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Studying suspended sediment concentrations in the south Chickamauga Creek of Chattanooga, TN using satellite imagery, digital image processing, and numeric modeling
Get PDFIn recent years, Hamilton County, TN has experienced extensive urban growth. According to US Census data, Hamilton County welcomed more than 33,000 new residents in the last decade. There is increased concern about the environmental sustainability of Chattanooga’s urban growth because significant impervious surface development has taken place along the South Chickamauga Creek. This leaves the creek subject to increased urban runoff, which often carries sediments with different municipal pollutants. Thus, monitoring turbidity in the stream water is important to determine the sustainability of urban development in Chattanooga, TN. In this research, we have compared the viability of using different satellite sensors to remotely study qualitative suspended sediment concentrations in the lower South Chickamauga Creek by calculating Normalized Difference Suspended Sediment Index (NDSSI) using Landsat 8, Sentinel – 2, and PlanetScope images. While both Landsat and Sentinel – 2 images have been used successfully to calculate NDSSI, PlanetScope has not yet been tested. PlanetScope’s very high spatial resolution makes it potentially very useful in analyzing water quality parameters in narrow creeks such as the South Chickamauga Creek. When comparing a limited number of in situ total suspended solids (TSS) measurements to the NDSSI values derived from each satellite images, it was found that PlanetScope imagery can be used to study qualitative suspended sediment concentration within reasonable accuracy
Poetry, prose, and the loss of verse
Get PDFIn this essay, I argue that the presence of verse in a text initiates a mutually generative relationship between a text’s sonic and semantic qualities, and that critics’ tendency to praise great prose passages as “poetic” is a result of poetry’s historical connection to verse and the semantic elegance which said verse tends to inspire. I base this argument on Fredrich Nietzsche’s first book, The Birth of Tragedy, and explore, through it, various examples of prosimetrum - that is, works combining poetry and prose
Generation of MATLAB software tool for teaching STEM concepts using Greenpower Formula 24 race cars
Get PDFGreenpower Formula 24 races are a prime opportunity for STEM educators to engage young students in STEM activities and increase their interest and content knowledge in the STEM fields. MATLAB AppDesigner is utilized to construct a graphical user interface (GUI) for the purpose of simulating the performance of Greenpower’s Formula 24 electric race cars. This menu driven interface allows students to manipulate design variables and observe the effect on performance indicators. Hardware bench testing and finite element analysis software were utilized to determine, respectively, parameters for modeling the electric car’s drive-train components and for modeling aerodynamic components. This GUI is intended to be offered to all Greenpower USA teams who compete in a Formula 24 category. The expected impact is to increase the competitiveness, confidence, and competence of race participants, and more broadly to aid STEM project-based teaching and learning
Exploring the Effects of Financial Strain on Organizational Commitment and Occupational Commitment
Get PDFFinancial strain is defined as an individual’s perception of economic stress and/or lack of resources (Adams et al., 2016). Although it has been linked to a multitude of negative well-being outcomes (Son & Wilson, 2015), there is little research regarding its impact on work-related attitudes, including organizational and occupational commitment. Several studies have found that financially-related variables, such as income, pay satisfaction, and extrinsic organizational rewards are positively related to organizational commitment (Cohen and Lowenberg, 1990; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Malhotra et al., 2007). Though occupational commitment and organizational commitment tend to be positively related (Lee et al., 2000), less research has focused on the relationship between occupational commitment and extrinsic rewards. As commitment and turnover or intent to turnover can often stem from job stressors (Jha, 2009), there is likely a relationship between financial strain, which serves as a source of stress, and both organizational and occupational commitment. In the present study, we examined relationships between financial strain and four types of commitment (affective organizational, continuance organizational, affective occupational, and continuance organizational). Data was gathered using an online survey from early career professionals who had graduated college in the past 10 years. Respondents received a 50 gift cards. The final sample of 255 respondents was composed more heavily of women (59.4%) and was predominately White (59%). Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to test our hypotheses, controlling for age, tenure, occupational tenure, and negative affect. Financial strain had a significant negative relationship with affective organizational commitment, b = -.25, p = .001, 〖sr〗^2 = 4.2% and a significant positive relationship with continuance organizational commitment, b = .31, p \u3c .001, 〖sr〗^2 = 8.3%. Financial strain also had a significant negative relationship with affective occupational commitment, b = -.14, p = .04, 〖sr〗^2 = 1.6% and a significant positive relationship with continuance occupational commitment, b = .27, p \u3c .001, 〖sr〗^2 = 8.6%. These findings suggest that financial strain may impact employee’s commitment to their organization and occupation. This knowledge can help provide employers a better understanding of the employee’s experience, especially for early career professionals. It may also encourage organizations to curate benefits and resources that assist in alleviating employees’ financial strain
Application of game theory for adaptive energy conscious traffic control at isolated intersections and arterial corridors
Get PDFTraffic congestion is a growing issue in many counties and cities in the United States and around the world. According to recent statistics [1], congestion costs the United States 66.1 billion of this cost occurring in urban areas. This has led to a myriad of problems including environmental pollution, increased fuel consumption, increased crash probability, depression, and wasted work hours. Thanks to new technologies that have enabled data collection and processing, machine learning, and computer vision, new solutions can be proposed to tackle this multi-faceted challenge of congestion and rapidly improve the quality of life of urban dwellers. This thesis focuses on utilizing game theoretic concepts to develop algorithms that reduce overall fuel consumption and dangerous emissions at traffic intersections and corridors. The solutions proposed will assist city managers in improving the traffic control system and drastically reduce the Carbon footprints of our road networks
Understanding the molecular mechanism of ILV1 stress sensitivity in yeast by examination of differential patterns of gene expression between wild-type and ILV1 knockout strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Get PDFAs arguably the most widely used industrial eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has become one of the many model organisms used to study molecular genetics. A recent unpublished study at the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga showed that yeast cells that had the ILV1 gene knocked out had reduced survivability under stress conditions. This study then focused on the role of ILV1 in the stress response of cells by measuring the expression levels of 11 candidate genes that are all involved in some critical pathway in the yeast to see how gene expression was influenced as a result of the loss of the functional ILV1 gene. The cells were introduced to four high-stress conditions; salinity, oxidative, osmotic, and heat, followed by RNA isolation and a two-step qRT-PCR protocol to measure the relative mRNA within the cells after stress incubation. The results showed that the expression of each of the candidate genes was higher in the ILV1 knockout strain relative to that of the wildtype, BY4743 strain under normal physiological conditions. However, the overall expression of the candidate genes showed a decrease in the knockout strain under the four stress treatment conditions. A direct comparison in the expression levels of the knockout strain relative to the wildtype strain showed no significant differences in expression under the stress conditions. Although the final expression levels of the two strains were not significantly different, the results do not show the magnitude of the change in expression under the stress conditions between the strain. Taking into consideration the higher expression of the candidate genes under normal conditions, the ILV1 knockout strain was more affected under stress conditions and had a larger magnitude of change in expression than the wildtype strain. These findings are consistent with ILV1 being pleiotropic and playing a role in some type of stress response
Motivation and memory: An analysis of performance-dependent reward-based motivational effects on encoding and retrieval
Get PDFExtrinsic reward has been shown to influence memory performance. This study sought to examine the effects of extrinsic reward on the individual processes of encoding/retrieval. Thirty-eight participants were divided into three groups; each underwent a memory task consisting of an encoding phase, filler task, and retrieval phase. The control group did not have an opportunity to receive a reward, unlike the two experimental groups who both had potential to receive a lottery ticket conditional on strong memory performance, although they differed in the times in which they were made aware of the potential reward. An improvement in memory performance primarily attributable to motivated retrieval was expected. There was no significant difference in memory performance or motivation between groups
College students and COVID-19: Psychological well-being and academic performance
Get PDFWhen the United States declared a national emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 13, 2020, many college students were forced out of campus and back to their homes, altering normal routines and academic environments for students. Recent research suggests potential psychological and academic implications from the pandemic on college students. The goal of the current study was to explore overall psychological well-being and changes in academic performance throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in college students. Psychological well-being was defined as an individual’s levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and social isolation. 89 undergraduate students at Campbell University were asked to complete an online Qualtrics survey that included the Beck Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a revised social isolation questionnaire, and questions about academic performance. Preliminary results supported the hypotheses. 63% of students felt that their academic performance was negatively impacted by the pandemic. Strong positive correlations were found between social isolation and depression (r = .717; p\u3c.001), social isolation and anxiety, (r = .734; p\u3c.001), and depression and anxiety (r = 0.866; p\u3c.001). There was an upward trend of students who felt that their GPA was lower than previous semesters from Spring 2020 to Spring 2021. One-way ANOVA analyses revealed a significant difference between levels of depression and perceived academic impact [F(2,87) = 4.32, p = .016], levels of anxiety and perceived academic impact [F(2,87) = 5.469, p = .006], and social isolation and perceived academic impact [F(2,87) = 4.169, p = .019]
Mindfulness meditation training and naturalistic prospective memory performance
Get PDFAlthough mindfulness research has become a trending topic in cognitive science, there is a gap in the literature that fails to explore the relationship between mindfulness and prospective memory (i.e., the ability to remember to execute a future intention). To explore this relationship, students in either a mindfulness condition or vocabulary control condition were asked to complete 10 self-concordant academic tasks (both time-based and nontime-based) over the course of five days. The percentage of academic tasks completed was calculated to measure prospective memory completion. Prospective memory performance was compared between groups and between task type. Trait mindfulness was also measured and explored as a predictor of performance. Performance between conditions was equivalent. Time-based task performance was significantly worse across conditions, and mindfulness did not seem to produce any changes in the ability to complete either task type. Significant correlations were, however, observed between trait mindfulness and prospective memory performance
Experiences of employees with chronic health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFAlthough workers with chronic health conditions have received little attention in past Industrial-Organizational Psychology research, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought new concerns for the workplace safety of these employees. I applied the JD-R model to a sample of 143 workers with chronic conditions, looking at how prevalent demands and resources impacted levels of burnout and emotional well-being. Quantitative analyses supported that job demands (i.e., devaluation and job insecurity) were generally related to negative health outcomes, while job resources (i.e., support and flexibility) were related to better health outcomes. Results also indicated that the impact of demands and resources on health might vary based on condition characteristics, such as visibility. The results of this study can help organizations better understand the unique impacts of job demands and resources for those with chronic health conditions. With this information, organizations can create more appropriate interventions and accommodations for this workplace population