Raritan Valley Community College

This archive contains research data collected and/or funded by Forest Service Research and Development (FS R&D), U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is a resource for accessing both short and long-term FS R&D research data, which includes Experimental Forest and Range data. It is a way to both preserve and share the quality science of our researchers.

It is crucial for organizations to secure their data in the internet era. The use of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) implies this security. Several researchers used various tools and methods to implement various IDS models. However, a few performance concerns that must be resolved are crucial from a security standpoint. The problems pertain to the IDS time efficiency referred as timeliness, accuracy as well as the fault tolerance. The proposed model of intrusion detection has two phases of detection. Every phase uses a different set of machine learning algorithms. Phase I employs Support Vector Machine (SVM) and k nearest neighbor (kNN), whereas Phase II uses Decision Tree and Naïve Bayes. This two phase detection takes care of reducing false positives and false negatives. To compensate the execution time of these four techniques, the big data environment—Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS)—is utilized as the underlying storage and processing structure. With such arrangement of two phases, the model gives accuracy of 97.29% overall for known and unknown attacks. For known attacks it gives 99.49% and for unknown attacks it gives 96.28% accuracy in detecting intrusion. Also, the time efficiency is measured for training and testing of the model, for training with 10,000 records, it took 0.7 seconds which is very efficient as considered to existing systems. The detailed performance achievements are discussed in results section. Also, because of HDFS, it becomes distributed and fault tolerant intrusion detection system.

The burden of abdominal wound failure can be profound. Recent clinical guidelines have highlighted the heterogeneity of laparotomy closure techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate current midline closure techniques and practices for prevention of surgical site infection (SSI). An online survey was distributed in 2021 among the membership of the European Society of Coloproctology and its partner societies. Surgeons were asked to provide information on how they would close the abdominal wall in three specific clinical scenarios and on SSI prevention practices. A total of 561 consultants and trainee surgeons participated in the survey, mainly from Europe (n= 375, 66.8%). Of these, 60.6% identified themselves as colorectal surgeons and 39.4% as general surgeons. The majority used polydioxanone for fascial closure, with small bite techniques predominating in clean-contaminated cases (74.5%, n= 418). No significant differences were found between consultants and trainee surgeons. For SSI prevention, more surgeons preferred the use of mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) alone over MBP and oral antibiotics combined. Most surgeons preferred 2% alcoholic chlorhexidine (68.4%) or aqueous povidone-iodine (61.1%) for skin preparation. The majority did not use triclosan-coated sutures (73.3%) or preoperative warming of the wound site (78.5%), irrespective of level of training or European/non-European practice. Abdominal wound closure technique and SSI prevention strategies vary widely between surgeons. There is little evidence of a risk-stratified approach to wound closure materials or techniques, with most surgeons using the same strategy for all patient scenarios. Harmonization of practice and the limitation of outlying techniques might result in better outcomes for patients and provide a stable platform for the introduction and evaluation of further potential improvements.

Michael Cunningham is the author of seven novels and a short story collection of reimagined fairy tales. His fiction is distinguished by lengthy, evocative, and imagery-rich sentences and keen insight into the complex psychology of characters whose daily existences pale in comparison to the more remarkable lives they imagine for themselves. Cunningham has enjoyed his greatest popular and critical success with The Hours (1999), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Other notable works include A Home at the End of the World (1990), Flesh and Blood (1995), and Specimen Days (2005). His writings tend to emphasize character and situation over plot, and common themes include the centrality of family, the need for reinvented communities and connections, the dangers of both adhering to and resisting cultural scripts, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of disappointment, change, and loss.

Systematic field surveys were conducted in 2010–13 for the threatened, globally rare plant species, Helonias bullata L. (swamp pink: Liliaceae) in New Jersey, which contains 60% of known populations. A total of 90 sites were visited, including 56% of extant populations, focusing on the highest quality, largest, and most geographically representative populations in the state in order to comprehensively assess the species' status. A complete census and threat assessment was conducted for each population, using standardized methods adopted during previous surveys in 1997–2001, and population trends were determined by comparing results between data sets. The results found declines in 83% of Helonias populations in the past 10 yr, including severe declines (> 67%) in 53% of populations, and another 26% experiencing declines of 20% or more. Analyses of past and present data sets found the primary cause of declines appeared to be herbivory by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), which had not been previously regarded as a significant threat to the species, followed by hydrological changes caused by human development and/or water consumption. Browse damage to Helonias was directly observed in 84% of populations, with an average of 40% of Helonias clusters exhibiting recent damage at each site. Concern for observer bias was also explicitly addressed in the methods and analyses providing further confidence in the results. Implications for the conservation and recovery of Helonias are discussed, as well as the benefits and limitations of the standardized methods used for long-term studies of this and other rare plant species in the future.

With traditional natural gas being one of the top options for heating in the United States and the present threat of climate change, there is a demand for an alternative clean fuel source. A Renewable Natural Gas Implementation Decision-Making Conceptual Model was created to provide a framework for considering the feasibility of renewable natural gas (RNG) projects and applied to New Jersey, specifically investigating landfills and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Data from the US EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program and New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection Sewage Sludge databases were used to identify seven landfills and 22 WWTPs as possible locations for RNG projects. Landfills were found to have a higher potential for producing RNG, on average potentially producing enough RNG to heat 12,792 homes per year versus 1227 for the average WWTP. Additionally, landfills, while having higher capital expenses, have lower projected payback periods, averaging 5.19 years compared to WWTP’s 11.78 years. WWTPs, however, generally are located closer to existing natural gas pipelines than landfills and when they produce more than 362 million standard cubic feet per year (MMSCFY) of biogas are financially feasible. RNG projects at Monmouth County Reclamation Center, Ocean County Landfill, and Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission WWTP show the greatest potential. Greenhouse gas emission reductions from RNG projects at these facilities utilizing all available biogas would be 1.628 million metric tons CO2 equivalents per year, synonymous to removing over 351,000 passenger vehicles from the road each year. In addition, expanding federal and state incentives to encompass RNG as a heating fuel is necessary to reduce financial barriers to RNG projects throughout the US. Overall, this paper supports the hypothesized conceptual model in examining the feasibility of RNG projects through examples from New Jersey and confirms the potential for RNG production utilizing existing waste streams.