized Solid-state NMR (SSNMR) which is a non-destructive technique hence enabled us for the first time to deduce how …

Female Sex Offenders: Double Standards, Sofia Enes

Kean Quest

This paper will discuss female pedophiles, rapists, and sex offenders, also known as female sex criminals, the double standards, of how they are viewed in the criminal justice system, how the medical fields view them, the psychological effects of their actions on their victims, and how the public views them. Unlike male pedophiles, rapists, and sex offenders of that gender; female pedophiles are not as readily identified as male pedophiles. Since female sex criminals do not always conform and fit the stereotypes that are more commonly found in male sex criminals, it is much more difficult for authorities to detain …

The Adams Spectral Sequence For The Image-Of-J Spectrum, Robert R. Bruner, John Rognes

Mathematics Faculty Research Publications

We show that if we factor the long exact sequence in cohomology of a cofiber sequence of spectra into short exact sequences, then the d_2-differential in the Adams spectral sequence of any one term is related in a precise way to Yoneda composition with the 2-extension given by the complementary terms in the long exact sequence. We use this to give a complete analysis of the Adams spectral sequence for the connective image-of-J spectrum, finishing a calculation that was begun by D. Davis [Bol. Soc. Mat. Mexicana (2) 20 (1975), pp. 6–11].

Blockchain Storage – Drive Configurations And Performance Analysis, Jesse Garner, Aditya A. Syal, Ronald C. Jones

Other Student Works

This project will analyze the results of trials implementing various storage methods on Geth nodes to synchronize and maintain a full-archive state of the Ethereum blockchain. The purpose of these trials is to gain deeper insight to the process of lowering cost and increasing efficiency of blockchain storage using available technologies, analyzing results of various storage drives under similar conditions. It provides performance analysis and describes performance of each trial in relation to the others.

Challenges In Migrating Imperative Deep Learning Programs To Graph Execution: An Empirical Study, Tatiana Castro Vélez, Raffi Khatchadourian, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, Anita Raja

Publications and Research

Efficiency is essential to support responsiveness w.r.t. ever-growing datasets, especially for Deep Learning (DL) systems. DL frameworks have traditionally embraced deferred execution-style DL code that supports symbolic, graph-based Deep Neural Network (DNN) computation. While scalable, such development tends to produce DL code that is error-prone, non-intuitive, and difficult to debug. Consequently, more natural, less error-prone imperative DL frameworks encouraging eager execution have emerged at the expense of run-time performance. While hybrid approaches aim for the "best of both worlds," the challenges in applying them in the real world are largely unknown. We conduct a data-driven analysis of challenges—and resultant bugs—involved …

Challenges In Migrating Imperative Deep Learning Programs To Graph Execution: An Empirical Study, Tatiana Castro Vélez, Raffi Khatchadourian, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, Anita Raja

Publications and Research

Efficiency is essential to support responsiveness w.r.t. ever-growing datasets, especially for Deep Learning (DL) systems. DL frameworks have traditionally embraced deferred execution-style DL code that supports symbolic, graph-based Deep Neural Network (DNN) computation. While scalable, such development tends to produce DL code that is error-prone, non-intuitive, and difficult to debug. Consequently, more natural, less error-prone imperative DL frameworks encouraging eager execution have emerged at the expense of run-time performance. While hybrid approaches aim for the "best of both worlds," the challenges in applying them in the real world are largely unknown. We conduct a data-driven analysis of challenges—and resultant bugs—involved …

Low Memory Continual Learning Classification Algorithms For Low Resource Hardware, Autumn Lilly Chadwick

Theses and Dissertations

Continual Learning (CL) is a machine learning approach which focuses on continuous learning of data rather than single dataset-based learning. In this thesis, this same focus is applied with respect to the field of machine learning for embedded devices which is still in the early stages of development. This focus is further used to develop various algorithms such as utilizing prior trained starting networks, weighted output schemes, and replay or reduced datasets for training while maintaining a consistent focus on low resource devices to maintain acceptable performance. The experimental results show an improvement in model training times as compared to …

Microplastics In Our Oceans May Inhibit Aerosols From Cooling The Atmosphere, Michael Rafla

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sea spray aerosol (SSA) are liquid gaseous particles emitted directly from the ocean, making their way into the atmosphere. It is hypothesized that SSA enters the atmosphere from mechanical processes such as wind and ocean waves. Winds and waves promote bubble formation and these bubbles which make their way onto the ocean surface. After these wave-created bubbles rise to the ocean surface, the bubble ruptures and water evaporates which causes gaseous drops to be released into the air: this is the main source of SSA. SSA matter is known to affect Earth’s climate, by scattering light energy and solar radiation …

Isolation And Genome Analysis Of An Amoeba-Associated Bacterium Dyella Terrae Strain Ely Copper Mine From Acid Rock Drainage In Vermont, United States, Lesley Ann Giddings, Kevin Kunstman, Bouziane Moumen, Laurent Asiama, Stefan Green, Vincent Delafont, Matthew Brockley, Ascel Samba-Louaka

Chemistry: Faculty Publications

Protozoa play important roles in microbial communities, regulating populations via predation and contributing to nutrient cycling. While amoebae have been identified in acid rock drainage (ARD) systems, our understanding of their symbioses in these extreme environments is limited. Here, we report the first isolation of the amoeba Stemonitis from an ARD environment as well as the genome sequence and annotation of an associated bacterium, Dyella terrae strain Ely Copper Mine, from Ely Brook at the Ely Copper Mine Superfund site in Vershire, Vermont, United States. Fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis showed this bacterium colonizing cells of Stemonitis sp. in addition …

Synthesis Of Diaryl And Alkyl-Aryl Ethers Via Diaryl Iodonium Reagents, Rory Tennessee Gallagher

Dissertations and Theses

Substituted benzenoid rings are a prevalent motif in many industries including high tech, agrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals. As a result, the arylation of chemical compounds is a highly sought-after chemical transformation. There are many literature methods to achieve this chemical transformation, nucleophilic aromatic substitution and transition metal catalysis are both widely used and studied. Diaryliodonium salt mediated chemistry is an attractive alternative to these methods as it does not require the expensive toxic metals and designer ligands of transition metal catalysis and is not restricted to electron deficient aryl rings with specific substitution patterns like nucleophilic aromatic substitution.

Many diaryliodonium salt …

Statistical Characteristics Of High-Frequency Gravity Waves Observed By An Airglow Imager At Andes Lidar Observatory, Alan Z. Liu, Bing Cao

Publications

The long-term statistical characteristics of high-frequency quasi-monochromatic gravity waves are presented using multi-year airglow images observed at Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO, 30.3° S, 70.7° W) in northern Chile. The distribution of primary gravity wave parameters including horizontal wavelength, vertical wavelength, intrinsic wave speed, and intrinsic wave period are obtained and are in the ranges of 20–30 km, 15–25 km, 50–100 m s−1, and 5–10 min, respectively. The duration of persistent gravity wave events captured by the imager approximately follows an exponential distribution with an average duration of 7–9 min. The waves tend to propagate against the local background winds and …

Tissue-Specific Variations In Transcription Factors Elucidate Complex Immune System Regulation

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Gene expression plays a key role in health and disease. Estimating the genetic components underlying gene expression can thus help understand disease etiology. Polygenic models termed "transcriptome imputation" are used to estimate the genetic component of gene expression, but these models typically consider only the cis regions of the gene. However, these cis-based models miss large variability in expression for multiple genes. Transcription factors (TFs) that regulate gene expression are natural candidates for looking for additional sources of the missing variability. We developed a hypothesis-driven approach to identify second-tier regulation by variability in TFs. Our approach tested two models …

Transmission Dynamics Of Covid-19 In Ghana And The Impact Of Public Health Interventions, Sylvia Ofori, Jessica S. Schwind, Kelly L. Sullivan, Benjamin J. Cowling, Gerardo Chowell, Isaac Fung

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

This study characterized COVID-19 transmission in Ghana in 2020 and 2021 by estimating the time-varying reproduction number (Rt) and exploring its association with various public health interventions at the national and regional levels. Ghana experienced four pandemic waves, with epidemic peaks in July 2020 and January, August, and December 2021. The epidemic peak was the highest nationwide in December 2021 with Rt ≥ 2. Throughout 2020 and 2021, per-capita cumulative case count by region increased with population size. Mobility data suggested a negative correlation between Rt and staying home during the first 90 days of the pandemic. The …

Utilizing Novel Field And Data Exploration Methods To Explore Hot Moments In High-Frequency Soil Nitrous Oxide Emissions Data: Opportunities And Challenges, Christine S. O'Connell, Tyler L. Anthony, Melanie A. Mayes, Tibisay Pérez, Debjani Sihi, Whendee L. Silver

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Soil nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions are an important driver of climate change and are a major mechanism of labile nitrogen (N) loss from terrestrial ecosystems. Evidence increasingly suggests that locations on the landscape that experience biogeochemical fluxes disproportionate to the surrounding matrix (hot spots) and time periods that show disproportionately high fluxes relative to the background (hot moments) strongly influence landscape-scale soil N₂O emissions. However, substantial uncertainties remain regarding how to measure and model where and when these extreme soil N₂O fluxes occur. High-frequency datasets of soil N₂O fluxes are newly possible …

Impact Of The Ban On Illegal Mining Activities On Raw Water Quality: A Case-Study Of Konongo Water Treatment Plant, Ashanti Region Of Ghana, Sadique Anyame Bawa, Prince Antwi-Agyei, Martin Kyereh Domfeh

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The Government of Ghana prohibited Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) operations from 2017 to 2018 as part of its strategy to address the socio-environmental issues caused by illegal mining activities, also referred to as “galamsey” operations. This study assessed the trend in the water quality of raw water abstracted at the Konongo Water Treatment Plant (WTP) for treatment before and after implementing the ban on “galamsey” operations. The main source of raw water for the Konongo WTP is the Anuru River. Secondary data on physicochemical water quality from 2006 to 2019 was sourced from the Konongo WTP and the Ashanti …

Improved Methodology For Monitoring The Impact Of Mining Activities On Socio-Economic Conditions Of Local Communities, Binay Prakash Pandey, Devi Prasad Mishra

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Mining activities can cause tangible socio-economic improvements in the surrounding regions. Such potential has not been fully realized, owing to the fact that the socio-economic impact assessment processes exercised in India merely predict the footprint of industrial activity on the surrounding population. Consequently, project proponents are mandated to implement a management plan in cases of foreseeable negative consequences. However, both, the assessment study, as well as the process of implementation of a management plan, are riddled with significant gaps and limitations. Primary data collected for this research makes it apparent that, in comparison to the revenue generated from the mining …

What Does It Take To Bake A Cake? The Reciperef Corpus And Anaphora Resolution In Procedural Text, Biaoyan Fang, Timothy Baldwin, Karin Verspoor

Natural Language Processing Faculty Publications

Procedural text contains rich anaphoric phenomena, yet has not received much attention in NLP. To fill this gap, we investigate the textual properties of two types of procedural text, recipes and chemical patents, and generalize an anaphora annotation framework developed for the chemical domain for modeling anaphoric phenomena in recipes. We apply this framework to annotate the RecipeRef corpus with both bridging and coreference relations. Through comparison to chemical patents, we show the complexity of anaphora resolution in recipes. We demonstrate empirically that transfer learning from the chemical domain improves resolution of anaphora in recipes, suggesting transferability of general procedural …