Digital Commons Network^™

The First Amendment And The Second Sex, Cristina Carmody Tilley

Faculty Publications

Modern American law describes speech in stereotypically masculine terms: it is a “marketplace” where participants “joust” for dominance. Predictably, today’s speech jurisprudence can be hostile to the female voice, implicitly condoning gendered death threats, rape threats, doxing, and trolling as the necessary price of a vibrant national discourse. Unpredictably, the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) and its leading women drafted the blueprint for this modern speech edifice. The First Amendment and the Second Sex traces the ACLU campaign to dismantle a nineteenth-century speech regime that silenced some men while protecting many women. And it suggests that ACLU feminists—intent on securing …

Reviving A Dying Church: The Role Of Leadership, Jane Thayer

Faculty Publications

A pastor known for his church planting skills was brought into a declining/dying church in Maryland, USA, and with his leadership team, turned the church around in three-and-a-half years. A case study method was used to explore this pastor and congregation’s willingness to “pay the cost” to bring new people into the church. They focused on children’s ministry, evangelism, discipleship, prayer, small groups, meals, and vision—knowing why they engaged in each ministry.

Examination Of The Cumulative Risk Assessment And Nutritional Profiles Among College Ballet Dancers, Kenya Moore, Nancy A. Uriegas, Jessica Pia, Dawn M. Emerson, Kelly Pritchett, Toni M. Torres-Mcgehee

Faculty Publications

This study examined female collegiate ballet dancers' ( = 28) Female Athlete Triad (Triad) risk via the Cumulative Risk Assessment (CRA) and nutritional profiles (macro- and micronutrients; = 26). The CRA identified Triad return to play criteria (RTP: Full Clearance, Provisional Clearance, or Restricted/Medical Disqualified) by assessing eating disorder risk, low energy availability, menstrual cycle dysfunction, and low bone mineral density. Seven-day dietary assessments identified any energy imbalances of macro- and micronutrients. Ballet dancers were identified as low, within normal, or high for each of the 19 nutrients assessed. Basic descriptive statistics assessed CRA risk classification and dietary macro- and …

Ice-Crystal-Templated “Accordion-Like” Cellulose Nanofiber/Mxene Composite Aerogels For Sensitive Wearable Pressure Sensors, Wangwang Xu, Qinglin Wu, Jaegyoung Gwon, Jin Woo Choi

Faculty Publications

Exfoliated MXene nanosheets are integrated with cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) to form composite aerogels with high electric conductivity. The combination of CNFs and MXene nanosheets forms a unique “accordion-like” hierarchical architecture with MXene-CNF pillared layers through ice-crystal templating. Benefiting from the special “layer-strut” structure, the MXene/CNF composite aerogels have low density (50 mg/cm3), excellent compressibility and recoverability, as well as superior fatigue resistance (up to 1000 cycles). When being used as a piezoresistive sensor, the composite aerogel exhibits high sensitivity upon different strains, stable sensing performance with various compressive frequencies, broad detection range, and quick responsiveness (0.48 s). Moreover, the piezoresistive …

Investigation Of Electrically Isolated Capacitive Sensing Skins On Concrete To Reduce Structure/Sensor Capacitive Coupling, Emmanuel Ogunniyi, Alexander Vareen, Austin Downey, Simon Laflamme, Jian Li, Caroline Bennett, William Collins, Hongki Jo, Alexander Henderson, Paul Ziehl

Faculty Publications

Damage to bridges can result in partial or complete structural failures, with fatal consequences. Cracks develop in concrete infrastructure from fatigue loading, vibrations, corrosion, or unforeseen structural displacement. Effective long-term monitoring of civil infrastructure can reduce the risk of structural failures and potentially reduce the cost and frequency of inspections. However, deploying structural health monitoring technologies for crack detection on bridges is expensive, especially long-term, due to the density of sensors required to detect, localize, and quantify cracks. Previous research on soft elastomeric capacitors (SECs) has shown their viability for low-cost monitoring of cracks in transportation infrastructure. However, when deployed …

Florawear: Wearable Living Interface, Hye Yeon Nam, Janiece Campbell, Andrew M. Webb, Brendan Harmon

Faculty Publications

While nature can benefit people both mentally and physically, contemporary society has become increasingly disconnected from nature. To rebuild a stronger connection with nature in our everyday life, we introduce FloraWear, a do-it-yourself, wearable living interface, that enables people to easily and closely connect with plants. This pictorial introduces how knowledge is built and shared with others using hybrid craft and fabrication, illustrates the material experiments and design development for FloraWear, and discusses how it affects wearers. Then we summarize how FloraWear can help catalyze a shift in people's perspectives towards nature. By developing emotional ties to their wearable plants, …

Sootlib: A Soot Model Library For Combustion Simulation, Victoria B. Stephens, Joshua Bedwell, Alex J. Josephson, Keturah Oldham, David O. Lignell

Faculty Publications

Soot formation in combustion is an important process that affects radiative heat transfer, flame temperatures, and emissions with health and environmental impacts. Soot formation involves complex chemistry for nucleation, growth, oxidation, and coagulation processes. The soot particles vary widely in size and accurate modeling requires representation of the particle size distribution (PSD). Modeling soot is not trivial, and is only one of several physical processes active in combustion systems. This paper presents a software package called SootLib, which is an open-source library for modeling soot formation and other aerosol systems. SootLib is written in C++, is documented with Doxygen, and …

Analysis And Technical Optimization Of Processing Condition For Better Quality Of Robusta Coffee Production, Usman Ahmad, Khalimatus Sa’Diyah, Sathivel Subramaniam

Faculty Publications

The wet processing of robusta coffee starts with harvesting coffee cherries, followed by sorting the cherries, pulping, fermentation, washing, drying, hard skin hulling, bean sorting, and packaging. Soaking fruit before pulping is an alternative for coffee farmers to delay the pulping process if time does not al-low it. The fermentation process aims to remove mucus that is firmly attached to the hard skin. The addition of L. casei bacteria can accelerate the process but affect the final taste. This study aimed to optimize the duration of soaking and fermentation processes for obtaining coffee beans with a minimum number of unpeeled …

A Comparative Study Of Texas–Mexico Border Vs. Non-Border Students’ Achievement On High-Stakes State Test: A Propensity Score Matching Method, Zhuoying Wang, Shifang Tang, Feng Luo

Faculty Publications

Texas–Mexico border region is a unique place where two countries and culture connected. We sought to investigate border school district students’ academic performance as measured by Texas standardized test: the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). To do so, we first used propensity score matching (PSM) techniques to analyze data collected from a public database: Texas Assessment Management System (TAMS). Specifically, we provided a PSM analysis of nonborder and border school districts regarding their demographic characteristics [i.e., identified as a rural district, percentage of economically disadvantaged (ED) students, percentage of English learners (ELs), mobility rate, instructional hours, principal …

Lies,Damn Lies, And Kamikaze Lies: Protecting Falsehoods In The Name Of Truth, Doris Deltosto Brogan

Faculty Publications

Despite calls to reverse New York Times v. Sullivan and abandon the reckless disregard standard for public figure defamation cases--calls offered by two Supreme Court Justices, a number of legal scholars and some members of the popular press-- this article demonstrates that Sullivan’s protections have never been more relevant or more necessary, particularly in light of an epidemic of malicious, often strategic falsity, as well as overt assaults on the institutional press by powerful actors. We need Sullivan now more than ever. Further, for Sullivan to do its work effectively, it must be reinforced by two other legal protections: robust …

Maternal And Infant Outcomes Of Syrian And Palestinian Refugees, Lebanese And Migrant Women Giving Birth In A Tertiary Public Hospital In Lebanon: A Secondary Analysis Of An Obstetric Database, Stephen J. Mccall, Tanya C. El Khoury, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., Shady Elbassuoni, Mhd Hussein Murtada, Zeina Jamaluddine, Christine Haddad, Aya Hussein, Amina Krounbi, Jocelyn Dejong, Janoub Khazaal, Rabih Chahine

Faculty Publications

Objectives This study aims to assess whether the characteristics, management and outcomes of women varied between Syrian and Palestinian refugees, migrant women of other nationalities and Lebanese women giving birth at a public tertiary centre in Beirut, Lebanon.

Methods This was a secondary data analysis of routinely collected data from the public Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH) between January 2011 and July 2018. Data were extracted from medical notes using text mining machine learning methods. Nationality was categorised into Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and migrant women of other nationalities. The main outcomes were diabetes, pre-eclampsia, placenta accreta spectrum, hysterectomy, uterine rupture, …

Team Moms And Tiger Moms: Formal Sports Participation And Closeness To Mothers: Supplementary Materials, Tom R. Leppard, Mikaela J. Dufur

Faculty Publications

Recent research highlights that relationships with parents are among those strengthened when youth play sports. This recent work, however, largely focuses on fathers, arguing that because of the persistent emphasis on masculinity in sporting spaces, youth sports might be especially effective at facilitating stronger relationships between fathers and children. This chapter asks how the mother-child dyad is influenced by youth formal participation in sports during their adolescence, including whether these patters differ for daughters and sons. The intense time investments the entire family unit incurs to support youth sport participation might be borne primarily by mothers; this in turn might …

Comparative-Effectiveness Of Oral Beta-Lactams And Fluoroquinolones For Stepdown Therapy In Patients With Enterobacterales Bloodstream Infections: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Lauren Bjork Ph.D., Teri Hopkins Ph.D., Linda Yang Ph.D., Chengwen Teng Pharm.D., Ph.D., Xavier Jones Bs, Jose Cadena, Elizabeth Walter, Christopher R. Frei Pham.D., Ms

Faculty Publications

Background: This study compares treatment failure for patients who received oral beta-lactams (BLs) and fluoroquinolones (FQs) for stepdown treatment of Enterobacterales bloodstream infections (BSIs).

Methods: We conducted a single-center, retrospective, age- and sex-matched, cohort study, at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in South Texas. Eligible patients were at least 18 years of age with a monomicrobial BSI treated with a single oral BL or FQ antibiotic. Treatment failure was defined as recurrence or all-cause mortality within 90 days of documented BSI. Bivariate (chi-square, Fisher's Exact, and Wilcoxon Rank Sum) and multivariate (logistic regression) statistical tests were used to compare groups. …

Why & What Attorneys Should Know About Community Resources Available To Survivors Of Domestic Violence, Kristen Clarke Kellems, Kristen Clarke Kellems

Faculty Publications

This CLE program explains why attorneys representing survivors of domestic violence should understand and use community resources as part of effective legal advocacy. Leaving an abusive relationship can create immediate risks involving safety, housing, finances, transportation, childcare, and emotional health. These barriers can affect a survivor’s stability, decision-making, and ability to participate effectively in a legal case. Drawing on survivor and volunteer-attorney perspectives, the presenters show how appropriate referrals can strengthen both client outcomes and legal representation while keeping attorneys within their professional role.

The program surveys Utah resources available through 211, the Department of Workforce Services, domestic violence shelters, …

Editorial: Community Series In Research Efforts, Challenges And Opportunities In Mitigating Aflatoxins In Food And Agricultural Crops And Its Global Health Impacts, Volume Ii, Mehdi Razzaghi-Abyaneh, Zhi Yuan Chen, Mahendra Rai, Masoomeh Shams-Ghahfarokhi

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Injured Sciatic Nerve Atlas (Isnaat), Insights Into The Cellular And Molecular Basis Of Neural Tissue Degeneration And Regeneration, Xiao-Feng Zhao, Lucas D. Huffman, Hannah Hafner, Mitre Athaiya, Matthew C. Finneran, Ashley L. Kalinski, Rafi Kohen, Corey Flynn, Ryan Passino, Craig N. Johnson, David Kohrman, Riki Kawaguchi, Lynda Js Yang, Jeffery L. Twiss, Daniel H. Geschwind, Gabriel Corfas, Roman J. Giger

Faculty Publications

Upon trauma, the adult murine peripheral nervous system (PNS) displays a remarkable degree of spontaneous anatomical and functional regeneration. To explore extrinsic mechanisms of neural repair, we carried out single-cell analysis of naïve mouse sciatic nerve, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and crushed sciatic nerves at 1 day, 3 days, and 7 days following injury. During the first week, monocytes and macrophages (Mo/Mac) rapidly accumulate in the injured nerve and undergo extensive metabolic reprogramming. Proinflammatory Mo/Mac with a high glycolytic flux dominate the early injury response and rapidly give way to inflammation resolving Mac, programmed toward oxidative phosphorylation. Nerve crush injury …

Assessing Impacts Of Climate Change On Selected Foundation Species And Ecosystem Services In The South-Central Usa, R. James Ansley, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Kerry Griffis-Kyle, Bruce Hoagland, Amanda Emert, Todd Fagin, Scott R. Loss, Heather R. Mccarthy, Nicholas G. Smith, Elizabeth F. Waring

Faculty Publications

Climate change, interacting with and exacerbating anthropogenic modifications to the landscape, is altering ecosystem structure and function, biodiversity, and species distributions. Among the most visible short-term impacts are the altered ecological roles of foundation species—those species, native or non-native—that create locally stable environmental conditions and strongly influence ecosystem services. Understanding the future of these species is crucial for projecting impacts on ecosystem services at both local and regional scales. Here we present foundation species by ecoregion study cases across the US South-Central Region (Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas), including C4 grasses, mesquite, and northern bobwhite in the Southern Great …

The Constitution's Waning Enforceability: Constitutional Torts After Egbert & Vega, Bailey D. Barnes

Faculty Publications

The 2021 term of the Supreme Court of the United States produced two opinions significantly dampening the future of constitutional tort actions, which are cases brought to remedy a government agent's deprivation of an individual's constitutional rights. First, in Egbert v. Boule, the Court refused to extend Bivens liability to an excessive force claim made against a United States Border Patrol Agent. Second, in Vega v. Tekoh, the Court contravened the traditional understanding of the Fifth Amendment's Self-Incrimination Clause by preventing a§ 1983 civil rights action against a sheriffs deputy who procured an un-Mirandized statement from a criminal suspect. Read …

African American Perceptions Of Service Provided By Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education: A Qualitative Exploration, Matthew Greene, Denise Holston, Jamila Freightman, Chiquita Briley

Faculty Publications

Objective: To assess African Americans’ satisfaction with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) in Louisiana. Methods: African American facilitators conducted 5 focus group discussions with 25 African American SNAP-Ed participants according to issues identified by African American SNAP-Ed implementers in Louisiana. Focus group discussion transcripts were coded independently using inductive and in vivo coding by 2 members of the research team. Results: Participants viewed lessons as race-neutral and thought they should include more information about African American history and culture. Participants also noted a lack of engagement with the African American community and stressed the need for the program to employ …

Influence Of Soldiers On Exploratory Foraging Behavior In The Formosan Subterranean Termite, Coptotermes Formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae), Joseph Mccarthy, Arjun Khadka, Hasim Hakanoglu, Qian Sun

Faculty Publications

Termites are eusocial insects that live in organized colonies consisting of reproductives, workers, and soldiers. Soldiers are specialized for defense but are expensive to maintain, as they are incapable of husbandry and must be fed and groomed by workers. The soldiers of several species influence foraging behavior by acting as scouts that initiate foraging or by mediating worker behavioral plasticity during food exploration. These behaviors imply that soldiers may play a keystone role in termite colony function, apart from defense. Subterranean termite workers tunnel through soil in search of food while accompanied by varying proportions of soldiers, depending on the …

Opioid And Cannabis Co-Use: The Role Of Opioid Use To Cope With Negative Affect, Julia D. Buckner, Caroline R. Scherzer, Andrew H. Rogers, Michael J. Zvolensky

Faculty Publications

Introduction: The opioid epidemic is a significant public health concern, particularly among adults with chronic pain. There are high rates of cannabis co-use among these individuals and co-use is related to worse opioid-related outcomes. Yet, little work has examined mechanisms underlying this relationship. In line with affective processing models of substance use, it is possible that those who use multiple substances do so in a maladaptive attempt to cope with psychological distress. Method: We tested whether, among adults with chronic lower back pain (CLBP), the relation between co-use and more severe opioid-related problems would occur via the serial effects of …

Evaluation Of The Peer Leadership For Physical Literacy Intervention: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial, Ryan M. Hulteen, David R. Lubans, Ryan E. Rhodes, Guy Faulkner, Yan Liu, Patti Jean Naylor, Nicole Nathan, Katrina J. Waldhauser, Colin M. Wierts, Mark R. Beauchamp

Faculty Publications

Purpose The purpose of this research was to develop, implement, and test the efficacy of a theory-driven, evidence-informed peer leadership program for elementary school students (Grade 6 and 7; age 11–12 years) and the Grade 3/4 students with whom they were partnered. The primary outcome was teacher ratings of their Grade 6/7 students’ transformational leadership behaviors. Secondary outcomes included: Grade 6/7 students’ leadership self-efficacy, as well as Grade 3/4 motivation, perceived competence, general self-concept, fundamental movement skills, school-day physical activity, and program adherence, and program evaluation. Methods We conducted a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial. In 2019, 6 schools comprising …

Framework Of The Alu Subfamily Evolution In The Platyrrhine Three-Family Clade Of Cebidae, Callithrichidae, And Aotidae, Jessica M. Storer, Jerilyn A. Walker, Jasmine N. Baker, Shifat Hossain, Christian Roos, Travis J. Wheeler, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

The history of Alu retroposons has been choreographed by the systematic accumulation of inherited diagnostic nucleotide substitutions to form discrete subfamilies, each having a distinct nucleotide consensus sequence. The oldest subfamily, AluJ, gave rise to AluS after the split between Strepsirrhini and what would become Catarrhini and Platyrrhini. The AluS lineage gave rise to AluY in catarrhines and to AluTa in platyrrhines. Platyrrhine Alu subfamilies Ta7, Ta10, and Ta15 were assigned names based on a standardized nomenclature. However, with the subsequent intensification of whole genome sequencing (WGS), large scale analyses to characterize Alu subfamilies using the program COSEG identified entire …

Identification Of Differential-Expressed Genes In Banana-Biostimulant Interaction Using Suppression Subtractive Hybridization, Tatiana Chavez-Navarrete, Luis Sanchez-Timm, Ricardo Pacheco-Coello, Niranjan Baisakh, Efrén Santos-Ordóñez

Faculty Publications

The use of environmental-friendly agricultural inputs to increase yield in crops could reduce environmental contamination and alleviate (a)biotic stress. In this study, we applied a foliar liquid biostimulant to banana plants, which was developed from the anaerobic fermentation of microorganisms with organic remains (manure and plant waste) and minerals to use as environmental-friendly product. To determine the effect of this biostimulant in the plants, a Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) library was developed from banana leaves in greenhouse conditions. Furthermore, salicylic and jasmonic pathways activation was evaluated by gene expression analysis. First, the application of the biostimulant to banana leaves increased …

Total Utilization-Upcycling Of Mushroom Protein By-Product: Characterization And Assessment As An Alternative Batter Ingredient For Fried Shrimp, Diego Garcia, Seung Woon You, Ricardo S. Aleman, Joan M. King, Slavko Komarnytsky, Roberta Targino Hoskin, Marvin Moncada

Faculty Publications

Mushroom by-products are economical and eco-friendly raw materials with bioactive and functional characteristics that allow for potential uses as food ingredients. However, mushroom upcycling has yet to be fully exploited, despite the many opportunities that mushrooms may offer. The mushroom protein by-product (MPBP) resulting from mushroom protein production was characterized (chemical composition, physicochemical attributes, and functional properties) and incorporated into plant-based batter formulations to prepare four experimental groups with different ratios (w/w, %) of wheat flour (W) to MPBP (100 W, 75 W/25 MPBP, 25 W/75 MPBP, and 100 MPBP). Subsequently, the batter was used for frying batter-coated shrimp, which …

The Effect Of Watermelon Juice Supplementation On Heart Rate Variability And Metabolic Response During An Oral Glucose Challenge: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial, Rachel Matthews, Kate S. Early, Cullen M. Vincellette, Jack Losso, Guillaume Spielmann, Brian A. Irving, Timothy D. Allerton

Faculty Publications

Heart rate variability (HRV) provides a simple method to evaluate autonomic function in health and disease. A reduction in HRV may indicate autonomic dysfunction and is strongly associated with aspects of cardiometabolic disease, including hyperglycemia. Reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability is also implicated in the development of cardiometabolic disease and autonomic dysfunction. Watermelons are natural sources of L-arginine and L-citrulline, substrates used for NO synthesis. Watermelon consumption can improve NO bioavailability. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial to test the effects of 2 weeks of daily watermelon juice (WMJ) supplementation on HRV in response to an oral glucose …

Drone Detection Using Yolov5, Burchan Aydin, Subroto Singha

Faculty Publications

The rapidly increasing number of drones in the national airspace, including those for recreational and commercial applications, has raised concerns regarding misuse. Autonomous drone detection systems offer a probable solution to overcoming the issue of potential drone misuse, such as drug smuggling, violating people’s privacy, etc. Detecting drones can be difficult, due to similar objects in the sky, such as airplanes and birds. In addition, automated drone detection systems need to be trained with ample amounts of data to provide high accuracy. Real-time detection is also necessary, but this requires highly configured devices such as a graphical processing unit (GPU). …

Forgotten Brother Reuben Lewis: Missouri River Fur Trader And Indian Agent For The Arkansas Cherokees, Jay H. Buckley, Deveney Reber

Faculty Publications

Reuben Lewis was born in 1777, the fourth and youngest child of William Lewis and Lucy Meriwether. Their oldest child, Jane, married and lived out her days at Locust Hill, the family estate in Virginia. The Lewis’ second child, baby Lucinda, died in infancy. Their third child, Meriwether – the closest in age and friendship to Reuben – became the famous first half of the Lewis and Clark Expedition which explored the uncharted West before he met his tragic and mysterious death on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. While Reuben’s life has been rightly overshadowed by his older brother Meriwether’s …

A Simple Micromilled Microfluidic Impedance Cytometer With Vertical Parallel Electrodes For Cell Viability Analysis, Jason Eades, Julianne F. Audiffred, Micah Fincher, Jin Woo Choi, Steven A. Soper, William Todd Monroe

Faculty Publications

Microfluidic impedance cytometry has been demonstrated as an effective platform for single cell analysis, taking advantage of microfabricated features and dielectric cell sensing methods. In this study, we present a simple microfluidic device to improve the sensitivity, accuracy, and throughput of single suspension cell viability analysis using vertical sidewall electrodes fabricated by a widely accessible negative manufacturing method. A microchannel milled through a 75 µm platinum wire, which was embedded into poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA), created a pair of parallel vertical sidewall platinum electrodes. Jurkat cells were interrogated in a custom low-conductivity buffer (1.2 ± 0.04 mS/cm) to reduce current leakage and …

Design And Characterization Of An Aerosol Test Chamber For Emergency Response Patient Contamination Control Simulation And Research, Megan L. Steele, Emily M. Spatz, George P. Lemmer, Jacob M. Denney, Casey Cooper, Jeremy M. Slagley, Robert M. Eninger

Faculty Publications

Contaminated or infected patients present a risk of cross-contamination for emergency responders, attending medical personnel and medical facilities as they enter a treatment facility. The controlled conditions of an aerosol test chamber are required to examine factors of contamination, decontamination, and cross-contamination. This study presents the design, construction, and a method for characterizing an aerosol test chamber for a full-sized manikin on a standard North Atlantic Treaty Organization litter. The methodology combined air velocity measurements, aerosol particle counts and size distributions, and computational fluid dynamics modeling to describe the chamber’s performance in three dimensions. This detailed characterization facilitates future experimental …