Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Effectively Reaching The Equine Community In Kentucky, S. L. Musen, Krista L. Lea, S. Ray Smith, R. J. Coleman

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Since 2009, Extension Specialists and County Extension Agents from the University of Kentucky in the Southeast United States have conducted an annual educational event; the Kentucky Equine Farm and Facilities Expo field-day. These annual field-days have provided practical, hands-on demonstrations and seminars for 135-250 members of the equine community per event. Participants have been a mix of horse owners in relation to farm size, number of horses and business vs. recreation. Many participants have not been previous consumers of Extension educational programming. One of the major draws of the Farm and Facility Expo field days has been the host sites, …

The Search For Earth's Oldest Ice, John Higgins

Sustainability Seminar Series

Over the past eight hundred thousand years, glacial–interglacial cycles oscillated with a period of one hundred thousand years (‘100k world’1). Ice core and ocean sediment data have shown that atmospheric carbon dioxide, Antarctic temperature, deep ocean temperature, and global ice volume correlated strongly with each other in the 100k world2–6. Between about 2.8 and 1.2 million years ago, glacial cycles were smaller in magnitude and shorter in duration (‘40k world’7). Proxy data from deep-sea sediments suggest that the variability of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the 40k world was also lower than in the 100k world8–10, but we do not have …

Socioapp: Detecting Your Sociability Status With Your Smartphone, Aaron Walker

Research in the Capitol

Loneliness, isolation, and anti-social behaviors have increased in the past few years, whether that be due to social media, people paying more attention to their devices, or due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These behaviors are proven to decrease a student’s academic performance, causing their grades to decline, and disabling their motivation to learn. We aim to gain insight on this issue via the application of smartphone technology and machine learning, enabling those that use our app to understand if their being social or anti-social. We use a variety of sensors, location devices, and speaker recognition algorithms to identify behaviors that …

The Solar Eclipse Of 1869 As Seen In Illinois, Indiana, And Kentucky, Trishyan Anthony

Research in the Capitol

The Solar Eclipse of August 7th, 1869, was the first recorded total eclipse of the Sun to pass over the United States. The altitude of the eclipse varied depending on the longitude of the viewer. Wanting to know what was the public reaction of this solar eclipse gathering newspaper articles of the time really showed a window to what they were seeing and feeling at that time, and leading up to the day. Following the eclipse through some of the Midwest down to Kentucky showed differing results, as it had got later in the day of viewing. Though there was …

Leveraging Machine Learning For Detecting Iot-Based Interference In Operational Wifi Networks [Poster], Josh Pulse

Research in the Capitol

IoT (Internet of Things) devices have become increasingly popular in recent years. IoT includes many smart home devices such as an Amazon Echo, smart lightbulbs, and smart sensors. These devices often include different networking protocols than are used in most WiFi devices but are in the same wireless band, leading to the possibility of interference. With the rise in the number of IoT devices, it is important to understand how they impact the existing WiFi networks that many people deploy in their home or business. In this research project, wireless traffic data will be collected in an environment containing both …

Anthropogenic Impacts On The Glowworm Cave, Waitomo, New Zealand: A Microclimate Management Approach, Chris Hendy, David J. Merritt, Shannon Corkill

International Journal of Speleology

Waitomo Glowworm Cave is a highly visited cave where the highlight is viewing the bioluminescence display of a large colony of glowworms. The visitation levels result in the build-up of anthropogenic CO₂, to the extent that it could cause corrosion of speleothems. The cave experiences chimney-effect ventilation with air flowing either upward or downward through the main cave chambers depending on air density differences between the cave and the outside environment. Lack of airflow leads to CO₂ build-up; however, unrestricted airflow can draw in cool, dry air which is harmful to the glowworms. Consequently, airflow is managed …

Study Of Pore Length And Chemical Composition Of Charcoal That Results From The Pyrolysis Of Coconut Shell In Bolaang Mongondow, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Meytij Jeanne Rampe, Ignatius Rachmat S. Santoso, Henny Lieke Rampe, Vistarani Arini Tiwow, Tresia Eti Ayuningsi Rorano

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Charcoal of coconut shell is produced by pyrolysis at 300^oC and chemically activated using HCl. Both pyrolysis charcoal and chemical activation were measured and analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). The functional groups found O-H, aliphatic C-H, aromatic C=C, C-O, and aromatic C-H. The distribution of pyrolysis charcoal pore length and chemical activation increased from 362 nm-1.02 µm to 1.10 µm-1.52 µm. The composition of carbon elements in the mass % of pyrolysis charcoal and chemical activation increased from 86.11% to 88.93%.

In-Vitro Evaluation Of High Dosage Of Curcumin Encapsulation In Palm-Oil-In-Water, Nanoemulsion Stabilized With A Sonochemical Approach, Uday Dasharath Bagale Phd, Aram Tsaturov, Irina Potoroko, Shital Potdar, Shirish Sonawane Phd

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Curcumin is unstable under different environmental conditions. To increase the bioavailability and stability of curcumin, it is proposed in the present study to encapsulate it in palm oil-in-water nanoemulsions using ultrasound. The present work deals with maximum curcumin encapsulation into oil forms stable nanoemulsion using a food-grade surfactant and examines its antioxidant assay and in-vitro study. The synthesized curcumin nanoemulsion (CuNE) shows particle size in the range of 14.7 ± 3 nm, 95 ± 0.5% encapsulation efficiency, and provides stability against different environmental parameters. Furthermore, in-vitro analysis of high dosage CuNE shows more than 80-90% retention during simulated gastric and …

Application Of The Tessa Methodology In A Pilot Protocol For Participatory Evaluation Of Ecosystem Services And Agents Of Change In The Pampa Grasslands. Method Description And Lessons Learned, Daniela Schossler, Carlos Nabinger, Pablo Boggiano, Diana L. Restrepo-Osorio, Claudio Ribeiro

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The Toolkit for Site-Based Assessment (Landscape) of Ecosystem Services (TESSA) is intended to be an accessible guide for low-cost methods to assess the benefits that people receive from nature at particular sites in order to generate information that can be used to influence decision-making (Pehl et al 2015). However, TESSA does not have defined protocols for grasslands ecosystems. This article focuses on the description and discussion of the lessons learned in the participatory workshops that include engaging with policy and decision-making actors. The work consisted of identifying 1) the area occupied by each coverage or use, 2) the threats and …

Analysis Of The Attitude Of Farmers Towards Innovations In The Management Of Grasslands In Poland, P. Goliński, A. Van Den Pol-Van Dasselaar, A. Paszkowski, B. Golińska

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Innovations in the management of grasslands in Poland are important to preserve them as a source of different ecosystem services. In the farmers point of view the most promising is forage production for herbivores, particularly dairy cows. Individual farmers have different opinions about innovations. To stimulate innovations in grassland-based farming systems in Poland, it is important to determine the drivers for their promotion and to define the barriers to overcome problems by their implementation. Analysis of the attitude of Polish farmers towards innovations on grasslands were conducted within the H2020 Inno4Grass project. The majority of respondents were young and had …

Adaptive Rotational Grazing And The Story Of The Regrazed Grass Plant, L. M. Porensky, H. Wilmer, D. J. Augustine, J. D. Derner, M. Fernández-Giménez, David D. Briske, Carm Stakeholder Group

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Livestock stocking rates and decisions about how to move animals in time and space impact plant responses to livestock grazing. We report on a ranch-scale collaborative experiment comparing adaptive rotational grazing management to season-long continuous grazing during a 4.5-month grazing period during the growing season. As part of this project, stakeholders and scientists worked together to articulate their hypotheses about the mechanisms linking rotational grazing with expected vegetation outcomes. Several stakeholders expected rotational grazing to enhance the production and diversity of grazing-sensitive perennial grass species. The main hypothesized mechanism underlying this expectation was that rotation grazing should reduce regrazing of …

Deep-Precognitive Diagnosis: Preventing Future Pandemics By Novel Disease Detection With Biologically-Inspired Conv-Fuzzy Network, Aviral Chharia, Rahul Upadhyay, Vinay Kumar, Chao Cheng, Jing Zhang, Tianyang Wang, Min Xu

Computer Vision Faculty Publications

Deep learning-based Computer-Aided Diagnosis has gained immense attention in recent years due to its capability to enhance diagnostic performance and elucidate complex clinical tasks. However, conventional supervised deep learning models are incapable of recognizing novel diseases that do not exist in the training dataset. Automated early-stage detection of novel infectious diseases can be vital in controlling their rapid spread. Moreover, the development of a conventional CAD model is only possible after disease outbreaks and datasets become available for training (viz. COVID-19 outbreak). Since novel diseases are unknown and cannot be included in training data, it is challenging to recognize them …

The Role Of Place Attachment And Situated Sustainability Meaning-Making In Enhancing Student Civic-Mindedness: A Campus Farm Example, Brandon H. Sorge, Francesca A. Williamson, Grant A. Fore, Julia L. Angstmann

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This research explores the role that place attachment and place meaning towards an urban farm play in predicting undergraduate students’ civic-mindedness, an important factor in sustainability and social change. In 2017 and 2018, three STEM courses at a private university in the Midwest incorporated a local urban farm as a physical and conceptual context for teaching course content and sustainability concepts. Each course included a four to six-week long place-based experiential learning (PBEL) module aimed at enhancing undergraduate STEM student learning outcomes, particularly place attachment, situated sustainability meaning-making (SSMM), and civic-mindedness. End-of-course place attachment, SSMM, and civic-mindedness survey data were …

A Scalable And Participatory Sustainable Rangeland Management Toolkit With A Holistic And Multidisciplinary Approach To Rehabilitate Degraded Rangelands, Mounir Louhaichi, Mouldi Gamoun, Sawsan Hassan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Rangelands contribute significantly toward improving livelihoods, offering food security, trade and tourism for pastoral communities. Numerous challenges include poor government policies, loss of indigenous knowledge and top-down approaches toward sustainable rangeland rehabilitation that often fail to consider local development adoption and sustainability. In such situations, effective management is needed for sustainable rangeland ecosystem goods and services in a context characterized by rainfall unreliability, poor soil nutrient status and high uncontrolled grazing. This paper presents a new comprehensive toolkit for identifying and combining suitable and site-specific interventions aimed at reversing the trend of degraded arid rangelands. This toolbox is founded on …

Pastoralist Use Of Reseeded Fields For Additional Resilience To Climate Variability Through Alternate Livelihood Activities, D. W. Githu, J. S. Fehmi, M. Mcclaran, M. Elizabeth, A. Josephson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Land degradation, climate variability, socio-economic changes and population increase are some of the factors that shrink grazing lands making forage availability less predictable and affecting the resilience of pastoralists communities. Reseeding as an intervention can rehabilitate degraded lands for profitable use through offering pastoralists alternative sources of livelihood and encourage livelihood diversification. This study evaluated two pastoral communities, the Tugen and the Njemps from Baringo County, Kenya, who have owned, managed and used reseeded fields to study the dynamics of reseeding land. A total of 193 pastoralist households were interviewed. These two pastoral communities used their fields for: dry season …

Utilizing Perennial Grass Species’ Population Patterns To Detect Looming Desertification Tipping Points In Semi-Arid Regions, F. Munyebvu-Chambara, W. C. Nesongano, M. C. Bilton, A. Linstädter

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Namibia is one of the global dryland regions facing desertification threats due to overgrazing and recurrent drought. This has disastrous effects on forage provision and consequently on local livelihoods. Unfortunately, the mechanisms underlying sudden shifts of rangeland ecosystems towards a desertified state are still poorly understood. The ability to predict desertification tipping points with the aid of suitable ecological indicators is critical to ensure sustainable management of rangeland resources, which are a backbone of rural livelihood in drylands worldwide. Accordingly, we aimed to identify key perennial grass species that can be used as early-warning indicators for desertification tipping points; and …

Resilient Modulus Of Siliciclastic Unbound Granular Materials Under Repeated Wheel Loading, Siya Rimoyi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The Resilient Modulus (Mr) is a fundamental material property input in modern Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) pavements structural design. Empirical pavement design methods have been in use over a long period during which large databases of four- days-soaked California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values at or near the Maximum Dry Density have been generated in the strength assessments for Unbound Granular Materials (UGMs). In the adoption of the M-E design approach researchers have so far attempted with various degrees of success to develop models to derive resilient modulus from the conventional CBR-based databases. This study provides an extensive laboratory experimental study to investigate …

How Much Margin Is Left For Degrading Agricultural Soils? The Coming Soil Crises, Maheteme Gebremedhin, Mark S. Coyne, Karamat R. Sistani

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Agricultural soils are in peril. Multiple lines of observational and empirical evidence suggest that we are losing the world’s fertile soils at an alarming rate, worsening the on-going global food crisis. It is increasingly clear that the risk of soil crises driven by erratic precipitation, warming air, and farming mismanagement is coming sooner rather than later. At this critical time, society cannot avoid looking for ways to curb soil crises. We argue that now is the right time for science-based mitigation strategies and new insights to protect soils. We offer four research priority areas that society needs to address. Arresting …

Real-Time Complex Hand Gestures Recognition Based On Multi- Dimensional Features, Isack Bulugu

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Gesture recognition is broadly utilized within the field of sensing. There are basically three gesture recognition methods based on computer vision, depth sensor and motion sensor. Motion sensor-based gesture recognition has few input data, fast speed, and direct access to three- dimensional information of the hand. The advantages of traditional motion sensor-based gesture recognition have gradually become a current research hotspot. The essence of traditional motion sensor-based gesture recognition is a pattern recognition problem, and its accuracy depends heavily on the feature dataset extracted from prior experience. Unlike traditional pattern recognition methods, deep learning can be used to a large …

Prediction Of Soil Water Content And Electrical Conductivity Using Random Forest Methods With Uav Multispectral And Ground-Coupled Geophysical Data, Yunyi Guan, Katherine R. Grote, Joel Schott, Kelsi Leverett

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The volumetric water content (VWC) of soil is a critical parameter in agriculture, as VWC strongly influences crop yield, provides nutrients to plants, and maintains the microbes that are needed for the biological health of the soil. Measuring VWC is difficult, as it is spatially and tempo-rally heterogeneous, and most agricultural producers use point measurements that cannot fully capture this parameter. Electrical conductivity (EC) is another soil parameter that is useful in agricul-ture, since it can be used to indicate soil salinity, soil texture, and plant nutrient availability. Soil EC is also very heterogeneous; measuring EC using conventional soil sampling …

Thoughts On Data-Driven Discursive Logic And Triangulation Of Think Tank, Jianjun Sun, Lei Pei, Yaxue Ma, Yang Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The rapid accumulation of data resources and the development of analysis technologies have expanded the scope of think tank research, and prompted think tanks to pay more attention to data intelligence. Meanwhile, higher requirements are put forward on the quality and innovation of the think tank. Facing the development needs of think tanks, i.e., modernization, innovation, and conscientization, this paper demonstrates the change of data-driven think tank researches from the perspective of the information chain. The paper analyzes the urgent need to reshape the discursive logic of the think tank, and discusses the construction scheme of triangulation for data-driven think …

Green Consumption Under Carbon-Orientated: Connotation, Transmission Mechanism And Countermeasures, Hongchun Zhou, Zuoting Shi

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

As the proportion of consumption to GDP increases and its role in stimulating economic growth in China, the impact of residents' consumption has apparently become increased on resources, the environment and carbon dioxide emissions. Production is for consumption, and consumption in turn promotes production; consumption determines production and also guides the direction and development trend of production. Green consumption is not only a consumer's responsibility, but also higher requirements for producers:the entire process from raw material procurement, product production and transportation, product use, second product recycling, and final disposal must be low-carbon standards. It is very significant important to promote …

Alert To The Migration Of Air Pollution And Carbon Emission To Northwest China, Guiqian Tang, Yuting Liu, Wenkang Gao, Yinghong Wang, Tao Song, Mengtian Cheng, Yuesi Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Air pollutants have strong homology with greenhouse gases and are closely related to fossil fuel combustion. The high-intensity energy use in the eastern region of China has turned this region into a hot area of carbon dioxide emission and heavy air pollution in the past. Since the implementation of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, the adjustment of industrial structure and the improvement of terminal treatment technology have been driving the succession of key species of air pollution and the spatio-temporal distribution of greenhouse gases in China. This paper analyzes the trend in major air …

Perspective On Challenges In Accurately Estimating Remaining Carbon Budget For Climate Targets Of Paris Agreement, Tianjun Zhou, Xiaolong Chen

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In 2015, by signing up to the Paris Agreement on climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) parties pledged to keep global temperatures "well below" 2℃ above pre-industrial levels and to "pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5℃". Limiting warming to 1.5℃/2℃ requires strictly limiting the total amount of carbon emissions between now and the end of the century. Global mean surface temperature has already witnessed a 1℃ more warming since the pre-industrial era and the cumulative anthropogenic CO2 emission has reached around 2 390 Gt CO2. An accurate estimation of the …

Complete Neighbourhood Search Heuristic Algorithm For Portfolio Optimization, Collether John

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

In portfolio optimization, the fundamental goal of an investor is to optimally allocate investments between different assets. Mean-variance optimization methods make unrealistic assumptions to solve the problem of optimal allocation. On the other hand, when realistic constraints like holding size and cardinality are introduced it leads to optimal asset allocation which differ from the mean variance optimization. The resulting optimization problem become quite complex as it exhibits multiple local extrema and discontinuities. Heuristic algorithms work well for the complex problem. Therefore, a heuristic algorithm is developed which is based on hill climbing complete (HC-C). It is utilized to solve the …

Exploring Pathways From Data To Knowledge To Insights In The Pharmaceutical Industry: ‘Introducing The Pharmaceutical Knowledge Ecosystem’, Melanie J. Adams, Paige E. Kane, Anne Greene (Editor), Martin Lipa

Level 3

The ecosystem of how the pharmaceutical industry acquires data, transforms these data into tangible knowledge, and derives valuable insights throughout the process, is highly complex. Data, information, knowledge, and the resulting insights, are necessary to support decision- making, manage risk, problem solve, ensure product realisation, enable continual improvement, and enhance operational effectiveness. Building on the fundamental concepts established in the well-known Data Information Knowledge Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy, this paper reviews the basic concepts involved in the DIKW pathway and begins to relate these concepts to both established capabilities (e.g., PAT), existing requirements (e.g., data integrity), and emerging trends in the …

Improving Risk-Based Decision Making (Rbdm) Effectiveness Through A Framework Which Integrates Knowledge And Risk, Martin Lipa, Valerie Mulholland, Anne Greene (Editor)

Level 3

This paper explores the emergence of the importance of knowledge in Risk-Based Decision Making (RBDM) and Quality Risk Management (QRM) through a detailed review of ICH Q9(R1) (Step 2) and presents a framework(the RKI cycle) to integrate knowledge and risk and associated six principles to operationalise it.

Diet Quality Scores And Cardiometabolic Risk Factors In Mexican Children And Adolescents: A Longitudinal Analysis, Abeer Ali Aljahdali, Karen E. Peterson, Alejandra Cantoral, Edward Ruiz-Narvaez, Martha M. Tellez-Rojo, Hyungjin Myra Kim, James R. Hébert Scd, Michael David Wirth Msph, Phd, Face, Libni A. Torres-Olascoaga, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Ana Baylin

Faculty Publications

There is limited evidence for the effects of diet on cardiometabolic profiles during the pubertal transition. We collected repeated measures of diet quality and cardiometabolic risk factors among Mexican youth. This analysis included 574 offspring of the Early Life Exposure in Mexico to Environmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) birth cohort followed up to three time points. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), alternate Mediterranean Diet (aMedDiet), and Children’s Dietary Inflammatory Index (C-DII^TM) scores were computed from food frequency questionnaires. Higher DASH and aMedDiet scores reflect a higher diet quality, and lower C-DII scores reflect an anti-inflammatory diet. Cardiometabolic risk factors …

Patients With Obesity And A History Of Metformin Treatment Have Lower Influenza Mortality: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Tammy H. Cummings, Joseph Magagnoli Ph.D., Ms, James W. Hardin, S. Scott Sutton

Faculty Publications

Background: Obesity is a risk factor for the development of influenza by leading to a chronic inflammatory state and T-cell dysfunction. Based upon preclinical research, metformin has influenza activity by restoring T-cell function and improving the immune response. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the potential drug repurposing of metformin for the management of influenza among patients with obesity utilizing national claims data in an electronic health record database. Methods: The VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI) was utilized to obtain individual-level information on demographics, administrative claims, and pharmacy dispensation. A cohort was created among individuals with laboratory confirmed diagnosis of …

On The Asymptotic Behavior Of Solutions To A Structure Acoustics Model, Baowei Feng, Yanqiu Guo, Mohammad A. Rammaha

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

This article concerns the long term behavior of solutions to a structural acoustic model consisting of a semilinear wave equation defined on a smooth bounded domain Ω ⊂ R³ which is coupled with a Berger plate equation acting on a flat portion of the boundary of . The system is influenced by several competing forces, in particular a source term acting on the wave equation which is allowed to have a supercritical exponent.

Our results build upon those obtained by Becklin and Rammaha [8]. With some re- strictions on the parameters in the system and with careful analysis involving …