Digital Commons Network^™

Reduced Metal Nanocatalysts For Selective Electrochemical Hydrogenation Of Biomass-Derived 5-(Hydroxymethyl)Furfural To 2, 5-Bis(Hydroxymethyl)Furan In Ambient Conditions, Baleeswaraiah Muchharla, Moumita Dikshit, Ujjwal Pokharel, Ravindranath Garimella, Adetayo Adedeji, Kapil Kumar, Wei Cao, Hani Elsayed-Ali, Kishor Kumar Sadasivuni, Naif Abdullah Al-Dhabi, Sandeep Kumar, Bijandra Kumar

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Selective electrochemical hydrogenation (ECH) of biomass-derived unsaturated organic molecules has enormous potential for sustainable chemical production. However, an efficient catalyst is essential to perform an ECH reaction consisting of superior product selectivity and a higher conversion rate. Here, we examined the ECH performance of reduced metal nanostructures i.e., reduced Ag (rAg) and reduced copper (rCu) prepared via electrochemical or thermal oxidation and electrochemical reduction process, respectively. Surface morphological analysis suggests formation of nanocoral and entangled nanowire structure formation for rAg and rCu catalysts. rCu exhibits slight enhancement in ECH reaction performance in comparison to the pristine Cu. However, the rAg …

Integrating Human Dimensions In Decadal-Scale Prediction For Marine Social Ecological Systems: Lighting The Grey Zone, Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Desiree Tommasi, Marion Gehlen, Eugene J. Murphy, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Francisco Bravo, Tyler D. Eddy, Mibu Fischer, Elizabeth Fulton, Mayya Gogina, Eileen Hofmann, Maya Ito, Sara Mynott, Kelly Ortega-Cisneros, Anna N. Osiecka, Mark R. Payne, Romeo Saldívar-Lucio, Kim J.N. Scherrer

CCPO Publications

The dynamics of marine systems at decadal scales are notoriously hard to predict-hence references to this timescale as the "grey zone" for ocean prediction. Nevertheless, decadal-scale prediction is a rapidly developing field with an increasing number of applications to help guide ocean stewardship and sustainable use of marine environments. Such predictions can provide industry and managers with information more suited to support planning and management over strategic timeframes, as compared to seasonal forecasts or long-term (century-scale) predictions. The most significant advances in capability for decadal-scale prediction over recent years have been for ocean physics and biogeochemistry, with some notable advances …

A Growth Model For Arctica Islandica: The Performance Of Tanaka And The Temptation Of Von Bertalanffy—Can The Two Coexist?, John M. Klinck, Eric N. Powell, Kathleen M. Hemeon, Jillian R. Sower, Daniel R. Hennen

CCPO Publications

Organisms increase in size over time (age) due to excess assimilation over metabolic (respiration) energy demands. Most organisms reach a maximum size with increasing age as gain and loss balance. The von Bertalanffy length-at-age relationship, which is commonly used in fishery assessment calculations, imposes such a maximum size. However, some fished species, such as ocean quahogs, Arctica islandica, are long lived and continue to grow at old age. The Tanaka age-at-length relationship has continued growth at old age, but is rarely used in stock assessment models. A modified form of the von Bertalanffy model is presented, which mimics the …

Elevation-Distributed Multistage Reverse Osmosis Desalination With Seawater Pumped Storage, Hani E. Elsayed-Ali

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A seawater reverse osmosis (RO) plant layout based on multistage RO with stages located at different elevations above sea level is described. The plant uses the weight of a seawater column from pumped storage as head pressure for RO (gravity-driven multistage RO) or to supplement high-pressure pumps used in RO (gravity-assisted multistage RO). The use of gravitational force reduces the specific energy for RO compared to using high-pressure pumps. By locating the RO stages at different elevations based on demand sites, the total specific energy consumption for RO and permeate transport to different elevations above sea level is reduced from …

Light Auditor: Power Measurement Can Tell Private Data Leakage Through Iot Covert Channels, Woosub Jung, Kailai Cui, Kenneth Koltermann, Junjie Wang, Chunsheng Xin, Gang Zhou

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Despite many conveniences of using IoT devices, they have suffered from various attacks due to their weak security. Besides well-known botnet attacks, IoT devices are vulnerable to recent covert-channel attacks. However, no study to date has considered these IoT covert-channel attacks. Among these attacks, researchers have demonstrated exfiltrating users' private data by exploiting the smart bulb's capability of infrared emission.

In this paper, we propose a power-auditing-based system that defends the data exfiltration attack on the smart bulb as a case study. We first implement this infrared-based attack in a lab environment. With a newly-collected power consumption dataset, we pre-process …

Transfer Learning Using Infrared And Optical Full Motion Video Data For Gender Classification, Alexander M. Glandon, Joe Zalameda, Khan M. Iftekharuddin, Gabor F. Fulop (Ed.), David Z. Ting (Ed.), Lucy L. Zheng (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This work is a review and extension of our ongoing research in human recognition analysis using multimodality motion sensor data. We review our work on hand crafted feature engineering for motion capture skeleton (MoCap) data, from the Air Force Research Lab for human gender followed by depth scan based skeleton extraction using LIDAR data from the Army Night Vision Lab for person identification. We then build on these works to demonstrate a transfer learning sensor fusion approach for using the larger MoCap and smaller LIDAR data for gender classification.

Long-Range Aceo Phenomena In Microfluidic Channel, Diganta Dutta, Keifer Smith, Xavier Palmer

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Microfluidic devices are increasingly utilized in numerous industries, including that of medicine, for their abilities to pump and mix fluid at a microscale. Within these devices, microchannels paired with microelectrodes enable the mixing and transportation of ionized fluid. The ionization process charges the microchannel and manipulates the fluid with an electric field. Although complex in operation at the microscale, microchannels within microfluidic devices are easy to produce and economical. This paper uses simulations to convey helpful insights into the analysis of electrokinetic microfluidic device phenomena. The simulations in this paper use the Navier–Stokes and Poisson Nernst–Planck equations solved using COMSOL …

Prediction Of Rapid Early Progression And Survival Risk With Pre-Radiation Mri In Who Grade 4 Glioma Patients, Walia Farzana, Mustafa M. Basree, Norou Diawara, Zeina Shboul, Sagel Dubey, Marie M. Lockheart, Mohamed Hamza, Joshua D. Palmer, Khan Iftekharuddin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Rapid early progression (REP) has been defined as increased nodular enhancement at the border of the resection cavity, the appearance of new lesions outside the resection cavity, or increased enhancement of the residual disease after surgery and before radiation. Patients with REP have worse survival compared to patients without REP (non-REP). Therefore, a reliable method for differentiating REP from non-REP is hypothesized to assist in personlized treatment planning. A potential approach is to use the radiomics and fractal texture features extracted from brain tumors to characterize morphological and physiological properties. We propose a random sampling-based ensemble classification model. The proposed …

Special Section Editorial: Artificial Intelligence For Medical Imaging In Clinical Practice, Claudia Mello-Thoms, Karen Drukker, Sian Taylor-Phillips, Khan Iftekharuddin, Marios Gavrielides

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This editorial introduces the JMI Special Section on Artificial Intelligence for Medical Imaging in Clinical Practice.

Commentary On Healthcare And Disruptive Innovation, Hilary Finch, Affia Abasi-Amefon, Woosub Jung, Lucas Potter, Xavier-Lewis Palmer

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Exploits of technology have been an issue in healthcare for many years. Many hospital systems have a problem with “disruptive innovation” when introducing new technology. Disruptive innovation is “an innovation that creates a new market by applying a different set of values, which ultimately overtakes an existing market” (Sensmeier, 2012). Modern healthcare systems are historically slow to accept new technological advancements. This may be because patient-based, provider-based, or industry-wide decisions are tough to implement, giving way to dire consequences. One potential consequence is that healthcare providers may not be able to provide the best possible care to patients. For example, …

Social-Engineering, Bio-Economies, And Nation-State Ontological Security: A Commentary, Brandon Griffin, Keitavius Alexander, Xavier-Lewis Palmer, Lucas Potter

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Biocybersecurity is an evolving discipline that aims to identify the gaps and risks associated with the convergence of Biology (the science of life and living organisms) and cybersecurity (the science, study, and theory of cyberspace and cybernetics) to protect the bioeconomy. The biological industries’ increased reliance on digitization, automation, and computing power has resulted in benefits for the scientific community, it has simultaneously multiplied the risk factors associated with industrial espionage and the protection of data both commercial and proprietary. The sensitive and potentially destructive power of this data and its access inherently poses a risk to the national and …

Digital Transformation, Applications, And Vulnerabilities In Maritime And Shipbuilding Ecosystems, Rafael Diaz, Katherine Smith

VMASC Publications

The evolution of maritime and shipbuilding supply chains toward digital ecosystems increases operational complexity and needs reliable communication and coordination. As labor and suppliers shift to digital platforms, interconnection, information transparency, and decentralized choices become ubiquitous. In this sense, Industry 4.0 enables "smart digitalization" in these environments. Many applications exist in two distinct but interrelated areas related to shipbuilding design and shipyard operational performance. New digital tools, such as virtual prototypes and augmented reality, begin to be used in the design phases, during the commissioning/quality control activities, and for training workers and crews. An application relates to using Virtual Prototypes …

Architectural Design Of A Blockchain-Enabled, Federated Learning Platform For Algorithmic Fairness In Predictive Health Care: Design Science Study, Xueping Liang, Juan Zhao, Yan Chen, Eranga Bandara, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

Background: Developing effective and generalizable predictive models is critical for disease prediction and clinical decision-making, often requiring diverse samples to mitigate population bias and address algorithmic fairness. However, a major challenge is to retrieve learning models across multiple institutions without bringing in local biases and inequity, while preserving individual patients' privacy at each site.

Objective: This study aims to understand the issues of bias and fairness in the machine learning process used in the predictive health care domain. We proposed a software architecture that integrates federated learning and blockchain to improve fairness, while maintaining acceptable prediction accuracy and minimizing overhead …

The Shortfalls Of Vulnerability Indexes For Public Health Decision-Making In The Face Of Emergent Crises: The Case Of Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake In Virginia, Lydia Cleveland Sa, Erika Frydenlund

VMASC Publications

Equitable and effective vaccine uptake is a key issue in addressing COVID-19. To achieve this, we must comprehensively characterize the context-specific socio-behavioral and structural determinants of vaccine uptake. However, to quickly focus public health interventions, state agencies and planners often rely on already existing indexes of "vulnerability." Many such "vulnerability indexes" exist and become benchmarks for targeting interventions in wide ranging scenarios, but they vary considerably in the factors and themes that they cover. Some are even uncritical of the use of the word "vulnerable," which should take on different meanings in different contexts. The objective of this study is …

Administrators' Capacity For Supporting Reform-Oriented Science Instruction: An Urban School District Case Study, Venicia Ferrell, Joanna K. Garner

Center for Educational Partnerships Publications

Secondary school administrators play a vital role as instructional leaders, but little is known about their knowledge of science practices and perceptions of strategies for supporting reform-oriented science instruction. This multiphase, mixed-methods Q-Methodology study explored administrators' perceptions of instructional leadership and, in particular, high-quality science instruction. After a concourse of 40 items was developed through a review of literature and an expert panel, n = 22 administrators from one urban school district completed a Q-sort and a post-sort questionnaire in which they commented on a lesson excerpt. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation was used to assimilate the participants into …

Population Variations Of Cheiloscopy Patterns: A Cross-Sectional Observation Pilot Study, Emily Smith Regan, Brenda T. Bradshaw, Ann M. Bruhn, Walter Melvin, Sinjini Sikdar

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Purpose Lip prints are unique and have potential for use as a human identifier. The purpose of this study was to observe possible cheiloscopy differences of individuals with and without parafunctional oral habits such as smoking, vaping, playing a wind instrument or using an asthma inhaler.

Methods This IRB approved blinded cross-sectional observation pilot study collected lip prints from sixty-six individuals, three of which were excluded. Participants cleansed their lips, then lipstick was applied to the vermillion zones of the upper and lower lips. Adhesive tape was applied to the lips and prints were transferred to white bond paper for …

Dental Hygiene And Dental Assistant Students' Simulated Dvi Radiographic Match Accuracy: A Pilot Study, Samantha C. Vest, Brenda T. Bradshaw, Marsha A. Voelker, Ann M. Bruhn, Tara L. Newcomb, Sinjini Sikdar

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Purpose Allied dental health care professionals have served on disaster victim identification (DVI) teams; however, the literature is void of statistical measures regarding transferable skills and disaster preparedness. The purpose of this study was to assess second year dental hygiene and dental assistant students’ match accuracy for simulated DVI radiographs and compare the match accuracy between the student groups.

Methods Five patient cases were chosen at random to retrospectively collect sets of digital bitewing radiographs from two time periods. The five retrospectively selected sets of images served as simulated antemortem (AM) and postmortem (PM) radiographs. A convenience sample of second …

Cheiloscopy Patterns In Individuals With And Without Parafunctional Oral Habits: A Cross-Sectional Observation Pilot Study, Emily Regan, Brenda Bradshaw, Ann Bruhn, Walter Melvin, Sinjini Sikdar

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Purpose

Lip prints are unique and have potential for use as a human identifier. The purpose of this study was to observe possible cheiloscopy differences of individuals with and without parafunctional oral habits such as smoking, vaping, playing a wind instrument or using an asthma inhaler.

Methods

This IRB approved blinded cross-sectional observation pilot study collected lip prints from 66 individuals, three of which were excluded. Participants cleansed their lips, then lipstick was applied to the vermillion zones of the upper and lower lips. Adhesive tape was applied to the lips and prints were transferred to white bond paper for …

The Importance Of Winter Dinoflagellate Blooms In Chesapeake Bay— A Missing Link In Bay Productivity, Nicole C. Millette, Sophie Clayton, Margaret R. Mulholland, Leah Gibala-Smith, Michael Lane

OES Faculty Publications

It is widely assumed that phytoplankton abundance and productivity decline during temperate winters because of low irradiance and temperatures. However, winter phytoplankton blooms commonly occur in temperate estuaries, but they are often undocumented because of reduced water quality monitoring in winter. The small body of in situ work that has been done on winter blooms suggests they can be of enormous consequence to ecosystems. However, because monitoring is often reduced or stopped altogether during winter, it is unclear how widespread these blooms are or how long they can last. We analyzed an over 30-year record of monthly phytoplankton monitoring samples …

Anti-American Stance In Turkey: A Twitter Case Study, Gowri Prathap, Alex Korb, Luke Palmieri, Ekrem Kaya, Saltuk Karahan, Hamdi Kavak

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

The availability of social media and biased actors exacerbated Anti-American and Anti-Western views to extremes. In this paper, we report our efforts in analyzing anti-American views on Twitter. We have collected over three years of Turkish tweets related to the US, translated them into English, and analyzed these tweets using various computational social science tools. We found that Turkish tweets related to the US are significantly negative, and emotions reflect disgust and anger. Furthermore, we found that the source of the negative views stems from political actors like Trump or Biden rather than general hatred. Our results shed light on …

Underwater Communication Acoustic Transducers: A Technology Review, Laila Shams, Tian-Bing Xu, Zhongqing Su (Ed.), Branko Glisic (Ed.), Maria Pina Limongelli (Ed.)

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper provides a comprehensive review on transducer technologies for underwater communications. The popularly used communication transducers, such as piezoelectric acoustic transducers, electromagnetic acoustic transducers, and acousto-optic devices are reviewed in detail. The reasons that common air communication technologies are invalid die to the differences between the media of air and water are addresses. Because of the abilities to overcome challenges the complexity of marine environments, piezoelectric acoustic transducers are playing the major underwater communication roles for science, surveillance, and Naval missions. The configuration and material properties of piezoelectric transducers effects on signal output power, beamwidth, amplitude, and other properties …

First Use Of A Longitudinally Polarized Target With Clas12, C. D. Keith, J. Brock, C. Carlin, T. Kageya, V. Lagerquist, J. Maxwell, P. Pandey

Physics Faculty Publications

Run Group C comprises eight experiments utilizing the CLAS12 detector system in Hall B at Jefferson Lab to study the multidimensional partonic structure of nucleons. The experiments scatter electrons from polarized protons and neutrons in samples of solid NH3 and ND3, dynamically polarized at a temperature of 1 K in a 5 T magnetic field. After a brief description of the target system, the current status of the target and preliminary results of its performance in the experiment are presented.

How Rocks Rock: The Processes That Shape Our World, Jennifer Harrison

Lesson Plans

Have you ever thought about how the rocks in your driveway formed? Or the sand on your beach? How about the diamond in a ring or the charcoal in a grill?

All earthen material is subject to forces that impact its properties, from where we find it, how its structure is made and how it behaves under external pressures. Rocks are defined as any inorganic material found in the natural world (meaning not living material). There are 3 types of rock, and where and how they form is important in their classifications. They are subject to geological processes as well …

Preparing Students To Solve Challenges Related To A Changing Climate, Mujde Erten-Unal, Dalya Ismael, Carol L. Considine

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The National Academy of Engineering has identified restoring and improving urban infrastructure as one of the grand challenges for engineering. Urban coastal communities are particularly at risk as their infrastructure is experiencing frequent inundation related to climate change impacts. Rising sea levels in coastal communities create backflow into stormwater systems and deplete capacity. In addition, the increase in rainfall intensity, duration, and frequency related to climate change create additional challenges for aging infrastructure systems. To prepare students to solve these challenges, the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Civil Engineering Technology (CET) programs at Old Dominion University (ODU) are introducing …

Climate And Health: Impact Of Climate Education On Nursing Student Knowledge, Confidence, And Intent To Act, Beth Tremblay, Janice Hawkins

Ellmer School of Nursing Faculty Publications

Background: Because climate change negatively impacts human health, nurses need skills to mitigate climate change and nurse educators need effective educational strategies to teach climate change content in undergraduate nursing programs. To address this need, we embedded an energy efficiency treasure hunt and Climate for Health Ambassador Training into our prelicensure nursing curricula.

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of these educational activities on self-reported knowledge, confidence, and intent to engage in climate action.

Methods: A quasi-experimental one-group posttest design examined the effectiveness of 2 educational interventions on increasing knowledge, confidence, and intent to engage in climate action. A convenience sample …

Ict Security Tools And Techniques Among Higher Education Institutions: A Critical Review, Miko Nuñez, Xavier-Lewis Palmer, Lucas Potter, Chris Jordan Aliac, Lemuel Clark Velasco

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly relying on digital technologies for classroom and organizational management, but this puts them at higher risk for information and communication (ICT security attacks. Recent studies show that HEIs have experienced more security breaches in ICT security composed of both cybersecurity an information security. A literature review was conducted to identify common ICT security practices in HEIs over the last decade. 11 journal articles were profiled and analyzed, revealing threats to HEIs’ security and protective measures in terms of organizational security, technological security, physical security, and standards and frameworks. Security tools and techniques were grouped …

Expanding Our Grasp Of Two-Component Signaling In Clostridioides Difficile, Orlando Berumen Alvarez, Erin B. Purcell

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The intestinal pathogen Clostridioides difficile encodes roughly 50 TCS, but very few have been characterized in terms of their activating signals or their regulatory roles. A. G. Pannullo, B. R. Zbylicki, and C. D. Ellermeier (J Bacteriol 205:e00164-23, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.00164-23) have identified both for the novel C. difficile TCD DraRS. DraRS responds to antibiotics that target lipid-II molecules in the bacterial cell envelope, and regulates the production of a novel glycolipid necessary for bacitracin and daptomycin resistance in C. difficile.

The Impact Of Climate Change On Environmental Sustainability And Human Mortality, Xingzhi Mara Chen, Andrew Sharma, Hua Liu

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Climate dictates the critical aspects of human environmental conditions. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions due to human-induced climate change have alarmingly increased. Consequently, climate change directly affects environmental sustainability and human mortality in the short term and creates prolonged and complicated long-term indirect grave risks. This paper examines three-level environmental impact risks associated with climate change on human mortality. It proposes a conceptual framework for developing an empirical event-based human mortality database related to climate change and communication strategies to enhance global environmental adaptation, resilience, and sustainability.

Disparate Population And Holobiont Structure Of Pocilloporid Corals Across The Red Sea Gradient Demonstrate Species-Specific Evolutionary Trajectories, Carol Buitrago-López, Anny Cárdenas, Benjamin C.C. Hume, Thierry Gosselin, Fabian Staubach, Manuel Aranda, Daniel J. Barshis, Yvonne Sawall, Christian R. Voolstra

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Global habitat degradation heightens the need to better understand patterns of genetic connectivity and diversity of marine biota across geographical ranges to guide conservation efforts. Corals across the Red Sea are subject to pronounced environmental differences, but studies so far suggest that animal populations are largely connected, excepting evidence for a genetic break between the northern-central and southern regions. Here, we investigated population structure and holobiont assemblage of two common pocilloporid corals, Pocillopora verrucosa and Stylophora pistillata, across the Red Sea. We found little evidence for population differentiation in P. verrucosa, except for the southernmost site. Conversely, S. …

Corals At The Edge Of Environmental Limits: A New Conceptual Framework To Re-Define Marginal And Extreme Coral Communities, Verena Schoepf, Justin H. Baumann, Daniel J. Barshis, Nicola K. Browne, Emma F. Camp, Steeve Comeau, Christopher E. Cornwall, Héctor M. Guzmán, Bernhard Riegl, Riccardo Rodolfo-Metalpa, Brigitte Sommer

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The worldwide decline of coral reefs has renewed interest in coral communities at the edge of environmental limits because they have the potential to serve as resilience hotspots and climate change refugia, and can provide insights into how coral reefs might function in future ocean conditions. These coral communities are often referred to as marginal or extreme but few definitions exist and usage of these terms has therefore been inconsistent. This creates significant challenges for categorising these often poorly studied communities and synthesising data across locations. Furthermore, this impedes our understanding of how coral communities can persist at the edge …