University at Albany, State University of New York
University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY): Scholars ArchiveNot a member yet
6197 research outputs found
Sort by
Distinguishing Between Living And Dead Plant Material From The Red Spruce Using Atr Ft-Ir Spectroscopy
Get PDFSpectroscopic methods have recently been used to analyze plant species and maturation. However, there is a lack of research into employing spectroscopy for distinguishing living plant material and dead plant material, which is important for the agriculture and environmental health fields. Here in this study, we have shown the potential of ATR-FT IR (Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy) to classify plant materials as living or dead through the help of multivariate statistical analysis methods. Plant samples were from the roots and needles of picea rubens, more commonly known as the red spruce tree. The samples were classified by creating a Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis model with the spectral features that were identified using a genetic algorithm. Classification of the roots of the red spruce tree into living and dead classes was done with 98% accuracy for the cross-validation of the calibration dataset and we achieved 100% accuracy for the classification of the root samples for the external validation dataset. The classification model achieved 100% accuracy in differentiating dead needles from living needles even after removing the water contribution of the IR spectrum
A Decade of Wireless Emergency Alerts: A Longitudinal Assessment of Message Content and Completeness
Get PDFWireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) provide a direct way for public safety officials to reach at‐risk publics via text‐based messages on their mobile devices. Although WEAs were introduced over a decade ago and can be either 90 or 360 characters in length, we currently do not know what these messages have contained. To address this gap, we quantify the contents of the last decade of WEA messages using the principles of effective warning message design. Specifically, we use quantitative content analysis to conduct a longitudinal assessment of 6080 WEAs sent by Alerting Authorities from 2012 to 2022. We code these messages according to the concepts in the Warning Response Model, which establishes that WEAs need to include information about the hazard, location, source, guidance, and time. Our results indicate that source and timing information are included at a much lower rate than location, hazard, and guidance information. Furthermore, only 8.5% of these messages are complete—or include all five pieces of WRM content. Complete WEA messages can minimise protective action delay while maximising message understanding, belief, and personalisation. We also find that 360‐character WEAs are more likely to be complete than 90‐character WEAs. Thus, those responsible for crafting WEAs should continue to take full advantage of the increased number of characters to write complete messages that warn populations at risk, rather than simply alert them to the existence of a hazard
Improving Inferences about Exoplanet Habitability
Get PDFAssessing the habitability of exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars) is of great importance in deciding which planets warrant further careful study. Planets in the habitable zones of stars like our Sun are sufficiently far away from the star so that the light rays from the star can be assumed to be parallel, leading to straightforward analytic models for stellar illumination of the planet’s surface. However, for planets in the close-in habitable zones of dim red dwarf stars, such as the potentially habitable planet orbiting our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, the analytic illumination models based on the parallel ray approximation do not hold, resulting in severe biases in the estimates of the planetary characteristics, thus impacting efforts to understand the planet’s atmosphere and climate. In this paper, we present our efforts to improve the instellation (stellar illumination) models for close-in orbiting planets and the significance of the implementation of these improved models into EXONEST, which is a Bayesian machine learning application for exoplanet characterization. The ultimate goal is to use these improved models and parameter estimates to model the climates of close-in orbiting exoplanets using planetary General Circulation Models (GCM). More specifically, we are working to apply our instellation corrections to the NASA ROCKE-3D GCM to study the climates of the potentially habitable planets in the Trappist-1 system
Determining the Effect of Absorbents and Soybean Systems on PFAS Precursor Transformation
Get PDFPFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) refers to a class of chemicals that consist of long-chains of carbon bonded to fluorine. These are chemicals that have many industrial uses, from cosmetics to industrial fire-fighting foam. Since PFAS is so widely used and available, it has become increasingly present in water and soil, resulting in its uptake and bioaccumulation in plants. This study focused on the impacts of powdered activated carbon (PAC) and montmorillonite on the PFOS precursor N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamido acetic acid (N-EtFOSAA), in soil, and in plants grown in that soil. This study focused on spiking soil with PFAS chemicals, cultivating soybean plants in the soil extracting PFAS from the soil, roots and shoots through leaching, SPE and elution, respectively, before being quantifying the amount of precursors and transformed PFAS using LC-MS-MS. Analysis of these results have shown that N-EtFOSAA at a concentration of 300µg/kg, as well as its transformation products (PFOSA and PFOS) were taken up by the soybean roots and shoots, causing a decrease in the biomass of these areas by 61.16% and 47.63% respectively. PAC had the largest diminishing effect on the bioavailability of N-EtFOSAA and its products in soil. PAC also decreased the total uptake of N-EtFOSAA by plants by 94.96%. Montmorillonite had a smaller effect, showing less of a stabilizing effect on N-EtFOSAA and its products, and was not effective in lowering their bioavailability. Thus, when looking at the most effective environment to immobilize N-EtFOSAA in soil, it was seen to be PAC and soybean plants
The Insurer of Last Resort: Investigating a Federal Insurance Backstop for Catastrophic Cyber Incidents
Get PDFThe demand for cyber insurance has accelerated in recent years due to the increased frequency and severity of cyber-attacks. The NotPeyta cyberattack, which spread to countries and systems across the globe and is estimated to have caused over $10 billion in damages, is one example. These kinds of catastrophic cyber incidents are causing insurers to raise premiums and tighten their policies, creating a significant gap in protection in the market. In response to this problem, the United States Treasury Department issued a Request for Comment regarding the potential for a federal insurance response to catastrophic cyber incidents. The aim of this thesis is to investigate what a federal backstop for cyber insurance could look like and how different groups feel about its potential creation. I analyze the submitted comments and additional open-source information to assess the opinions that the U.S. government and the cybersecurity and insurance industries each have towards a federal backstop. Looking specifically at opinions on the scope of coverage, catastrophe threshold, and policyholder requirements, I determine that while all three groups support its creation, there is significant variation in how each group pictures a federal backstop
Werewolf on Campus: A Case Study in Inoculation Theory and Gamified One-Shot Library Instruction
Get PDFThis case study details the development and results of an information literacy game in which undergraduate students evaluated fictional sources to learn how to recognize a werewolf on campus. The game relied on inoculation theory and fiction to teach students to identify indicators of mis and disinformation outside of any real-world examples that might affect their learning experience. The game showed promise as students were far more engaged and demonstrated better retention later in the semester than students who received a more traditional lecture about disinformation and source evaluation. However, the game would likely be more effective if it were expanded beyond the one-shot model
Scurvy and the Ontology of Natural Kinds
Get PDFSome philosophers understand natural kinds to be the categories which are constraints on enquiry. In order to elaborate the metaphysics appropriate to such an account, I consider the complicated history of scurvy, citrus, and vitamin C. It may be tempting to understand these categories in a shallow way (as mere property clusters) or in a deep way (as fundamental properties). Neither approach is adequate, and the case instead calls for middle-range ontology: starting from categories which we identify in the world and elaborating their structure, but not pretending to jump ahead to a complete story about fundamental being
Civil War Journalism: Two Rough Drafts of One History
Get PDFThis paper addresses journalism in the Civil War by analyzing both Northern and Southern reporting. The severity of censorship changed throughout the duration of the war, with it less harsh in the Union by the end. Southern officials did not censor as much, both because their resources were scarcer, and their officials were more opposed to the use of censorship. While past historians have argued that the decrease in Northern censorship is because the Union began to have the upper hand in the war, I argue that the decrease in Union censorship was not only because the Union was now winning, but likely an early effort to begin the process of reconciling with an anti-censorship South. The goal early in the war for the North was to preserve the Union. Towards the end, officials realized this goal was now attainable. Similar acts were also performed by Union officials; most famously Grant’s refusal to take Lee’s sword and his orders to his men not to celebrate and cheer for the defeat of the Confederates, who were now their own countrymen once again. The paper uses secondary sources on Civil War journalism as well as newspaper articles from the North and South to discuss the topic through three events that cover the beginning, middle, and end of the war
Acquitted by Reason of Paroxysmal Insanity? Science and Gender in the Nineteenth-Century Murder Trial of Mary Harris
Get PDFThe acquittal of Mary Harris in 1865 demonstrates the culmination of new social and scientific ideologies through the strategy of her defense counsel and the utilization of expert medical witnesses. While at the same time, the prosecutorial strategy embodied the opinions of gender and insanity that were being phased out.
The aim of this project is to demonstrate the overlap and reciprocal influence of science, law, and society, with narratives of gender acting as consistent undertones in these three realms. The trial and acquittal seem to fall in line with the idea that the insanity plea is a sham — a tool to permit socially disapproved behavior.However, analysis of the case reveals the use of relevant popular science to support Harris’s insanity. The jury may have been inclined to acquit given the social context and sore heartstrings, yet I argue that the influence of the science of phrenology and the use of expert witnesses presented in litigation swayed the jury against the prosecution’s pressure to appeal to the established laws on murder and insanity. The access the jury had to this knowledge of science set their verdict apart from the opinion pushed by the media following the trial.
The separation of popular science from the interpretation of insanity cases leaves scholarship with a partial view of how medical jurisprudence in the nineteenth century truly functioned. And the arguments of defense teams are often reduced to the influence of social narratives rather than the presence of gender bias in science. The Harris case is unique in that it captures a moment in history where a woman in her situation was aptly proven to be not guilty of murder, and her defense argued well enough to see her acquitted on account of either sympathy or insanity
