Digital Commons Network^™

Integration Of Information Literacy Skills To Mechanical Engineering Capstone Projects, Farshid Zabihian, Mary L. Strife, Marian G. Armour-Gemmen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Searching for information and using that information appropriately is an essential part of every engineering design project. It has been reported that design engineers spend about 30% of their time searching for information. Experience shows that even senior level students have not received proper training, either directly or indirectly, in information literacy (IL). They usually search for information intuitively. For mechanical and aerospace engineering students at West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech), the Mechanical Engineering System Design I and II courses (MAE 480 and 481) are probably the last chance to teach students about IL. In this project, …

Foresight Benchmark Data 2013-2014, Paul J. Speaker

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Project FORESIGHT is a business-guided self-evaluation of forensic science laboratories across the globe. The participating laboratories represent local, regional, state, and national agencies. Economics, accounting, finance, and forensic faculty provide assistance, guidance, and analysis. Laboratories participating in Project FORESIGHT have developed standardized definitions for metrics to evaluate work processes, linking financial information to work tasks, and functions. Laboratory managers can then assess resource allocations, efficiencies, and value of services—the mission of Project FORESIGHT is to measure, preserve what works, and change what does not.

The benchmark data for the 2013-2014 performance period includes laboratory submissions for a variety of fiscal …

Visigothic Retinues: Roving Bandits That Succeeded Rome, Andrew T. Young

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

I employ a case study of the Visigoths in the fourth and fifth centuries to analyze the collective action problems faced by roving versus stationary bandits. A roving bandit provides exclusive collective goods to its members. A stationary bandit also provides exclusive goods to its members, but it also provides inclusive collective goods to out-group individuals in its domain. The inclusive goods provided to the out-group are an input to the production of the exclusive goods enjoyed by the in-group members. I describe how the transition from the former to the latter likely involves redefinition of the relevant group, its …

Contracts And Trust, Bryan C. Mccannon, Colleen Tokar Assad, Mark Wilson

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Social preferences and third-party enforcement of formal contracts are two mechanisms that facilitate performance of an agreement. The standard argument is that formal contracting substitutes when social preferences are lacking. We explore the hypothesis that social preferences and contract enforcement are complements. We measure social preferences from a Trust Game and use it is an explanatory variable in a contract game. We find that both increased contract enforcement and high trusting preferences lead to enhanced rates of contract formation and larger investments. There is an interaction effect where trusting individuals make larger investment agreements, specifically when enforcement is greater. Thus, …

Bargaining In The Shadow Of Arbitration, Riccardo Marselli, Bryan C. Mccannon, Marco Vannini

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Arbitration, as an alternative to litigation for contract disputes, reduces costs and time. While it has frequently been thought of as a substitute to pretrial bargaining and litigation, in fact, parties may be able to reach a settlement privately while engaged in the arbitration process. Consequently, the institutional design may influence the bargaining. We develop a theoretical model of pre-arbitration bargaining that is able to identify the impact of the institutional features on its success. A detailed data set from arbitration proceedings in Italy is analyzed. The exogenous heterogeneity in the composition of the panel of arbitrators allows us to …

Managing For Social Change: Improving Labor Department Performance In A Partisan Era, Seth D. Harris

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Seen But Not Recognized: Black Caregivers, Childhood Cruelties, And Social Dislocations In An Increasingly Colored America, Reginald Leamon Robinson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wvrhc Newsletter, Spring 2015, West Virginia & Regional History Center

West Virginia & Regional History Center Newsletters

Notes on the Origins of Storer College 150 Years Ago

The Ghosts Of White Supremacy: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, And The Spectors Of Black Criminality, Nick J. Sciullo

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Legal And Practical Implications Of The Potential Increased Participation In Jury Service By Racial Minorities In The U.S. Criminal Justice System, Brian Keith Leonard

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Dry Hate: White Supremacy And Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric In The Humanitarian Crisis On The U.S.-Mexico Border, Kristina M. Campbell

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Moving From Carolene To The Commerce Clause: A New Approach To Race For The New American Future, Nareissa L. Smith

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Coping With A New "Yellow Peril": Japanese Immigration, The Gentleman's Agreement, And The Coming Of World War Ii, Paul Finkelman

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Replacement Referees And Nfl Betting Markets, Bryan C. Mccannon

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Are betting markets efficient? The 2012 labor dispute between the NFL and the referees is used as a quasi-experiment to assess whether the betting markets are able to achieve accurate “prices” in an uncertain environment. More points were scored and underdogs performed relatively better resulting in upsets and closer-than-expected games. Betting markets, though, were unable to anticipate or adjust to this systematic effect even though irregularities in gambling markets were reported before the beginning of the season. Not only were they inefficient, but profitable betting strategies can be identified.

The Economic Impact Of Right To Work Policy In West Virginia, Christiadi, Eric Bowen, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Resolution Enhancement Method Used For Force Sensing Resistor Array, Karen Flores De Jesus, Marvin Cheng, Lei Jiang, Ezzat Bakhoum

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Tactile sensors are one of the major devices that enable robotic systems to interact with the surrounding environment. This research aims to propose a mathematical model to describe the behavior of a tactile sensor based on experimental and statistical analyses and moreover to develop a versatile algorithm that can be applied to different tactile sensor arrays to enhance the limited resolution. With the proposed algorithm, the resolution can be increased up to twenty times if multiple measurements are available. To verify if the proposed algorithm can be used for tactile sensor arrays that are used in robotic system, a force …

Are Industry Clusters And Diversity Strange Bedfellows?, Randall Jackson

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In this address, I review industry clustering and diversification strategies to compare and contrast their underlying foundations. The lack of a consensus choice of one or the other for regional economic development strategies along with the recognition that in the dynamic process of development these two processes are related leads me to conclude that clusters and diversity need not be such strange bedfellows after all, and that a rational approach to economic development can leverage the strengths of each and offset weaknesses. I follow this discussion by introducing a cluster assessment diversification strategy (CADS) apparatus that can be used to …

Voluntary Action In New Commons, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

A major new social, economic, political and cultural space (actually, a sector of many spaces) we can call the new commons has gradually emerged outside of markets, governments and households. It currently goes by many names and reaches far beyond the recognized and incorporated nonprofit sector to include many additional forms of voluntary assembly and organized action. This space is legally defined and is the domain of fundraising, volunteering, advocacy, mutual aid, self-help and various forms of collective behavior. It includes associations, groups and clubs but also constitutionally protected assembly - not only public gatherings but also parades, festivals, cosmopolitan …

Thor - The Hi, Oh, Recombination Line Survey Of The Milky Way - The Pilot Study: Hi Observations Of The Giant Molecular Cloud W43, S. Bihr, H. Beuther, J. Ott, L. D. Anderson

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

To study the atomic, molecular and ionized emission of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), we have initiated a Large Program with the VLA: 'THOR - The HI, OH, Recombination Line survey of the Milky Way'. We map the 21cm HI line, 4 OH lines, 19 H_alpha recombination lines and the continuum from 1 to 2 GHz of a significant fraction of the Milky Way (l=15-67deg, |b|<1deg) at ~20" resolution. In this paper, we focus on the HI emission from the W43 star-formation complex. Classically, the HI 21cm line is treated as optically thin with column densities calculated under this assumption. This might give reasonable results for regions of low-mass star-formation, however, it is not sufficient to describe GMCs. We analyzed strong continuum sources to measure the optical depth, and thus correct the HI 21cm emission for optical depth effects and weak diffuse continuum emission. Hence, we are able to measure the HI mass of W43 more accurately and our analysis reveals a lower limit of M=6.6x10^6 M_sun, which is a factor of 2.4 larger than the mass estimated with the assumption of optically thin emission. The HI column densities are as high as N(HI)~150 M_sun/pc^2 ~ 1.9x10^22 cm^-2, which is an order of magnitude higher than for low mass star formation regions. This result challenges theoretical models that predict a threshold for the HI column density of ~10 M_sun/pc^2, at which the formation of molecular hydrogen should set in. By assuming an elliptical layered structure for W43, we estimate the particle density profiles. While at the cloud edge atomic and molecular hydrogen are well mixed, the center of the cloud is strongly dominated by molecular hydrogen. We do not identify a sharp transition between hydrogen in atomic and molecular form. Our results are an important characterization of the atomic to molecular hydrogen transition in an extreme environment and challenges current theoretical models.

The High Time Resolution Universe Survey – Xi. Discovery Of Five Recycled Pulsars And The Optical Detectability Of Survey White Dwarf Companions, S. D. Bates, D. Thornton, M. Bailes, L. Levin

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

We present the discovery of a further five recycled pulsar systems in the mid-Galactic latitude portion of the High Time Resolution Universe (HTRU) Survey. The pulsars have rotational periods ranging from 2 ms to 66 ms, and four are in binary systems with orbital periods between 10.8 hours and 9.0 days. Three of these binary systems are particularly interesting; PSR J1227-6208 has a pulse period of 34.5 ms and the highest mass function of all pulsars with near-circular orbits. The circular orbit suggests that the companion is not another neutron star, so future timing experiments may reveal one of the …

The Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey – Vii. Timing Of Four Millisecond Pulsars And The Underlying Spin-Period Distribution Of The Galactic Millisecond Pulsar Population, D. R. Lorimer, P. Esposito, R. N. Manchester, M. A. Mclaughlin

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

We present timing observations of 4-ms pulsars discovered in the Parkes 20-cm multibeam pulsar survey of the Galactic plane. PSRs J1552−4937 and J1843−1448 are isolated objects with spin periods of 6.28 and 5.47 ms, respectively. PSR J1727−2946 is in a 40-d binary orbit and has a spin period of 27 ms. The 4.43-ms pulsar J1813−2621 is in a circular 8.16-d binary orbit around a low-mass companion star with a minimum companion mass of 0.2 M

From Forced Collapse To H Ii Region Expansion In Mon R2: Envelope Density Structure And Age Determination With Herschel, P. Didelon, F. Motte, P. Tremblin, L. D. Anderson

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The surroundings of H II regions can have a profound influence on their development, morphology, and evolution. This paper explores the effect of the environment on H II regions in the MonR2 molecular cloud. Aims. We aim to investigate the density structure of envelopes surrounding H II regions and to determine their collapse and ionisation expansion ages. The Mon R2 molecular cloud is an ideal target since it hosts an H II region association, which has been imaged by the Herschel PACS and SPIRE cameras as part of the HOBYS key programme. Methods. Column density and temperature images derived from …

Automated Extraction And Validation Of Children’S Gait Parameters With The Kinect, Saeid Motiian, Paola Pergami, Keegan Guffey, Corrie A. Mancinelli, Gianfranco Doretto

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Gait analysis for therapy regimen prescription and monitoring requires patients to physically access clinics with specialized equipment. The timely availability of such infrastructure at the right frequency is especially important for small children. Besides being very costly, this is a challenge for many children living in rural areas. This is why this work develops a low-cost, portable, and automated approach for in-home gait analysis, based on the Microsoft Kinect.

Methods

A robust and efficient method for extracting gait parameters is introduced, which copes with the high variability of noisy Kinect skeleton tracking data experienced across the population of young …

A Real-Time Monitoring System Of Industry Carbon Monoxide Based On Wireless Sensor Networks, Jiachen Yang, Jianxiong Zhou, Zhihan Lv, Wei Wei, Houbing Song

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Carbon monoxide (CO) burns or explodes at over-standard concentration. Hence, in this paper, a Wifi-based, real-time monitoring of a CO system is proposed for application in the construction industry, in which a sensor measuring node is designed by low-frequency modulation method to acquire CO concentration reliably, and a digital filtering method is adopted for noise filtering. According to the triangulation, the Wifi network is constructed to transmit information and determine the position of nodes. The measured data are displayed on a computer or smart phone by a graphical interface. The experiment shows that the monitoring system obtains excellent accuracy and …

Silica Coating Influences The Corona And Biokinetics Of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles, Nagarjun V. Konduru, Renato J. Jimenez, Archana Swami, Sherri Friend, Vincent Castranova, Philip Demokritou, Joseph D. Brain, Ramon M. Molina

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

The physicochemical properties of nanoparticles (NPs) influence their biological outcomes.

Methods

We assessed the effects of an amorphous silica coating on the pharmacokinetics and pulmonary effects of CeO2 NPs following intratracheal (IT) instillation, gavage and intravenous injection in rats. Uncoated and silica-coated CeO2 NPs were generated by flame spray pyrolysis and later neutron-activated. These radioactive NPs were IT-instilled, gavaged, or intravenously (IV) injected in rats. Animals were analyzed over 28 days post-IT, 7 days post-gavage and 2 days post-injection.

Results

Our data indicate that silica coating caused more but transient lung inflammation compared to uncoated CeO2. The transient inflammation …

A Unique Set Of The Burkholderia Collagen-Like Proteins Provides Insight Into Pathogenesis, Genome Evolution And Niche Adaptation, And Infection Detection, Beth A. Bachert, Soo J. Choi, Anna K. Snyder, Rita V M Rio, Brandon C. Durney, Lisa A. Holland, Kei Amemiya, Susan L. Welkos, Joel A. Bozue, Christopher K. Cote, Rita Berisio, Slawomir Lukomski

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei, classified as category B priority pathogens, are significant human and animal pathogens that are highly infectious and broad-spectrum antibiotic resistant. Currently, the pathogenicity mechanisms utilized by Burkholderia are not fully understood, and correct diagnosis of B. pseudomallei and B. mallei infection remains a challenge due to limited detection methods. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of a set of 13 novel Burkholderia collagen-like proteins (Bucl) that were identified among B. pseudomallei and B. mallei select agents. We infer that several Bucl proteins participate in pathogenesis based on their noncollagenous domains that are associated with the …

Evolution Of Vertebrate Adam Genes; Duplication Of Testicular Adams From Ancient Adam9/9-Like Loci, Hariath Bahudhanapati, Shashwati Bhattacharya, Shuo Wei

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Members of the disintegrin metalloproteinase (ADAM) family have important functions in regulating cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions as well as cell signaling. There are two major types of ADAMs: the somatic ADAMs (sADAMs) that have a significant presence in somatic tissues, and the testicular ADAMs (tADAMs) that are expressed predominantly in the testis. Genes encoding tADAMs can be further divided into two groups: group I (intronless) and group II (intron-containing). To date, tAdams have only been reported in placental mammals, and their evolutionary origin and relationship to sAdams remain largely unknown. Using phylogenetic and syntenic tools, we analyzed the Adam genes …

Towards A Low-Cost Remote Memory Attestation For The Smart Grid, Xinyu Yang, Xiaofei He, Wei Yu, Jie Lin, Rui Li, Qingyu Yang, Houbing Song

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In the smart grid, measurement devices may be compromised by adversaries, and their operations could be disrupted by attacks. A number of schemes to efficiently and accurately detect these compromised devices remotely have been proposed. Nonetheless, most of the existing schemes detecting compromised devices depend on the incremental response time in the attestation process, which are sensitive to data transmission delay and lead to high computation and network overhead. To address the issue, in this paper, we propose a low-cost remote memory attestation scheme (LRMA), which can efficiently and accurately detect compromised smart meters considering real-time network delay and achieve …

A Fast Robot Identification And Mapping Algorithm Based On Kinect Sensor, Liang Zhang, Peiyi Shen, Guangming Zhu, Wei Wei, Houbing Song

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Internet of Things (IoT) is driving innovation in an ever-growing set of application domains such as intelligent processing for autonomous robots. For an autonomous robot, one grand challenge is how to sense its surrounding environment effectively. The Simultaneous Localization and Mapping with RGB-D Kinect camera sensor on robot, called RGB-D SLAM, has been developed for this purpose but some technical challenges must be addressed. Firstly, the efficiency of the algorithm cannot satisfy real-time requirements; secondly, the accuracy of the algorithm is unacceptable. In order to address these challenges, this paper proposes a set of novel improvement methods as follows. Firstly, …

Non-Muscle Myosin Ii Isoforms Have Different Functions In Matrix Rearrangement By Mda-Mb-231 Cells, Bridget Hindman, Zoe Goeckeler, Kostas Sierros, Robert Wysolmerski

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The role of a stiffening extra-cellular matrix (ECM) in cancer progression is documented but poorly understood. Here we use a conditioning protocol to test the role of nonmuscle myosin II isoforms in cell mediated ECM arrangement using collagen constructs seeded with breast cancer cells expressing shRNA targeted to either the IIA or IIB heavy chain isoform. While there are several methods available to measure changes in the biophysical characteristics of the ECM, we wanted to use a method which allows for the measurement of global stiffness changes as well as a dynamic response from the sample over time. The conditioning …