Digital Commons Network^™

Using Online Education To Address The Challenges Of Small, Multigrade Schools, Lori Imasiku, Michael Gayle, Michelle Bacchiocchi, Melanie Kartik

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Shifting Our Lens: Practical Trauma-Informed Approaches For Educators, Charity Garcia, Ingrid Weiss Slikkers, Tara Bailey

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

White Matter Hyperintensity Load Is Associated With Premature Brain Aging, Natalie Busby, Sarah Newman-Norlund, Sara Sayers, Roger Newman-Norlund, Sarah Wilson, Samaneh Nemati, Chris Rorden, Janina Wilmskoetter, Nicholas Riccardi, Rebecca Roth, Julius Fridriksson, Leonardo Bonilha

Faculty Publications

Background: Brain age is an MRI-derived estimate of brain tissue loss that has a similar pattern to aging-related atrophy. White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are neuroimaging markers of small vessel disease and may represent subtle signs of brain compromise. We tested the hypothesis that WMHs are independently associated with premature brain age in an original aging cohort.

Methods: Brain age was calculated using machine-learning on whole-brain tissue estimates from T1-weighted images using the BrainAgeR analysis pipeline in 166 healthy adult participants. WMHs were manually delineated on FLAIR images. WMH load was defined as the cumulative volume of WMHs. A positive difference …

Epidemiology, Outcomes And Tolerability Of Protracted Treatment Of Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infections At A Community Teaching Hospital In The Southeastern United States, Yuwei Vivian Tsai, Carolina Derrick, Ismaeel Yunusa Ph.D., Sharon Weissman, Majdi N. Al-Hasan, Julie Ann Justo Pharm.D., P. Brandon Bookstaver Pharm.D.

Faculty Publications

Nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections present a treatment challenge for clinicians and patients. There are limited data about current susceptibility patterns and treatment outcomes in U.S. adults. This was a 10-year, single-center, retrospective, observational cohort study of adults with a positive NTM culture and clinical suspicion of infection between 1 January 2010 and 30 June 2020. The primary objective was to identify predictors for favorable treatment outcomes. Key secondary objectives were characterization of NTM epidemiology, susceptibility profiles, and safety and tolerability of treatment, including the proportion of subjects with an antimicrobial change and the reasons for the change. Of 250 subjects …

A Focused Review On Structures And Ionic Conduction Mechanisms In Inorganic Solid-State Proton And Hydride Anion Conductors, Shichen Sun, Qiming Tang, Kangkang Zhang, Yeting Wen, Aidan Billings, Kevin Huang

Faculty Publications

Solid-state proton and hydride anion conductors are an important family of materials as electrolytes for solid state electrochemical cells such as fuel cells, batteries, sensors, and gas separation membranes. Searching for new proton and hydride-anion conductors has been an active research area for many decades. The focus of this article is on reviewing the types and mechanisms of each proton/hydride-anion conductor developed and their pros and cons. This review starts off with the most studied and most promising perovskite structured oxides as proton conductors, followed by other types of perovskite-related structures such as the Ruddlesden–Popper phase, pyrochlores and rare earth …

Understanding Alcohol Use Discourse And Stigma Patterns In Perinatal Care On Twitter, Fritz Culp, Yuqi Wu, Dezhi Wu, Yang Ren, Phyllis Raynor, Peiyin Hung, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Kacey Eichelberger

Faculty Publications

(1) Background: perinatal alcohol use generates a variety of health risks. Social media platforms discuss fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and other widespread outcomes, providing personalized user-generated content about the perceptions and behaviors related to alcohol use during pregnancy. Data collected from Twitter underscores various narrative structures and sentiments in tweets that reflect large-scale discourses and foster societal stigmas; (2) Methods: We extracted alcohol-related tweets from May 2019 to October 2021 using an official Twitter search API based on a set of keywords provided by our clinical team. Our exploratory study utilized thematic content analysis and inductive qualitative coding methods …

An Assessment Of Future Tidal Marsh Resilience In The San Francisco Estuary Through Modeling And Quantifiable Metrics Of Sustainability, James T. Morris, Judith Z. Drexler, Lydia J.S. Vaughn, April H. Robinson

Faculty Publications

Quantitative, broadly applicable metrics of resilience are needed to effectively manage tidal marshes into the future. Here we quantified three metrics of temporal marsh resilience: time to marsh drowning, time to marsh tipping point, and the probability of a regime shift, defined as the conditional probability of a transition to an alternative super-optimal, suboptimal, or drowned state. We used organic matter content (loss on ignition, LOI) and peat age combined with the Coastal Wetland Equilibrium Model (CWEM) to track wetland development and resilience under different sea-level rise scenarios in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) of California. A 100-year hindcast of …

The User Experience: Student Perspectives On Library Course Reserve, Sara Foster, Duane Wilson, Shannon Sanders, Justin Johnson

Faculty Publications

A group of researchers from an academic library surveyed students to understand how and why the members of their community use course reserve services. Students were happy with the service and used it as a replacement for purchasing textbooks. Frequent users requested more textbook offerings, and both users and nonusers indicated a need for increased promotion of the service. Users provided specific suggestions for improvement that should be examined. Findings illustrated the value of course reserve services as a way to help students with college affordability and to support instruction and learning.

Visualization Research: Scoping Review On Data Visualization Courses, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro

Faculty Publications

Understanding data visualization as one of the foundational skills of the 21st century, this research aimed to define up-to-date guidelines to effectively teach data visualization courses and–from there–developed the first version of a new data visualization course. To do so, it faced the following questions: What is the current role of data visualization in higher education? What have been the main trends in data visualization courses in higher education? What methodologies have been used to teach data visualization courses? What difficulties have been identified in data visualization courses? What recommendations have been offered by previous professors that have taught this …

Cold Atoms In Space: Community Workshop Summary And Proposed Road-Map, Iván Alonso, Cristiano Alpigiani, Brett David Altschul, Henrique Araújo, Gianluigi Arduini, Jan Arlt, Leonardo Badurina, Antun Balaž, Satvika Bandarupally, Barry C. Barish, Michele Barone, Michele Barsanti, Steven Bass, Angelo Bassi, Baptiste Battelier, Charles F. A. Baynham, Quentin Beaufils, Aleksandar Belić, Joel Bergé, Jose Bernabeu, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. …

Accounting For The Growth Of Observation Stays In The Assessment Of Medicare’S Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, Amber K. Sabbatini, Karen E. Joynt-Maddox, Joshua M. Liao, Anirban Basu, Canada Parrish, William Kreuter, Brad Wright Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Importance Decreases in 30-day readmissions following the implementation of the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) have occurred against the backdrop of increasing hospital observation stay use, yet observation stays are not captured in readmission measures.

Objective To examine whether the HRRP was associated with decreases in 30-day readmissions after accounting for observation stays.

Design, Setting, and Participants This retrospective cohort study included a 20% sample of inpatient admissions and observation stays among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries from January 1, 2009, to December 31, 2015. Data analysis was performed from November 2021 to June 2022. A differences-in-differences analysis assessed changes in …

Laboratory Evaluation And Field Feasibility Of Micro-Encapsulated Insecticide Effect On Rhodnius Prolixus And Triatoma Dimidiata Mortality In Rural Households In Boyaca, Colombia, Lidia Gual-Gonzalez, Manuel Medina, Cesar Valverde-Castro, Virgilio Beltran, Rodrigo Caro, Omar Triana-Chavez, Melissa Nolan Ph.D., Mph, Omar Cantillo-Barraza

Faculty Publications

Chagas disease is a neglected vector-borne zoonosis caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that is primarily transmitted by insects of the subfamily Triatominae. Although control efforts targeting domestic infestations of Rhodnius prolixus have been largely successful, with several regions in Boyacá department certified free of T. cruzi transmission by intradomicile R. prolixus, novel native species are emerging, increasing the risk of disease. Triatoma dimidiata is the second most important species in Colombia, and conventional control methods seem to be less effective. In this study we evaluated the efficacy and usefulness of micro-encapsulated insecticide paints in laboratory conditions and its …

Higher Corrections Of The Ilkovich Equation, S. Jon Chapman, Charles W. Monroe, Shiv Krishna Madi Reddy, Alexander Van-Brunt, Ralph E. White

Faculty Publications

A short-time asymptotic analysis is performed to establish corrections of the Ilkovich equation, which describes the polarographic response of a dropping mercury electrode. The convective diffusion equation governing diffusion limited reactant flux for small drop times is solved by a regular perturbation based on powers of the sixth root of time. This produces a framework within which higher terms of the Ilkovich equation can be derived systematically. As well as reproducing Ilkovich’s original formula and verifying Newman’s correction of Koutecky’s first-order term, we calculate the second-order term for the first time. The calculation is compared to the Newman–Levich procedure and …

High School Course-Completion Trajectories And College Pathways For All: A Transcript Analysis Study On Elective Computer Science Courses, Hsun-Yu Chan, Ting-Lan Ma, Guan K. Saw, Yen-Ming Huang

Faculty Publications

Abstract: Whereas researchers regard high school math and science coursework as the best indicator of college readiness for students in the United States, computer science coursework and its relationship to college attendance, particularly for minoritized students, have not received due attention despite its root in the mathematical and scientific reasoning ability. We examined students’ high school course completion patterns across subjects and grade levels with a special focus on elective computer science courses and whether the coursework pattern transitions worked differently for minoritized students in Texas, USA. Latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis revealed multiple patterns of coursework, including …

Machine Learning With Gradient-Based Optimization Of Nuclear Waste Vitrification With Uncertainties And Constraints, Lagrande Gunnell, Kyle Manwaring, Xiaonan Lu, Jacob Reynolds, John Vienna, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

Gekko is an optimization suite in Python that solves optimization problems involving mixed-integer, nonlinear, and differential equations. The purpose of this study is to integrate common Machine Learning (ML) algorithms such as Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), support vector regression (SVR), and artificial neural network (ANN) models into Gekko to solve data based optimization problems. Uncertainty quantification (UQ) is used alongside ML for better decision making. These methods include ensemble methods, model-specific methods, conformal predictions, and the delta method. An optimization problem involving nuclear waste vitrification is presented to demonstrate the benefit of ML in this field. ML models are compared …

Believing The Unbelievable: A Universe Of Miracles, Anthony Bosman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Validation Of A Script To Facilitate Social Determinant Of Health Conversations With Adolescent Patients, Emily M. Giorgi, Matthew J. Drescher, Zachary K. Winkelmann, Lindsey E. Eberman

Faculty Publications

Current social determinants of health (SDOH) tools exist to assess patient exposure; however, healthcare providers for the adolescent population are unsure of how to integrate SDOH knowledge into clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to validate a focused history script designed to facilitate SDOH conversations between clinicians and adolescents through the use of the Delphi method. Six individuals (1 clinician, 5 educators/researchers) participated as expert panelists. Panelists provided critical feedback on the script for rounds 1 and 2. For rounds 3–7, panelists received an electronic questionnaire asking them to indicate agreement on a 6-point Likert scale (1 = …

The Dietary Inflammatory Index Is Associated With Subclinical Mastitis In Lactating European Women, Myriam C. Afeiche, Alison Iroz, Frank Thielecke, Antoino C. De Castro, Gregory Lefebvre, Colleen F. Draper, Cecilia Martiínez-Costa, Maria Jose Costeira, Mireille Vanpee, Claude Billeaud, Jean-Charles Picaud, Daryl Lim Kah Hian, Guimei Liu, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James Hébert Scd, Tinu M. Samuel

Faculty Publications

Subclinical mastitis (SCM) is an inflammatory state of the lactating mammary gland, which is asymptomatic and may have negative consequences for child growth. The objectives of this study were to: (1) test the association between the dietary inflammatory index (DII®) and SCM and (2) assess the differences in nutrient intakes between women without SCM and those with SCM. One hundred and seventy-seven women with available data on human milk (HM) sodium potassium ratio (Na:K) and dietary intake data were included for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between nutrient intake and the DII score in relation …