This paper examines the invasion of exotic wilding conifers on the native tussock grasslands of Aotearoa New Zealand. The investigation includes two studies and aims to better understand the structure of Pinus contorta seeds across tree crown positions and the viability rates of P. contorta seeds produced during a trees...
Executive function (EF) is an extensively researched topic as a predictor for academic achievements for children. Delineated as qualities of self-regulation, EF prepares a child to produce successful behaviors for their learning and social environments. Entering school with sufficient self-regulation skills is proven advantageous for scholarly performance. Within the early...
Aperiodic structures cause significant challenges to subtractive manufacturing methods due to the common features such as inaccessible voids within the structure. Additive man- ufacturing presents an appealing alternative for this purpose. The aim of this research is to test analysis heuristics for validity through application to periodic structures. First, a...
The concepts of cancer and chemotherapy are not unheard of to children, but are often scary and confusing. This paper addresses the need for children’s books on difficult concepts (such as cancer), the creation of a script for a children’s book explaining chemotherapy on a cellular level, the creation of...
Zinc is an important micronutrient involved in many cellular processes, including those part of immune function; however, about 15% of the US population is at risk for marginal zinc deficiency. This can lead to immune system complications including the generation of inflammatory cytokines. Aging is another factor that worsens the...
Road racing shoes have recently evolved to incorporate maximal midsole cushioning and an embedded carbon fiber plate. Shoes in this category have been labeled ‘Advanced Footwear Technology’ (AFT) and may significantly contribute to improvements in running economy, in part due to biomechanical changes at the foot and ankle. However, little...
At the macroscopic scale, we have pumps that use the classical laws of physics to move liquids at a well defined rate. In the microscopic world, physicists are exploring pumps that make use of quantum mechanical behavior to build analogous pumps for quantum particles. The importance of such “quantum pumps”...
Significant attention has been given to how artificial intelligence (AI) can be utilized by society and in scientific fields in recent years. This article explores how AI tools utilized in various fields have been and can be applied to ecological restoration projects, their affiliated benefits and drawbacks, and what those...
Different educational modalities can affect students in learning challenging engineering concepts. Studies that specifically measure students’ conceptual learning gains have been conducted in face-to-face (F2F) and online modalities, but few direct comparisons have been reported. In this study, we collected data from undergraduate students enrolled in introductory materials science courses...
Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) is a strategy for integrating community needs, priorities, and concerns into the research design, data collection strategies, and subsequent analysis of data. CEnR shares similar properties with both citizen science and community-based participatory research (Woolley et al., 2016). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, CEnR occurred predominantly via face-to-face...