Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Simple Method For Estimating Alfalfa Fiber Content In The Field, Reuben M. Sulc, K. A. Albrecht, V. N. Owens

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Predictive equations for alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) quality (PEAQ) based on length of the longest stem and maturity stage of the most mature stem in a sample were developed and validated for estimating neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) concentrations in alfalfa. The objective of this research was to validate PEAQ with a simplified maturity scale when estimating fiber content. Alfalfa samples varying in height and maturity were collected throughout the growing season from fields across six states in USA. Observed NDF and ADF values (determined via wet chemistry) were regressed on estimated values. The estimated …

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Human-Centric Cybersecurity Research: From Trapping The Bad Guys To Helping The Good Ones, Armin Ziaie Tabari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The issue of cybersecurity has become much more prevalent over the last few years, with a number of widely publicised incidents, hacking attempts, and data breaches reaching the news. There is no sign of an abatement in the number of cyber incidents, and it would be wise to reconsider the way cybersecurity is viewed and whether a mindset shift is necessary. Cybersecurity, in general, can be seen as primarily a human problem, and it is for this reason that it requires human solutions and tradeoffs. In order to study this problem, using two perspectives; that of the adversaries and that …

Differences By School Location In Summer And School Monthly Weight Change: Findings From A Nationally Representative Sample, Ethan T. Hunt, Bridget Armstrong Ph.D., Gabrielle Turner-Mcgrievy Ph.D., Rd, Michael Beets Med, Mph, Phd, Robert Weaver Med, Phd

Faculty Publications

Objectives: To examine changes in accelerations of Body Mass Index (BMI), age-and-sex specific body mass index (zBMI), and 95th percentile of BMI (%BMIp95) during the summer months and school year by school location designation (i.e., urban, suburban, exurban). This study utilized the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011.

Methods: Of the 18,174 children in the ECLS-K:2011 dataset, I restricted participants to those with at least two consecutive measures that occurred August/September or April/May. Mixed-effect regression analyses estimated differences in monthly change in BMI, zBMI, and %BMIp95 between the summer and school year while accounting for the ECLS-K complex …

Issue Of False Amphetamine Field Test Positives Caused By Sugar: Use Of Baeyer Test As A Secondary Test Solution, Reed A. Knutson, Jennah Duncan, Kara Peightal, Samuel Thomas

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Marquis reagent is a well-established and widely used chemical presumptive test for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and methamphetamine. It is composed of concentrated sulfuric acid and 40% formaldehyde, which act upon alkaloids causing them to complex into larger molecules. This complexation causes a color change that can be visually interpreted as a positive or negative result. Almost any sugar molecule can be complexed in this way as well, due to their many OH groups. Experimentally it was found that the sugar molecules did complex with one another when the Marquis test was administered. The color produced by this reaction was brownish-red. …

Machine Learning For Species Habitat Analysis, Abigail Lavallin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Management and conservation initiatives will always be controlled by finite resources, whether financialor temporal. Understanding a species’ spatial ecology, and how its requirements vary across habitats and locations is key to a successful species management plan. During recent decades, it has been noted how many species populations have declined, despite conservation practices working to increase their numbers. The most prevalent impacts affecting fauna populations have come from anthropogenic change in the form of habitat loss and destruction, along with fragmentation, and global climate change. There is a clear need for management practices to now operate on an entire landscape instead …

Research Sites Get Closer To Field Camps Over Time: Informing Environmental Management Through A Geospatial Analysis Of Science In The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, Stephen M. Chignell, Madeline E. Myers, Adrian Howkins, Andrew Fountain

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

As in many parts of the world, the management of environmental science research in Antarctica relies on cost-benefit analysis of negative environmental impact versus positive scientific gain. Several studies have examined the environmental impact of Antarctic field camps, but very little work looks at how the placement of these camps influences scientific research. In this study, we integrate bibliometrics, geospatial analysis, and historical research to understand the relationship between field camp placement and scientific production in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of East Antarctica. Our analysis of the scientific corpus from 1907–2016 shows that, on average, research sites have become less …

Bolstering Juliana: Enforceability Of Environmental Claims Through International Treaty Obligations In U.S. Courts, Lindsey Laielli

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Pre-Earthquake Ionospheric Perturbation Identification Using Cses Data Via Transfer Learning, Pan Xiong, Cheng Long, Huiyu Zhou, Roberto Battiston, Angelo De Santis, Dimitar Ouzounov, Xuemin Zhang, Xuhui Shen

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

During the lithospheric buildup to an earthquake, complex physical changes occur within the earthquake hypocenter. Data pertaining to the changes in the ionosphere may be obtained by satellites, and the analysis of data anomalies can help identify earthquake precursors. In this paper, we present a deep-learning model, SeqNetQuake, that uses data from the first China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) to identify ionospheric perturbations prior to earthquakes. SeqNetQuake achieves the best performance [F-measure (F1) = 0.6792 and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) = 0.427] when directly trained on the CSES dataset with a spatial window centered on the earthquake epicenter with the Dobrovolsky …

Effective Growing Degree Days As A Critical Factor For Yield And Qualitative Values Of Timothy In Subarctic Growing Conditions, Oiva Nissinen

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The yield and forage quality of timothy (Phleum pratense L.) leys at different stages of development were studied in 1991-1999 at the Lapland Research Station of the Agricultural Research Centre of Finland in Rovaniemi (66^o35´N). The aim of the study was to determine the optimal time for the first cut with respect to yield and qualitative values. In timothy the first heads were visible on 25 June on average and full heading was seen on 5 July, i.e. some ten days later. During this period the dry matter yield increased from 2769 to 4945 kg/ha, crude protein …

Duration Of Regrowth Of Ryegrass (Lolium Perenne) Swards: Effects On Rumen Fermentation Of Lactating Dairy Cows, P. Chilibroste, S. Tamminga, H. Boer

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The relative importance of duration of sward regrowth and rumen fill and fermentation on the control of grazing time and intake rate during the first grazing session of the day were studied. Four lactating dairy cows were allowed to graze ryegrass (Lolium perenne) swards, with five different regrowth periods after mowing (6, 9, 16, 22 and 30 d). The cows were allowed to graze until they stopped voluntarily. Samples of rumen liquid were taken at approximately 0, 30, 60, 120 and 240 min after the grazing session was finished. Concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFA) followed a significant …

Establishment Of Tanzania Grass Pasture Using Millet As A Companion Crop, José C. Pinto, M. C. Maia, I. F. De Andrade, I. P. A. Dos Santos, E. R. P. Bomfim, K. R. Soares

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Forage yield and quality of millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] and tanzania grass (Panicum maximum Jacq. cv. Tanzania I) were evaluated when grown in mixture. The treatments evaluated were four seed mixture combinations, based on a standard sowing density of 8 kg.ha^-1, of tanzania grass/millet (08/00; 05/03; 04/04 and 03/05 kg.ha^-1) and three cutting frequencies (1 cutting – 100th day after sowing; 2 cuttings – 50th and 100th days after sowing and 3 cuttings – 40th, 70th and 100th days after sowing), in a randomized complete block design, with four replications, in a …

Multi-Task Learning Of Order-Consistent Causal Graphs, Xinshi Chen, Haoran Sun, Caleb Ellington, Eric Xing, Le Song

Machine Learning Faculty Publications

We consider the problem of discovering K related Gaussian directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), where the involved graph structures share a consistent causal order and sparse unions of supports. Under the multi-task learning setting, we propose a l1/l2regularized maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for learning K linear structural equation models. We theoretically show that the joint estimator, by leveraging data across related tasks, can achieve a better sample complexity for recovering the causal order (or topological order) than separate estimations. Moreover, the joint estimator is able to recover non-identifiable DAGs, by estimating them together with some identifiable DAGs. Lastly, our analysis also …

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A Quantitative Evaluation Of Global, Rule-Based Explanations Of Post-Hoc, Model Agnostic Methods, Giulia Vilone, Luca Longo

Articles

Understanding the inferences of data-driven, machine-learned models can be seen as a process that discloses the relationships between their input and output. These relationships consist and can be represented as a set of inference rules. However, the models usually do not explicit these rules to their end-users who, subsequently, perceive them as black-boxes and might not trust their predictions. Therefore, scholars have proposed several methods for extracting rules from data-driven machine-learned models to explain their logic. However, limited work exists on the evaluation and comparison of these methods. This study proposes a novel comparative approach to evaluate and compare the …

Predicting The Adoption Of Password Managers: A Tale Of Two Samples, Shelia Kennison, D. Eric Chan-Tin

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Using weak passwords and re-using passwords can make one vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches. Cybersecurity experts recommend the adoption of password managers (PMs), as they generate and store strong passwords for all accounts. Prior research has shown that few people adopt PMs. Our research examined PM adoption in a sample of 221 undergraduates from psychology courses and a sample of 278 MTurk workers. We hypothesized that PM adoption could be predicted using a small set of user characteristics (i.e., gender, age, Big Five personality traits, number of devices used, frequency of using social media, and cybersecurity knowledge). The results showed that …

Hydrological Feedbacks On Peatland Ch4 Emission Under Warming And Elevated Co2: A Modeling Study, Fenghui Yuan, Yihui Wang, Daniel M. Ricciuto, Xiaoying Shi, Fengming Yuan, Thomas Brehme, Scott Bridgham, Jason Keller, Jeffrey M. Warren, Natalie A. Griffiths, Stephen D. Sebestyen, Paul J. Hanson, Peter E. Thornton, Xiaofeng Xu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Peatland carbon cycling is critical for the land–atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases, particularly under changing environments. Warming and elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (eCO₂) concentrations directly enhance peatland methane (CH₄) emission, and indirectly affect CH₄ processes by altering hydrological conditions. An ecosystem model ELM-SPRUCE, the land model of the E3SM model, was used to understand the hydrological feedback mechanisms on CH₄ emission in a temperate peatland under a warming gradient and eCO₂ treatments. We found that the water table level was a critical regulator of hydrological feedbacks that affect peatland CH₄ dynamics; the …

Evaluation And Utilization Of A Tall Fescue Germplasm Collection At Pergamino Inta, Argentina, B. S. Rosso, E. M. Pagano, P. Rimieri

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

One hundred and fifty four accessions of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) representing different types grown around the world were evaluated at Pergamino Inta Experimental Station. A multivariate analysis was carried out to evaluate individual and group variations. Three principal components (PCs) explained 70 % of the variation. Cluster analysis (Ward method) allowed the identification of 7 groups of populations. Plants from the most promising populations were selected in order to form a new breeding gene pool. The main objective of this study is to develop a new cultivar with improved winter herbage yield. Selected genotypes were mostly of …

Effects Of Selection On Morphological Characteristics In Setaria Sphacelata (Schumach.) Moss, Liana Jank, Kenneth H. Quesenberry, P. Mislevy

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Cattle production in Florida is limited by the lack of available warm-season forages adapted to the cool winters of the region. Setaria (S. sphacelata) has demonstrated green growth during cool conditions in subtropical climates around the world, and has the potential to fill this niche in cattle production in Florida. Four populations were selected in Gainesville and Ona, Florida: two cycles of selection for increased head number, one cycle for increased leaf width and one cycle for grazing tolerance. The objectives of this research were to compare these populations morphologically to determine changes due to selection. Selection for …

Correlated Evolution Of Distinct Signals Associated With Increased Social Selection In Female White-Shouldered Fairywrens, John Anthony Jones, Karan J. Odom, Ian R. Hoppe, Doka Nason, Serena Ketaloya, Jordan Karubian

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Conspicuous female signals have recently received substantial scientific attention, but it remains unclear if their evolution is the result of selection acting on females independently of males or if mutual selection facilitates female change. Species that express female, but not male, phenotypic variation among populations represents a useful opportunity to address this knowledge gap. White-shouldered fairywrens (Malurus alboscapulatus) are tropical songbirds with a well-resolved phylogeny where female, but not male, coloration varies allopatrically across subspecies. We explored how four distinct signaling modalities, each putatively associated with increased social selection, are expressed in two populations that vary in competitive pressure on …

Comparative Study Of New And Traditional Estimators Of A New Lifetime Model, Sandeep Kumar Maurya, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Umesh Singh

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In this article, we have studied the behavior of estimators of parameter of a new lifetime model, suggested by Maurya et al. (2016), obtained by using methods of moments, maximum likelihood, maximum product spacing, least squares, weighted least squares, percentile, Cramer-von-Mises, Anderson-Darling and Right-tailed Anderson-Darling. Comparison of the estimators has been done on the basis of their mean square errors, biases, absolute and maximum absolute differences between empirical and estimated distribution function and a newly proposed criterion. We have also obtained the asymptomatic confidence interval and associated coverage probability for the parameter.

Volumetric Extrusive Rates Of Silicic Supereruptions From The Afro-Arabian Large Igneous Province, Jennifer E. Thines, Ingrid A. Ukstins, Corey Wall, Mark Schmitz

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The main phase of silicic volcanism from the Afro-Arabian large igneous province preserves some of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth, with six units totaling >8,600 km³ dense rock equivalent (DRE). The large volumes of rapidly emplaced individual eruptions present a case study for examining the tempo of voluminous silicic magma generation and emplacement. Here were report high-precision ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U zircon ages and show that the largest sequentially dated eruptions occurred within 48 ± 34 kyr (29.755 ± 0.023 Ma to 29.707 ± 0.025 Ma), yielding the highest known long-term volumetric extrusive rate of silicic volcanism on …

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The Economics Of Residential Solar And Battery Storage: Analyzing The Impact Of The Joint Iou Proposal For Net Metering 3.0 In California, Candace E. Ybarra, Prashanth U. Nyer, John B. Broughton, Thomas A. Turk

Business Faculty Articles and Research

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is currently deciding on the structure of the next net metering program, which will determine how customers who install solar panels (and battery storage) under this new program will be compensated for excess energy that they export to the grid, and the additional fees that these solar customers will have to pay. The major investor-owned utility (IOU) companies in the state and some legislators have argued that the current net metering programs are far too generous to the customers and that they create an inequity by favoring the wealthy and causing a cost shift …

Searches For Continuous Gravitational Waves From Young Supernova Remnants In The Early Third Observing Run Of Advanced Ligo And Virgo, Ligo Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, Kagra Collaboration, Tiffany Z. Summerscales

Faculty Publications

We present results of three wide-band directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from 15 young supernova remnants in the first half of the third Advanced LIGO and Virgo observing run. We use three search pipelines with distinct signal models and methods of identifying noise artifacts. Without ephemerides of these sources, the searches are conducted over a fRequency band spanning from 10 to 2 kHz. We find no evidence of continuous gravitational radiation from these sources. We set upper limits on the intrinsic signal strain at 95% confidence level in sample subbands, estimate the sensitivity in the full band, and derive …

Approved Final Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Unreclaimed Sites Field Sampling Plan (Fsp) Package #6: Ur‐05, Ur‐27, Ur‐28, Ur‐29, Ur‐30, And Ur‐34, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of Immobilized Enzymes In Confined Environment Of Mesoporous Host Matrices, Xiaoliang Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Enzyme immobilization in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a promising strategy, is attracting the interest of scientists from different disciplines with the expansion of MOF’s development. Different from other traditional host materials, their unique strengths of high surface areas, large yet adjustable pore sizes, functionalizable pore walls, and diverse architectures make MOFs an ideal platform to investigate hosted enzymes, which is critical to the industrial and commercial process. In addition to the protective function of MOFs, the extensive roles of MOFs in the enzyme immobilization are being well-explored by making full use of their remarkable properties like well-defined structure, high porosity, …

From Mdp To Alphazero, David Robert Sewell

Dissertations and Theses

In this paper I will explain the AlphaGo family of algorithms starting from first principles and requiring little previous knowledge from the reader. The focus will be upon one of the more recent versions AlphaZero but I hope to explain the core principles that allowed these algorithms to be so successful. I will generally refer to AlphaZero as theses [sic] core set of principles and will make it clear when I am referring to a specific algorithm of the AlphaGo family. AlphaZero in short combines Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) with Deep learning and self-play. We will see how these …

Giving Beets A Chance: Heavy Metal Accumulation In Mycorrhizal And Non-Mycorrhizal Crops At An Urban Farm, Eric Vukicevich

Sustainability Seminar Series

Urban, community farming seeks to provide access to affordable, healthy, culturally-appropriate produce via cooperatively-run growing spaces. However, the threat of contaminated soils so common to older cities can limit the scale of production and/or necessitates costly remediation efforts. Although there are rough guidelines outlining at what level a soil is unsafe for growing food, there are many uncertainties as to which crops might be safe in soils with slightly elevated (but below guidelines) levels of contaminants and to what degree soil biology affects uptake. We grew mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal root, leafy green, and fruit crops representing five different plant families …

Assessing Mangrove Wetland Structure And Function Regulated By Environmental Gradients Under Climate Change And Increasing Human Impacts: A Modeling Approach, Xiaochen Zhao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mangroves are blue-carbon-rich wetlands that can potentially contribute to climate change mitigation policies. However, mangroves are increasingly impacted by both natural and human disturbances worldwide that require restoration and rehabilitation programs to advance their conservation. Yet, there are major knowledge gaps in our understanding of how local resources (nutrients), regulators (e.g., salinity) and hydroperiod gradients interact in controlling mangrove role as carbon sink or source at different spatiotemporal scales under increasing disturbance frequency and climate change.

Here, I developed a mass-balance-based hydrology model to estimate soil porewater salinity (PWS) in riverine mangroves along the Shark River estuary (SRE), South Florida; …