Digital Commons Network^™

Unintended Consequences: Potential Downsides Of The Air Force's Conversion To Biofuels, Mark N. Goltz, Charles A. Bleckmann, Charles M. Mackay, Khai Vuong, Jerrod P. Mccomb

Faculty Publications

The desire to reduce US dependence on foreign energy, ongoing environmental concerns, and the rising cost of petroleum have sparked significant development of greener alternative and renewable energy sources such as alcohol-based biofuels. To address these issues, the Department of Defense DOD has moved to diminish its reliance on petroleum for fueling aircraft and ground equipment. The US Air Force, in alignment with DOD objectives, has initiated several goals for reducing its use of energy: (1) decrease the use of petroleum-based fuel by 2 percent annually for the vehicle fleet, (2) increase the use of alternative fuel in motor vehicles …

Using Nanotechnology To Detect Nerve Agents, Mark N. Goltz, Dong-Shik Kim, Leeann Racz

Faculty Publications

Nanotechnology has opened a wide range of opportunities having potential impacts in areas as diverse as medicine and consumer products. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Toledo UT, Air Force Institute of Technology AFIT scientists are exploring the possibility of using a nanoscale organic matrix to detect organophosphate OP nerve agents. Current techniques for detecting OP compounds are expensive and time consuming. Developing a nanoscale organic matrix sensor would allow for direct, real-time sensing under field conditions. This article describes the science behind such a sensor and its possible applications. High-performance sensors are needed to protect Soldiers and …

Widening Batson's Net To Ensnare More Than The Unapologetically Bigoted Or Painfully Unimaginative Attorney, Jeffrey Bellin, Junichi P. Semitsu

Faculty Publications

In Snyder v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its commitment to rooting out racially discriminatory jury selection and its belief that the three-step framework established in Batson v. Kentucky is capable of unearthing racially discriminatory peremptory strikes. Yet the Court left in place the talismanic protection available to those who might misuse the peremptory challenge—the unbounded collection of justifications that courts, including the Supreme Court, accept as “race neutral.”

To evaluate the Court’s continuing faith in Batson, we conducted a survey of all federal published and unpublished judicial decisions issued in this first decade of the new millennium (2000–2009) that …

Infectivity Period Of Mice Inoculated With Human Adenoviruses, Rashmi Krishnapuram, Heather Kirk-Ballard, Aamri Zuberi, Nikhil V. Dhurandhar

Faculty Publications

Due to non-productive infections, mice are not a good model to study some human adenoviruses. However, mice provide an excellent model to study the metabolic effects of human adenovirus, Ad36. Research interest in Ad36 is increasing rapidly, and consequently an increase in the use of mice as a model is anticipated. However, little is known about the transmission potential of Ad36 from infected mice to other laboratory animals or personnel. While underestimating the infectivity could promote inadvertent spread of Ad36, overstating it could drain valuable laboratory resources and animals. Therefore, we determined the duration of infectivity in female C57BL/6J mice …

Media Attention On African Americans With Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Charles S. Beverley Jr., Edith M. Williams, Saundra H. Glover

Faculty Publications

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a disease that has captured the attention of the media in various ways and to varying degrees. One of the ongoing debates and areas of research in HIV that provide many opportunities for discovery is the disproportionate number of African Americans infected with HIV compared to the amount of attention they receive in the media. This manuscript addresses the question that has preoccupied the minds of many people: Why have African Americans infected with HIV received so little media attention? Analysis of this question suggests that there are many reasons for this lack of media …

Analysis Of Educational Technology, Research And Design, 2001-2010, Holt Zaugg, Mayavel Amado, Tyler Randall Small, Richard E. West

Faculty Publications

This article examines 10 years (2001-2010) of journal articles from Educational Technology, Research, and Design (ETRD) to determine trends in article topics, key contributing authors, citation patterns and methodological trends. Our analysis identified several unique characteristics of this journal over the past decade including a balance between theory, research, and design, as well as a commitment to international perspectives.

Draw Me Nearer, Hyveth Williams

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hef1, A Novel Target Of Wnt Signaling, Promotes Colonic Cell Migration And Cancer Progression, Y. Li, J. H. Bavarva, Z. Wang, J. Guo, C. Qian, S. N. Thibodeau, E. A. Golemis, W. Liu

Faculty Publications

Misregulation of the canonical Wnt/Β-catenin pathway and aberrant activation of Wnt signaling target genes are common in colorectal cancer (CRC) and contribute to cancer progression. Altered expression of human enhancer of filamentation 1 (HEF1; also known as NEDD9 or Cas-L) has been implicated in progression of melanoma, breast, and CRC. However, the regulation of HEF1 and the role of HEF1 in CRC tumorigenesis are not fully understood. We here identify HEF1 as a novel Wnt signaling target. The expression of HEF1 was upregulated by Wnt-3a, Β-catenin, and Dvl2 in a dose-dependent manner, and was suppressed following Β-catenin downregulation by shRNA. …

Efficient Application Programming Interface For Multi-Dimensional Modeling Data, Norman L. Jones, Robert M. Wallace, Russell Jones, Cary Butler, Alan Zundel

Faculty Publications

This paper describes an Application Programming Interface (API) for managing multi-dimensional data produced for water resource computational modeling that is being developed by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), in conjunction with Brigham Young University. This API, along with a corresponding data standard, is being implemented within ERDC computational models to facilitate rapid data access, enhanced data compression and data sharing, and cross-platform independence. The API and data standard are known as the eXtensible Model Data Format (XMDF), and version 1.3 is available for free download. This API is designed to manage geometric data associated with grids, …

Cooperative Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Translocation Strategy Throughout The Southeast, Robert J. Warren, C. Joseph Nairn

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Laudable Goals And Unintended Consequences: The Role And Control Of Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

The United States is struggling to emerge from an era of loose mortgage underwriting standards – lapses in credit analysis that led to origination and securitization of toxic loans. The fallout has been crippling, costing borrowers their homes, investors their money, and the government its taxes.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act) passed last summer was the first comprehensive effort to address the problems in the system that led – in sequence – to the subprime crisis, the housing crisis, and the financial crisis. The Dodd-Frank Act, which contains over 2,300 pages of legislation, …

Convection Enhanced Delivery Of Carboranylporphyrins For Neutron Capture Therapy Of Brain Tumors, Shinji Kawabata, Weilian Yang, Rolf F. Barth, Gong Wu, Tianyao Huo, Peter J. Binns, Kent J. Riley, Owendi Ongayi, Vijay Gottumukkala, M. Graça H. Vicente

Faculty Publications

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is based on the nuclear capture and fission reactions that occur when non-radioactive 10B is irradiated with low energy thermal neutrons to produce α-particles ( 10B[n,α]7Li). Carboranylporphyrins are a class of substituted porphyrins containing multiple carborane clusters. Three of these compounds, designated H2TBP, H2TCP, and H2DCP, have been evaluated in the present study. The goals were two-fold. First, to determine their biodistribution following intracerebral (i.c.) administration by short term (30 min) convection enhanced delivery (CED) or sustained delivery over 24 h by Alzet™ osmotic pumps to F98 glioma bearing rats. Second, to determine the efficacy …

Identification Of A Novel Gene, Cia6, Required For Normal Pyrenoid Formation In Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Yunbing Ma, Steve V. Pollock, Ying Xiao, Khrishen Cunnusamy, James V. Moroney

Faculty Publications

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii possesses a CO2-concentrating mechanism (CCM) that allows the alga to grow at low CO2 concentrations. One common feature seen in photosynthetic organisms possessing a CCM is the tight packaging of Rubisco within the cell. In many eukaryotic algae, Rubisco is localized to the pyrenoid, an electron-dense structure within the chloroplast. In order to identify genes required for a functional CCM, insertional Bleomycin resistance (BleR) mutants were generated and screened for growth on minimal medium under high CO2 conditions (5% CO2 in air) but only slow or no growth under very low CO2 conditions (0.01% CO2 in air). One …

Convergent Power Series For Fields In Positive Or Negative High-Contrast Periodic Media, Santiago P. Fortes, Robert P. Lipton, Stephen P. Shipman

Faculty Publications

We obtain convergent power series representations for Bloch waves in periodic highcontrast media. The material coefficient in the inclusions can be positive or negative. The small expansion parameter is the ratio of period cell width to wavelength, and the coefficient functions are solutions of the cell problems arising from formal asymptotic expansion. In the case of positive coefficient, the dispersion relation has an infinite sequence of branches, each represented by a convergent even power series whose leading term is a branch of the dispersion relation for the homogenized medium. In the negative case, there is a single branch. © Taylor …

A Layer Correlation Technique For Pion Energy Calibration At The 2004 Atlas Combined Beam Test, E. Abat, J M. Abdallah, T N. Addy, P Adragna, M Aharrouche, A Ahmad, T Pa Akesson, M Aleksa, C Alexa, K Anderson, A Andreazza, F Anghinolfi, A Antonaki, G Arabize, E Arik, T Atkinson, J Baines, O K. Baker, D Banfi, S Baron, Roberto Petti, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

A new method for calibrating the hadron response of a segmented calorimeter is developed and successfully applied to beam test data. It is based on a principal component analysis of energy deposits in the calorimeter layers, exploiting longitudinal shower development information to improve the measured energy resolution. Corrections for invisible hadronic energy and energy lost in dead material in front of and between the calorimeters of the ATLAS experiment were calculated with simulated Geant4 Monte Carlo events and used to reconstruct the energy of pions impinging on the calorimeters during the 2004 Barrel Combined Beam Test at the CERN H8 …

Service Learning In A Multi-Disciplinary Renewable Energy Engineering Course, Stacy Gleixner, Patricia Backer, Elena Klaw

Faculty Publications

One of the most significant challenges facing this coming generation of engineers is how to fight the complex issue of climate change. One aspect of this that is playing an increasingly important role is alternative and renewable energy technologies. Emerging applications such as solar cells, wind energy conversion devices, and fuel cells involve significant contributions across a range of traditional engineering disciplines. Therefore, for companies to be successful in researching, designing, and manufacturing these products, they must operate in a truly multi-disciplinary environment. To prepare graduates to be successful in this, engineering education must provide students with multi-disciplinary learning environments. …

Wolf Ant, Gilbert L. Peterson, Christopher M. Mayer, Kevin Cousin

Faculty Publications

Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms can generate quality solutions to combinatorial optimization problems. However, like many stochastic algorithms, the quality of solutions worsen as problem sizes grow. In an effort to increase performance, we added the variable step size off-policy hill-climbing algorithm called PDWoLF (Policy Dynamics Win or Learn Fast) to several ant colony algorithms: Ant System, Ant Colony System, Elitist-Ant System, Rank-based Ant System, and Max-Min Ant System. Easily integrated into each ACO algorithm, the PDWoLF component maintains a set of policies separate from the ant colony's pheromone. Similar to pheromone but with different update rules, the PDWoLF policies …

Thermodynamics Of Dna Hybridization On Surfaces, Terry J. Schmitt, Thomas A. Knotts Iv

Faculty Publications

Hybridization of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) targets to surface-tethered ssDNA probes was simulated using an advanced coarse-grain model to identify key factors that influence the accuracy of DNA microarrays. Comparing behavior in the bulk and on the surface showed, contrary to previous assumptions, that hybridization on surfaces is more thermodynamically favorable than in the bulk. In addition, the effects of stretching or compressing the probe strand were investigated as a model system to test the hypothesis that improving surface hybridization will improve microarray performance. The results in this regard indicate that selectivity can be increased by reducing overall sensitivity by a …

Autoregulation Of An Rna Polymerase Ii Promoter By The Rna Polymerase Iii Transcription Factor Iii C (TfIiiC) Complex, Richard A. Kleinschmidt, Kimberly E. Leblanc, David Donze

Faculty Publications

Extra TFIIIC (ETC) sites are chromosomal locations bound in vivo by the RNA polymerase III (Pol III) transcription factor III C (TF IIIC) complex, but are not necessarily associated with Pol III transcription. Although the location of ETC sequences are conserved in budding yeast, and similar sites are found in other organisms, their functions are largely unstudied. One such site, ETC6 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, lies upstream of TFC6, a gene encoding a subunit of the TFIIIC complex itself. Promoter analysis shows that the ETC6 B-box sequence is involved in autoregulation of the TFC6 promoter. Mutation of ETC6 increases TFC6 mRNA …

Optimal Local Approximation Spaces For Generalized Finite Element Methods With Application To Multiscale Problems, Ivo Babuska, Robert Lipton

Faculty Publications

The paper addresses a numerical method for solving second order elliptic partial differential equations that describe fields inside heterogeneous media. The scope is general and treats the case of rough coefficients, i.e., coefficients with values in L∞(Ω). This class of coefficients includes as examples media with microstructure as well as media with multiple nonseparated length scales. The approach taken here is based on the the generalized finite element method (GFEM) introduced in [I. Babuska, G. Caloz, and J. E. Osborn, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 31 (1994), pp. 945-981] and elaborated in [I. Babuska, U. Banerjee, and J. Osborn, Int. J. …

Up To The Challenge, Hyveth Williams

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mining The Meanings And Pulling Out The Processes From Psychology Of Religion’S Correlation Mountain, Loren D. Marks, David C. Dollahite

Faculty Publications

The article illustrates how rigorous quantitative studies in three distinct and promising areas opened the door to additional related qualitative work. Using qualitative narratives from a landmark sample of 184 diverse religious families, the authors discuss and illustrate two research methods and that have been useful to them: triangulating data in the context of family, and seeking truth through progressive questioning. Next, consistent with the paper's primary purpose, the authors highlight three areas where the strong, correlation-based research foundation provided by quantitative social scientists of religion has created some prime, complementary opportunities for follow-up work by qualitative researchers. …

Preimplantation Factor (Pif) Correlates With Early Mammalian Embryo Development-Bovine And Murine Models, Christopher W. Stamatkin, Roumen G. Roussev, Mike Stout, Victor Absalon-Medina, Sivakumar Ramu, Chelsi Goodman, Carolyn B. Coulam, Robert O. Gilbert, Robert A. Godke, Eytan R. Barnea

Faculty Publications

Background: PreImplantation Factor (PIF), a novel peptide secreted by viable embryos is essential for pregnancy: PIF modulates local immunity, promotes decidual pro-adhesion molecules and enhances trophoblast invasion. To determine the role of PIF in post-fertilization embryo development, we measured the peptide's concentration in the culture medium and tested endogenous PIF's potential trophic effects and direct interaction with the embryo.Methods: Determine PIF levels in culture medium of multiple mouse and single bovine embryos cultured up to the blastocyst stage using PIF-ELISA. Examine the inhibitory effects of anti-PIF-monoclonal antibody (mAb) added to medium on cultured mouse embryos development. Test FITC-PIF uptake by …

Residence Time Distributions In Surface Transient Storage Zones In Streams: Estimation Via Signal Deconvolution, Michael N. Gooseff, David A. Benson, Martin A. Biggs, Mitchell Weaver, Wilfred M. Wollheim, Bruce J. Peterson, Charles S. Hopkinson

Faculty Publications

Little is known about the impact of surface transient storage (STS) zones on reach‐scale transport and the fate of dissolved nutrients in streams. Exchange with these locations may influence the rates of nutrient cycling often observed in whole‐stream tracer experiments, particularly because they are sites of organic matter collection and lower flow velocities than those observed in the thalweg. We performed a conservative stream tracer experiment (slug of dissolved NaCl) in the Ipswich River in northeastern Massachusetts and collected solute tracer data both in the thalweg and adjacent STS zones at three locations in a fifth‐order reach. Tracer time series …

Fire Ant Decapitating Fly Cooperative Release Programs (1994-2008): Two Pseudacteon Species, P. Tricuspis And P. Curvatus, Rapidly Expand Across Imported Fire Ant Populations In The Southeastern United States, Anne Marie A. Callcott, Sanford D. Porter, Ronald D. Weeks, L. C. Fudd Graham, Seth J. Johnson, Lawrence E. Gilbert

Faculty Publications

Natural enemies of the imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren S. richteri Forel (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and their hybrid, include a suite of more than 20 fire ant decapitating phorid flies from South America in the genus Pseudacteon. Over the past 12 years, many researchers and associates have cooperated in introducing several species as classical or self-sustaining biological control agents in the United States. As a result, two species of flies, Pseudacteon tricuspis Borgmeier and P. curvatus Borgmeier (Diptera: Phoridae), are well established across large areas of the southeastern United States. Whereas many researchers have published local and state information about …

Carrier-Envelope Shearing And Isolated Attosecond Pulse Generation, A. Lotti, D. Faccio, A. Couairon, M. B. Gaarde, P. Di Trapani

Faculty Publications

Conical Bessel-like pulses allow control of the propagation velocity of the main intensity peak. With few-cycle pulses, this leads to a controllable shearing effect with respect to the carrier-phase oscillation and a consequent variation of the instantaneous intensity during propagation. Numerical simulations highlight how this intensity modulation directly controls the atomic dipole phase in the process of high-order harmonic generation and isolates either the long or the short electron-trajectory contributions. We identify a propagation regime in which the harmonic field takes the form of an isolated pulse of 300 as duration. © 2011 American Physical Society.

Finding The Key Players In Online Child Exploitation Networks, Bryce Westlake, Martin Bouchard, Richard Frank

Faculty Publications

The growth of the Internet has been paralleled with a similar growth in online child exploitation. Since completely shutting down child exploitation websites is difficult (or arguably impossible), the goal must be to find the most efficient way of identifying the key targets and then to apprehend them. Traditionally, online investigations have been manual and centered on images. However, we argue that target prioritization needs to take more than just images into consideration, and that the investigating process needs to become more systematic. Drawing from a web crawler we specifically designed for extracting child exploitation website networks, this study 1) …

Open Access, African Scholarly Publishing, And Cultural Rights: An Exploratory Usage And Accessibility Study, Natalia T. Bowdoin

Faculty Publications

The Open Access (OA) Movement has been praised by proponents as a way to reverse the unsustainability of traditional scholarly publishing economic models and to aid in the equalization of the flow of information between industrialized and less industrialized nations. The OA Movement is thus also seen as a means of helping achieve both Articles 19 and 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which jointly articulate the basic human rights to seek, receive and impart information, to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts, and to share in scientific advancement. Historically however, …

Gp130 Cytokines Exert Differential Patterns Of Crosstalk In Adipocytes Both In Vitro And In Vivo, Ursula A. White, William C. Stewart, Jacqueline M. Stephens

Faculty Publications

Glycoprotein 130 (Gp130) cytokines are involved in the regulation of numerous biological processes, including hematopoiesis, immune response, inflammation, cardiovascular action, and neuronal survival. These cytokines share gp130 as a common signal transducer in their receptor complex and typically activate signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3. Studies have shown that several gp130 cytokines have differential effects on both adipogenesis and insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. Yet, the complex interactions of these cytokines in adipose tissue have not been studied. Gp130 cytokines are differentially regulated in multiple tissues due to the presence of additional receptor components that are required for signaling, including …

Burkholderia Glumae: Next Major Pathogen Of Rice?, Jong Hyun Ham, Rebecca A. Melanson, Milton C. Rush

Faculty Publications

Burkholderia glumae causes bacterial panicle blight of rice, which is an increasingly important disease problem in global rice production. Toxoflavin and lipase are known to be major virulence factors of this pathogen, and their production is dependent on the TofI/TofR quorum-sensing system, which is mediated by N-octanoyl homoserine lactone. Flagellar biogenesis and a type III secretion system are also required for full virulence of B. glumae. Bacterial panicle blight is thought to be caused by seed-borne B. glumae; however, its disease cycle is not fully understood. In spite of its economic importance, neither effective control measures for bacterial panicle blight …