Digital Commons Network^™

Monitoring Nutrition Security: Perspectives From A Workshop On Nutrition Security Measurement, Ximena Perez-Velazco, Edward A. Frongillo Jr. Ph.D., Joanne F. Guthrie, Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Mariah D. Ehmke, Christian Gregory, Hilary K. Seligman

Faculty Publications

Nutrition security, an emerging concept distinct from and complementary to food security, has gained increasing interest as a focus of efforts to reduce hunger, improve nutrition, and prevent diet-related health conditions. Yet, unlike food security, which has well-established measures, nutrition security lacks standardized measures for assessment. This gap hinders the ability to evaluate progress in improving nutrition security both in the United States and globally. In September 2024, a workshop to explore how to measure nutrition security was hosted by the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, in collaboration with the Southern University Agricultural Science Center of Excellence …

Easyspec: An Open-Source Python Package For Long-Slit Spectroscopy, Raniere De Menezes, Francesco Massaro, Michela Negro, Claudia M. Raiteri, Harold Peña-Herazo, Jose A. Acosta-Pulido

Faculty Publications

In modern-day astronomy, near-infrared, optical, and ultraviolet spectroscopy are indispensable for studying a wide range of phenomena, from measuring black hole masses to analyzing chemical abundances in stellar atmospheres. However, spectroscopic data reduction is often performed using instrument-specific pipelines or legacy software well-established and robust within the community that are often challenging to implement and script in modern astrophysical workflows. In this work, we introduce easyspec, a new Python package designed for long-slit spectroscopy, capable of reducing, extracting, and analyzing spectra from a wide range of instruments—provided they deliver raw FITS files, the standard format for most optical telescopes worldwide. …

Sub-Gev Dark Matter And Mev Gamma-Ray Detection With Cosi, Yu Watanabe, Shigeki Matsumoto, Christopher M. Karwin, Tom Melia, Michela Negro, Thomas Siegert, Yuki Watanabe, Hiroki Yoneda, Tadayuki Takahashi

Faculty Publications

Sub-GeV dark matter (DM) has been attracting more attention due to the negative results searching for traditional weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Such particles are expected to produce gamma rays from annihilation in the MeV energy region. Advancements in technology have opened up possibilities to precisely detect MeV gamma rays, leading to the upcoming space-based mission of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI). We comprehensively and quantitatively study the phenomenology of sub-GeV DM to determine if the COSI observations will probe their viable model parameter regions. We first construct models to describe sub-GeV DM based on the minimality and renormalizability …

Root Exudates: The Rhizospheric Frontier For Advancing Sustainable Plant Protection, Muhammad Rahil Afzal, Misbah Naz, Youbo Yu, Lisha Yan, Peiyi Wang, Janaki Mohotti, Gefei Hao, Jing-Jiang Zhou, Zhou Chen, Libo Zhang, Qian Wang

Faculty Publications

Root exudates (REs), a diverse array of bioactive metabolites secreted by plant roots in response to environmental stimuli, serve as key mediators of rhizosphere ecology and plant defense responses, offering a promising avenue for sustainable pest management and eco-friendly plant protection. While earlier reviews primarily focus on root exudates in the context of general rhizosphere dynamics and plant-microbial interactions, critical knowledge gaps persist in REs-plant-pest tripartite interactions, the mechanistic basis of REs-mediated plant defense, and their practical integration with integrated pest management (IPM) frameworks. This review provides a synthesis of the latest literature on the biochemical diversity and functions of …

Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Principles Of Powerful Preaching, Alain Coralie

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Contextualization: Old Tool, New Reach, Rogelio Paquini

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Categorial Declinations & Democracy, Brenner M. Fissell

Faculty Publications

The most contentious action taken by reform prosecutors has been the issuance of categorical declination policies. Opponents decry this as bureaucratic nullification of democratically enacted offenses, while the prosecutors themselves counter that they are responding to the will of their local electorate. Democracy claims, it appears, have taken center stage in this debate, and they are deployed by both sides. How should we think about democracy and categorical declinations? The most comprehensive scholarly work on this subject is a 2021 article by Professor Kerrel Murray. In this essay, I hope to continue the work begun by Murray, offering additional insights …

Against Activist Cooperation Agreements, Jennifer O'Hare

Faculty Publications

Shareholder activism is at record levels. In a typical campaign, the activist threatens to launch a proxy fight unless the board of directors agrees to take certain actions to increase shareholder value, such as selling off company assets or replacing the CEO. Increasingly, however, there are no proxy fights. Instead, the activist and the board, behind closed doors, quickly agree to settle. The activist withdraws the proxy fight threat, and, in return, the board appoints individuals designated by the activist to sit on the company board. This "Cooperation Agreement" allows the incumbent di- rectors to keep their positions and allows …

Exact And Approximate Conformal Inference For Multi-Output Regression, Chancellor Johnstone, Eugene Ndiaye

Faculty Publications

It is common in machine learning to estimate a response y given covariate information x . However, these predictions alone do not quantify any uncertainty associated with said predictions. One way to overcome this deficiency is with conformal inference methods, which construct a set containing the unobserved response with a prescribed probability. Unfortunately, even with a one-dimensional response, conformal inference is computationally expensive despite recent encouraging advances. In this paper, we explore multi-output regression, delivering exact derivations of conformal inference p-values when the predictive model can be described as a linear function of y . Additionally, we introduce a multivariate …

Sleep Quality, Emotional Moods, And Cognitive Outcomes Among People Living With Hiv: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Abhishek Aggarwal, Camryn Garrett, Arielle N’Diaye, Atena Pasha, Irene Esu, Chih Hsiang Yang Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction Although studies have explored the relationship between sleep quality, mood, and cognitive outcomes among people living with HIV (PLWH), few use ecological momentary assessment (EMA) techniques to evaluate within-person associations between sleep quality and emotional/cognitive outcomes among PLWH at the day level. This study investigated the association between previous night’s sleep quality and momentary psychological outcomes in participants’ natural setting. Methods Study participants were PLWH in South Carolina who were at least 18 years old, diagnosed with HIV for at least 2 years, and able to operate a cellphone. Participants were sampled using posters posted in AIDS Service organizations, …

Wind Turbine Rotor Design Using High-Fidelity Aerostructural Optimization, Marco Mangano, Sicheng He, Yingqian Liao, Denis-Gabriel Caprace, Andrew Ning, Joaquim R. R. A. Martins

Faculty Publications

Large wind turbines yield more energy but demand careful aeroelastic blade design. Coupled multiphysics design strategies can reduce wind energy costs exploiting fluid-structure interactions. This work presents the first high-fidelity aerostructural optimization study of a large wind turbine rotor.We use blade-resolved fluid dynamics and structural solvers in a monolithic gradient-based optimization framework to explore steady-state torque and blade mass trade-offs. The coupled-adjoint approach computes gradients efficiently, enabling the optimization of over 100 structural and geometric parameters simultaneously. Our optimization study modifies a DTU 10 MW benchmark with a simplified structure and isotropic material properties. The tightly coupled optimizations increase torque …

Contextualization: Old Tool, New Reach, Rogelio Paquini

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of Different Magnetic Anomaly Datasets Using Navigation Performance With Flight Test Data, Aaron P. Nielsen, Brandon M. Blakely, Patrick Duff

Faculty Publications

Magnetic Anomaly Navigation (MagNav) is a map-based method of navigation which relies on accurately obtaining the anomaly field to a high level of precision to achieve good navigation results. This requires utilizing high quality sensors, accurately modeling disturbance fields from the aircraft & other sources, and creating high-fidelity maps. Aeromagnetic survey data or marine track survey data must be processed into a product that can be used as a reference for a magnetic navigator and a variety of techniques can be utilized for this processing. The data collection for different survey types reflects choices typically made to study the underlying …

Youth Comorbidity Patterns And Research Domain Criteria (Rdoc)-Informed Factors: A Scoping Review Of Person-Centered Psychopathology Research, June Yung Kim, Wenxing Wei, Liat R. Johnson, Sarah Balser, Anne Marie Gruber

Faculty Publications

Purpose: High rates of comorbid psychopathology have driven a growing body of person-centered research to understand the grouping structure of youth comorbidity by identifying meaningful comorbidity patterns and validating them with neurobehavioral factors. The National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) offers an etiological framework for systematically identifying constructs organized around major functioning domains. This scoping review study mapped person-centered comorbidity studies and synthesized the RDoC-informed factors of comorbidity patterns. Materials and

Methods: We followed Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework. Five databases (e.g. PubMed and CINAHL) were searched. Twenty-five peer-reviewed studies examining comorbidity patterns in youth up to …

Vanja Y. Watkins, Myrna J. Layton

Faculty Publications

Vanja Louise Yorgason was born on September 22, 1938 in Ogden, Utah, the daughter of R. Milton and Norma Johns Yorgason. Vanja grew up in a musical home. Her father was a violinist, and her mother a pianist and an organist. Vanja and her four brothers learned to “sing four-part hymns in tune unaccompanied.”1 Their parents felt that music was an important part of their children’s education, and made the necessary sacrifices to provide music lessons.

Investigation Of A Stable And Saturated Reference Electrode Using Metal Chlorides And Oxides In Eutectic Licl-Kcl Molten Salts, Carlos Mejia, Devin Rappleye

Faculty Publications

Stable and reproducible reference electrodes (REs) are essential for electrochemical systems operating in high-temperature molten salts, where consistent control of potential is required. This study uses three different solutes to investigate the development and evaluation of REs in eutectic LiCl-KCl at 773 K. The solutes tested were NiCl2, AgCl, and NiO, each prepared at multiple concentrations to assess stability, reproducibility, and saturation. Electrochemical stability was measured over three days using chronopotentiometry (CP), followed by open circuit potential (OCP), with cyclic voltammetry (CV) also integrated to monitor changes in electrochemical behavior over time. The CP-OCP approach established a Li+/Li redox potential, …

Tort Liability For Failure To Age Gate: A Promising Regulatory Response To Digital Public Health Hazards, Matthew B. Lawrence, Brett Frischmann, Avi Sholkoff

Faculty Publications

Tort liability for failure to “age gate” is a promising legal response to the public health hazards of AI, social media, sports gambling, and other digital spaces. Tort liability for failure to “age gate” hinges liability for harms to minors on an app’s failure to take reasonable steps to prevent minors from gaining access or otherwise to apply appropriate governance rules, such as privacy-protective default settings or ensuring genuine parental consent. While no one legal response is a panacea, tort liability for failure to age gate carries several distinctive advantages that make it a particularly promising option at this stage …

Working Group Report: Developing A Playbook Of Equitable Grading Practices, Stephen H. Edwards, David L. Largent, Ben Schafer, Debarati Basu, Amy Csizmar Dalal, Dan Garcia, Brian Harrington, Kevin Lin, Dan S. Myers, Christian Roberson, Giulia Toti, Brett Wortzman

Faculty Publications

Traditional points-based grading can have negative impacts. As a result, many educators are experimenting with alternative grading practices that are more equitable for students. However, educators often face challenges in implementing equitable grading practices due to a lack of clear, practical descriptions of techniques and the fact that not all techniques are universally applicable. This working group addresses this problem using a three-pronged strategy: conducting a systematic literature review to gather documented techniques, compiling ''recipes'' or concrete descriptions of these techniques, and publishing them in an open-source, online ''playbook'' of equitable grading practices as a community resource for educators. This …

Editorial: Disclosure In Sexual And Reproductive Health, Pooja Chitneni, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Simon M. Manga, Janet M. Turan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“I Feel Like A Lot Of Times Women Are The Ones Who Are Problem-Solving For All The People That They Know”: The Gendered Impacts Of The Pandemic On Women In Alaska, Marya Rozanova-Smith, Andrey N. Petrov

Faculty Publications

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic recovery in urban communities in the Arctic have been substantial, but their gendered aspects remain largely unknown. The goal of this study was to enhance the understanding of the gender-based impact on women in the urban areas of Alaska by exploring strengths and constraints to resilience in the social and economic domains of gender equality during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on grounded theory methodology, this study is based on 29 in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The study methodology utilized a conceptual framework that integrated deficit-based and strength-based analytical perspectives. …

Two Decapod Crustaceans, Panopeus Herbstii And Petrolisthes Armatus, Stabilize Their Gaze Using Achromatic Visual Cues, But Not The Angle Of Linearly Polarized Light, M. Janakis, S. Guirges, A. C. Grant, I. Paris, E. F. Lopresti, Daniel Isaac Speiser

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Advancing Autonomous Swarm Behavior In A Simulated Anti-Access Area Denial Environment, Chad Macwilkinson, Lance E. Champagne, Phillip M. Lacasse

Faculty Publications

This study proposes the application of a four dimensional framework of autonomy to a weapon swarm of high subsonic cruise missiles.

Bovine Neutrophil Migration, Cd11a/Cd18 Expression, And Cytokine Response To Co-Culture With Mammary Gland Endothelial Cells And Epithelial Cells, David J. Mcclenahan

Faculty Publications

Movement of leukocytes from the circulatory system into a site of inflammation is a highly complex process. The migration of neutrophils into the lumen of the mammary gland during mastitis is no exception. There is information about the involvement of bacterial-produced products during this process, but less is known regarding the role of host products. Two bovine cell lines, a primary mammary gland endothelial cell line and an immortalized bovine mammary gland epithelial cell line (Mac-T), along with freshly isolated bovine neutrophils, were used to study this further. The cell lines were grown on inserts and in wells of tissue-culture …

Pinch: Pipeline-Informed Noise Characterization In Ligo’S Third Observing Run, Zach Yarbrough, Andre Guimaraes, Prathamesh Joshi, Gabriela González, Andrew Valentini

Faculty Publications

We present a method to identify and categorize gravitational wave candidate triggers identified by matched filtering gravitational wave searches (pipelines) caused by transient noise (glitches) in gravitational wave detectors using support vector machine (SVM) classifiers. Our approach involves training SVM models on pipeline triggers which occur outside periods of excess noise to distinguish between triggers caused by random noise and those induced by glitches. This method is applied independently to the triggers produced by the GstLAL search pipeline on data from the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory Hanford and Livingston observatories during the second half of the O3 observing run. The …

Nitrogen Fertilizer Equivalence Of Red Clover When Inter-Seeded Into Corn, Hannah R. Francis, Ting Fung Ma, Rodrigo Werle, Chelsea H. Zegler, Daniel H. Smith, Douglas J. Soldat, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Matthew D. Ruark

Faculty Publications

Inter-seeding red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) provides an alternative method toincorporate cover crops into continuous corn (Zea mays L.) in the Upper US Midwest. Red clover is a leguminous cover crop that can grow in low-radiation environments and is winter hardy. Systems with red clover have demonstrated improved corn yield and a fertilizer N equivalence but understanding these effects with inter-seeding war-rants further investigation. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of inter-seeding red clover on (i) plant-available N during and after red clover decomposition, (ii) optimum N rates for corn, and (iii) corn yields. The …

Nitrogen Fertilizer Equivalence Of Red Clover When Inter-Seeded Into Corn, Hannah R. Francis, Ting Fung Ma, Rodrigo Werle, Chelsea H. Zegler, Daniel H. Smith, Douglas J. Soldat, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Matthew D. Ruark

Faculty Publications

Inter-seeding red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) provides an alternative method to incorporate cover crops into continuous corn (Zea mays L.) in the Upper US Midwest. Red clover is a leguminous cover crop that can grow in low-radiation environments and is winter hardy. Systems with red clover have demonstrated improved corn yield and a fertilizer N equivalence but understanding these effects with inter-seeding warrants further investigation. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of inter-seeding red clover on (i) plant-available N during and after red clover decomposition, (ii) optimum N rates for corn, and (iii) corn …

A Meta-Analysis Of Historic Drinking Water Emergency Events Reported In News Articles, Victor Yu, Haiying Wang, Weiwei Mo

Faculty Publications

This study seeks to investigate historical drinking water contamination events that reported by news media to find the key determinants of their outcomes, including the duration and economic cost, and to quantitatively describe the characteristics of past contamination events. ProQuest Global Newsstream and Regional Business News were used to identify an initial list of events and supplemented by additional search on specific information including the response actions, economic cost, and more. These events were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression modeling. Smaller community water systems were found to be more frequently impacted by contamination events. Use restrictions, except …

Expanding Functionalities Of Immune Receptors Through Simultaneous Transfer Of Sensor And Helper Nlrs, Dongjiao Wang, Qibin Wu, Daowen Wang, Youxiong Que, Zheng Qing Fu

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Expanding Functionalities Of Immune Receptors Through Simultaneous Transfer Of Sensor And Helper Nlrs, Dongjiao Wang, Qibin Wu, Daowen Wang, Youxiong Que, Zheng Qing Fu

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Growth Of Cylindrical Micelles And Their Use To Prepare Porous Materials With Tailored Dimensions And Alignment, Mengxue Zhang, Xiaomeng Li, Chuanbing Tang, Morgan Stefik

Faculty Publications

Materials with cylindrical pores are optimal for electrochemical devices and filtration due to their straight paths with minimal tortuosity when aligned. Polymer templates have led to many individual cylindrical architectures however the independent tailoring of pore and wall dimensions has remained elusive. Here short cylindrical micelle templates (PEO-b-PS) with glassy cores enabled the fabrication of sample series with constant cylindrical pore diameter (∼63 nm) and tailored wall thickness (TiO₂, ∼45–100 nm). This ShortCyl series (aspect ratio 4.25) had modest alignment that was attributed to the low free-energy cost for misalignment. Though the plasticized micelles (DCM present) …