Oceanic plateaus are regions of overthickened oceanic crust and are often thought to form from the interaction of mantle plumes with oceanic lithosphere. These regions can cover vast areas of the ocean basins and represent a highly elevated magmatic flux relative to normal mid-ocean ridge spreading. Oceanic plateaus are considered...
Robotic Bipedal locomotion holds the potential for efficient, robust traversal of difficult terrain. The difficulty lies in the dynamics of locomotion which complicate control and motion planning. Bipedal locomotion dynamics are dimensionally large problems, extremely nonlinear, and operate on the limits of actuator capabilities, which limit the performance of generic...
K-12 teacher retention is an enduring concern in the United States as teachers are vital for educational achievement and change. National trends demonstrate how widespread an issue teacher retention is, yet teacher labor markets remain highly localized and highlight the complexity of teacher retention decisions. We need an improved understanding...
Plant-pollinator mutualisms are one of the most prevalent and economically important mutualisms in nature. Like many other ecological systems, plant-pollinator communities are threatened by anthropogenic activity, both directly (e.g., habitat conversion and fragmentation) and indirectly (e.g., climate change). While we are aware of many of the activities that adversely impact...
Causal inference is an important analytical tool to bridge the gap between prediction and decision-making. However, learning a causal network solely from data is a challenging task. In this work, various techniques have been explored for a better and improved causal network learning from data. Firstly, the problem of learning...
Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic explosions in the Universe, producing up to $\sim10^{53}$ ergs of energy in the first few seconds of their emission -- the so-called prompt phase that is dominated by high energy X-ray and $\gamma$-ray photons. The very large luminosities released in these events...
Immobilized proteins are integral components of a number of important technologies, including the principal component of many biosensors, as functional coatings in various implants, as catalysts is industrial biosynthesis, and as the building blocks of next-generation nanotechnologies. Despite their ubiquity, relatively little is known about the processes that shape immobilized...
Prototyping is a crucial step in product design and development, but it is also known as the highest sunk cost. The top 20 Research and Development (R&D) department spends 142 billion dollars, yet 40 to 46 percent of this money goes into developing products that cannot even make to the...
The spread of nonnative species across the globe has contributed to biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystem structure and function. Monitoring the introduction, naturalization, and spread of introduced species is critical in abating negative impacts wrought by species invasions. However, providing basic information concerning the presence or spread of many...
Arctic-boreal regions are exhibiting the symptoms of profound ecological shifts as they experience pronounced warming. Wildlife in high-latitudes are one such harbinger of change, and their populations are undergoing range-shifts, declines, and extinctions in response to their rapidly altering habitats. As the circumpolar and boreal north is snow-covered for up...