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Faculty Senate Chronicle For December 1, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on December 1, 2005.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For November 3, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on November 3, 2005.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For November 3, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on November 3, 2005

Coupling Between Helix-Coil And Coil-Globule Transitions In Helical Polymers, Vikas Varshney, Gustavo A. Carri

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

We explore the coupling between the helix-coil and coil-globule transitions of a helical polymer using Monte Carlo simulations. A very rich state diagram is found. Each state is characterized by a specific configuration of the chain which could be a helix, a random coil, an amorphous globule, or one of various other globular states which carry residual helical strands. We study the boundaries between states and provide further insight into the physics of the system with a detailed analysis of the order parameter and other properties.

Confinement-Induced Ordering Of Alkanes Between An Elastomer And A Solid Surface, Kumar Nanjundiah, Ali Dhinojwala

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

We have studied the molecular structure of liquid alkanes confined between a flexible elastomeric poly(dimethyl siloxane) lens and a rigid sapphire substrate using surface-sensitive infrared-visible sum frequency generation spectroscopy. The reduction in the gauche defects suggests ordering of liquid alkanes under confinement. The cooling of confined liquid below the freezing temperature leads to crystallization with alkane molecules lying on the substrate with the symmetry axis parallel to the surface normal. This structure is very different from the bulk alkane crystals next to sapphire or air interfaces.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For October 6, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on October 6, 2005.

Effect Of Thermal Transport On Spatiotemporal Emergence Of Lamellar Branching Morphology During Polymer Spherulitic Growth, Haijun Xu, Wirunya Keawwattana, Thein Kyu

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

Spatiotemporal emergence of lamellar branching morphology of polymer spherulite has been investigated theoretically in the framework of a phase field model by coupling a crystal solidification potential pertaining to a nonconserved crystal order parameter with a temperature field generated by latent heat of crystallization. A local free-energy density having an asymmetric double well has been utilized to account for a first-order phase transition such as crystallization. To account for the polymorphous nature of polymer crystallization, the phase field order parameter of crystal at the solidification potential of the double-well local free-energy density is modified to be supercooling dependent. The heat …

Rupture Of A Two-Dimensional Alkane Crystal, Shishir Prasad, Ali Dhinojwala

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

We have studied the breaking of a two-dimensional alkane crystal above the disordered melt using an oscillating bubble rheometer. Surface tension changes abruptly during the expansion and contraction cycle. We postulate that this is due to rupture of the 2D crystal at grain boundaries. The magnitude of the abrupt change in surface tension decreases with a decrease in the rate of change of bubble surface area with a power law exponent of 0.8. The interfacial area formed after rupture decreases with a decrease in rate. These results provide new insights in understanding defect-mediated rupture in confined geometry.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For Special Meeting On September 15, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on September 15, 2005.

Branching In Electrospinning Of Nanofibers, A. L. Yarin, W. Kataphinan, Darrell Hyson Reneker

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

Electrospinning of polymer nanofibers often begins with a single, straight, elongating, and electrified fluid jet that emanates from a droplet tip when the electric field at the surface is high enough. After some distance an electrically driven bending instability of the elongating jet occurs. For a polymer solution suitable for electrospinning, capillary instability does not cause the jet to become a spray of droplets. Under some conditions, a sequence of secondary jet branches emanates from the primary jet. This paper describes an experiment in which many closely spaced branches along the jet were observed during the electrospinning of a polycaprolactone …

Faculty Senate Chronicle For February 1, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on September 1, 2005.

Multiscale Modeling, Simulations, And Experiments Of Coating Growth On Nanofibers. Part Ii. Deposition, A. Buldum, C. B. Clemons, L. H. Dill, K. L. Kreider, G. W. Young, X. Zheng, Edward A. Evans, G. Zhang, S. I. Hariharan

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering Faculty Research

This work is Part II of an integrated experimental/modeling investigation of a procedure to coat nanofibers and core-clad nanostructures with thin-film materials using plasma-enhanced physical vapor deposition. In the experimental effort, electrospun polymer nanofibers are coated with aluminum materials under different operating conditions to observe changes in the coating morphology. This procedure begins with the sputtering of the coating material from a target. Part I [J. Appl. Phys. 98, 044303 (2005)] focused on the sputtering aspect and transport of the sputtered material through the reactor. That reactor level model determines the concentration field of the coating material. This field serves …

Multiscale Modeling, Simulations, And Experiments Of Coating Growth On Nanofibers. Part I. Sputtering, A. Buldum, I. Busuladzic, C. B. Clemons, L. H, Dill, K. L. Kreider, G. W. Young, Edward A. Evans, G. Zhang, S. I. Hariharan, W. Kiefer

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering Faculty Research

This paper is Part I of an integrated experimental/modeling investigation of a procedure to coat nanofibers and core-clad nanostructures with thin-film materials using plasma-enhanced physical vapor deposition. In the experimental effort, electrospun polymer nanofibers are coated with aluminum under varying operating conditions to observe changes in the coating morphology. This procedure begins with the sputtering of the coating material from a target. This paper focuses on the sputtering process and transport of the sputtered material through the reactor. The interrelationships among the processing factors for the sputtering and transport are investigated from a detailed modeling approach that describes the salient …

Spm Oxidation And Parallel Writing On Zirconium Nitride Thin Films, N. Farkas, J. R. Comer, G. Zhang, Edward A. Evans, R. D. Ramsier, J. A. Dagata

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering Faculty Research

Systematic investigation of the SPM oxidation process of sputter-deposited ZrN thin films is reported. During the intrinsic part of the oxidation, the density of the oxide increases until the total oxide thickness is approximately twice the feature height. Further oxide growth is sustainable as the system undergoes plastic flow followed by delamination from the ZrN-silicon interface keeping the oxide density constant. ZrN exhibits superdiffusive oxidation kinetics in these single tip SPM studies. We extend this work to the fabrication of parallel oxide patterns 70 nm in height covering areas in the square centimeter range. This simple, quick, and well-controlled parallel …

Phase-Field Modeling On Morphological Landscape Of Isotactic Polystyrene Single Crystals, Haijun Xu, Rushikesh Matkar, Thein Kyu

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

Spatio-temporal growth of isotactic polystyrene single crystals during isothermal crystallization has been investigated theoretically based on the phase field model by solving temporal evolution of a nonconserved phase order parameter coupled with a heat conduction equation. In the description of the total free energy, an asymmetric double-well local free energy density has been adopted to represent the metastable melt and the stable solid crystal. Unlike the small molecule systems, polymer crystallization rarely reaches thermodynamic equilibrium; most polymer crystals are kinetically stabilized in some metastable states. To capture various metastable polymer crystals, the phase field crystal order parameter at the solidification …

Coupling Between Lysozyme And Glycerol Dynamics: Microscopic Insights From Molecular-Dynamics Simulations, Taner E. Dirama, Gustavo A. Carri, Alexei P. Sokolov

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

We explore possible molecular mechanisms behind the coupling of protein and solvent dynamics using atomistic molecular-dynamics simulations. For this purpose, we analyze the model protein lysozyme in glycerol, a well-known protein-preserving agent. We find that the dynamics of the hydrogen bond network between the solvent molecules in the first shell and the surface residues of the protein controls the structural relaxation (dynamics) of the whole protein. Specifically, we find a power-law relationship between the relaxation time of the aforementioned hydrogen bond network and the structural relaxation time of the protein obtained from the incoherent intermediate scattering function. We demonstrate that …

Bush V. Gore And The Distortion Of Common Law Remedies, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

The book The Final Arbiter addresses the legal and political consequences of the Bush v. Gore decision. This article presented as Chapter 4 addresses the lasting impact of Bush v. Gore on the law of remedies. While others have focused on what the Court should or could have done in the case, this article focuses on what the Court actually did by analyzing the text of the decision and the remedial platform that formed the Court's consensus. The Court in Bush adopted a new model of prophylactic relief that provided too much, not too little relief. Yet this prophylactic remedy …

Faculty Senate Chronicle For May 5, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on May 5, 2005.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For April 7, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on April 7, 2005.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For April 6, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on April 6, 2006.

Role Of Hydrogen Bonds In The Fast Dynamics Of Binary Glasses Of Trehalose And Glycerol: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study, Taner E. Dirama, Gustavo A. Carri, Alexei P. Sokolov

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

Trehalose-glycerol mixtures are known to be effective in the long time preservation of proteins. However, the microscopic mechanism of their effective preservation abilities remains unclear. In this article we present a molecular dynamics simulation study of the short time, less than 1 ns, dynamics of four trehalose-glycerol mixtures at temperatures below the glass transition temperature. We found that a mixture of 5% glycerol and 95% trehalose has the most suppressed short time dynamics (fast dynamics). This result agrees with the experimental analysis of the mean-square displacement of the hydrogen atoms, as measured via neutron scattering, and correlates with the experimentally …

Faculty Senate Chronicle For Special Meeting February 17, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the Special meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on February 17, 2005.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For February 3, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on February 3, 2007.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For February 3, 2005, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on February 3, 2007.

Interspecific Competition For Pollination Lowers Seed Production And Outcrossing In Mimulus Ringens, John M. Bell, Jeffrey D. Karron, Randall J. Mitchell

Biology Faculty Research

Sympatric plant species with similar flowering phenologies and floral morphologies may compete for pollination, and as a consequence potentially influence each other's reproductive success and mating system. Two likely competitors are Mimulus ringens and Lobelia siphilitica, which co-occur in wet meadows of central and eastern North America, produce blue zygomorphic flowers, and share several species of bumble bee pollinators. To test for effects of competition for pollination, we planted experimental arrays of Mimulus ringens, each consisting of genets with unique combinations of homozygous marker genotypes. In two arrays we planted mixtures of Mimulus and Lobelia. and in two additional arrays …

Intelligent Sensors: An Integrated Systems Approach, Ajay Mahajan, Sanjeevi Chitikeshi, Pavan Bandhil, Lucas Utterback, Fernando Figueroa

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

The need for intelligent sensors as a critical component for Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) is fairly well recognized by now. Even the definition of what constitutes an intelligent sensor (or smart sensor) is well documented and stems from an intuitive desire to get the best quality measurement data that forms the basis of any complex health monitoring and/or management system. If the sensors, i.e. the elements closest to the measurand, are unreliable then the whole system works with a tremendous handicap. Hence, there has always been a desire to distribute intelligence down to the sensor level, and give it …

Physical Intelligent Sensors, Pavan Bandhil, Sanjeevi Chitikeshi, Ajay Mohan Mahajan, Fernando Figueroa

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

This paper proposes the development of intelligent sensors as part of an integrated systems approach, i.e. one treats the sensors as a complete system with its own sensing hardware (the traditional sensor), A/D converters, processing and storage capabilities, software drivers, self-assessment algorithms, communication protocols and evolutionary methodologies that allow them to get better with time. Under a project being undertaken at the NASA s Stennis Space Center, an integrated framework is being developed for the intelligent monitoring of smart elements. These smart elements can be sensors, actuators or other devices. The immediate application is the monitoring of the rocket test …

A Practical And Pragmatic Approach To Freedom Of Conscience, Martin H. Belsky

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Using a series of anecdotes and illustrations, the author posits that freedom of conscience, broadly defined, can only be protected, if at all, by assertive individual and group action. Such action must be not just against government interference but also against non-governmental or private activities as well as intimidation. Professor Belsky urges individual balancing of the freedom of conscience and other legal, governmental and societal interests. This balancing is a form of “constitutionalism,” and when necessary must be followed up by enforcement through personal action.

Should Attorneys Have A Duty To Report Financial Abuse Of The Elderly?, Carolyn L. Dessin

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Exploitation of older persons is a growing problem in America. As a result, our legal and social systems are struggling to develop structures that will prevent, remedy and punish instances of abuse. From all indications, financial abuse is becoming increasingly common, and can be devastating to its victim.

States have enacted a wide variety of statutes aimed at alleviating financial abuse. There are two relevant bodies of law: a state's protective services law and the state's criminal law. Although one may normally think of the purpose of the criminal law as deterring and punishing crimes, and the protective services law …

Alice In Wonderland Meets The U.S. Patent System, Jay Dratler

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Among the joys of being a professor, as distinguished from practicing law, are the leisure and incentive to think and write about the big picture. Another joy is being able to say what you really think. We professors don't have to focus on attracting clients or maintaining an impression of studied understatement and moderation for judges and juries.

In this talk, I'm going to exercise both of these prerogatives. I've been thinking about the big picture in patents for over a quarter century, and I'm more worried than I've ever been.

Let me begin by making my usual (and truthful) …