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Clemson University

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Articles 1 - 30 of 254

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Investigating The Impacts Of Crash Prediction Models On Quantifying Safety Effectiveness Of Adaptive Signal Control Systems, Weimin Jin, Mashrur Chowdhury, Sakib Mahmud Khan, Patrick Gerard Feb 2021

Investigating The Impacts Of Crash Prediction Models On Quantifying Safety Effectiveness Of Adaptive Signal Control Systems, Weimin Jin, Mashrur Chowdhury, Sakib Mahmud Khan, Patrick Gerard

Publications

Introduction: Adaptive Signal Control System (ASCS) can improve both operational and safety benefits at signalized corridors. Methods: This paper develops a series of models accounting for model forms and possible predictors and implements these models in Empirical Bayes (EB) and Fully Bayesian (FB) frameworks for ASCS safety evaluation studies. Different models are validated in terms of the ability to reduce the potential bias and variance of prediction and improve the safety effectiveness estimation accuracy using real-world crash data from non-ASCS sites. This paper then develops the safety effectiveness of ASCS at six different corridors with a total of 65 signalized …

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Evaluating Artificial Shelter Arrays As A Minimally Invasive Monitoring Tool For The Hellbender Cryptobranchus Alleganiensis, Catherine M. Bodinof Jachowski, Beth E. Ross, William A. Hopkins Feb 2020

Evaluating Artificial Shelter Arrays As A Minimally Invasive Monitoring Tool For The Hellbender Cryptobranchus Alleganiensis, Catherine M. Bodinof Jachowski, Beth E. Ross, William A. Hopkins

Publications

Hellbenders Cryptobranchus alleganiensis are critically imperiled amphibians throughout the eastern USA. Rock-lifting is widely used to monitor hellbenders but can severely disturb habitat. We asked whether artificial shelter occupancy (the proportion of occupied shelters in an array) would function as a proxy for hellbender abundance and thereby serve as a viable alternative to rock-lifting. We hypothesized that shelter occupancy would vary spatially in response to hellbender density, natural shelter density, or both, and would vary temporally with hellbender seasonal activity patterns and time since shelter deployment. We established shelter arrays (n = 30 shelters each) in 6 stream reaches and …

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Multilevel Combinatorial Optimization Across Quantum Architectures, Hayato Ushijima-Mwesigwa, Ruslan Shaydulin, Christian F.A. Negre, Susan M. Mniszewski, Yuri Alexeev, Ilya Safro Oct 2019

Multilevel Combinatorial Optimization Across Quantum Architectures, Hayato Ushijima-Mwesigwa, Ruslan Shaydulin, Christian F.A. Negre, Susan M. Mniszewski, Yuri Alexeev, Ilya Safro

Publications

Emerging quantum processors provide an opportunity to explore new approaches for solving traditional problems in the Post Moore's law supercomputing era. However, the limited number of qubits makes it infeasible to tackle massive real-world datasets directly in the near future, leading to new challenges in utilizing these quantum processors for practical purposes. Hybrid quantum-classical algorithms that leverage both quantum and classical types of devices are considered as one of the main strategies to apply quantum computing to large-scale problems. In this paper, we advocate the use of multilevel frameworks for combinatorial optimization as a promising general paradigm for designing hybrid …

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Developing A Monthly Radiative Kernel For Surface Albedo Change From Satellite Climatologies Of Earth's Shortwave Radiation Budget: Cack V1.0, Ryan M. Bright, Thomas L. O'Halloran Sep 2019

Developing A Monthly Radiative Kernel For Surface Albedo Change From Satellite Climatologies Of Earth's Shortwave Radiation Budget: Cack V1.0, Ryan M. Bright, Thomas L. O'Halloran

Publications

Due to the potential for land-use–land-cover change (LULCC) to alter surface albedo, there is need within the LULCC science community for simple and transparent tools for predicting radiative forcings (ΔF) from surface albedo changes (Δαs). To that end, the radiative kernel technique – developed by the climate modeling community to diagnose internal feedbacks within general circulation models (GCMs) – has been adopted by the LULCC science community as a tool to perform offline ΔF calculations for Δαs. However, the codes and data behind the GCM kernels are not readily transparent, and the climatologies …

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Hypergraph Partitioning With Embeddings, Justin Sybrandt, Ruslan Shaydulin, Ilya Safro Sep 2019

Hypergraph Partitioning With Embeddings, Justin Sybrandt, Ruslan Shaydulin, Ilya Safro

Publications

The problem of placing circuits on a chip or distributing sparse matrix operations can be modeled as the hypergraph partitioning problem. A hypergraph is a generalization of the traditional graph wherein each "hyperedge" may connect any number of nodes. Hypergraph partitioning, therefore, is the NP-Hard problem of dividing nodes into k" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-table; line-height: normal; font-size: 16px; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(93, 93, 93); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; position: relative;">kk similarly sized disjoint sets while …

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Expanding Beyond Carnivores To Improve Livestock Protection And Conservation, Shari L. Rodriguez, Christie Sampson Aug 2019

Expanding Beyond Carnivores To Improve Livestock Protection And Conservation, Shari L. Rodriguez, Christie Sampson

Publications

Promoting human–wildlife coexistence is critical to the long-term conservation of many wild animal species that come into conflict with humans. Loss of livestock to carnivore species (e.g., lions, tigers, wolves) is a well-documented occurrence and the focus of mitigation strategies around the world. One area that has received little research is the impact of noncarnivores on livestock. Both African and Asian elephant species are known to cause livestock injuries and deaths. Livestock owners within elephant ranges perceive elephants as a risk to their livestock, which may reduce their tolerance towards elephants and jeopardize conservation efforts in the area. Though feral …

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Relaxation-Based Coarsening For Multilevel Hypergraph Partitioning, Ruslan Shaydulin, Jie Chen, Ilya Safro Feb 2019

Relaxation-Based Coarsening For Multilevel Hypergraph Partitioning, Ruslan Shaydulin, Jie Chen, Ilya Safro

Publications

Multilevel partitioning methods that are inspired by principles of multiscaling are the most powerful practical hypergraph partitioning solvers. Hypergraph partitioning has many applications in disciplines ranging from scientific computing to data science. In this paper we introduce the concept of algebraic distance on hypergraphs and demonstrate its use as an algorithmic component in the coarsening stage of multilevel hypergraph partitioning solvers. The algebraic distance is a vertex distance measure that extends hyperedge weights for capturing the local connectivity of vertices which is critical for hypergraph coarsening schemes. The practical effectiveness of the proposed measure and corresponding coarsening scheme is demonstrated …

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Superresolution Mapping Of Energy Landscape For Single Charge Carriers In Plastic Semiconductors, Yifei Jiang, Jason Mcneill Oct 2018

Superresolution Mapping Of Energy Landscape For Single Charge Carriers In Plastic Semiconductors, Yifei Jiang, Jason Mcneill

Publications

The performance of conjugated polymer devices is largely dictated by charge transport processes. However, it is difficult to obtain a clear relationship between conjugated polymer structures and charge transport properties, due to the complexity of the structure and the dispersive nature of charge transport in conjugated polymers. Here, we develop a method to map the energy landscape for charge transport in conjugated polymers based on simultaneous, correlated charge carrier tracking and single-particle fluorescence spectroscopy. In nanoparticles of the conjugated polymer poly[9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-co-1,4-benzo-{2,1′-3}-thiadiazole)], two dominant chain conformations were observed, a blue-emitting phase (λmax = 550 nm) and a …

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Identifying Weak Interdomain Interactions That Stabilize The Supertertiary Structure Of The N-Terminal Tandem Pdz Domains Of Psd-95, Inna S. Yanez Orozco, Frank A. Mindlin, Junyan Ma, Bo Wang, Brie Levesque, Matheu Spencer, Soheila Rezaei Adariani, George Hamilton, Feng Ding, Mark E. Bowen, Hugo Sanabria Sep 2018

Identifying Weak Interdomain Interactions That Stabilize The Supertertiary Structure Of The N-Terminal Tandem Pdz Domains Of Psd-95, Inna S. Yanez Orozco, Frank A. Mindlin, Junyan Ma, Bo Wang, Brie Levesque, Matheu Spencer, Soheila Rezaei Adariani, George Hamilton, Feng Ding, Mark E. Bowen, Hugo Sanabria

Publications

Previous studies of the N-terminal PDZ tandem from PSD-95 produced divergent models and failed to identify interdomain contacts stabilizing the structure. We used ensemble and single-molecule FRET along with replica-exchange molecular dynamics to fully characterize the energy landscape. Simulations and experiments identified two conformations: an open-like conformation with a small contact interface stabilized by salt bridges, and a closed-like conformation with a larger contact interface stabilized by surface-exposed hydrophobic residues. Both interfaces were confirmed experimentally. Proximity of interdomain contacts to the binding pockets may explain the observed coupling between conformation and binding. The low-energy barrier between conformations allows submillisecond dynamics, …

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E-Hooks Provide Guidance And A Soft Landing For The Microtubule Binding Domain Of Dynein, Nayere Tajielyato, Lin Li, Yunhui Peng, Joshua Alper, Emil Alexov Sep 2018

E-Hooks Provide Guidance And A Soft Landing For The Microtubule Binding Domain Of Dynein, Nayere Tajielyato, Lin Li, Yunhui Peng, Joshua Alper, Emil Alexov

Publications

Macromolecular binding is a complex process that involves sensing and approaching the binding partner, adopting the proper orientation, and performing the physical binding. We computationally investigated the role of E-hooks, which are intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) at the C-terminus of tubulin, on dynein microtubule binding domain (MTBD) binding to the microtubule as a function of the distance between the MTBD and its binding site on the microtubule. Our results demonstrated that the contacts between E-hooks and the MTBD are dynamical; multiple negatively charted patches of amino acids on the E-hooks grab and release the same positively charged patches on the …

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Identifying Weak Interdomain Interactions That Stabilize The Supertertiary Structure Of The N-Terminal Tandem Pdz Domains Of Psd-95, Inna S. Yanez Orozco, Frank A. Mindlin, Junyan Ma, Bo Wang, Brie Levesque, Matheu Spencer, Soheila Rezaei Adariani, George Hamilton, Feng Ding, Mark E. Bowen, Hugo Sanabria Sep 2018

Identifying Weak Interdomain Interactions That Stabilize The Supertertiary Structure Of The N-Terminal Tandem Pdz Domains Of Psd-95, Inna S. Yanez Orozco, Frank A. Mindlin, Junyan Ma, Bo Wang, Brie Levesque, Matheu Spencer, Soheila Rezaei Adariani, George Hamilton, Feng Ding, Mark E. Bowen, Hugo Sanabria

Publications

Previous studies of the N-terminal PDZ tandem from PSD-95 produced divergent models and failed to identify interdomain contacts stabilizing the structure. We used ensemble and single-molecule FRET along with replica-exchange molecular dynamics to fully characterize the energy landscape. Simulations and experiments identified two conformations: an open-like conformation with a small contact interface stabilized by salt bridges, and a closed-like conformation with a larger contact interface stabilized by surface-exposed hydrophobic residues. Both interfaces were confirmed experimentally. Proximity of interdomain contacts to the binding pockets may explain the observed coupling between conformation and binding. The low-energy barrier between conformations allows submillisecond dynamics, …

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Rapid Screening Of Ellagitannins In Natural Sources Via Targeted Reporter Ion Triggered Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Jeremiah J. Bowers, Harsha P. Gunawardena, Anaëlle Cornu, Ashwini S. Narvekar, Antoine Richieu, Denis Deffieux, Stéphane Quideau, Nishanth Tharayil Jul 2018

Rapid Screening Of Ellagitannins In Natural Sources Via Targeted Reporter Ion Triggered Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Jeremiah J. Bowers, Harsha P. Gunawardena, Anaëlle Cornu, Ashwini S. Narvekar, Antoine Richieu, Denis Deffieux, Stéphane Quideau, Nishanth Tharayil

Publications

Complex biomolecules present in their natural sources have been difficult to analyze using traditional analytical approaches. Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC-MS/MS) methods have the potential to enhance the discovery of a less well characterized and challenging class of biomolecules in plants, the ellagitannins. We present an approach that allows for the screening of ellagitannins by employing higher energy collision dissociation (HCD) to generate reporter ions for classification and collision-induced dissociation (CID) to generate unique fragmentation spectra for isomeric variants of previously unreported species. Ellagitannin anions efficiently form three characteristic reporter ions after HCD fragmentation that allows for the classification of unknown …

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A Versatile Carbon Nanotube-Based Scalable Approach For Improving Interfaces In Li-Ion Battery Electrodes, Lakshman K. Ventrapragada, Jingyi Zhu, Stephen E. Creager, Apparao M. Rao, Ramakrishna Podila Apr 2018

A Versatile Carbon Nanotube-Based Scalable Approach For Improving Interfaces In Li-Ion Battery Electrodes, Lakshman K. Ventrapragada, Jingyi Zhu, Stephen E. Creager, Apparao M. Rao, Ramakrishna Podila

Publications

Resistive interfaces within the electrodes limit the energy and power densities of a battery, for example, a Li-ion battery (LIB). Typically, active materials are mixed with conductive additives in organic solvents to form a slurry, which is then coated on current collectors (e.g., bare or carbon-coated Al foils) to reduce the inherent resistance of the active material. Although many approaches using nanomaterials to either replace Al foils or improve conductivity within the active materials have been previously demonstrated, the resistance at the current collector active material interface (CCAMI), a key factor for enhancing the energy and power densities, remains unaddressed. …

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Metallic Mxenes: A New Family Of Materials For Flexible Triboelectric Nanogenerators, Yongchang Dong, Sai Sunil Kumar Mallineni, Kathleen Maleski, Herbert Behlow, Vadym N. Mochalin, Apparao M. Rao, Yury Gogosti, Ramakrishna Podila Feb 2018

Metallic Mxenes: A New Family Of Materials For Flexible Triboelectric Nanogenerators, Yongchang Dong, Sai Sunil Kumar Mallineni, Kathleen Maleski, Herbert Behlow, Vadym N. Mochalin, Apparao M. Rao, Yury Gogosti, Ramakrishna Podila

Publications

Wearable and flexible electronics warrant the development of self-powered devices to circumvent the limitations imposed by traditional energy storage devices. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) that convert waste mechanical energy from human motion into electric power offer a solution. Highly electronegative and conducting TENG materials that support the generation of both large potential differences and high currents are imperative for effectively harvesting electric power from human muscle movements. Here, we demonstrate that two-dimensional MXenes (e.g., titanium carbide Ti3C2Tx, where Tx stands for surface functional groups such as -O, -OH, and -F) are a family of electrically conducting materials that are triboelectrically more …

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A Mean-Risk Mixed Integer Nonlinear Program For Transportation Network Protection, Jie Lu, Akshay Gupte, Yongxi Huang Feb 2018

A Mean-Risk Mixed Integer Nonlinear Program For Transportation Network Protection, Jie Lu, Akshay Gupte, Yongxi Huang

Publications

This paper focuses on transportation network protection to hedge against extreme events such as earthquakes. Traditional two-stage stochastic programming has been widely adopted to obtain solutions under a risk-neutral preference through the use of expectations in the recourse function. In reality, decision makers hold different risk preferences. We develop a mean-risk two-stage stochastic programming model that allows for greater flexibility in handling risk preferences when allocating limited resources. In particular, the first stage minimizes the retrofitting cost by making strategic retrofit decisions whereas the second stage minimizes the travel cost. The conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) is included as the risk measure …

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Gamma-Ray-Emitting Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies In The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Vaidehi S. Paliya, M. Ajello, A. Mandal, C. S. Stalin, A. Kaur, D. Hartmann Jan 2018

Gamma-Ray-Emitting Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies In The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Vaidehi S. Paliya, M. Ajello, A. Mandal, C. S. Stalin, A. Kaur, D. Hartmann

Publications

The detection of significant γ-ray emission from radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1s) galaxies enables us to study jets in environments different than those in blazars. However, due to the small number of known γ-ray-emitting NLSy1 (γ-NLSy1) galaxies, a comprehensive study could not be performed. Here, we report the first detection of significant γ-ray emission from four active galactic nuclei (AGNs), recently classified as NLSy1 from their Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) optical spectrum. Three flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) present in the third Large Area Telescope AGN catalog (3LAC) are also found as γ-NLSy1 galaxies. …

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A Micro-Raman Study Of Exfoliated Few-Layered N-Type Bi2 Te2.7Se0.3, Fengjiao Liu, Longyu Hu, Mehmet Karakaya, Pooja Puneet, Rahul Rao, Ramakrishna Podila, Sriparna Bhattacharya, Apparao M. Rao Nov 2017

A Micro-Raman Study Of Exfoliated Few-Layered N-Type Bi2 Te2.7Se0.3, Fengjiao Liu, Longyu Hu, Mehmet Karakaya, Pooja Puneet, Rahul Rao, Ramakrishna Podila, Sriparna Bhattacharya, Apparao M. Rao

Publications

Previously we showed that the thermoelectric (TE) performance of bulk n-type Bi2Te.27Se0.3 can be enhanced by subjecting it to a combined process of chemical or mechanical exfoliation (C/ME) followed by a rapid densification and restacking of the exfoliated layers via the spark-plasma-sintering technique (SPS). Here, we present a systematic micro-Raman study of two-dimensional flakes of n-type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 produced by the C/ME process, as a function of the flake thickness. We found Raman evidence for flakes with: (i) integer number of quintuples which exhibited a strong electron-phonon coupling, and …

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A Micro-Raman Study Of Exfoliated Few-Layered N-Type Bi2 Te2.7 Se0.3, Liu Fengjiao, Karakaya Mehmet, Pooja Puneet, Rahul Rao, Podila Ramakrishna, Sriparna Bhattacharya, Apparao M. Rao Nov 2017

A Micro-Raman Study Of Exfoliated Few-Layered N-Type Bi2 Te2.7 Se0.3, Liu Fengjiao, Karakaya Mehmet, Pooja Puneet, Rahul Rao, Podila Ramakrishna, Sriparna Bhattacharya, Apparao M. Rao

Publications

Previously we showed that the thermoelectric (TE) performance of bulk n-type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 can be enhanced by subjecting it to a combined process of chemical or mechanical exfoliation (C/ME) followed by a rapid densification and restacking of the exfoliated layers via the spark-plasma-sintering technique (SPS). Here, we present a systematic micro-Raman study of two-dimensional flakes of n-type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 produced by the C/ME process, as a function of the flake thickness. We found Raman evidence for flakes with: (i) integer number of quintuples which exhibited a strong electron-phonon coupling, and …

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Automated Cluster Provisioning And Workflow Management For Parallel Scientific Applications In The Cloud, Brandon Posey, Christopher Gropp, Alexander Herzog, Amy Apon Nov 2017

Automated Cluster Provisioning And Workflow Management For Parallel Scientific Applications In The Cloud, Brandon Posey, Christopher Gropp, Alexander Herzog, Amy Apon

Publications

Many commercial cloud providers and tools are available that researchers could utilize to advance computational science research. However, adoption by the research community has been slow. In this paper we describe the automated Pro-visioning And Workflow (PAW) management tool for parallel scientific applications in the cloud. PAW is a comprehensive resource provisioning and workflow tool that automates the steps of dynamically provisioning a large scale cluster environment in the cloud, executing a set of jobs or a custom workflow and, after the jobs have completed, de-provisioning the cluster environment in a single operation. A key characteristic of PAW is that …

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The Nustar Extragalactic Survey: Average Broadband X-Ray Spectral Properties Of The Nustar-Detected Agns, A. Delmoro, D. M. Alexander, J. A. Bauer, F. Civano, J. R. Mullaney, D. R. Ballantyne, W. N. Brandt, A. Comastri, P. Gandhi, F. A. Harrison, G. B. Lansbury, L. Lanz, B. Luo, S. Marchesi, S. Puccetti, C. Ricci, C. Saez, D. Stern, E. Treister, L. Zappacosta Oct 2017

The Nustar Extragalactic Survey: Average Broadband X-Ray Spectral Properties Of The Nustar-Detected Agns, A. Delmoro, D. M. Alexander, J. A. Bauer, F. Civano, J. R. Mullaney, D. R. Ballantyne, W. N. Brandt, A. Comastri, P. Gandhi, F. A. Harrison, G. B. Lansbury, L. Lanz, B. Luo, S. Marchesi, S. Puccetti, C. Ricci, C. Saez, D. Stern, E. Treister, L. Zappacosta

Publications

We present a study of the average X-ray spectral properties of the sources detected by the NuSTAR extragalactic survey, comprising observations of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (E-CDFS), Extended Groth Strip (EGS), and the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS). The sample includes 182 NuSTAR sources (64 detected at 8–24 keV), with 3–24 keV fluxes ranging between and 6 × 10−13 erg cm−2 s−1 ( erg cm−2 s−1) and redshifts in the range of . We produce composite spectra from the Chandra + NuSTAR data (, rest frame) for all the sources with redshift identifications …

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Maneuverable Applications: Advancing Distributed Computing, William Clay Moody, Amy W. Apon Oct 2017

Maneuverable Applications: Advancing Distributed Computing, William Clay Moody, Amy W. Apon

Publications

Extending the military principle of maneuver into the war-fighting domain of cyberspace, academic and military researchers have produced many theoretical and strategic works, though few have focused on researching the applications and systems that apply this principle. We present a survey of our research in developing new architectures for the enhancement of parallel and distributed applica-tions. Specifically, we discuss our work in applying the military concept of maneuver in the cyberspace domain by creating a set of applications and systems called “ma-neuverable applications.” Our research investigates resource provisioning, application optimization, and cybersecurity enhancement through the modification, relocation, addition or removal …

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Laplacian Distribution And Domination, Domingos M. Cardoso, David P. Jacobs, Vilmar Trevisan Sep 2017

Laplacian Distribution And Domination, Domingos M. Cardoso, David P. Jacobs, Vilmar Trevisan

Publications

No abstract provided.

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Variations In Biocorona Formation Related To Defects In The Structure Of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes And The Hyperlipidemic Disease State, Achyut J. Raghavendra, Kristofer Fritz, Sherleen Fu, Jared M. Brown, Ramakrishna Podila, Jonathan H. Shannahan Aug 2017

Variations In Biocorona Formation Related To Defects In The Structure Of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes And The Hyperlipidemic Disease State, Achyut J. Raghavendra, Kristofer Fritz, Sherleen Fu, Jared M. Brown, Ramakrishna Podila, Jonathan H. Shannahan

Publications

Ball-milling utilizes mechanical stress to modify properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) including size, capping, and functionalization. Ball-milling, however, may introduce structural defects resulting in altered CNT-biomolecule interactions. Nanomaterial-biomolecule interactions result in the formation of the biocorona (BC), which alters nanomaterial properties, function, and biological responses. The formation of the BC is governed by the nanomaterial physicochemical properties and the physiological environment. Underlying disease states such as cardiovascular disease can alter the biological milieu possibly leading to unique BC identities. In this ex vivo study, we evaluated variations in the formation of the BC on single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) due to physicochemical …

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Forces And Disease: Electrostatic Force Differences Caused By Mutations In Kinesin Motor Domains Can Distinguish Between Disease-Causing And Non-Disease-Causing Mutations, Lin Li, Yunhui Peng, Subash Godar, Ivan Getov, Shaolei Teng, Joshua Alper, Emil Alexov Aug 2017

Forces And Disease: Electrostatic Force Differences Caused By Mutations In Kinesin Motor Domains Can Distinguish Between Disease-Causing And Non-Disease-Causing Mutations, Lin Li, Yunhui Peng, Subash Godar, Ivan Getov, Shaolei Teng, Joshua Alper, Emil Alexov

Publications

The ability to predict if a given mutation is disease-causing or not has enormous potential to impact human health. Typically, these predictions are made by assessing the effects of mutation on macromolecular stability and amino acid conservation. Here we report a novel feature: the electrostatic component of the force acting between a kinesin motor domain and tubulin. We demonstrate that changes in the electrostatic component of the binding force are able to discriminate between disease-causing and non-disease-causing mutations found in human kinesin motor domains using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC). Because diseases may originate from multiple effects not related to …

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Correlation Of Trichome Density And Length And Polyphenol Fluorescence With Susceptibility Of Five Cucurbits To Didymella Bryoniae, Gabriel Rennberger, A. P. Keinath, M. Hess Aug 2017

Correlation Of Trichome Density And Length And Polyphenol Fluorescence With Susceptibility Of Five Cucurbits To Didymella Bryoniae, Gabriel Rennberger, A. P. Keinath, M. Hess

Publications

The fungal pathogen Didymella bryoniae causes gummy stem blight and black rot on a broad spectrum of cucurbits. However the substantial differences in susceptibility among Cucurbitaceae are not well studied. Susceptibility was characterized with muskmelon (Cucumis melo), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo), and zucchini (C. pepo). Lesion diameters on leaf disks inoculated with agar plugs were measured 7 days after inoculation, and the necrotized areas of leaf disks inoculated with conidial suspensions were measured 48 h after inoculation (hai). For each species, the number of trichomes …

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A Convenient Miniature Test Platform For Polyelectrolyte Membrane Fuel-Cell Research, Jamie A. Shetzline, Saheed Bukola, Stephen E. Creager Jul 2017

A Convenient Miniature Test Platform For Polyelectrolyte Membrane Fuel-Cell Research, Jamie A. Shetzline, Saheed Bukola, Stephen E. Creager

Publications

A simple and convenient small-scale fuel-cell test platform was created from a commercial compression fitting and graphite rod current collectors and used to conduct diagnostic tests on disk-shaped membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) fabricated from Nafion membranes and Nafion-impregnated platinum-on-carbon-cloth anodes and cathodes. A key advantage of this test platform is that it requires very little material, perhaps just a few milligrams, to conduct a fuel-cell test on a supported catalyst. Electrochemically-active surface area (ECSA) values for supported platinum on carbon-cloth electrodes were obtained by in-situ(in the fuel cell) and ex-situ (in liquid electrolyte) cyclic voltammetry on similarly-prepared electrodes, and values …

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A Revision Of Prespelea Park (Staphylinidae, Pselaphinae), Michael S. Caterino, Laura M. Vásquez-Vélez Jul 2017

A Revision Of Prespelea Park (Staphylinidae, Pselaphinae), Michael S. Caterino, Laura M. Vásquez-Vélez

Publications

We revise the genus Prespelea Park, redefining and redescribing the two previously known species, P.copelandi Park and P. quirsfeldi Park, and adding ten new species: P. parki Caterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., P.minima Caterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., P. morsei Caterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., P. divergens Caterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., P. carltoni Caterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., P. myersae Caterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., P. georgiensis Caterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., P. enigma Caterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., P. wagneriCaterino & Vásquez-Vélez, sp. n., and P. basalis Caterino …

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Electromagnetic Radio Frequency Heating In The Pulsed Electric Current Sintering (Pecs) Process, Yufei Liu, D. H. Liebenberg Jun 2017

Electromagnetic Radio Frequency Heating In The Pulsed Electric Current Sintering (Pecs) Process, Yufei Liu, D. H. Liebenberg

Publications

Pulsed electric current sintering offers rapid sintering of many materials compared with hot press sintering. Earlier studies had demonstrated that neither sparks nor plasma formation occur in a typical apparatus such as Dr. Sinter™. Hitchcock et al. showed that electromagnetic radio frequency (rf) emission occurred during the pulsing current and suggested this emission was a relevant augmentation to the hot press sintering in addition to the current flow in the specimen. In this report the importance of rf emission in the sintering process is demonstrated and opportunities to further exploit this approach to improve the sintering process are suggested.

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Exchange Of Polar Lipids From Adults To Neonates In Daphnia Magna: Perturbations In Sphingomyelin Allocation By Dietary Lipids And Environmental Toxicants, Namrata Sengupta, Delaney C. Reardon, Patrick D. Gerard, William S. Baldwin May 2017

Exchange Of Polar Lipids From Adults To Neonates In Daphnia Magna: Perturbations In Sphingomyelin Allocation By Dietary Lipids And Environmental Toxicants, Namrata Sengupta, Delaney C. Reardon, Patrick D. Gerard, William S. Baldwin

Publications

Because xenosensing nuclear receptors are also lipid sensors that regulate lipid allocation, we hypothesized that toxicant-induced modulation of HR96 activity would alter lipid profiles and the balance between adult survival and neonate production following exposure in Daphnia magna. Adult daphnids were exposed to unsaturated fatty acid- and toxicant- activators or inhibitors of HR96 and later starved to test whether chemical exposure altered allocation toward survival or reproduction. The HR96 activators, linoleic acid and atrazine, decreased reproduction as expected with concomitant changes in the expression of HR96 regulated genes such as magro. The HR96 inhibitors, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and triclosan, …

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Effects Of Protein Corona On Iapp Amyloid Aggregation, Fibril Remodelling, And Cytotoxicity, Emily H. Pilkington, Yanting Xing, Bo Wang, Aleksandr Kakinen, Miaoyi Wang, Thomas P. Davis, Feng Ding, Pu Chen Ke May 2017

Effects Of Protein Corona On Iapp Amyloid Aggregation, Fibril Remodelling, And Cytotoxicity, Emily H. Pilkington, Yanting Xing, Bo Wang, Aleksandr Kakinen, Miaoyi Wang, Thomas P. Davis, Feng Ding, Pu Chen Ke

Publications

Aggregation of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP), a peptide hormone co-synthesized and co-stored with insulin in pancreatic cells and also co-secreted to the circulation, is associated with beta-cell death in type-2 diabetes (T2D). In T2D patients IAPP is found aggregating in the extracellular space of the islets of Langerhans. Although the physiological environments of these intra- and extra-cellular compartments and vascular systems significantly differ, the presence of proteins is ubiquitous but the effects of protein binding on IAPP aggregation are largely unknown. Here we examined the binding of freshly-dissolved IAPP as well as pre-formed fibrils with two homologous proteins, namely cationic …

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