Digital Commons Network^™

Confessions Of A Former Vision Zero Coordinator, Maria Cantrell

Purdue Road School

Maria Cantrell, P.E. served as the City of Columbus Vision Zero Coordinator from 2019 to 2023. She lead the development of the City’s multiagency plan and program intended to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes. Learn about what efforts and strategies worked, what didn’t, and a few pointers picked up along the way.

Elevating Equity In Public Engagement, Natalie Garrett, Scott Manning

Purdue Road School

Public engagement is the foundation of our work. For engagement to be meaningful and equitable, agencies must meet people where they are and connect with them using tools and tactics that allow all voices to be heard. Attendees will learn about the development of the INDOT Public Engagement Guide, which leverages socioeconomic, demographic, and social equity data to help the agency make data-informed decisions about how to best reach the people it serves.

Burnout: How To Spot It And Take Action, Geri Boyer

Purdue Road School

Every project’s goal is to meet or exceed scope, schedule, and budget. However, despite excellent project management, employee burnout can hinder this objective. Burnout causes employees to lose focus, make mistakes, and take longer to finish tasks. Burnout is also terrible for your short and long-term well-being. This presentation will identify early indicators of burnout and offer a recovery plan that can help employees recover from burnout and prevent it from occurring again.

Resolving The Nanoscale Structure Of Β-Sheet Peptide Self-Assemblies Using Single-Molecule Orientation–Localization Microscopy, Weiyan Zhou, Conor L. O'Neill, Tianben Ding, Oumeng Zhang, Jai S. Rudra, Matthew D. Lew

Electrical & Systems Engineering Publications and Presentations

Synthetic peptides that self-assemble into cross-β fibrils are versatile building blocks for engineered biomaterials due to their modularity and biocompatibility, but their structural and morphological similarities to amyloid species have been a long-standing concern for their translation. Further, their polymorphs are difficult to characterize using spectroscopic and imaging techniques that rely on ensemble averaging to achieve high resolution. Here, we utilize Nile red (NR), an amyloidophilic fluorogenic probe, and single-molecule orientation-localization microscopy (SMOLM) to characterize fibrils formed by the designed amphipathic enantiomers KFE8^L and KFE8^D and the pathological amyloid-beta peptide Aβ42. Importantly, NR SMOLM reveals the helical (bilayer) …

Miniature Optical Fiber Fabry-Perot Interferometer Based On A Single-Crystal Metal-Organic Framework For The Detection And Quantification Of Benzene And Ethanol At Low Concentrations In Nitrogen Gas, Farhan Mumtaz, Bohong Zhang, Narasimman Subramaniyam, Mohammad Roman, Peter Holtmann, Abhishek Prakash Hungund, Ryan O'Malley, Thomas M. Spudich, Michael Davis, Rex E. Gerald, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study reports for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a real-time detection of ultralow-concentration chemical gases using fiber-optic technology, combining a miniaturized Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The sensor consists of a short and thick-walled silica capillary segment spliced to a lead-in single-mode fiber (SMF), housing a tiny single crystal of HKUST-1 MOF, imparting chemo selectivity features. Ethanol and benzene gases were tested, resulting in a shift in the FPI interference signal. The sensor demonstrated high sensitivity, detecting ethanol gas concentrations (EGCs) with a sensitivity of 0.428 nm/ppm between 24.9 and 40.11 ppm and …

Purple Line Bus Rapid Transit Project Overview, Michael Schneider, Rachel Wilson

Purdue Road School

The Purple Line will be Indianapolis’ second Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Line, opening for revenue service in the fall of 2024. It will provide rapid transit service along 15.2 miles of E. 38th Street and Post Road, between Indianapolis and Lawrence, for a total cost of $188 million. This presentation will provide an overview of IndyGo’s overall capital program with a focus on the Purple Line project—its unique design features and successful project delivery—from design through construction.

Connecting Tsmo To The Tmc To Motorists, Drew Sorenson, John Lablonde

Purdue Road School

Join us as we connect the exciting world of Transportation System Management and Operations (TSMO) along I-465 in southeast Indianapolis to the Traffic Management Center (TMC) and the traveling public. We will share how the TSMO strategies of ramp metering and variable speed limit signs are connected and monitored at the INDOT TMC in real-time and how that information goes to the traveling public to improve safety and mobility on Indy’s southeast side.

County Bridge Preservation: Locally Funded Vs. Federally Funded, Kevin Russel, Nick Parr, Jonathan Olson

Purdue Road School

This presentation will discuss the previous federal aid call for bridge preventative maintenance projects, the INDOT Asset Management Plan format vs. CCMG, how the federal aid call was cancelled, and how Harrison County and Boone County moved projects forward with 100% local funds. We will also explore how far counties have come on asset management with pavements, and the continuing need adopt preventative maintenance on bridges. We will conclude with an overview of how these projects can be delivered locally vs. with federal funds.

Indianapolis White River Innovation District: Bot Success Story, Cassie Reiter, John Bowen, Shannon Killion

Purdue Road School

When Elanco announced their headquarters will be at the former GM stamping plant site in Indianapolis, Indy DPW, IEDC and their partners needed to not only design roadway infrastructure, but also all-new utility infrastructure and a new bridge across the White River. When the build-operate-transfer procurement process became available for use by Indianapolis, the design teams and owners embraced the opportunity for a collaborative construction process on this transformative project.

Stormwater Management In Flat Floodplains, Kari Mackenbach

Purdue Road School

Communities across the Midwest have experienced chronic stormwater drainage and increased flooding of roadways and structures. While adequate storm drainage seems to be lacking in many rural communities, steps can be taken to address some of the nuisance flooding that plagues many regions. Walnut Township commissioned a stormwater study that included the development of a 2D model to understand and mitigate flooding in their area.

Applied Ergonomics, Yunfeng Chen, Jiansong Zhang

Purdue Road School

There are approximately 2.3 million work-related injuries and over 6,000 fatalities every year. In 2020, half of these injuries happened in the construction industry. Our research explored the three main causes of work-related injuries, identified high-risk activities and the root causes of injuries in those activities, evaluated current safety practices in INDOT, proposed ergonomically effective technologies, and conducted experiments to evaluate if those ergonomic interventions can improve workers’ health and safety. Join us for a discussion.

Single And Dual Cell Encapsulation Via Liquid Core Hydrogels Using Pico Injection, Jade Houston

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this project, a comprehensive microfluidic device, along with several interdependent subsystems, was designed and developed in SolidWorks, leveraging a combination of 3D resin printing with biocompatible resin and micromachining with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). The microfluidics chip integrated both passive and active components to facilitate its primary function: dual cell encapsulation via liquid core sodium alginate hydrogel droplets.

Integral to the microfluidics chip design were key features including a 5-convolution Archimedes spiral for particle sorting, a flow focusing junction for droplet generation, and a pico injector for injecting additional cells into passing droplets via the manipulation of an electric field.

An …

Development Of A Plant Growth And Health Monitoring System Using Imaging And Sensor Array Information For Cubesat Applications, Kat-Kim Phan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Space exploration has been a topic of interest in the scientific community, such as the planned missions to Mars. To accomplish this would require being able to provide astronauts with a steady supply of food beyond freeze-dried foods leading to the need to grow food in space. Although this is a topic still being investigated, the CubeSat platform opens the possibility of carrying out studies on plant growth under more strenuous space conditions unlike that in the International Space Station (ISS). Developing a plant-focused mission for a CubeSat, though, entails being able to develop a system to sustain plant life …

03.11.2024 Orsp Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

PAPPG Updates, J. R. Love, William Magee Institute grant

Assessing The Performance Of Jatropha Curcas And Moringa Oleifera Conditioners Towards Improving Fecal Sludge Treatment For Agricultural Purpose, Doglas Benjamin1

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

been proposed as alternative solutions to replace chemical conditioners for fecal sludge (FS) treatment. However, their effectiveness in treating FS for safe agricultural use has not been thoroughly evaluated. The aim of this study was to assess the suitability of FS treated with Moringa oleifera and Jatropha Curcas conditioners for agricultural use. Physicochemical parameters Indexes, salinity and sodium hazard levels (Wilcox Diagram analysis), and removal efficiency of nutrients and pathogens were evaluated. Qualitative experiments were conducted using dewatering treatment chambers containing untreated control FS samples, FS treated with Moringa oleifera and Jatropha Curcas conditioners at the University of Dar es …

After A Wildfire: Water Safety Considerations For Agriculture Water Systems, Andrew J. Whelton, P. Coelho

Resilience to Emergencies and Disasters

No abstract provided.

Development Of Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (Qsars) For Predicting The Aggregation Of Tio2 Nanoparticles Under Favorable Conditions, Jaewoong Lee

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study developed multi-linear regression (MLR) quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) to predict n-TiO₂ aggregation in the presence of high concentrations of representative emerging organic contaminants (EOCs), which presented favorable conditions to interaction with n-TiO₂. The largest diameter change (Δ 517 nm at 0 h and Δ 1164 nm at 12 h) of n-TiO₂ was observed by estrone, while the smallest diameter change (Δ -114 nm at 0 h and – 4 nm at 12 h) was observed by lincomycin during experimental periods. In addition, the zeta potential changes of n-TiO₂ were …

Feature Engineering And Supervised Machine Learning To Forecast Biogas Production During Municipal Anaerobic Co-Digestion, Hunter W. Schroer, Craig L. Just

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Municipalities with excess anaerobic digestion capacity accept offsite wastes for co-digestion to meet sustainability goals and create more biogas. Despite the benefits inherent to co-digestion, the temporal and compositional heterogeneity of external waste streams creates operational challenges that lead to upsets or conservative co-digestion. Given the complex microbial bioprocesses occurring during anaerobic digestion, prediction and modeling of the outcomes can be challenging, and machine learning has the potential to improve understanding and control of co-digestion processes. Biogas flows are a surrogate for process health, and here, we predicted biogas production from historical data collected by a water resource recovery facility …

Highly Efficient Dopamine Sensing With A Carbon Nanotube-Encapsulated Metal Chalcogenide Nanostructure, Harish Singh, Jiandong Wu, Kurt A.L. Lagemann, Manashi Nath

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Carbon nanotube-encapsulated nickel selenide composite nanostructures were used as nonenzymatic electrochemical sensors for dopamine detection. These composite nanostructures were synthesized through a simple, one-step, and environmentally friendly chemical vapor deposition method, wherein the CNTs were formed in situ from pyrolysis of a carbon-rich metallo-organic precursor. The composition and morphology of these hybrid NiSe2-filled carbon nanostructures were confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction, Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images. Electrochemical tests demonstrated that the as-synthesized hybrid nanostructures exhibited outstanding electrocatalytic performance toward dopamine oxidation, with a high sensitivity of 19.62 μA μM-1 cm-2, low detection limit, broad linear …

Evaluating The Environmental Impacts Of U.S. Historical Oil Spill Incidents, Yiming Liu, Hua Cai

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

Exposure to risks associated with the production and usage of products, particularly oil, poses significant threats to both ecological systems and human health. Notable examples include the Gulf War Oil Spill (1991) and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2010). However, numerous smaller-scale oil spills, which collectively contribute to substantial oil releases, often remain overlooked. To fill this gap, our study first developed a detailed oil spill incidents database, covering 1967 to 2023. We quantified the released amount (RA) of oil spills recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Subsequently, we utilized life cycle impact indicators in ReCiPe to …

Characterizing Chemistry And Microbiomes During Continuous Anaerobic Codigestion Of Organics And Cattle Manure Digestate, Emily V. Schmitz, Hunter W. Schroer, Timothy E. Mattes, Craig L. Just

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We characterized chemical and microbial responses to changes in the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N) and organic loading rate (OLR) during anaerobic codigestion (ACoD) of cattle manure digestate mixed with industrial organics. C:Ns of 25 and 35, both operating at OLRs ≤ 4 gVS L-1 d-1, sustained methane production averages of 0.36 ± 0.03 L gVS-1 d-1 and 0.32 ± 0.05 L gVS-1 d-1, respectively, throughout a 15-day period. Using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing coupled with PICRUSt2, taxonomy and predicted gene abundances were mapped to the major ACoD stages. C:N (25, 35) and the OLR (2, 4 gVS L-1 d-1) had minimal …

Predicting The Water Situation In Jordan Using Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (Arima) Model, Shahed Al-Khateeb

Jerash for Research and Studies Journal مجلة جرش للبحوث والدراسات

Countries' water security is inextricably related to their economic position. Jordan is one of the world's five poorest countries regarding water resources. Climate change and water scarcity are threatening Jordan's economic growth and food security.

The objectives of the study are to use a statistical artificial intelligence model, which is called the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model to predict water productivity in Jordan and the world for the year 2021-2026, based on a real dataset from World Development Indicators from the World Bank. The study also aims to predict the total per capita share of fresh water based on the …

Composting Reduces The Risks Of Resistome In Beef Cattle Manure At The Transcriptional Level, Yuepeng Sun, Zachery R. Staley, Bryan Woodbury, Jean-Jack Riethoven, Xu Li

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Transcriptomic evidence is needed to determine whether composting is more effective than conventional stockpiling in mitigating the risk of resistome in livestock manure. The objective of this study is to compare composting and stockpiling for their effectiveness in reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance in beef cattle manure. Samples collected from the center and the surface of full-size manure stockpiling and composting piles were subject to metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses. While the distinctions in resistome between stockpiled and composted manure were not evident at the DNA level, the advantages of composting over stockpiling were evident at the transcriptomic level in …

Temporospatial Deep Learning Strategies For Prediction Of Disease Progression In Radiology, John D. Mayfield

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the fields of machine learning and medicine are deeply rooted in axiomatic scientific principles, there is an element of art that makes the practice imperfect, yet innately human. As the two fields have seen the greatest overlap in their collective history, there remains a chasm between them in terms of practical translation for the patients who desire and deserve personalized medicine. As presented in this dissertation, I and my collaborators have contributed to the groundwork for future exploration of predicting disease progression by identifying signals within sequential medical imaging to provide a temporospatial relationship upon which we can make …

Assessment Of Educational Facilities In Osogobo Metropolis Nigeria, Dele S. Ogundahunsi, Martins B. Gasu, Samuel B. Adedotun, Olayiwola Olayode, Akintayo O. Ojo, Christiana Olayode

CSID Journal of Infrastructure Development

This study assessed educational facilities in the Osogbo metropolis, Nigeria, aiming to evaluate the available educational facilities, examine student and staff satisfaction levels, and analyze their availability across schools in the area. The sample consisted of 476 schools, from which 73 were randomly selected. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to sample 1,863 pupils/students and 87 teachers for questionnaire administration, complemented by observation. Data were analyzed using Mean Weighted Average, Summation of Weighted Value, and Analysis of Variance. Findings showed that 63.4% of primary schools had the listed facilities, while 75% of secondary schools reported 81% availability. Public primary school …

Western Science And Eastern Zen To Seek The Origin Of Truth: Philosophical Background Of Scale Modeling, Kozo Saito

Progress in Scale Modeling, an International Journal

This article was written to introduce philosophical background of scale modeling, where Zen philosophy was applied to overcome the limitation of logical thinking and hypotheses-driven deductive science. Three specific reasons are as follows. The first is related to the law approach in scale modeling; it uses the kufu principle, originated in Zen Buddhism, together with the other three scientific methods: experimental, theoretical, and computational. The second reason is because scale modeling seeks relativistic understanding by attempting to realize similarity; the concept is closer to Eastern philosophy rather than absolute understanding cultivated by deductive science. The third is in the educational …

03.04.2024 Orsp Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

ORSP On-demand Training for PIs, Liz Williamson spotlight, Grant for Studying Clean Energy Production Awarded, NIH Simplified Peer Review Framework.

How Can Generative Ai (Genai) Enhance Or Hinder Qualitative Studies? A Critical Appraisal From South Asia, Nepal, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

Qualitative researchers can benefit from using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), such as different versions of ChatGPT—GPT-3.5 or GPT-4, Google Bard—now renamed as a Gemini, and Bing Chat—now renamed as a Copilot, in their studies. The scientific community has used artificial intelligence (AI) tools in various ways. However, using GenAI has generated concerns regarding potential research unreliability, bias, and unethical outcomes in GenAI-generated research results. Considering these concerns, the purpose of this commentary is to review the current use of GenAI in qualitative research, including its strengths, limitations, and ethical dilemmas from the perspective of critical appraisal from South Asia, Nepal. …

Development Of An Integrated Workflow For Nucleosome Modeling And Simulations, Ran Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

Nucleosomes are the building blocks of eukaryotic genomes and thus fundamental to to all genetic processes. Any protein or drug that binds DNA must either cooperate or compete with nucleosomes. Given that a nucleosome contains 147 base pairs of DNA, there are approximately 4^147 or 10^88 possible sequences for a single nucleosome. Exhaustive studies are not possible. However, genome wide association studies can identify individual nucleosomes of interest to a specific mechanism, and today's supercomputers enable comparative simulation studies of 10s to 100s of nucleosomes. The goal of this thesis is to develop and present and end-to-end workflow that serves …

Selective Targeting Of Microglia By Quantum Dots And Green Synthesis Of Metal Organic Biohybrids; Applications In Dynamic Cell And Assay Systems, Navya Uppu

Doctoral Dissertations

Neurological disorders are the leading cause of physical and cognitive disability across the globe, currently affecting approximately 15% of the worldwide population. Part of the glioma microenvironment are microglia, resident immune cells of the CNS that were thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of diverse neurodegenerative diseases. Though it remains uncertain what triggers microglial activation in these disorders, targeting and tracking microglial functions using nanotools like Quantum Dots (QDs) could help us elucidate them in such neurological diseases. This research focuses on the comparative study of different QDs formulations and their selective uptake by brain microglia in primary cultures …