Digital Commons Network^™

Nano-Injection Molding With Resin Mold Inserts For Prototyping Of Nanofluidic Devices For Single Molecular Detection, Farhad Shiri, Junseo Choi, Chad Vietz, Chathurika Rathnayaka, Anishkumar Manoharan, Suresh Shivanka, Guoqiang Li, Chengbin Yu, Michael C. Murphy, Steven A. Soper, Sunggook Park

Faculty Publications

While injection molding is becoming the fabrication modality of choice for high-scale production of microfluidic devices, especially those used for in vitro diagnostics, its translation into the growing area of nanofluidics (structures with at least one dimension <100 >nm) has not been well established. Another prevailing issue with injection molding is the high startup costs and the relatively long time between device iterations making it in many cases impractical for device prototyping. We report, for the first time, functional nanofluidic devices with dimensions of critical structures below 30 nm fabricated by injection molding for the manipulation, identification, and detection of single …

Directional Microwave Emission From Femtosecond-Laser Illuminated Linear Arrays Of Superconducting Rings, Thomas J. Bullard, Kyle Frische, Charlie Ebbing, Stephen J. Hageman, John Morrison, John Bulmer, Enam A. Chowdury, Michael L. Dexter, Timothy J. Haugan, Anil K. Patnaik

Faculty Publications

We examine the electromagnetic emission from two photo-illuminated linear arrays composed of inductively charged superconducting ring elements. The arrays are illuminated by an ultrafast infrared laser that triggers microwave broadband emission detected in the 1–26 GHz range. Based on constructive interference from the arrays a narrowing of the forward radiation lobe is observed with increasing element count and frequency demonstrating directed GHz emission. Results suggest that higher frequencies and a larger number of elements are achievable leading to a unique pulsed array emitter concept that can span frequencies from the microwave to the terahertz (THz) regime.

Active-Illumination Extension To The Priest And Meier Pbrdf, Mark F. Spencer, Milo W. Hyde Iv, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, Michael A. Marciniak

Faculty Publications

This paper develops a 3D vector solution for the scattering of partially coherent laser-beam illumination from statistically rough surfaces. Such a solution enables a rigorous comparison to the well-known Priest and Meier polarimetric bidirectional reflectance distribution function (pBRDF) [Opt Eng 41(5),988 (2002).]. Overall, the comparison shows excellent agreement for the normalized spectral density and the degree of polarization. Based on this agreement, the 3D vector solution also enables an extension to the Priest and Meier pBRDF that accounts for the effects of active illumination. In particular, the 3D vector solution enables the development of a closed-form expression for the spectral …

Reply To: Beyond Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency, Feng Tao, Johannes Lehmann, Ying-Ping Wang, Lifen Jiang, Bernhard Ahrens, Kostiantyn Viatkin, Stefano Manzoni, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Yuanyuan Huang, Bruce A. Hungate, Serita D. Frey, Michael W. I. Schmidt, Markus Reichstein, Nuno Carvalhais, Philippe Ciais, Umakant Mishra, Gustaf Hugelius, Toby D. Hocking, Xingjie Lu, Zheng Shi, Ronald Vargas, Yusuf Yigini, Christian Omuto, Ashish A. Malik, Guillermo Peralta, Rosa Cuevas-Corona, Luciano E. Di Paolo, Isabel Luotto, Cuijuan Liao, Yi-Shuang Liang, Vinisa S. Saynes, Xiaomeng Huang

Faculty Publications

In their commentary, Xiao et al. cautioned that the conclusions on the critical role of microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) in global soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in a paper by Tao et al. (2023) might be too simplistic. They claimed that Tao et al.’s study lacked mechanistic consideration of SOC formation and excluded important datasets. Xiao et al. brought up important points, which can be largely reconciled with our findings by understanding the differences in expressing processes in empirical studies and in models.

Unveiling Indicator, Enteric, And Respiratory Viruses In Aircraft Lavatory Wastewater Using Adsorption-Extraction And Nanotrap® Microbiome A Particles Workflows, Warish Ahmed, Wendy J.M. Smith, Ananda Tiwari, Aaron Bivins, Stuart L. Simpson

Faculty Publications

The effective detection of viruses in aircraft wastewater is crucial to establish surveillance programs for monitoring virus spread via aircraft passengers. This study aimed to compare the performance of two virus concentration workflows, adsorption-extraction (AE) and Nanotrap® Microbiome A Particles (NMAP), in detecting the prevalence and concentrations of 15 endogenous viruses including ssDNA, dsDNA, ssRNA in 24 aircraft lavatory wastewater samples. The viruses tested included two indicator viruses, four enteric viruses, and nine respiratory viruses. The results showed that cross-assembly phage (crAssphage), human polyomavirus (HPyV), rhinovirus A (RhV A), and rhinovirus B (RhV B) were detected in all wastewater samples …

Creating An Inclusive Metadata Policy, Nicole Lewis, Jeremy Myntti

Faculty Publications

The BYU Library is creating an Inclusive Metadata Policy for metadata creators to use when creating and remediating descriptions to be more inclusive. Accompanying the policy is a companion document with recommendations and examples, including links to many external resources. In addition to working with stakeholders in the library to develop the policy, we consulted with the University’s Office of Belonging. This presentation describes the process we used to undertake the creation of the library policy and recommendations document.

Law And Its Limits: Ethical Issues In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus, David S. Caudill

Faculty Publications

The law and literature movement is frequently associated with the use of literary images of law as a point of reflection upon the ethical obligations of lawyers. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)—the story of a young scientist whose unorthodox experiments end up creating the famed “monster”—is not, at first glance, a likely candidate for that enterprise. However, Dr. Frankenstein’s ambition and ruthless pursuit of knowledge has become a contemporary image of science out of control and the need for ethical limitations on scientific progress. Consequently, the novel raises currently important issues of regulating science and technology. Given the lawyer’s ethical obligation …

Deconvoluting Charge-Transfer, Mass Transfer, And Ohmic Resistances In Phosphonic Acid-Sulfonic Acid Ionomer Binders Used In Electrochemical Hydrogen Pumps, Karthik Arunagiri, Andrew Jark Wah Wong, Luis Briceno-Mena, Hania Mohamed Gaber Hassan Elsayed, José A. Romagnoli, Michael J. Janik, Christopher G. Arges

Faculty Publications

Ion-pair high-temperature polymer electrolyte membranes (HT-PEMs) paired with phosphonic acid ionomer electrode binders have substantially improved the performance of HT-PEM electrochemical hydrogen pumps (EHPs) and fuel cells. Blending poly(pentafluorstyrene-co-tetrafluorostyrene phosphonic acid) (PTFSPA) with Nafion™, and using this blend as an electrode binder, improved proton conductivity in the electrode layer resulting in a 2 W cm−2 peak power density of fuel cells at 240 °C (a HT-PEM fuel cell record). However, much is unknown about how phosphonic acid ionomers blended with perfluorosulfonic acid materials affect electrode kinetics and gas transport in porous electrodes. In this work, we studied the proton conductivity, …

Physiological Arousal, Attentiveness, Emotion, And Word Retrieval In Aphasia: Effects And Relationships, Tyson G. Harmon, Angela Johnson, Vivian Ward, Shawn Nissen

Faculty Publications

Purpose: To (a) compare physiological arousal and attentiveness during a confrontational naming task between participants with aphasia and a control group across four conditions that varied according to emotionality of presented stimuli and (b) explore relationships among physiological arousal, attentiveness, perceived arousal, and naming performance. We hypothesized that participants with aphasia would show lower levels of arousal and attentiveness than control participants and that emotional conditions would lead to increased physiological arousal and attentiveness.

Method: Eight participants with aphasia and 15 control participants completed a confrontational naming task under positive, negative, and neutral conditions and rated their perceived arousal after …

Telling Stories In Noise: The Impact Of Background Noises On Spoken Language For People With Aphasia, Tyson G. Harmon, Brenna Scadden Nelson, Christopher Dromey, Kirsten Dixon Clawson

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Determine how different background noise conditions affect the spoken language of participants with aphasia during a story retell task.

Method: Participants included 11 adults with mild to moderate aphasia and 11 age- and gender-matched controls. Participants retold stories in a silent baseline and five background noise conditions (conversation, monologue, phone call, cocktail, pink noise). Dependent measures of speech acoustics (fundamental frequency, mean intensity), speech fluency (speech rate, disfluent words), and language production (correct information units, lexical errors, lexical diversity, and cohesive utterances) were compared between groups and across conditions.

Results: Background noise resulted in higher fundamental frequency (F_{0 …}

How Ubiquitous Is Entanglement In Quantum Field Theory, Ivan Agullo, Béatrice Bonga, Patricia Ribes-Metidieri, Dimitrios Kranas, Sergi Nadal-Gisbert

Faculty Publications

It is well known that entanglement is widespread in quantum field theory, in the following sense: every Reeh-Schlieder state contains entanglement between any two spatially separated regions. This applies, in particular, to the vacuum of a noninteracting scalar theory in Minkowski spacetime. Discussions on entanglement in field theory have focused mainly on subsystems containing infinitely many degrees of freedom - typically, the field modes that are supported within a compact region of space. In this article, we study entanglement in subsystems made of finitely many field degrees of freedom, in a free scalar theory in D+1-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. The focus …

Could Our Universe Have Been Initiated Intentionally: An Epistemological Framework, Dan Broadbent

Faculty Publications

The possibility that our universe was initiated intentionally is a compelling philosophical and scientific question that can be evaluated probabilistically based on four primary considerations: fine-tuning in our universe, hypotheses about the multiverse, the likelihood that intelligent life may be able to initiate a universe, and the possibility that we live in a simulation. This paper offers an equation analogous to the noteworthy Drake equation that is intended to be used as a structured thought experiment to help identify factors related to the initiation of our universe and to facilitate examining each in terms of what we know, do not …

Core Destruction In Knockout Reactions, Carlos A. Bertulani

Faculty Publications

A model is presented to calculate projectile core destruction in knockout reactions. It incorporates physics arguments similar to the formulation of the state of the art theory to calculate stripping and diffraction dissociation cross sections in heavy ion collisions with bombarding energies around 100 MeV/nucleon and larger. It is shown that secondary collisions between the incoming and struck nucleons with the projectile core decrease the core survival probability by as much as 9.5%. However, no clear evidence is found for reduction of the cross section with increasing binding energy of the removed nucleon.

Utilizing Student Workers For Digital Commons Projects, Ellen Amatangelo, Elizabeth Parret

Faculty Publications

This lightning talk was presented by the Scholarly Communications Coordinator and the Scholarly Communications Student Supervisor from Brigham Young University at the Digital Commons North American Conference 2023. It provides an overview of how student workers at the BYU Library are involved in Digital Commons projects and discusses the types of projects and processes that students work on, including an outline of student supervisor responsibilities. The purpose of the presentation is to get other Digital Commons administrators excited about expanding the possibilities of their repositories by collaborating with student workers.

Neutronic Analysis Of The Byu Molten Salt Micro Reactor, Collin Bradford, Edward Mercado, Braden Clayton, Lagrande Gunnell, Andrew Larsen, Matthew Memmott

Faculty Publications

Background: With the rising need for reliable and clean energy, researchers at Brigham Young University created a molten salt microreactor (MSMR) concept to help meet the world’s growing energy demands. The MSMR is rated at 45 MWth and is uniquely capable of passively dissipating all decay heat using conduction only.

Methods: This work presents the results of the simulated neutronic behavior of the MSMR using the Monte Carlo neutronics code OpenMC with the ENDF/B-VII.1 cross-section library at steady state conditions. The specific characteristics discussed in this work are: keff, power profile, axial and radial peak power factors, Doppler coefficient of …

Ready Worker One? High-Res Vr For The Home Office, Anastasia Ruvimova, Felipe Fronchetti, Boden A. Kahn, Luiz Henrique Susin, Zekeya Hurley, Thomas Fritz, Mark Hancock, David Shepherd

Faculty Publications

Many employees prefer to work from home, yet struggle to squeeze their office into an already fully-utilized space. Virtual Reality (VR) seemingly offered a solution with its ability to transform even modest physical spaces into spacious, productive virtual offices, but hardware challenges - such as low resolution - have prevented this from becoming a reality. Now that hardware issues are being overcome, we are able to investigate the suitability of VR for daily work. To do so, we (1) studied the physical space that users typically dedicate to home offices and (2) conducted an exploratory study of users working in …

Building A Culture Of Scholarship With New Clinical Teachers By Writing About Social Justice Lawyering, Caroline Wick, Susan Bennett, Binny Miller, Michelle Assad, Maria Dooner, Mariam Hinds, Jessica Millward, Citalli Ochoa, Charles Ross, Anne Schaufele

Faculty Publications

This Article is a collection of essays about teaching social justice lawyering, as seen through the eyes of eight practitioners-in-residence in the clinical program at American University’s Washington College of Law (“WCL”). They include: Michelle Assad, Maria Dooner, Mariam Hinds, Jessica Millward, Citlalli Ochoa, Charles Ross, Anne Schaufele, and Caroline Wick. They teach in seven clinics, including the Civil Advocacy Clinic, the Criminal Justice Clinic, the Community Economic and Equity Development Clinic, the Disability Rights Law Clinic, the Immigrant Justice Clinic, the International Human Rights Law Clinic, and the Janet R. Spragens Federal Income Tax Clinic. We use the terms …

Continuous Spin Excitations In The Three-Dimensional Frustrated Magnet K2ni2 (So4)3, Weiliang Yao, Qing Huang, Tao Xie, Andrey Podlesnyak, Alexander Brassington, Chengkun Xing, Ranuri S.Dissanayaka Mudiyanselage, Haozhe Wang, Weiwei Xie, Shengzhi Zhang, Minseong Lee, Vivien S. Zapf, Xiaojian Bai, D. Alan Tennant, Jian Liu, Haidong Zhou

Faculty Publications

Continuous spin excitations are widely recognized as one of the hallmarks of novel spin states in quantum magnets, such as quantum spin liquids (QSLs). Here, we report the observation of such kind of excitations in K2Ni2(SO4)3, which consists of two sets of intersected spin-1 (Ni2+) trillium lattices. Our inelastic neutron scattering measurement on single crystals clearly shows a dominant excitation continuum, which exhibits a distinct temperature-dependent behavior from that of spin waves, and is rooted in strong quantum spin fluctuations. Further using the self-consistent-Gaussian-approximation method, we determine that the fourth- and fifth-nearest-neighbor exchange interactions are dominant. These two bonds together …

Role Of Domain-Domain Interactions On The Self-Association And Physical Stability Of Monoclonal Antibodies: Effect Of Ph And Salt, Amy Y. Xu, Marco A. Blanco, Maria Monica Castellanos, Curtis W. Meuse, Kevin Mattison, Ioannis Karageorgos, Harold W. Hatch, Vincent K. Shen, Joseph E. Curtis

Faculty Publications

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) make up a major class of biotherapeutics with a wide range of clinical applications. Their physical stability can be affected by various environmental factors. For instance, an acidic pH can be encountered during different stages of the mAb manufacturing process, including purification and storage. Therefore, understanding the behavior of flexible mAb molecules in acidic solution environments will benefit the development of stable mAb products. This study used small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and complementary biophysical characterization techniques to investigate the conformational flexibility and protein-protein interactions (PPI) of a model mAb molecule under near-neutral and acidic conditions. The study …

Noise In The Ligo Livingston Gravitational Wave Observatory Due To Trains, J. Glanzer, S. Soni, J. Spoon, A. Effler, G. González

Faculty Publications

Environmental seismic disturbances limit the sensitivity of LIGO gravitational wave detectors. Trains near the LIGO Livingston detector produce low frequency (0.5- 10 H z ) ground noise that couples into the gravitational wave sensitive frequency band (10- 100 H z ) through light reflected in mirrors and other surfaces. We investigate the effect of trains during the Advanced LIGO third observing run, and propose a method to search for narrow band seismic frequencies responsible for contributing to increases in scattered light. Through the use of the linear regression tool Lasso (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) and glitch correlations, we …

Class Size Determination And Decision Making In Lis Online Education, Lucy Santos Green, Kim M. Thompson, Nicole A. Cooke

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to develop a national landscape of the decisions made by LIS programs regarding online course enrollment caps. Online education expands learning opportunities for all students and is particularly attractive to nontraditional students who are more likely to have employment and family obligations that make attending traditional face-to-face classes difficult. At the same time, online learning can exacerbate existing opportunity gaps between certain student groups, depending on how well-prepared students are for online learning. This survey methodology study investigated course enrollment caps and the reasons behind the limits placed by Master of Library and Information …

Word Choice: A Neglected But Key Skill For Ell Writers, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

With all of the urgent, critical issues confronting education in general, and literacy practices in particular, why write a column on something as obscure as word choice? Word choice (sometimes called vocabulary choice or diction) often drops to the bottom of the “To Do” list for English as a Second Language (ESL), English, bilingual, and language arts teachers. Even when teachers are able to focus on writing to begin with (writing development is often the first thing cut when lessons run over), teachers of English language learners (ELLs) are too preoccupied with teaching grammar, spelling, organization, syntax, genres, and building …

Martin Luther On Praying The Psalms, Mary Jane Haemig

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Into The Characteristics Of Reactive Silicon Pools Of Coastal Marine Sediments, Rebecca A. Pickering, Xiangli L. Wang, Katharine R. Hendry, Kanchan Maiti, Jeffrey W. Krause

Faculty Publications

Many studies use traditional alkaline leach digestions to quantify biogenic silica (bSiO2) in sediments. Studies from river-plume systems demonstrate this methodology precludes information on other operational Si reactive pools, missing potentially valuable information on early diagenetic products. We build on previous studies by broadly examining the reactive Si pools in Mississippi River plume-influenced coastal sediments. The magnitude of Si released among operational pools across the region revealed large spatial variations in the conservation of detrital materials. Contrary to other analyses using different approaches, we suggest the availability of detrital sourced components (i.e. Al, Fe and Mn) may be a factor …

Regional Variation In The Trophic Ecology Of Wahoo (Acanthocybium Solandri) In The Western Atlantic Ocean, Brendan Gough, Alexandra Prouse, Michael A. Dance, R. J.David Wells, Jay R. Rooker

Faculty Publications

Intrinsic tracers, such as stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen, are common dietary markers that accumulate in the muscle tissue of consumers and can be used to determine the dietary sources and trophic positions of consumers. The aim of this study was to assess regional variation in the trophic ecology of wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) using bulk stable isotopes. Muscle biopsies of wahoo were collected from four regions in the western Atlantic Ocean: the eastern Gulf of Mexico, western Gulf of Mexico, Northwest Atlantic Ocean, and Caribbean Sea. Muscle tissue δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values for wahoo ranged …

Need-Oriented Evangelism: Encountering, Embracing, And Experiencing God, Petr Cincala, Allison Sauceda

Faculty Publications

This article provides a fresh perspective on evangelism by reflecting a belief in the Triune God--the source of saving truth and loving community. Mission is part of God’s nature; he is the ultimate Missionary. Mission happens naturally whenever children of God intentionally invite and facilitate God’s presence. Over time, the word “evangelism" has become contaminated by myths, a false understanding of God, and unpleasant religious experiences and practices. Genuine evangelism addresses the most burning issues of people’s lives and should be treated as such. True evangelism involves caring about, praying for, and sharing with people. The practical part of this …

Writing It Right: Advice About Written Advocacy From The Washington Court Of Appeals, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

This article concerns “Briefly Speaking: Brief Writing—Best Practices,” a collection of sound advice that appears on the website of the Washington Court of Appeals, the state’s intermediate appellate court. The court’s judges explore strategies of appellate practice, but that is not all. In this article, I select five of the court’s insights about effective written expression, insights that can enhance the quality not only of brief writing, but also of much other legal writing.

Political Polarization In America: Its Impact On Industrial Democracy And Labor Law, Rafael Gely

Faculty Publications

This article explores the impact that political polarization is having in the social, legal, and regulatory space, particularly on American worker-management relations. Polarization is affecting decisions involving social relationships and market transactions, the ability of institutions built to generate debate and discussion to successfully complete these missions, and people's willingness to listen to and engage with views contrary to their own.

White Adipose Tissue Heterogeneity In The Single-Cell Era: From Mice And Humans To Cattle, Hunter Ford, Qianglin Liu, Xing Fu, Clarissa Strieder-Barboza

Faculty Publications

Adipose tissue is a major modulator of metabolic function by regulating energy storage and by acting as an endocrine organ through the secretion of adipokines. With the advantage of next-generation sequencing-based single-cell technologies, adipose tissue has been studied at single-cell resolution, thus providing unbiased insight into its molecular composition. Recent single-cell RNA sequencing studies in human and mouse models have dissected the transcriptional cellular heterogeneity of subcutaneous (SAT), visceral (VAT), and intramuscular (IMAT) white adipose tissue depots and revealed unique populations of adipose tissue progenitor cells, mature adipocytes, immune cell, vascular cells, and mesothelial cells that play direct roles on …

A Single-Cell Atlas Of Bovine Skeletal Muscle Reveals Mechanisms Regulating Intramuscular Adipogenesis And Fibrogenesis, Leshan Wang, Peidong Gao, Chaoyang Li, Qianglin Liu, Zeyang Yao, Yuxia Li, Xujia Zhang, Jiangwen Sun, Constantine Simintiras, Matthew Welborn, Kenneth Mcmillin, Stephanie Oprescu, Shihuan Kuang, Xing Fu

Faculty Publications

Background: Intramuscular fat (IMF) and intramuscular connective tissue (IMC) are often seen in human myopathies and are central to beef quality. The mechanisms regulating their accumulation remain poorly understood. Here, we explored the possibility of using beef cattle as a novel model for mechanistic studies of intramuscular adipogenesis and fibrogenesis. Methods: Skeletal muscle single-cell RNAseq was performed on three cattle breeds, including Wagyu (high IMF), Brahman (abundant IMC but scarce IMF), and Wagyu/Brahman cross. Sophisticated bioinformatics analyses, including clustering analysis, gene set enrichment analyses, gene regulatory network construction, RNA velocity, pseudotime analysis, and cell–cell communication analysis, were performed to elucidate …