Digital Commons Network^™

Durable Oxyfluoride Waste Forms For Salt Wastes From Molten Salt Reactors, Alevtina A. Maksimova, Jake W. Amoroso, Matthew Page, Gregory Morrison, Hans Conrad Zur Loye

Faculty Publications

Molten salt reactors (MSRs) are promising technology to replace traditional light and heavy water reactors in the near future. Waste management for MSRs, however, remains a pressing concern that needs to be resolved prior to realizing deployment of MSRs. Specifically, the generated salt waste needs to be safely sequestered, a task made difficult by the high solubility of the salt waste that can cause the release of radionuclides into the environment. This work demonstrates a new approach to immobilize multiple fluoride salts into a single waste form by converting highly-soluble fluorides to durable and stable oxyfluorides. Notably, we report a …

Workplace Retaliation And The Intersection Of Protected Conduct And Job Performance, Chris Schmidt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fiddler Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Ocypodidae) From Coastal Ecuador And The Galápagos Islands: Species Descriptions And Dna Barcodes, Carl L. Thurman, John C. Mcnamara, Hsi-Te Shih, Mariana V. Capparelli

Faculty Publications

Neotropical regions near the equator are recognized as speciation “hot spots” reflecting their abundant biodiversity. In western South America, the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, the Galápagos Archipelago, and northern Peru form the Tropical Eastern Pacific biome. This area has the greatest heterogeneity of sympatric fiddler crab species of any portion of the planet. Since the coastal fauna has not been assessed for almost 50 years, we studied fiddler crab species diversity in Ecuador and on the Galápagos Archipelago. Preserved collecting records for various species were examined at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, the American Museum …

Mapping Glams: Creating A National Dataset Of Glams To Develop A Categorical Climate-Change Risk Assessment Scale, Edward Benoitiii, Jill Trepanier, Jennifer Vanos, Emily Fisher, Kaitlyn Bailey, Annie Waddell, Haley Moore, Mandy Hatman, Mary Sidwell, Symonne Russell, Virginia Seger, Paige Boutte, Amanda Latta, Zoe Mohammad, Kyriel Felton, Erin Deliman, Breanna Benson-Pearce, Wendy Johnson, Allyson Russell, Baillie Pretzer, Christopher Reeder, Melissa Mcconnell, Lisa Dahlke, Kaitlynn Melear, Lillian Bodi, Savannah T. Lyle, Zach Lannes, Gwen L. Wells, Benjamin A. Teincuff, Jason M. Straight, Tiffany Rockwell, Shane T. Manthei, Jennifer L. Benner

Faculty Publications

Introduction. The PROTECCT-GLAM project aims to assess and address climate risks for U.S. galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). The project team began with creating a national dataset of GLAMs. Method. The project team used existing datasets that required different auditing and manipulation techniques to align its data. Following the data normalization, the master file included 77,960 entries. Analysis and Results. The project team used ArcGIS Pro to analyze a dataset of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) for risk from sea level rise, finding 16,877 GLAMs within 30 kilometres of the U.S. coast, with California, New York, Maryland, Florida, …

Scrutinizing Transgender Healthcare Bans Through Intersex Exceptions, Holning Lau, Barbara A. Fedders

Faculty Publications

Major professional medical organizations—for example, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and Endocrine Society—consider gender-affirming care to be safe and, at times, essential for vulnerable transgender youth. Despite these benefits, 26 states have banned gender-affirming care for minors. Proponents of these bans raise concerns about potential medical harms, the irreversibility of treatments, and the adequacy of informed consent.

Every state ban includes an exception for so-called gender-normalizing surgeries, which are performed on intersex infants to conform their bodies to socially constructed expectations about the male/female binary. The procedures are rarely medically necessary, but proponents of the surgeries contend …

Queers, Closets, And Corporate Governance, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

The past few years have seen several corporate diversity initiatives that include Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) people. In 2020, Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange, and California, the largest state, both adopted rules to encourage board diversity for underrepresented groups, including LGBTQ+ people. Since that time, the Los Angeles Superior Court struck down California’s law, the Fifth Circuit invalidated Nasdaq’s rule, and the Trump administration initiated a slew of anti-Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and anti-LGBTQ+ measures. In the context of this sharp ideological turn, this Article attempts to step back and tackle a larger question: how can …

Intensive Longitudinal Models, Robert E. Ployhart, Paul D. Bliese, Sam D. Strizver

Faculty Publications

Intensive longitudinal models (ILMs) allow researchers to analyze nested data collected through frequent measurements—typically 20 or more repeated occasions—over densely spaced durations. Rather than being a single statistical approach, ILMs encompass various models unified by their capability to handle densely collected longitudinal data. We briefly summarize the nature of intensive longitudinal designs and why such designs require the use of ILMs. We then provide a classification typology to help readers understand the features of an ILM they should adopt. This classification typology provides the structure for a narrative review of existing ILM research. We conclude with specific recommendations for using …

The Serendipity Of Discovery: Life Of A Geochemist, Willard S. Moore

Faculty Publications

My strategy for writing this autobiography is to use examples of how working on seemingly different projects can often lead to outcomes more important than originally envisioned. Serendipity is a "happy accident"; specifically, the accident of discovering something useful without directly looking for it. This often occurs when two research projects converge unexpectedly. The main text contains examples of how serendipity has led me to important discoveries including: (a) finding surprisingly high ²²⁸Ra activities in the ocean, (b) developing a means of rapidly and quantitatively extracting radium from seawater, (c) devising a rapid, sensitive method of measuring ²²⁴Ra …

Longitudinal Viral Load Clustering For People With Hiv Using Functional Principal Component Analysis, Yunqing Ma, Xueying Yang Ph.D., Jiayang Xiao, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Jiajia Zhang Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background: Longitudinal measures of viral load (VL) are critical in monitoring the HIV status. While multiple lab indicators exist for monitoring measures of VL, research on clustering historical/longitudinal VL measures is limited. Analyzing longitudinal VL patterns rather than aggregated measures offers deeper insights into HIV status. This study uses functional data clustering to classify longitudinal VL patterns and characterize each cluster by demographics, comorbidities, social behaviors, and CD4 count.

Methods: Adult PWH diagnosed from 2005 to 2015 in South Carolina with a 5-year minimum follow-up were included. We compared functional principal component analysis (FPCA), K-means, hierarchical clustering, and Gaussian mixture …

Caregiving Burdens Of Task Time And Task Difficulty Among Paid And Unpaid Caregivers Of Persons Living With Dementia, Matthew Lee Smith, Jodi L. Southerland, Malinee Neelamegam, Gang Han, Shinduk Lee, Chung Lin Kew, Juanita Dawne R. Bacsu, Elyse Couch, Steffi M. Kim, Monique J. Brown Ph.D., Mph, Ayse Malatyali, Lucas Wilson, Zahra Rahemi, Jeremy Holloway, Marcia G. Ory

Faculty Publications

Background: Demands of caregivers of persons living with dementia (PLWD) are often influenced by the context of their caregiving situation. This study examines common and unique factors associated with caregiving burden in terms of task time and task difficulty among paid and unpaid caregivers of PLWD. Methods: Cross-sectional baseline survey data were analyzed from 107 paid and unpaid caregivers of PLWD participating in a larger NIH-funded study assessing the feasibility of using a novel in-situ sensor system. Oberst Caregiving Burden Scale constructs of task time and task difficulty served as dependent variables. Two least squares regression models were fitted, controlling …

Sars-Cov-2 Detection And Persistence In A Remote Amazonian Settlement, Glauco M. Silva, Roberto C. Ilacqua, Franciely G. Gonçalves, Carla M. Santana, Felipe T. Jordão, Paula R. Prist, Melissa S. Nolan Ph.D., Mph, Andreia F. Brilhante, Marcia A. Sperança, Gabriel Z. Laporta

Faculty Publications

Background: COVID-19 continues to pose a major global health challenge. Despite its geographic distance from Brazil’s major urban centers, Acre state has experienced notable outbreaks. This study assessed the detection and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the rural settlement of Santa Luzia, located in the remote municipality of Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre state, Brazil. Methods: In July 2022, a cross-sectional survey was conducted at 40 sites from an ongoing environmental study, selected by deforestation patterns and proximity to health posts. Saliva samples were collected from residents aged 5–90 years, followed by nucleic acid extraction and multiplex RT-qPCR for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Results: …

Partial Additionality: The Blunt Metric Distorting Carbon Market, Anthony L. Moffa, Joseph Newlen

Faculty Publications

The widespread recognition that climate change presents an existential threat to humanity has spurred the development of numerous technologies, regulatory structures, and voluntary actions aimed to mitigate the pending disaster.

Reproductive Innovation And Reproductive Exceptionalism: How Private Health Insurance Coverage Of Fertility Treatment Complements Hostile Governmental Action And Expands Access To Assisted Reproduction In The United States, Myrisha S. Lewis

Faculty Publications

The use of fertility treatment and assisted reproductive technology (ART) in the United States and globally is increasing over time. As of April 2023, the World Health Organization estimates that approximately one in six individuals have faced infertility globally. Fertility treatment includes the use of drugs to stimulate egg production, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and, for some, the use of gestational surrogacy to aid in childbirth. Debates have abounded and continue to abound in federal legislatures, state legislatures, and society more broadly about the morality of abortion, contraception, and assisted reproduction, as well as whether governments, public insurers, and private …

Mired In Meyer'S Mischief A Century After Fabrication Of Constitutional Parents' Rights, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

The seminal Supreme Court decisions Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, now commemorated on their centenary anniversary, are odd doctrinal ducks. They are both still routinely cited as the foundation for ascribing to persons on whom the state has conferred legal parent status a right under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution. (According to Westlaw, judicial citation count for Meyer now nears 3000, and secondary-source citations have surpassed 7000.) It is a constitutional right to force states to confer on them greater legal power than the state is otherwise inclined to …

Climate Change And Constitutional Overreach, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

The failure of the political process to produce meaningful climate mitigation policies has encouraged activists to pursues aggressive and innovative litigation strategies. An increasing number of climate-related lawsuits seek to control greenhouse gas emissions, impose liability on fossil fuel producers, or otherwise force greater action on climate change. In many of these cases, litigants have made aggressive constitutional claims that stretch the bounds of existing constitutional doctrine and threaten to entrench climate policies outside of the traditional political process. This Article critically assesses some of the constitutional arguments made in climate cases, including Massachusetts v. EPA and Juliana v. U.S. …

The Kincare Craze In Child Protection: Romanticism, Subterfuge, And Racial Separatism, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

Among recent developments in family law, the most prevalent issue on legislative agendas has been Kincare as an alternative to non-relative foster care when maltreated children cannot remain with parents. Long an available option legally but traditionally regarded with skepticism by child protection workers, Kincare is now idealized. A steady stream of state legislative bills aims to encourage or command child protection and foster care agencies to place maltreated children in the home of relatives or friends of their parents whenever one is available, ostensibly based on an assumption that this is categorically better for children than living with unrelated …

Patenting The Taboo: Sex, Drugs, And Abortion, Andrew Gilden, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Faculty Publications

The patent system provides a surprisingly rich archive of the interplay between social norms and technological change. Patent law requires applicants to publicly disclose the novelty and usefulness of their inventions, thereby bringing to light areas of innovation that may have previously lived in the shadows. In other words, patent law encourages public disclosure of technologies that are taboo—developed and practiced in secret, for reasons such as social approbation, illegality, or religious sanctity. To obtain a patent for a taboo technology, patentees must establish their legitimacy as innovators while navigating cultural norms that are hostile to their fields of innovation. …

Business Communication And Editing Students’ Evaluations Of Written Error: An Eye-Tracking Study, Matt Baker, Grant Eck, Ana Barraza, Benjamin Duffield

Faculty Publications

Using eye-tracking and interview methods, this study investigates how business communication students and editing students attend to and evaluate writing. Participants reviewed blog posts embedded with errors and judged publication readiness. While both groups visually fixated longer on errors than non-errors, business communication students were more likely to approve error-containing texts for publication. Qualitative data revealed that business communication students prioritized content while editing students prioritized surface-level issues. These findings suggest that disciplinary background informs evaluative standards, even when error-detection behavior is similar. The results carry implications for instruction in business writing and editing, especially concerning collaborative, cross-disciplinary workplace writing.

Comparing The Sensitivity And Specificity Of Novel Motor Assessments For Traumatic Brain Injury, Paula K. Johnson, Ariana M. Hedges-Muncy, Erin D. Bigler, Lorie Richards, Steven Knight Charles

Faculty Publications

Background: Portable technology that records movements with high accuracy provides potential for sensitive clinical movement tests for individuals who experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Objective: (1)To present impairments assessed using markerless motion capture (MMC) and (2) to compare the sensitivity and specificity of the MMCmediated tests to each other and to common clinical tests. Design: Screening study, using as criterion standard the ability to classify participant with TBI versus control participant. Setting: Research laboratory. Participants: The study included 30 individuals with TBI and 101 control participants. Entry criteria included most recent head injury < 5 years old, no history of movement issues prior to injury, no movement-affecting medications, and sufficient cognitive ability to follow instructions. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Performance on MMC-mediated tests and existing clinical analogs. MMC-mediated tests included finger oscillation, simple reaction time, and visually guided movement tasks. For comparison, participants also completed the following clinical tests: Halstead–Reitan finger tapping, simple reaction time test, and Beery Visuomotor Integration test. Impairments were identified as test scores of participants with TBI that fell outside of the 95% interval of control participants’ test scores. Random forest analysis was used to calculate the sensitivity and specificity of MMC and clinical tests according to their ability to correctly classify participants with TBI and control participants. Results: MMC-mediated tests revealed impairments in more participants with TBI than clinical tests in all three TBI groups (mild, repeated, and moderate to severe). Similarly, MMC-mediated tests revealed a higher percentage of scores as impairments than clinical tests in all three groups with TBI. Furthermore, MMC-mediated tests proved more sensitive and more specific than clinical tests (70% versus 50% and 98% versus 93%, respectively). Conclusion: MMC-mediated tests are sensitive and specific (compared to traditional clinical tests) and have potential to fill a gap in clinical care of TBI.

Finite Element Simulation Of Interstitial–Lymphatic Fluid Flow And Nanodrug Transport In A Solid Tumor: An Intratumoral Injection Approach, Gobinda Debnath, Buddakkagari Vasu, Rama Subba Reddy Gorla

Faculty Publications

Objective: This study presents a mathematical model and finite element simulations to investigate interstitial fluid flow and nanodrug transport in a solid tumor, incorporating transvascular exchange, convection–diffusion–reaction dynamics, and intratumoral injection mechanisms. Impact Statement: Optimizing nanodrug distribution remains a critical challenge in cancer therapy. The proposed model advances nanomedicine by enhancing the mechanistic understanding of nanodrug transport in a solid tumor. Introduction: Cancer, a global threat, often manifests as solid tumors driven by uncontrolled cell growth. The heterogeneous microenvironment, lymphatic drainage, nano-bio interactions, and elevated interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) hinder effective nanodrug delivery. Nanoparticle (NP)-based drug delivery systems offer a …

Editorial, Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske, Miriam Marmontel [email protected]

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Predation Of A Sperm Whale (Physeter Macrocephalus) By Killer Whales (Orcinus Orca) In Guanaja, Honduras, Gaby M. Ochoa, Eric Angel Ramos, Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dr. Eric Angel Ramos - A Shooting Star That Inspired Marine Mammalogists And Beyond (1987 – 2024), Laura J. May-Collado, Jeremy J. Kiszka, Nataly Castelblanco-Martínez, Beth Brady, G. Rieucau, Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske, Renata Sousa-Lima, Diana Reiss, Macelo Magnasco, Roderic Mast, Wayne Sentman, Joy S. Reidenberg

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

From Myriad To Moderna: The Modern (Bio)Pharmaceutical Company, Ana Santos Rutschman

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the emergence of two modern pharmaceutical companies: Myriad and Moderna. After providing a brief background on each company, this Article contrasts them across the following areas: the technologies they have brought to market; their location; their start-up stages and the role that venture capital played in catalyzing their evolution from start-ups to large corporate structures; their relationships with other entities in the private sector, in academia and in the public sector; and their intellectual property and licensing strategies.

Is Increased Mutation Driving Genetic Diversity In Dogs Within The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone?, Megan N. Dillon, Allison N. Dickey, Reade B. Roberts, Jennifer A. Betz, Timothy Mousseau, Norman J. Kleiman, Matthew Breen

Faculty Publications

Environmental contamination can have lasting impacts on surrounding communities, though the long-term impacts can be difficult to ascertain. The disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 and subsequent remediation efforts resulted in contamination of the local environment with radioactive material, heavy metals, and additional environmental toxicants. Many of these are mutagenic in nature, and the full effect of these exposures on local flora and fauna has yet to be understood. Several hundred free-roaming dogs occupy the contaminated area surrounding the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and previous studies have highlighted a striking level of genetic differentiation between two geographically …

Is Increased Mutation Driving Genetic Diversity In Dogs Within The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone?, Megan N. Dillon, Allison N. Dickey, Reade B. Roberts, Jennifer A. Betz, Timothy Mousseau, Norman J. Kleiman, Matthew Breen

Faculty Publications

Environmental contamination can have lasting impacts on surrounding communities, though the long-term impacts can be difficult to ascertain. The disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 and subsequent remediation efforts resulted in contamination of the local environment with radioactive material, heavy metals, and additional environmental toxicants. Many of these are mutagenic in nature, and the full effect of these exposures on local flora and fauna has yet to be understood. Several hundred free-roaming dogs occupy the contaminated area surrounding the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and previous studies have highlighted a striking level of genetic differentiation between two geographically …

Molten Flux Synthesis Of Plutonium (Iv) Silicates K2Pusi2O7 And Rb2Pusi6O15, Travis K. Deason, Gregory Morrison, Amir Mofrad, Jake Amoroso, David Diprete, Theodore M. Besmann, Shanna L. Estes, Hans Conrad Zur Loye

Faculty Publications

Few plutonium containing silicates have been reported in the literature and only one other tetravalent plutonium silicate structure has been reported using the flux growth method. With the goal of understanding actinide incorporation into silicates, we describe herein two new plutonium (IV) silicates, Rb2PuSi6O15 and K2PuSi2O7, synthesized using a mixed alkali chloride/alkali fluoride flux growth. Both structures crystallize in the C2/c space group with lattice parameters a=24.2980(10) Å, b=7.1466(3) Å, c=17.2025(8) Å and 96.6560(10)° for Rb2PuSi6O15, and a=9.9478(2) Å, b=5.59820 (10) Å, c=13.1848(2) Å, and 105.7400(10)° for K2PuSi2O7. Comparisons to the synthesis of other reported alkali actinide silicates (Ce, U, …

Detection And Monitoring Of Stress Using Wearables: A Systematic Review, Anuja Pinge, Vinaya Gad, Dheryta Jaisinghani, Surjya Ghosh, Sougata Sen

Faculty Publications

Over the last few years, wearable devices have witnessed immense changes in terms of sensing capabilities. Wearable devices, with their ever-increasing number of sensors, have been instrumental in monitoring human activities, health-related indicators, and overall wellness. One health-related area that has rapidly adopted wearable devices is the mental health monitoring and well-being area, which covers problems such as psychological distress. The continuous monitoring capability of wearable devices allows the detection and monitoring of stress, thus enabling early detection of mental health problems. In this paper, we present a systematic review of the different types of sensors and wearable devices used …

Legacy Effects Of Crop Diversity On Weed-Crop Competition In Maize Production, Uriel D. Menalled, K Ann Bybee-Finley, Richard G. Smith, Antonio Ditommaso, Heather M. Darby, Sarah J. Pethybridge, Matthew R. Ryan

Faculty Publications

The legacy effects of crop diversity on maize (Zea mays L.) tissue nutrient composition, weed community structure, and intensity of weed-crop competition were assessed through a field experiment at two sites in the northeastern United States. Fields were conditioned with crop diversity gradients from summer 2016 to spring 2019. The crop diversity gradients ranged from a single cultivar to sixteen intercropped cultivars (four species, four cultivars per species) and were established in organic annual and perennial cropping systems. Following the three-year conditioning phase, maize was planted across the entire experiment, and each conditioning-phase diversity treatment was split into weed-free, ambient-weed, …

Long-Term Measurements Of Seasonal Snowpacks Indicate Increases In Mid-Winter Snowmelt And Earlier Snowpack Disappearance In The Northeastern U.S., Geoff Wilson, Mark Green, John Campbell, Alexandra R. Contosta, Nina Lany, Amey Bailey

Faculty Publications

Snowpacks are changing in northeastern North America as the regional climate warms, yet the relative influence of changes in precipitation compared to changes in ablation on snowpacks is poorly understood. We use 56 years of weekly snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements from three locations within a study site which vary in elevation and aspect, paired with adjacent daily climate measurements, to investigate relationships between climate and snowpack onset, maximum, and disappearance. Maximum snowpack size and snowpack duration are shrinking at all sites, at rates ranging from 4.3 days/decade at the coldest site to 9.6 days/decade at the warmest site. The …