Digital Commons Network^™

First The Blade, David Sedlacek

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

1844 In Context, Gerald A. Klingbeil

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Visualizing Nutrient Effects On Root Pattern Formation, Robert E. Zdor

Faculty Publications

This lab gives students hands-on experience with visualizing the root architecture of plants exposed to varying concentrations of the vital nutrient phosphorus. By maintaining Brassica sp. seedlings in the presence of different quantities of phosphate, students can quantify changes in the number of lateral roots as an example of how the environment influences plant pattern formation. Additional variables in the experimental design, such as the use of plant mutants altered in plant regulator action or the presence of plant regulators in the plant growth medium, allow for exploration of how plant growth regulators are involved in root development. The quantitative …

Church Volunteers: Finding Them, Training Then, And Keeping Them: Part 1, S. Joseph Kidder

Faculty Publications

This three-part series will be devoted to the subject of finding, training, and retaining volunteers, using ideas gleaned from many growing and effective Adventist churches.

Un Solo Dio In Tre Persone: Seconda Parte, John C. Peckham

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Wetland Biomass And Productivity In Coastal Louisiana: Base Line Data (1976-2015) And Knowledge Gaps For The Development Of Spatially Explicit Models For Ecosystem Restoration And Rehabilitation Initiatives, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Courtney Elliton, Siddhartha Narra, Ehab Meselhe, Xiaochen Zhao, Eric White, Charles E. Sasser, Jenneke M. Visser, Xuelian Meng, Hongqing Wang, Zuo Xue, Fernando Jaramillo

Faculty Publications

Coastal Louisiana hosts 37% of the coastal wetland area in the conterminous US, including one of the deltaic coastal regions more susceptible to the synergy of human and natural impacts causing wetland loss. As a result of the construction of flood protection infrastructure, dredging of channels across wetlands for oil/gas exploration and maritime transport activities, coastal Louisiana has lost approximately 4900 km2 of wetland area since the early 1930s. Despite the economic relevance of both wetland biomass and net primary productivity (NPP) as ecosystem services, there is a lack of vegetation simulation models to forecast the trends of those functional …

Public Or Private Venture Capital?, Darian M. Ibrahim

Faculty Publications

The United States has an unparalled entrepreneurial ecosystem. Silicon Valley startups commercialize cutting-edge science, create plentiful jobs, and spur economic growth. Without angel investors and venture capital funds (VCs) willing to gamble on these high-risk, high-tech companies, none of this would be possible.

From a law-and-economics perspective, startup investing is incredibly risky. Information asymmetry and agency costs abound. In the United States, angels and VCs successfully mitigate these problems through private ordering and informal means. Countries without the robust private venture capital system that exists in the United States have attempted to fund startups publicly by creating junior stock exchanges …

Does Family Communication Matter? Exploring Knowledge Of Breast Cancer Genetics In Cancer Families, Deborah O. Himes Phd, Aprn-Bc, Sarah H. Davis, Jane H. Lassetter, Neil E. Peterson, Margaret F. Clayton, Wendy Birmingham Phd, Anita Y. Kinney

Faculty Publications

Knowledge of breast cancer genetics is critical for those at increased hereditary risk who must make decisions about breast cancer screening options. This descriptive study explored theory-based relationships among cognitive and emotional variables related to knowledge of breast cancer genetics in cancer families. Participants included first-degree relatives of women with breast cancer who had received genetic counseling and testing. Study participants themselves did not have breast cancer and had not received genetic counseling or testing. Data were collected by telephone interviews and surveys. Variables analyzed included numeracy, health literacy, cancer-related distress, age, education, and the reported amount of information shared …

The Role Of Culture And Folk Art In School Library Programming, Lucy Santos Green, Melissa Johnston

Faculty Publications

Exploring the practices of teacher librarians in other countries fosters new knowledge, contributing to global communities of practice. The need to equip today’s youth with complex 21st century skills has served as a catalyst for change in the traditional practices of school librarians all over the world. It is this necessary change that led to questions regarding school library practices at an international level and to the need to explore school librarianship on a global level. This research study explores ways program design grounded in cultural understanding, experiences, and ways of knowing the world, are applied by practicing school librarians …

Reviving The Intracorporate Communications No-Publication Rule: A Strategy To Encourage Effective Investigation Of Internal Misconduct, Doris Deltosto Brogan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Spatiotemporal Development Of Human Settlement In Hurricane-Prone Areas On The Us Atlantic And Gulf Coasts Using Nighttime Remote Sensing, Xiao Huang, Cuizhen Wang, Junyu Lu

Faculty Publications

Hurricanes, as one of the most devastating natural hazards, have posed a great threat to people in coastal areas. A better understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of human settlement in hurricane-prone areas largely benefits sustainable development. This study uses the nighttime light (NTL) data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) to examine human settlement development in areas with different levels of hurricane proneness from 1992 to 2013. The DMSP/OLS NTL data from six satellites were intercalibrated and desaturated with the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) optical imagery to derive …

The Complexity Dilemma In Policy Market Design, Todd S. Aagaard, Andrew N. Kleit

Faculty Publications

Regulators are increasingly pursuing their policy objectives by creating markets. To create a policy market, regulators require firms to procure a product that is socially useful but that confers little direct private benefit to the acquiring party. Examples of policy markets include pollutant emissions trading programs, renewable energy credit markets, and electricity capacity markets. Existing scholarship has tended to analyze policy markets simply as market-based regulation. Although not inaccurate, such inquiries are necessarily incomplete because they do not focus on the distinctive traits of policy markets. Policy markets are neither typical regulations nor typical markets. Concentrating on policy markets as …

An Integrated Approach For Constraining Depositional Zones In A Tide-Influenced River: Insights From The Gorai River, Southwest Bangladesh, Edwin J. Bomer, Carol A. Wilson, Dilip K. Datta

Faculty Publications

The tidal to fluvial transition (TFT) of estuaries and coastal rivers is one of the most complex environments on Earth with respect to the transportation and deposition of sediment, owing in large part to competing fluvial and marine processes. While there have been recent advances in the stratigraphic understanding of the TFT, it is still unclear whether these findings are site-specific or representative of mixed tidal-fluvial systems worldwide. Yet, research from this depositional domain holds profound societal and economic importance. For instance, understanding the underlying stratigraphic architecture of channel margins is critical for assessing geomorphic change for fluvio-deltaic settings, which …

Detecting Dna Methylation Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, Syed Mohammad Abid Hasan, Yuyang He, Te Wei Chang, Jianwei Wang, Manas Ranjan Gartia

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society. Among all of the epigenetic events that are responsible for various diseases such as cancer, lupus, and several birth defects, DNA methylation is one of the crucial ones. It occurs because of the alkylation of various bases. These modifications of genes carried through altered creations of proteins ultimately lead to various diseases. For example, a vital cause behind canine lymphoma is found to be DNA methylation in the guanine base. In this work, we analyzed the methylated and nonmethylated guanine structure with the assistance of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT). Because …

Synthesis Of Samarium-Based Metal Organic Compound Nanoparticles With Polychromatic-Photoluminescence For Bio-Tissue Fluorescence Imaging, Jian Xu

Faculty Publications

The development of nanomaterials with special optical window is critical for clinical applications and the optoelectronic industry. In this work, eight kinds of samarium-based metal organic compound nanoparticles (Sm-Fe, Sm-Ga, Sm-Mn, Sm-Na, Sm-Nb, Sm-W, Sm-Cu, and Sm-Al) were synthesized through a solution method. They show polychromatic-photoluminescence spectra extended from the UV to near-infrared (NIR) region when excited by 280 nm, 380 nm, 480 nm, 580 nm, and 785 nm light. They emit direct white light with respect to UV excitation. Tunable white-to-green fluorescence can be achieved by variation of excitation light around 300-400 nm. When they are excited by a …

Overview: Additive Manufacturing Enabled Accelerated Design Of Ni-Based Alloys For Improved Fatigue Life, S. Shao, M. M. Khonsari, S. Guo, W. J. Meng, N. Li

Faculty Publications

An in-depth overview on an emerging area of the additive-manufacturing-enabled, accelerated design of Ni-based alloys for improved high-cycle and very-high-cycle fatigue life is presented. Existing literature on the subject is critically reviewed, and key knowledge gaps are identified. An efficient life-cycle approach, integrating the model-make-measure-verify strategy in the design of these alloys is introduced and discussed.

Recent Progress On Zinc-Ion Rechargeable Batteries, Wangwang Xu, Ying Wang

Faculty Publications

The increasing demands for environmentally friendly grid-scale electric energy storage devices with high energy density and low cost have stimulated the rapid development of various energy storage systems, due to the environmental pollution and energy crisis caused by traditional energy storage technologies. As one of the new and most promising alternative energy storage technologies, zinc-ion rechargeable batteries have recently received much attention owing to their high abundance of zinc in natural resources, intrinsic safety, and cost effectiveness, when compared with the popular, but unsafe and expensive lithium-ion batteries. In particular, the use of mild aqueous electrolytes in zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) …

The Use Of Entropy In Modeling The Mechanical Degradation Of Grease, Alan Gurt, Michael Khonsari

Faculty Publications

Recent theoretical developments linking degradation to the thermodynamic concept of entropy have allowed a new approach to modeling all types of degradation. The theory has been successfully applied to wear, fatigue, and numerous other forms of degradation and experimentation has confirmed its applicability to modeling the mechanical degradation of lubricating grease. This paper overviews the mechanical degradation of grease, discusses past and present modeling techniques, shows how new techniques can be used to predict grease life, and provides suggestions for future research.

Hardware Accelerator For Adversarial Attacks On Deep Learning Neural Networks, Haoqiang Guo, Lu Peng, Jian Zhang, Fang Qi, Lide Duan

Faculty Publications

Recent studies identify that Deep learning Neural Networks (DNNs) are vulnerable to subtle perturbations, which are not perceptible to human visual system but can fool the DNN models and lead to wrong outputs. A class of adversarial attack network algorithms has been proposed to generate robust physical perturbations under different circumstance. These algorithms are the first efforts to move forward secure deep learning by providing an avenue to train future defense networks, however, the intrinsic complexity of them prevents their broader usage.In this paper, we propose the first hardware accelerator for adversarial attacks based on memristor crossbar arrays. Our design …

"Surviving Through Together": Hunger, Poverty And Persistence In High Point, North Carolina, Heather Hunt, Gene R. Nichol

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Language Nests On The Move: The Case Of Võro Pre-Primary Education In Estonia, Kara D. Brown, Mariko Faster

Faculty Publications

This article considers the circuitous route of knowledge exchange from South (New Zealand)-to North (Finland)-to regional South (Estonia) by examining the development of Võro language nests (keelepesä) in Estonia. Language nests reflect the global nature of educational knowledge exchange as well as the importance of networks of languageresearchers and activists in this policy inspiration. Estonia is a fascinating case for understanding the international spread and local development of the language-nest approach in a post-Socialist context. The authors draw on concepts of policy borrowing and diffusion and the “grammar of schooling” to explore the spread of the language nest approach and …

Byu’S Connection To The Development Of Optical Memory: Innovation Takes Multiple Disciplines, Dan Broadbent

Faculty Publications

Optical memory technology is a way to store information using lasers and is used in videodiscs, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, M-Discs, etc. This technology was developed in Torrance, California in the 1970s by a team lead by Kent D. Broadbent, who graduated from BYU with a degree in Physics in 1949.

This display showcases the technology and those involved in its development.

If We Don’T Look, We Won’T See: Measuring Language Development To Inform Literacy Instruction, Suzanne M. Adlof, Tiffany P. Hogan

Faculty Publications

Oral language abilities enable children to learn to read, and they predict future academic achievement and life outcomes. However, children with language impairment frequently go unidentified because schools do not systematically measure oral language development. Given that identification paves the way for treatment, schools should increase attention to oral language development, particularly within response to intervention (RTI) frameworks, which aim to prevent learning disabilities by identifying and intervening at early stages. Formal schooling should address language comprehension (in addition to word reading) to ensure an adequate foundation for future reading comprehension. In support, we overview the developmental relations between oral …

Unpacking The Standing Neutral: A Cost Effective And Common-Sense Approach For Preventing Conflict, Kate Vitasek, James P. Groton, Daniel Bumblauskas

Faculty Publications

Let's face it. You don't need to be a Nobel-prize winning economist to know that contracts are inherently incomplete. No lawyer has yet crafted the perfect contract that will anticipate every eventuality. Problems and unexpected events are always around the corner.

Long-term contractual relationships are especially vulnerable to the damage caused by friction in relationships, particularly when this friction turns into a formal dispute. In far too many relationships the parties do not perceive a need to engage in conventional conflict resolution until they begin to experience real pain. By that time, they have blamed each other for their troubles. …

Mother-To-Mother: Evaluation Of The Sustainability Of A Peer Model To Communicate Nutrition Messages In Mozambique, Disa Lubker Cornish, Halkeno Tura, Susan Roberts-Dobie

Faculty Publications

Background: Over the past twenty-five years, Africa had experienced the smallest relative decrease of child undernutrition in any world region. Many aid organizations were redirecting efforts and resources to supporting community - based initiatives such as Community Health Work (CHW). Aim / Objectives: While peer models showed short term hope, there was limited long-term evidence. The study expounded upon an evaluation on a health promotion program using the Care Group Model. The objective of this research was to examine the sustainability of health gains associated with the use of CHWs via a Care Group Model as a health promotion strategy …

(Under)Enforcement Of Poor Tenants' Rights, Kathryn A. Sabbeth

Faculty Publications

Millions of tenants in the United States reside in substandard housing conditions ranging from toxic mold to the absence of heat, running water, or electricity. These conditions constitute blatant violations of law. The failure to maintain housing in habitable condition can violate the warranty of habitability, common law torts, and, in some cases, consumer protection and antidiscrimination statutes. Well-settled doctrine allows for tenants’ private rights of action and government enforcement. Yet the laws remain underenforced.

This Article demonstrates that the reason for the underenforcement is that the tenants are poor. While the right to safe housing extends to all tenants, …

Air Force Space Programs: Comparing Estimates To Final Development Budgets, Christopher Elworth, Edward D. White, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Gregory E. Brown

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes how development budget estimates, as reported in the Selected Acquisition Reports, change over time for primarily Air Force space programs. Government acquisition policy emphasizes the importance of developing an accurate point estimate for programs to ensure program budget efficiency; however, statistics imply space programs tend to underspend at the beginning of the program and to overspend at the end of Initial Operational Capability. This suggests new phasing methods that reflect the unique needs of space and perhaps other developmental-type programs by allocating more of the budget in later years rather than at the beginning of the program, …

Habitability Of The Oceanic Alkaline Serpentinite Subsurface: A Case Study Of The Lost City Hydrothermal Field, Susan Q. Lang, William J. Brazelton

Faculty Publications

The Lost City hydrothermal field is a dramatic example of the biological potential of serpentinization. Microbial life is prevalent throughout the Lost City chimneys, powered by the hydrogen gas and organic molecules produced by serpentinization and its associated geochemical reactions. Microbial life in the serpentinite subsurface below the Lost City chimneys, however, is unlikely to be as dense or active. The marine serpentinite subsurface poses serious challenges for microbial activity, including low porosities, the combination of stressors of elevated temperature, high pH and a lack of bioavailable ∑CO2. A better understanding of the biological opportunities and challenges in serpentinizing systems …

Associations Among Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation, Physical Activity Facilities, And Physical Activity In Youth During The Transition From Childhood To Adolescence, Morgan N. Clennin, Min Lian, Natalie Colabianchi, Andrew Kaczynski, Marsha Dowda, Russell R. Pate

Faculty Publications

Background: This study aims to examine the longitudinal association of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation (SED) with physical activity in youth during the transition from elementary to middle school, and to determine if access to physical activity facilities moderates this relationship. Methods: Data were obtained from the Transitions and Activity Changes in Kids (TRACK) study, which was a multilevel, longitudinal study designed to identify the factors that influence changes in physical activity as youth transition from elementary to middle school. The analytic sample for the current study included 660 youth with complete data in grades 5 (baseline) and 7 (follow-up). A repeated …

Possible Detection Of Low Energy Solar Neutrons Using Boron Based Materials, Nicole Benker, Elena Echeverria, Robert Olesen, Brant E. Kananen, John W. Mcclory, Yaroslav V. Burak, Volodymyr T. Adamiv, Ihor M. Teslyuk, George Glenn Peterson, Ben Bradley, Ethiyal R. Wilson, James C. Petrosky, Bin Dong, Jeffry Kelber, Jennifer Hamblin, Jaques Doumani, Peter A. Dowben, Alex Enders

Faculty Publications

Solar neutrons have been detected aboard the International Space Station (ISS), using lithium tetraborate and boron carbide detector elements. We find that evidence of a solar neutron flux, as detected in a neutron calorimeter following subtraction of the proton background, with an energy of about 2 to 4 MeV. This solar neutron flux is likely no more than 250 to 375 neutrons cm⁻²sec⁻¹, with a lower bound of 50–75 neutrons cm⁻²sec⁻¹ at one au.