Digital Commons Network^™

Stability Analysis For Time-Varying Systems With Asynchronous Sampling Using Contractivity Approach, Frederic Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Miroslav Krstic

Faculty Publications

We provide new sufficient conditions for a generalized exponential input-to-state stability condition to hold. Our proofs use innovative trajectory based contractivity and cooperative systems arguments. Another key ingredient is a new variant of Halanay's inequality, which differs from prior Halanay inequalities because of its use of sampling. Our sufficient conditions allow arbitrarily long intervals between some consecutive sampling times, provided the intervals between consecutive sampling times are frequently small enough. This removes a significant limitation of prior results that relied on versions of Halanay's inequality that did not contain sampling. Unlike standard stability conditions, the upper bounds for the norm …

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory And His Ideas On Promoting Creativity, Hani Morgan

Faculty Publications

This book chapter highlights Howard Gardner's contributions to the areas of education and creativity. It includes an introductory section on his background and accomplishments. The chapter focuses on his theory of multiple intelligences, Gardner's best-known theory, and provides details on how he got the idea for this theory. It offers an explanation of this theory and the implications it has for educators. His theory of human intelligence contradicts the view that there is one type of intelligence that could be measured by standardized tests. Gardner first described seven intelligences and later added an eighth. The chapter also focuses on Gardner's …

Potential Ecological Impacts Of Climate Intervention By Reflecting Sunlight To Cool Earth, P.L. Zarnetske, J. Gurevitch, J. Franklin, P.M. Groffman, C.S. Harrison, J.J. Hellmann, F.M. Hoffman, S. Kothari, A. Robock, S. Tilmes, D. Visioni, J. Wu, L. Xia, C.-E. Yang

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Identifying Global Favourable Habitat For Early Juvenile Loggerhead Sea Turtles, C.S. Harrison, J.Y. Luo, N.F. Putman, Q. Li, P. Sheevam, K. Krumhardt, J. Stevens, M.C. Long

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

High-Performance Biocomposite Polyvinyl Alcohol (Pva) Films Modified With Cellulose Nanocrystals (Cncs), Tannic Acid (Ta), And Chitosan (Cs) For Food Packaging, Ruowen Tan, Feng Li, You Zhang, Zihui Yuan, Xuefei Feng, Wansong Zhang, Ting Liang, Jiwen Cao, Cornelis F. De Hoop, Xiaopeng Peng, Xingyan Huang

Faculty Publications

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has been widely applied in industries for its low cost, nontoxicity, biodegradability, and renewable advantages. However, its unstable structure may not meet some strong physical and mechanical needs. In order to enhance the performances of the PVA film, cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), tannic acid (TA), and chitosan (CS), working as a reinforcer, a crosslinker, and an antimicrobial agent, respectively, were introduced into the PVA matrix. The results indicated that CNCs, TA, and CS were evenly distributed and cohesively incorporated within the PVA matrix, which contributed to the good mechanical properties and thermal stabilities of biocomposite PVA films. Besides, …

Agronomic And Environmental Performance Of Biochar Amendment In Alluvial Soils Under Subtropical Sugarcane Production, Negar Tafti, Jim Wang, Lewis Gaston, Jong Hwan Park, Meng Wang, Scott Pensky

Faculty Publications

This study investigated the amendment of sugarcane bagasse biochar (SCBB) on soil fertility, crop yield, and nutrient loss in two different-textured soils under sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) production. Eleven megagrams per hectare of freshly incorporated biochar increased yield of plant cane by 22% in light-texture soil (LS) and 12% in heavy-textured soil (HS). Although the overall yield of the ratoon crop was lower, the biochar treatment produced 20 and 14% higher yields than the control at the LS and HS sites, respectively. Biochar increased soil carbon (Csoil) across LS and HS sites by 15% and decreased the soil C/N ratio by …

Eat Clean And Safe Food: A Food-Based Dietary Guideline For The Elderly In South Africa, Makenzie Miller, Wilna Oldewage-Theron, Carin Napier

Faculty Publications

As the population of elderly individuals in South Africa (SA) grows, there is a need to promote the continued health of these persons as they progress through the life cycle. Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) for the SA elderly were developed to address this need. These thirteen guidelines for the elderly collectively offer a basis of health practices that the elderly can follow to ensure that they are taking the right steps toward maintaining their health. While the guideline ‘Eat clean and safe food’ is not included in the current SA FBDGs, this recommendation is of particular importance to the …

Food And Beverages Promoting Elderly Health: Six Food-Based Dietary Guidelines To Plan Good Mixed Meals For Elderly South Africans, Sanjoy Saha, Upasana Mukherjee, Makenzie Miller, Li Ling Peng, Carin Napier, Heleen Grobbelaar, Wilna Oldewage-Theron

Faculty Publications

Studies have shown that the elderly are at a higher risk of developing malnutrition due to physiological and pathological changes. Several studies have confirmed that older South Africans have insufficient dietary diversity, resulting in nutritional deficiencies. Furthermore, poor and uninformed dietary choices are associated with the development of several diseases and increased mortality. Following the Elderly Food Based Dietary Guidelines (EFBDGs) related to promoting elderly health could ensure that the elderly have an adequate intake of nutritious foods. This paper provides an overview of six FBDGs relating to promoting health and is based on the South African Food Based Dietary …

Effects Of Immersion In Fermented Tea Liquid And Steam Treatments On Physicochemical Properties And Ginsenoside Profiles Of Korean Ginseng, Peerarat Doungtip, Kyung Tack Kim, Hee Do Hong, Shin Eun Ju, Jae Woong Choi, Thanyaporn Siriwoharn, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul, Sujinda Sriwattana

Faculty Publications

The study was performed to investigate some changes in physicochemical characteristics and ginsenoside profiles of Korean ginseng after being subjected to immersion in fermented tea liquid (FTL) [at a ratio of ginseng powder: FTL; 1:4, 1:6, and 1:8, w/w] and steam treatments (with and/or without steam). The ratio at 1:4 w/w showed the highest yield of bioactive components and was, therefore, selected to evaluate the effects of steam conditions [temperatures (60, 80, and 100°C) and times (1, 2, and 3 hr)]. The sample treated with FTL, regardless of the steam treatment, had darker color and higher antioxidant activity (IC50 for …

Feedback Stabilization With Discrete Measurements Using Bounds On Fundamental Matrices, Frederic Mazenc, Michael Malisoff

Faculty Publications

We prove a new robust stabilization theorem for systems with time-varying disturbances and sampled measurements, using novel bounds on fundamental matrices for systems with disturbances. Our main tools use properties of positive systems and Metzler matrices. Our numerical example illustrates an advantage of using our method instead of previous methods.

Mitochondrial Dna Indicates Paraphyletic Relationships Of Disjunct Populations In The Neotoma Mexicana Species Group, Giovani Hernández-Canchola, Livia León-Paniagua, Jacob A. Esselstyn

Faculty Publications

Woodrats (genus Neotoma) comprise 24 species found primarily in the United States and México. The Neotoma mexicana species group reaches its southernmost distribution in the highlands of southern México and Central America. Previous research suggested that N. mexi-cana has a discontinuous distribution, whereas N. ferruginea and N. picta have allopatric distributions around the lowlands of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. However, these hypotheses were suggested with incomplete subspecific sampling near the isthmus. We used samples of N. m. parvidens from the Sierra Sur de Oaxaca and N. m. tropicalis from the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca to assess their taxonomic affinity. Our …

Effect Of Hydrological Fluctuation On Nutrient Stoichiometry And Trade-Offs Of Carex Schmidtii, Dongjie Zhang, Qing Qi, Shouzheng Tong, Jim Wang, Mingye Zhang, Guanglei Zhu, Xianguo Lu

Faculty Publications

Nutrient stoichiometry and trade-offs focusing on the mass balance of multiple nutrient elements play important roles in the response mechanism of plants to environmental stresses in wetlands. Nonetheless, little is known about the response dynamics and trade-offs of nutrient elements of wetland plants, especially potassium (K), under hydrological fluctuation conditions. Greenhouse experiments have been undertaken to assess the effects of initial water level (DW), water-level amplitude (AW), lasted time and their interactions on the response processes of nutrient stoichiometry of Carex schmidtii. Plant nutrient trade-offs and limitation were investigated under multiple hydrological fluctuation conditions. Results showed that plant nitrogen (N), …

Current Pest Status And Management Practices For Systena Frontalis (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) In Ornamental Plants In The Eastern United States: An Online Survey, Shimat V. Joseph, Juang Horng Chong, Benjamin Campbell, Brian Kunkel, Danny Lauderdale, Stacey Jones, Stanton Gill, Yan Chen, Peter Schultz, David Held, Frank Hale, Adam Dale, Erfan Vafaie, Will Hudson, Dan Gilrein, Alejandro Del Pozo-Valdivia

Faculty Publications

Systena frontalis (F.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is an important pest in ornamental plant nurseries in the United States. Information on current pest status and management practices employed by nurseries, garden centers, and landscape care operations are crucial to developing an effective research and extension program for ornamental crops. An online survey was developed and administered by the research team in 2020 to gather data on pest status and current pest management practices. The questionnaire included three focus areas: 1) participant (location, industry type, or operating area); 2) pest status indicators (incidence, affected crops, and estimated loss); and 3) common pest management …

Nonlinear Kernels, Dominance, And Envirotyping Data Increase The Accuracy Of Genome-Based Prediction In Multi-Environment Trials, Germano Costa-Neto, Roberto Fritsche-Neto, José Crossa

Faculty Publications

Modern whole-genome prediction (WGP) frameworks that focus on multi-environment trials (MET) integrate large-scale genomics, phenomics, and envirotyping data. However, the more complex the statistical model, the longer the computational processing times, which do not always result in accuracy gains. We investigated the use of new kernel methods and modeling structures involving genomics and nongenomic sources of variation in two MET maize data sets. Five WGP models were considered, advancing in complexity from a main-effect additive model (A) to more complex structures, including dominance deviations (D), genotype × environment interaction (AE and DE), and the reaction-norm model using environmental covariables (W) …

Barring Married Same-Sex Couples From Joint Adoption: Comparative Perspectives And The Case Of Taiwan, Holning S. Lau

Faculty Publications

Taiwan is the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, but it forbids married same-sex couples from jointly adopting children. This article examines this restriction through the lens of comparative law, which brings into focus two main insights. First, we see that, out of all countries that have legalized same-sex marriage, Taiwan is one of only two that bar married same-sex couples from joint adoption. As this article will explain, the fact that Taiwan’s policy is so anomalous should spur skepticism of the policy’s appropriateness. Second, judicial opinions from around the world contain persuasive reasoning that further calls into …

Megf10 Deficiency Impairs Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Migration And Muscle Regeneration, Chengcheng Li, Dorianmarie Vargas-Franco, Madhurima Saha, Rachel M. Davis, Kelsey A. Manko, Isabelle Draper, Christina A. Pacak, Peter B. Kang

Faculty Publications

Biallelic loss-of-function MEGF10 mutations lead to MEGF10 myopathy, also known as early onset myopathy with areflexia, respiratory distress, and dysphagia (EMARDD). MEGF10 is expressed in muscle satellite cells, but the contribution of satellite cell dysfunction to MEGF10 myopathy is unclear. Myofibers and satellite cells were isolated and examined from Megf10 and wild-type mice. A separate set of mice underwent repeated intramuscular barium chloride injections. Megf10 muscle satellite cells showed reduced proliferation and migration, while Megf10 mouse skeletal muscles showed impaired regeneration. Megf10 deficiency is associated with impaired muscle regeneration, due in part to defects in satellite cell function. Efforts to …

The Iron-Responsive Genome Of The Chiton Acanthopleura Granulata, Rebecca M. Varney, Daniel Isaac Speiser, Carmel Mcdougall, Bernard M. Degnan, Kevin M. Kocot

Faculty Publications

Molluscs biomineralize structures that vary in composition, form, and function, prompting questions about the genetic mechanisms responsible for their production and the evolution of these mechanisms. Chitons (Mollusca, Polyplacophora) are a promising system for studies of biomineralization because they build a range of calcified structures including shell plates and spine- or scale-like sclerites. Chitons also harden the calcified teeth of their rasp-like radula with a coat of iron (as magnetite). Here we present the genome of the West Indian fuzzy chiton Acanthopleura granulata, the first from any aculiferan mollusc. The A. granulata genome contains homologs of many genes associated …

What’S In A Name? Strict Scrutiny And The Right To A Public Trial, Stephen Smith

Faculty Publications

The right to a public trial has only rarely been addressed by the Supreme Court, but in Waller v. Georgia, the Court set forth a test for determining when it is appropriate to close a courtroom to the public, despite the general public trial command. The language of the Waller test suggests great rigor. This essay proposes a reconsideration of the test for courtroom closures, rethinking whether traditional strict scrutiny thinking is appropriate in this constitutional and practical context. That said, this essay does not argue with Waller’s broad outlines. Courts making closure decisions should consider reasons and …

Icwa’S Irony, Marcia A. Yablon-Zug

Faculty Publications

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is a federal statute that protects Indian children by keeping them connected to their families and culture. The Act’s provisions include support for family reunification, kinship care preferences, cultural competency considerations and community involvement. These provisions parallel national child welfare policies. Nevertheless, the Act is relentlessly attacked as a law that singles out Indian children for unique and harmful treatment. This is untrue but, ironically, it will be if challenges to the ICWA are successful. To prevent this from occurring, the defense of the Act needs to change. For too long, this defense has …

The Bounds Of Energy Law, Shelley Welton

Faculty Publications

U.S. energy law was born of fossil fuels. Consequently, our energy law has long centered on the material and legal puzzles that bringing fossil fuels to market presents. Eliminating these same carbon-producing energy sources, however, has emerged as perhaps the most pressing material transformation needed in the twenty-first century—and one that energy law scholarship has rightfully embraced. Yet in our admirable quest to aid in this transformation, energy law scholars are largely writing into the field bequeathed to us, proposing changes that tweak, but do not fundamentally challenge, last century’s tools for managing the extraction, transport, and delivery of fossil …

Analysis Of Geotagging Behavior: Do Geotagged Users Represent The Twitter Population?, Amir Karami, R. R. Kadari, L. Panati, H. Bheemreddy, B. Bozorgi

Faculty Publications

Twitter’s APIs are now the main data source for social media researchers. A large number of studies have utilized Twitter data for diverse research interests. Twitter users can share their precise real-time location, and Twitter APIs can provide this information as longitude and latitude. These geotagged Twitter data can help to study human activities and movements for different applications. Compared to the mostly small-scale data samples in different domains, such as social science, collecting geotagged data offers large samples. There is a fundamental question whether geotagged users can represent non-geotagged users. While some studies have investigated the question from different …

The Magnitude And Climate Sensitivity Of Isotopic Fractionation From Ablation Of Antarctic Dry Valley Lakes, A. W. Bellagamba, M. Berkelhammer, L. Winslow, P. T. Doran, K. F. Myers, S. Devlin, I. Hawes

Faculty Publications

There has been extensive research on the effects of evaporation on the isotopic ratio of lacustrine and marine water bodies; however, there are limited data on how ablation or sublimation from lake or sea ice influences the isotopic ratio of the residual water body. This is a challenging problem because there remains uncertainty on the magnitude of fractionation during sublimation and because ablation can involve mixed-phase processes associated with simultaneous sublimation, melting, evaporation, and refreezing. This uncertainty limits the ability to draw quantitative inferences on changing hydrological budgets from stable isotope records in arctic, Antarctic, and alpine lakes. Here, we …

Marine Vehicles Localization Using Grid Cells For Path Integration, Ignacio Carlucho, Manuel F. Bailey, Mariano De Paula, Corina Barbalata

Faculty Publications

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are platforms used for research and exploration of marine environments. However, these types of vehicles face many challenges that hinder their widespread use in the industry. One of the main limitations is obtaining accurate position estimation, due to the lack of GPS signal underwater. This estimation is usually done with Kalman filters. However, new developments in the neuroscience field have shed light on the mechanisms by which mammals are able to obtain a reliable estimation of their current position based on external and internal motion cues. A new type of neuron, called Grid cells, has been …

Event-Triggered Control For Systems With State Delays Using A Positive Systems Approach, Frederic Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Corina Barbalata, Zhong Ping Jiang

Faculty Publications

We provide a new positive system approach to event-triggered feedback control of linear systems with state delays. We use an interval observer method and linear Lyapunov functions to prove global exponential stability of the closed loop systems. Our two examples illustrate the usefulness of our method for counteracting the effects of potentially destabilizing state delays.

Dicer Represses The Interferon Response And The Double-Stranded Rna-Activated Protein Kinase Pathway In Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells, Chandan Gurung, Mona Fendereski, Krishna Sapkota, Jason Guo, Faqing Huang, Yan Lin Guo

Faculty Publications

Recent studies have demonstrated that embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are deficient in expressing type I interferons (IFN), the cytokines that play key roles in antiviral responses. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms and biological implications of this finding are poorly understood. In this study, we developed a synthetic RNA-based assay that can simultaneously assess multiple forms of antiviral responses. Dicer is an enzyme essential for RNA interference (RNAi), which is used as a major antiviral mechanism in invertebrates. RNAi activity is detected in wild-type ESCs but is abolished in Dicer knockout ESCs (D-/-ESCs) as expected. Surprisingly, D-/-ESCs have gained the ability …

Direct Determination Of Absolute Stereochemistry Of Α-Methylselenocysteine Using The Mosher Method, Robert J. Wehrle, Douglas R. Powell, Douglas S. Masterson

Faculty Publications

Mosher amides of α-methylselenocysteine were synthesized to determine the absolute stereochemistry of the sterically hindered α-carbon utilizing ¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁹F, and ⁷⁷Se NMR spectroscopies. After analysis of these spectra using the established Mosher method, the stereochemistry of the α-carbon was determined to be (R), which was subsequently confirmed using x-ray crystallography.

Meta Rules For Ordinary Meaning, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

“Ordinary meaning” is a notoriously undefined concept in statutory interpretation theory. Courts and scholars sometimes describe ordinary meaning as the meaning that a “reasonable reader” would ascribe to the statutory language at issue, but it remains unclear how judges and lawyers should go about identifying such meaning. Over the past few decades, as textualism has come to dominate statutory interpretation, courts increasingly have employed dictionary definitions as (purportedly) neutral, and sometimes dispositive, evidence of ordinary meaning. And in the past few years especially, some judges and scholars have advocated using corpus linguistics — patterns of usage across various English …

From Academic Freedom To Cancel Culture: Silencing Black Women In The Legal Academy, Renee Nicole Allen

Faculty Publications

In 1988, Black women law professors formed the Northeast Corridor Collective of Black Women Law Professors, a network of Black women in the legal academy. They supported one another’s scholarship, shared personal experiences of systemic gendered racism, and helped one another navigate the law school white space. A few years later, their stories were transformed into articles that appeared in a symposium edition of the Berkeley Women’s Law Journal. Since then, Black women and women of color have published articles and books about their experiences with presumed incompetence, outsider status, and silence. The story of Black women in the legal …

Unshackling Plea Bargaining From Racial Bias, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, [but] if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Dr. Maya Angelou

When an African American male defendant tries to plea bargain an equitable justice outcome, he finds that the deep-rooted racial bias that casts African American men as dangerous, criminal and animalistic, compromises his justice rights. Plea bargaining has become the preferred process used to secure convictions for upwards of 97 percent of cases because of its efficiency. This efficiency, however, comes at a cost. The structure and process of plea bargaining makes it more likely that the historical racial …

Genetic Risk Factors For Alzheimer’S Disease In Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations In The U.S.: A Scoping Review, Lindsey Rubin, Lucy Annang Ingram Phd, Nicholas V. Resciniti, Brianna Ashford-Carroll, Katherine Henrietta Leith, Aubrey Rose, Stephanie Ureña, Quentin Mccollum, Daniela B. Friedman

Faculty Publications

As the United States (U.S.) population rapidly ages, the incidence of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRDs) is rising, with racial/ethnic minorities affected at disproportionate rates. Much research has been undertaken to test, sequence, and analyze genetic risk factors for ADRDs in Caucasian populations, but comparatively little has been done with racial/ethnic minority populations. We conducted a scoping review to examine the nature and extent of the research that has been published about the genetic factors of ADRDs among racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S. Using an established scoping review methodological framework, we searched electronic databases for articles describing peer-reviewed empirical …