Digital Commons Network^™

A Comprehensive Analysis Of How Pet Ownership Impacts The Experiences And Well-Being Of Homeless Individuals, Alexandra G. Watson, Nancy A. Dreschel

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

This paper conducts a thorough examination of the relationship between pet ownership and homelessness. In a context where homelessness in the United States is a growing concern, we delve into an aspect that has received little attention: how homeless individuals and their pets interact. Through an extensive review of existing research, this paper aims to uncover the demographic characteristics of homeless pet owners and understand the significant effects of this bond. Our findings reveal that homeless individuals with pets come from diverse backgrounds, including various ages, genders, and racial backgrounds. Their pets provide not only companionship but also emotional support, …

Feasibility Of Eeg Based Detection Of Ischemic Stroke: Studies In A Simple Computational Model, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Working Papers

Objective: To explore quantitatively, using streamlined mathematics, how transmembrane potential differences across cell bodies of individual cortical neurons could act to produce the skin surface potentials of the electroencephalogram (EEG), and how ischemic stroke might be detected using EEGs in prehospital settings. Methods: From fundamental principles of electrostatics, anatomy, and physiology, one can characterize the strength of apparent dipoles created during activation of the cell bodies of individual cortical neurons. The transient dipole strength in a cortical neuron depends upon the size and surface area of its cell body, its capacitance, and the difference in transmembrane electrical potentials appearing across …

Learning By Evaluating: An Exploration Of Optimizing Design-Based Instruction, Scott Thorne, Nathan Mentzer, Greg J. Strimel, Scott R. Bartholomew, Jason A. Ware

School of Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Learning by Evaluating (LbE) is an instructional approach that involves students making comparative judgements of pairs of artifacts, such as student work, portfolios, prototypes, or curated images related to a topic of instruction to enhance critical thinking and decision-making skills. Situated as a primer for learning, the efficacy of LbE stems from actively engaging students in the evaluation process, scaffolding their learning, fostering self-reflection in decision-making, and facilitating the transfer of acquired skills and concepts to academic contexts and project work. However, there is an opportunity to gain deeper insights into classroom integration of LbE and the factors that may …

Ai-Based Concept Inventories: Using Cognitive Diagnostic Computer Adaptivetesting In Lasso For Classroom Assessment, Jason Morphew, Amirreza Mehrabi, Ben Van Dusen, Jayson Nissen

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Research-based concept inventories, such as the Force Concept Inventory, the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation, or the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey have played a pivotal role in designing and evaluating instruction in introductory physics courses. While these concept inventories have helped identify inequity in course instruction and have led to improved pedagogical methods, concerns about their ability to provide actionable feedback for formative assessment remain. In addition, using the same questions for both a pre- and a post- assessment leaves the potential for students learning the correct answers without undergoing conceptual change. To address these issues, we designed a …

Assessing Effects Of Climate And Technology Uncertainties In Large Natural Resource Allocation Problems, Jevgenijs Steinbuks, Yongyang Cai, Jonas Jaegermeyr, Thomas W. Hertel

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

The productivity of the world's natural resources is critically dependent on a variety of highly uncertain factors, which obscure individual investors and governments that seek to make long-term, sometimes irreversible, investments in their exploration and utilization. These dynamic considerations are poorly represented in disaggregated resource models, as incorporating uncertainty into large-dimensional problems presents a challenging computational task. In this paper, we apply the SCEQ algorithm (Cai and Judd, 2023) to solve a large-scale dynamic stochastic global land resource use problem with stochastic crop yields due to adverse climate impacts and limits on further technological progress. For the same model parameters …

A Modelled Estimate Of Food Access Within Countries Shows That Inequality Within Countries Has Increased Despite Rising Equality Between Countries, Juan Diego Martinez, Navin Ramankutty, Zia Mehrabi, Tom W. Hertel

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Global food calorie supply per person is more than 2900 kcal per day on average, but we have failed to ensure equitable access to these calories. Yet how uneven food access is within countries has remained poorly understood, as has the progress made over the past five decades on closing the access gap. Using publicly available data, we developed a theoretically-grounded statistical model to estimate the cross-national relationship between average per capita expenditure and per capita food availability and used this to estimate within-country access to food for income deciles in 135 countries. We find that, from 1961 to 2013, …

“Safer To Plant Corn And Beans”? Navigating The Challenges And Opportunities Of Agricultural Diversification In The U.S. Corn Belt, Rebecca Traldi, Lauren Asprooth, Emily M. Usher, Kristin Floress, J. Gordon Arbuckle, Megan Baskerville, Sarah P. Church, Ken Genskow, Seth Harden, Elizabeth Maynard, Aaron Thompson, Ariana P. Torres, Linda Stalker Prokopy

Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture Faculty Publications

Agricultural diversification in the Midwestern Corn Belt has the potential to improve socioeconomic and environmental outcomes by buffering farmers from environmental and economic shocks and improving soil, water, and air quality. However, complex barriers related to agricultural markets, individual behavior, social norms, and government policy constrain diversification in this region. This study examines farmer perspectives regarding the challenges and opportunities for both corn and soybean production and agricultural diversification strategies. We analyze data from 20 focus groups with 100 participants conducted in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa through a combined inductive and deductive approach, drawing upon interpretive grounded theory. Our results …

New Paths In Jewish And Religious Studies: Essays In Honor Of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, Glenn Dynner, Susannah Heschel, Shaul Magid

Purdue University Press Books

The work of Elliot R. Wolfson has profoundly influenced the fields of Jewish studies as well as philosophy and religion more broadly. His radically new approaches have created pioneering ways of analyzing texts and thinking about religion through the lens of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. The contributors to New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies: Essays in Honor of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, many of whom are internationally renowned scholars, hearken from diverse fields. Each has learned from and collaborated with Wolfson as student or colleague, and each has expanded the new scholarly directions initiated by Wolfson’s groundbreaking …

Development Of Next Generation Phage Applications Using -Omics And Machine Learning, Lauren Novak, Kari Clase

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

Phages are viruses that infect bacteria and use their host machinery to replicate. They are one of the most ubiquitous and diverse biological entities in the biosphere with a long evolutionary history. There is renewed interest in phage therapeutics due to increased levels of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and decreased numbers of newly developed antibiotics. Phages also have applications in food safety, water quality, biocontrol, vaccines, and the global nutrient cycle. Both bacteria and phages employ internal and external self-defense strategies to outcompete one another which in turn drives genomic evolution. While many phage genomes have been sequenced and annotated, proteomic …

Continual Improvement In Laboratory Quality Management System Of A Regulatory Laboratory In West Africa, Nkem C. Ifudu, Zita Ekeocha, Stephen Byrn, Kari Clase

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

Medicines quality monitoring and quality control are essential components required to deliver health value to the people. These will also improve access to quality assured medical products that are safe for intended use. Quality Control Laboratories play an essential role in strengthening health systems in West Africa. Their role in providing excellent testing services that ensures correctness, trust, and consistency of laboratory test results is key in assuring product quality. Improving the laboratory Quality Management System (QMS) will require concerted and coordinated efforts by all interested parties in establishing relevant, continual improvement plans/strategies that will sustain and improve all components …

Reducing The Burden Of Inspections On Pharmaceutical Manufacturers By Regulatory Authorities In Benin City, Nigeria, Joseph Ali, Esther Itua, Zita Ekeocha, Kari Clase, Stephen Byrn

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

In Nigeria, pharmaceutical manufacturing is regulated by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The PCN Act gave the regulatory authority the mandate to register all pharmaceutical premises. With the later creation of NAFDAC to regulate drugs, comes the dual regulatory authority on those premises by both government agencies who carry out Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspections in the process of carrying out their mandates. Dual regulatory authority and inspections puts a considerable inspection burden on the manufacturers and even the regulators. This study examined the inspection tools used …

Gmp In The Qc Laboratory And Analytical Method Validation, Stephen Byrn, Zita Ekeocha, Martin Hynes, Roger Ongosi, Kari Clase

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

This document aims to provide suggestions for course content to the team designing a GMP QC laboratory and analytical method validation course. This course is a 30-minute high-level overview that is part of the USP GMP course.

Investigating Using R, S, And X Charts In Monitoring Performance Of Laboratory Equipment, Mercy Okezue, Stella Ebonine, Amoreen Naluyima, Emeka Akobundu, William Boogere-Wakaalo, Lasisi Olayonu, Rhoda Olayonu, Emanuel Akpan, Abubakar Umar, Kikundwa Emma Mbabazi, Nkem C. Ifudu, Andrew Mukungu, Zita Ekeocha, Stephen Byrn, Kari Clase

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

Statistical process controls are often used for monitoring processes to identify special causes of variation. Signals generated can assess the operational status of equipment and indicate when corrective action is needed. Control charts are a major tool in statistical process controls used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. It uses graphs as a statistical means of expressing the quality of a process or product. Quality improvement is inversely proportional to variability so that decreasing variabilities in product or process increases quality. Medicines testing laboratories employ various equipment to conduct analysis and generate reports to confirm a sample’s disposition. To ensure data integrity, laboratory …

Evaluating Active Content In Chloramphenicol Ophthalmic Solutions Available In A Low-Resource Setting: A Case Study, Mercy Okezue, Daniel T. Smith, Kelvin Musaya, Nsabo Kihore, Zita Ekeocha, Timothy Nowak, Susan Roth, Mikyung Lee, Michael Stepanovic Jr., Holly L. Maize, Adebola Adekoya, Stephen Byrn, Kari Clase

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

The Chloramphenicol molecule is not stable at elevated temperatures. The eye drop preparations require cold storage and this is a challenge for low-income countries. The study assessed the stability of chloramphenicol products likely stored and transported outside the recommended refrigeration temperatures. Twenty-four Chloramphenicol eye drops were randomly sampled from local medicine stores and pharmacies in Tanzania. High-pressure-liquid chromatography was used to conduct laboratory analysis to determine the content of chloramphenicol in the products. The results indicated the sampled products contained between 69.0% to 87.0% of the active ingredient; outside the Pharmacopeia limits (90.0% - 130.0%) for Chloramphenicol ophthalmic solutions. It …

Product Information Report: Gentamicin, Stephen Byrn, Kari Clase, Zita Ekeocha, Farai Masekela

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

Gentamicin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic. It is a bactericidal inhibitor of protein synthesis. It is primarily used to treat infections caused by aerobic gram-negative bacteria. Aminoglycosides are complex small molecules containing aminosugars linked to an aminocyclitol ring by glycosidic bonds.

This product information report provides expert scientific analysis of the physicochemical, biopharmaceutics, and toxicological properties, analytical, formulation, and manufacturing of gentamicin. It is expected that the PIR will provide critical information and guidance to manufacturers, as well as stakeholders concerned with access and supply of priority essential medicines.

Improving Market Access With A Lean Approach To Quality, Bri'an Bigirwa, Zita Ekeocha, Stephen Byrn, Kari Clase

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

The veterinary vaccine market in Africa is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13-15%, compared to the US at 4-6% and Europe at 5-7%. In Uganda, and its neighboring countries, the livestock sector is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. BRENTEC is a young start-up company that is keen to enter this growing market. To be competitive in this market, the company has to invest in robust quality systems that enable the manufacturing of high-quality products while keeping production costs low. This has not been the case with the launch of its …

A Case Study On Completing Work In An Organizational Setting: Getting What You Need From Colleagues, Stacy Hoch, Stephen Byrn, Kari Clase

The Proceedings of the BIRS Community

Analyses in this article are based on data contained in proprietary databases accessible to the author.

Completing complex work in an organizational setting often relies on the cooperation and action of colleagues working together. These can be individuals on the same work team collaborating to accomplish a task, or multiple people working across various groups in an organization for one purpose. In doing so, it is critical that workers complete their work task within the required timeframe in order to meet project timelines. On projects such as these, one person can become a bottleneck that slows down activities downstream. This …

Kaupa Letters: Volume 11, Issue 5, Korean American University Professors Association

KAUPA Letters

No abstract provided.

04 - Finding Wikipedia Sources, Kristin B. Leaman, E. C. Mcgregor Boyle

Annotated Bibliography Researched Argument Essay

No abstract provided.

Dynamics Of An Airplane Wheel At Touchdown, Pirooz Mohazzabi, Sophia Gentile, Cristian Marquez

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The dynamics of tire skidding and wear of a commercial airplane during touchdown is discussed, and a simple analytical model is presented. It is suggested that prespinning of the wheels prior to touchdown is not only possible but also practical to prevent tire wear and damage to the runway and the ensuing environmental issues.

Effects And Nursing Considerations For Equine-Assisted Activities And Therapies For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Literature Review, Namiko Kawamura, Mayu Sakamoto, Kayoko Machida

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

This literature review aimed to analyze the effects and nursing challenges associated with equine-assisted activities and therapies (EAATs) for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The study utilized the PubMed, CINAHL, and MEDLINE databases to identify 24 relevant articles. The effective contents were classified into two major categories: effects on interpersonal relationships, and effects attributable to the physical and emotional aspects of the lives of the children. The medical staff involved were mainly occupational therapists, followed by physical therapists and speech-language pathologists. The included studies also mention the involvement of trained equine therapists and volunteers, but not the involvement of …

Effects Of Alternative Hermetic Bag Storage On Fermented And Dried Cocoa Bean (Theobroma Cacao L.), Kenneth Foster, Lina M. Suarez-Guzman, Diana C. Meza-Sepulveda, Dieudonne Baributsa, Carlos A. Zurita

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Cocoa beans, derived from the Cacao Tree (Theobroma cacao L.), are a cash crop among smallholder farmers in tropical regions. After harvest and processing, maintaining cocoa bean quality is critical to access lucrative markets. This paper examines the impact of hermetic storage on insect damage, mold, moisture content, and water activity of fermented and dried cocoa beans under farm conditions in collaboration with a farmer association of Belén de Umbría in Colombia. Three types of hermetic storage systems were assessed for a period of 12 months: Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, including both 2- and 3-layer variants, and Ecotact® …

Fusing Classic Motion Energy Models And Deep Learning For Coarse-To-Fine Moving Object Segmentation, Matthias Tangemann, Matthias Kümmerer, Matthias Bethge

MODVIS Workshop

Classic motion energy models are able to predict a wide range of physiological and behavioral aspects of motion perception in humans. Whether these models can be used as a basis for higher-level tasks, such as moving object segmentation, has however hardly been explored yet. Here, we present a model that combines a motion energy representation with recent computer vision approaches for figure-ground segmentation of naturalistic stimuli. We find that unlike established motion segmentation models but similar to humans, our model generalizes to random-dot stimuli when only trained on RGB videos.

Anisotropy In Non-Rigidity Perception: The Role Of Anisotropies In Neural Populations, Akihito Maruya, Qasim Zaidi

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Local Geometry Of Elementary Visual Computations, Peter Neri

MODVIS Workshop

Visual operators (e.g. edge detectors) are classically modelled using small circuits involving canonical computations, such as template-matching and gain control. Circuit models explain many aspects of the empirical descriptors that are used to characterize local visual operators, from sensitivity to classification images. Notwithstanding their utility, these models fail to provide a unified framework encompassing the variety of effects observed experimentally, such as the impact of contrast, SNR, and attention on the above descriptors. My goal is to start with a simple, plausible geometrical representation of the perceptual operation carried out by the observer, and to show that this representation is …

A Foveated Model Of Visual Discrimination Based On Windowed Texture Statistics, Jan W. Kurzawski, William F. Broderick, Eero P. Simoncelli, Jonathan Winawer

MODVIS Workshop

Most information from visual scenes is discarded by the human nervous system and thus cannot influence visual behavior. Here, we investigated the loss of spatial pattern information. This loss increases dramatically with eccentricity. Recently, models have been developed that average image features in pooling windows whose diameters scale with eccentricity. These models can be used to synthesize “metamers” of natural scenes, images which are physically different but perceptually indistinguishable. Psychophysical experiments have identified the maximum window scaling for which model discrimination abilities match human performance (“critical scaling”). If images are synthesized with pooling windows that exceed critical scaling (“supercritical scaling”), …

Explaining The Staircase Gelb Illusion, Simultaneous Contrast, And Perceptual Fading Of Stabilized Images With A Neural Model Driven By Fixational Eye Movements, Michael E. Rudd

MODVIS Workshop

A neural model of lightness computation driven by fixational eye movements is described and used to simulate various lightness phenomenon, including the Staircase Gelb illusion and its variants, simultaneous contrast, the Chevreul illusion, and perceptual fading of stabilized images. The model provides a precise account of the lightness matches from several experiments, with an overall error of only 1.5%. In the model, spatial maps of transient ON and OFF cell activations—produced as the eyes traverse the visual scene—are sorted by eye movement direction in visual cortex. At a subsequent processing stage, the activations within these maps are summed across space …

The Acoustics Of Absorbers Comprising A Flexible Perforated Membrane Backed By A Stack Of Granular Material, Zhuang Mo, Guochenhao Song, Huawei Yang, Tongyang Shi, J Stuart Bolton

Publications of the Ray W. Herrick Laboratories

It has been found that when a layer of activated carbon partially fills the space behind a finite, edge-constrained, tensioned impermeable membrane, the absorption peaks due to the modal response of the membrane can be significantly enhanced in the low frequency range. In the present work, the modeling aspects of the latter work have been extended to allow the membrane to be both tensioned and flexurally-stiff, and further, to be micro-perforated, thus expanding the treatment design space. Secondly, the particle layer behind the membrane is modeled by using a two-dimensional finite difference implementation of the Biot poro-elastic theory which then …

First Opinion: The Arrival, Natalya Stepanova

First Opinions, Second Reactions

No abstract provided.

The Mechanism By Which Thermal Coupling Leads To An Asymptotic Maldistribution Stability Boundary For Flow Boiling In Parallel Microchannels, Md Emadur Rahman, Justin A. Weibel

CTRC Research Publications

Phase change heat transfer processes are attractive for the efficient thermal management of advanced semiconductor devices, with flow boiling in parallel microchannel heat sinks being one promising solution. However, there are several implementation challenges associated with two-phase flow in parallel microchannels, particularly flow maldistribution, which can adversely affect performance and reliability. Two-phase flow models can be useful in predicting and understanding the instability mechanisms that leads to maldistribution, such that parametric performance trends and safe regions of operation can be identified. Channel-to-channel thermal coupling has been shown to alleviate maldistribution, but it is not yet understood why this effect is …