Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Sporadic-E Occurrence Rates Using Gps Radio Occultation And Ionosonde Measurements, Rodney Carmona, Omar A. Nava, Eugene V. Dao, Daniel J. Emmons

Faculty Publications

Sporadic-E (E_s) occurrence rates from Global Position Satellite radio occultation (GPS-RO) measurements have shown to vary by a factor of five between studies, motivating the need for a comparison with ground-based measurements. In an attempt to find accurate GPS-RO techniques for detecting E_s formation, occurrence rates derived using five previously developed GPS-RO techniques are compared to ionosonde measurements over an eight-year period from 2010–2017. GPS-RO measurements within 170 km of a ionosonde site are used to calculate E_s occurrence rates and compared to the ground-truth ionosonde measurements. The techniques are compared individually for each ionosonde site …

“Immigration Enforcement Is A Daily Part Of Our Students’ Lives”: School Social Workers’ Perceptions Of Racialized Nested Contexts Of Reception For Immigrant Students, Sophia Rodriguez, Benjamin Roth Ph.D., Msw, Leticia Villarreal Sosa

Faculty Publications

This qualitative analysis examines school social workers’ equity work for immigrant students, including their perceptions of immigration enforcement and school climates that support or hinder immigrant student experiences. We conceptually expand understandings of nested contexts of reception and racialized organizations across macro, meso, micro levels, and how they affect immigrant students’ educational experiences, mobility, and belonging. Utilizing open-ended responses from a unique national survey data set, we examine school social workers’ perceptions of the macro, meso, micro racialized contexts that immigrant students encounter, how school social worker perceptions reflect racial attitudes as part of the racialized organization of schools in …

Robust Error Estimation Based On Factor-Graph Models For Non-Line-Of-Sight Localization, O. Arda Vanli, Clark N. Taylor

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a method to estimate the covariances of the inputs in a factor-graph formulation for localization under non-line-of-sight conditions. A general solution based on covariance estimation and M-estimators in linear regression problems, is presented that is shown to give unbiased estimators of multiple variances and are robust against outliers. An iteratively re-weighted least squares algorithm is proposed to jointly compute the proposed variance estimators and the state estimates for the nonlinear factor graph optimization. The efficacy of the method is illustrated in a simulation study using a robot localization problem under various process and measurement models and measurement …

Republicanism Hits New Low, Paul A. Djupe

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Generalized Cost-Effectiveness Of Residential Wind Mitigation Strategies For Wood-Frame, Single Family House In The Usa, Fatemeh Orooji, Carol J. Friedland, Rose Dominic Savio, Arash Taghinezhad, Carol C. Massarra, Nazla Bushra, Robert V. Rohli

Faculty Publications

Wind is one of the deadliest and most expensive hazards in the United States. Wind hazards cause significant damage to buildings and economic losses to homeowners. Economic losses average approximately $3.8 billion annually from hurricane winds and are not decreasing, even despite enhanced construction practices to reduce wind damage. Thus, the effectiveness of mitigation strategies should be evaluated in order to lower the cost incurred by this hazard. Several studies have suggested building code improvements to mitigate the wind hazard, this additional comprehensive research provides selecting economically beneficial mitigation strategies to consider in building code revisions. In a step toward …

Connecting Ansatz Expressibility To Gradient Magnitudes And Barren Plateaus, Zoe Holmes, Kunal Sharma, M Cerezo, Patrick Coles

Faculty Publications

Parametrized quantum circuits serve as ansatze for solving variational problems and provide a flexible paradigm for the programming of near-term quantum computers. Ideally, such ansatze should be highly expressive, so that a close approximation of the desired solution can be accessed. On the other hand, the ansatz must also have sufficiently large gradients to allow for training. Here, we derive a fundamental relationship between these two essential properties: expressibility and trainability. This is done by extending the well-established barren plateau phenomenon, which holds for ansatze that form exact 2-designs, to arbitrary ansatze. Specifically, we calculate the variance in the cost …

Search For Single Top-Quark Production Via Flavour-Changing Neutral Currents At 8 Tev With The Atlas Detector (Vol 76, 55, 2016), G. Aad, B. Abbott, J. Abdallah, O. Abdinov, R. Aben, M. Abolins, O.S. Abouzeid, H. Abramowicz, H. Abreu, R. Abreu, Y. Abulaiti, B.S. Acharya, L. Adamczyk, D.L. Adams, J. Adelman, S. Adomeit, T. Adye, A. A. Affolder, T. Agatonovic-Jovin, J. Agricola, Milind Purohit

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reassessing The Role Of Anthropogenic Climate Change In The Extinction Of Silphium, Paul Pollaro, Paul Robertson

Faculty Publications

The famed ancient herb, known to the Romans as silphium (Greeksilphion), is widely regarded as the first recorded instance of human-induced species extinction. Modern scholars have largely credited direct exploitation (e.g., over-harvesting; over-grazing) as the primary cause of silphium's extinction, due to an overwhelming demand for the plant in ancient times. Recent research has revealed strict cold-stratification requirements for the germination of silphium's closest living relatives, revealing the likelihood that silphium shared these same germination requirements. Documented environmental changes in ancient Cyrenaica (e.g., widespread deforestation; cropland expansion) likely resulted in accelerated rates of desertification throughout the region as well as …

Future Of Winter In Northeastern North America: Climate Indicators Portray Warming And Snow Loss That Will Impact Ecosystems And Communities, Elizabeth Burakowski, Alix Contosta, Danielle Grogan, Sarah Nelson, Sarah Garlick, Nora Casson

Faculty Publications

Winters in northeastern North America have warmed faster than summers, with impacts on ecosystems and society. Global climate models (GCMs) indicate that winters will continue to warm and lose snow in the future, but uncertainty remains regarding the magnitude of warming. Here, we project future trends in winter indicators under lower and higher climate-warming scenarios based on emission levels across northeastern North America at a fine spatial scale (1/16°) relevant to climate-related decision making. Under both climate scenarios, winters continue to warm with coincident increases in days above freezing, decreases in days with snow cover, and fewer nights below freezing. …

The Effectiveness Of Two Implementation Strategies For Improving Teachers’ Delivery Of An Evidenced-Based Hiv Prevention Program, Bo Wang, Lynette Deveaux, Lesley Cottrell, Xiaoming Li, Richard Adderley, Barbara Dorsett, Regina Firpo-Triplett, Veronica Koci, Sharon Marshall, Nikkiah Forbes, Bonita Stanton

Faculty Publications

Background Efective implementation strategies are needed to enhance the success of evidence-based prevention programs. The current study evaluates the efects of two implementation strategies on teachers’ implementation of an evidenced-based HIV intervention.

Methods Using our 7-item pre-implementation school screening tool, we identifed teachers who were at-risk for not implementing the Focus on Youth HIV-risk reduction intervention curriculum which targets grade six through grade 8 students. After completing a two-day curriculum workshop, 81 low- and moderate-performing teachers were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions and were asked to teach the two-month intervention curriculum. This optimization trial examines the impact …

Surface Acoustic Wave (Saw) Sensors: Physics, Materials, And Applications, Debdyuti Mandal, Sourav Banerjee

Faculty Publications

Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are the guided waves that propagate along the top surface of a material with wave vectors orthogonal to the normal direction to the surface. Based on these waves, SAW sensors are conceptualized by employing piezoelectric crystals where the guided elastodynamic waves are generated through an electromechanical coupling. Electromechanical coupling in both active and passive modes is achieved by integrating interdigitated electrode transducers (IDT) with the piezoelectric crystals. Innovative meta-designs of the periodic IDTs define the functionality and application of SAW sensors. This review article presents the physics of guided surface acoustic waves and the piezoelectric materials …

An Exploratory Study On The Microbiome Of Northern And Southern Populations Of Ixodes Scapularis Ticks Predicts Changes And Unique Bacterial Interactions, Deepak Kumar, Latoyia P. Downs, Abdulsalam Adegoke, Erika Machtinger, Kelly Oggenfuss, Richard S. Ostfeld, Monica Embers, Shahid Karim

Faculty Publications

The black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) is the primary vector of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease in North America. However, the prevalence of Lyme borreliosis is clustered around the Northern States of the United States of America. This study utilized a metagenomic sequencing approach to compare the microbial communities residing within Ix. scapularis populations from northern and southern geographic locations in the USA. Using a SparCC network construction model, we performed potential interactions between members of the microbial communities from Borrelia burgdorferi–infected tissues of unfed and blood-fed ticks. A significant difference in bacterial composition …

The Mediating Effect Of Depression On The Relation Between Interpersonal Needs And Suicidal Ideation Among Chinese Transgender Women, Ruijie Chang, Chengbo Zeng, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Huwen Wang, Chen Xu, Xiaoyue Yu, Tiecheng Ma, Ying Wang, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Yong Cai

Faculty Publications

Background: Transgender women are at high risk of depression and suicidal ideation. The interpersonal theory of suicide proposes that suicidal ideation could be a consequence of high interpersonal needs (thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness). The current study tests this theory and investigates whether depression could mediate the relationship between interpersonal needs and suicidal ideation among transgender women in Shenyang, China.

Methods: A total of 198 transgender women were recruited by snowball sampling. A cross-sectional study was conducted through a structured questionnaire. Suicidal ideation, depression, and interpersonal needs were assessed. Path analysis was used to carry out the research goals and …

Effect Of Defects Part I: Degradation Of Constitutive Coefficients As An Input To The Composite Failure Model With Microvoids And Porosity, Vahid Tavaf, Sourav Banerjee

Faculty Publications

It is always challenging to provide appropriate material properties for a composite progressive failure model. The nonstandard percentage reduction method that is commonly used to degrade the material constants with micro-scale defects generates tremendous uncertainty in failure prediction. The constitutive matrix is composed of multiple material constants. It is not necessary that all constants degrade either equally or linearly due to a certain state of material defects. With this very concern in mind, this article presents a guideline for using a quantified perturbation for each coefficient appropriately. It also presents distribution of effective material properties (EMPs) in unidirectional composite materials …

The Times, They Are A-Changin’: Tracking Shifts In Mental Health Signals From Early Phase To Later Phase Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In Australia, Siqin Wang, Xiao Huang, Tao Hu, Mengxi Zhang, Zhenlong Li, Huan Ning, Jonathan Corcoran, Asaduzzaman Khan, Yan Liu, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction Widespread problems of psychological distress have been observed in many countries following the outbreak of COVID-19, including Australia. What is lacking from current scholarship is a national-scale assessment that tracks the shifts in mental health during the pandemic timeline and across geographic contexts.

Methods Drawing on 244 406 geotagged tweets in Australia from 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2021, we employed machine learning and spatial mapping techniques to classify, measure and map changes in the Australian public’s mental health signals, and track their change across the different phases of the pandemic in eight Australian capital cities.

Results Australians’ …

Development Of Advanced Machine Learning Models For Analysis Of Plutonium Surrogate Optical Emission Spectra, Ashwin P. Rao, Phillip R. Jenkins, John D. Auxier Ii, Michael B. Shattan, Anil K. Patnaik

Faculty Publications

This work investigates and applies machine learning paradigms seldom seen in analytical spectroscopy for quantification of gallium in cerium matrices via processing of laser-plasma spectra. Ensemble regressions, support vector machine regressions, Gaussian kernel regressions, and artificial neural network techniques are trained and tested on cerium-gallium pellet spectra. A thorough hyperparameter optimization experiment is conducted initially to determine the best design features for each model. The optimized models are evaluated for sensitivity and precision using the limit of detection (LoD) and root mean-squared error of prediction (RMSEP) metrics, respectively. Gaussian kernel regression yields the superlative predictive model with an RMSEP of …

Search For Continuous Gravitational Waves From 20 Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars In O3 Ligo Data, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams

Faculty Publications

Results are presented of searches for continuous gravitational waves from 20 accreting millisecond x-ray pulsars with accurately measured spin frequencies and orbital parameters, using data from the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The search algorithm uses a hidden Markov model, where the transition probabilities allow the frequency to wander according to an unbiased random walk, while the J-statistic maximum-likelihood matched filter tracks the binary orbital phase. Three narrow subbands are searched for each target, centered on harmonics of the measured spin frequency. The search yields 16 candidates, consistent with a false alarm probability of …

Search For Continuous Gravitational Waves From 20 Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars In O3 Ligo Data, R. Abbott

Faculty Publications

Results are presented of searches for continuous gravitational waves from 20 accreting millisecond x-ray pulsars with accurately measured spin frequencies and orbital parameters, using data from the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The search algorithm uses a hidden Markov model, where the transition probabilities allow the frequency to wander according to an unbiased random walk, while the J-statistic maximum-likelihood matched filter tracks the binary orbital phase. Three narrow subbands are searched for each target, centered on harmonics of the measured spin frequency. The search yields 16 candidates, consistent with a false alarm probability of …

Reply To Komatsu Et Al.: From Local Social Mindfulness To Global Sustainability Efforts?, Niels J. Van Doesum, Ryan O. Murphy, Marcello Gallucci, Efrat Aharonov-Majar, Ursula Athenstaedt, Wing Tung Au, Liying Bai, Robert Böhm, Inna Bovina, Nancy R. Buchan, Xiao-Ping Chen, Kitty B. Dumont, Jan B. Engelmann, Kimmo Eriksson, Hyun Euh, Susann Fiedler, Justin Friesen, Simon Gächter, Camilo Garcia, Roberto González, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Crop Rotational Complexity Affects Plant-Soil Nitrogen Cycling During Water Deficit, Timothy M. Bowles, Andrea Jilling, Karen Moran-Rivera, Jorg Schnecker, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

One of the biggest environmental challenges facing agriculture is how to both supply and retain nitrogen (N), especially as precipitation becomes more variable with climate change. We used a greenhouse experiment to assess how contrasting histories of crop rotational complexity affect plant-soil-microbe interactions that govern N processes, including during water stress. With higher levels of carbon and N cycling hydrolytic enzymes, higher mineral-associated organic matter N concentrations, and an altered microbial community, soils from the most complex rotation enabled 80% more corn N uptake under two moisture regimes, compared to soil from monoculture corn. Higher levels of plant N likely …

Microplastics Through The Lens Of Colloid Science, Ahmed Al Harraq, Bhuvnesh Bharti

Faculty Publications

Microplastics are sub-millimeter-sized fragments of plastics and a relatively new class of pollutant increasingly found in the environment. Due to their size and surface area to volume ratio, the physicochemical characteristics of microplastics can diverge from those of their macroscopic counterparts. This is partly why it is challenging to understand their origin, analyze their behavior, and predict their fates in the environment compared to large pollutants. We believe that adopting a view of microplastics as a colloid provides a holistic framework that connects their physical properties and surface chemistries with observations of their dynamics in the environment. In particular, we …

Field Observational Constraints On The Controllers In Glyoxal (Chocho) Reactive Uptake To Aerosol, Dongwook Kim, Changmin Cho, Seokhan Jeong, Soojin Lee, Benjamin A. Nault, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Jason C. Schroder, Jose L. Jimenez, Rainer Volkamer, Donald R. Blake, Armin Wisthaler, Alan Fried, Joshua P. Digangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Sally E. Pusede, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, L. Gregory Huey, David J. Tanner, Jack E. Dibb, Christoph J. Knote, Kyung-Eun Min

Faculty Publications

Glyoxal (CHOCHO), the simplest dicarbonyl in the troposphere, is a potential precursor for secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and brown carbon (BrC) affecting air quality and climate. The airborne measurement of CHOCHO concentrations during the KORUS-AQ (KORea–US Air Quality study) campaign in 2016 enables detailed quantification of loss mechanisms pertaining to SOA formation in the real atmosphere. The production of this molecule was mainly from oxidation of aromatics (59 %) initiated by hydroxyl radical (OH). CHOCHO loss to aerosol was found to be the most important removal path (69 %) and contributed to roughly ∼ 20 % (3.7 µg sm−3 ppmv−1 …

Gibbs–Duhem Relation For Phase-Field Models Of Polymeric Mixtures, Rami Alhasan, Douglas R. Tree

Faculty Publications

Phase-field models are relatively inexpensive field-based models capable of capturing the nonequilibrium multiphase behavior of polymers and other soft materials. With their rise in popularity over the past several years, questions have arisen concerning the thermodynamic consistency of some model formulations. In doing so, researchers have employed several different forms of the Gibbs–Duhem equation─a classical thermodynamic relationship used to assess consistency─leading to questions about the correct form of this expression for inhomogeneous mixtures. In this paper, we derive a generalized Gibbs–Duhem relation that is valid for phase-field models. The key to the derivation is the recognition that the functional derivatives …

Detoxification Of Copper And Chromium Via Dark Hydrogen Fermentation Of Potato Waste By Clostridium Butyricum Strain 92, Vira Hovorukha, Olesia Havryliuk, Galina Gladka, Antonina Kalinichenko, Monika Sporek, Jan Stebila, Dmitri Mavrodi, Ruslan Mariychuk, Oleksandr Tashyrev

Faculty Publications

The accumulation of various types of waste containing both organic and inorganic metal-containing compounds is extremely hazardous for living organisms. The possibility of polymer degradation, biohydrogen synthesis, and metal detoxification via the dark fermentation of model potato waste was investigated. For this purpose, the strict anaerobic strain was isolated and identified as Clostridium butyricum. The high efficiency of dark hydrogen fermentation of potatoes with yield of hydrogen in 85.8 ± 15.3 L kg⁻¹ VS_potato was observed. The copperand chromium salts solutions were added to the culture fluid to obtain the concentrations of 50, 100, and 200 mg …

Scanner: A Web Platform For Annotation, Visualization And Sharing Of Single Cell Rna-Seq Data, Guoshuai Cai, Xuanxuan Yu, Choonhan Youn, Jun Zhou, Feifei Xiao

Faculty Publications

In recent years, efficient scRNA-seq methods have been developed, enabling the transcriptome profiling of single cells massively in parallel. Meanwhile, its high dimensionality and complexity bring challenges to the data analysis and require extensive collaborations between biologists and bioinformaticians and/or biostatisticians. The communication between these two units demands a platform for easy data sharing and exploration. Here we developed Single-Cell Transcriptomics Annotated Viewer (SCANNER), as a public web resource for the scientific community, for sharing and analyzing scRNA-seq data in a collaborative manner. It is easy-to-use without requiring special software or extensive coding skills. Moreover, it equipped a real-time database …

Ultrafast High-Energy Micro-Supercapacitors Based On Open-Shell Polymer-Graphene Composites, Lulu Yao, Naresh Eedugurala, Paramasivam Mahalingavelar, Daniel J. Adams, Kaiping Wang, Kevin S. Mayer, Jason D. Azoulay, Tse Nga Ng

Faculty Publications

Micro-supercapacitors are poised to serve as on-chip power sources for electronics. However, the challenge to simultaneously increase their power, energy, and lifetime demands new material combinations beyond current carbon-based systems. Here, we demonstrate that electro-deposition of an open-shell conjugated polymer with reduced graphene oxide achieves electrodes with capacitance up to 186 mF cm⁻² (372 F cm⁻³). The extended delocalization within the open-shell polymer stabilizes redox states and facilitates a 3 V wide potential window, while the hierarchical electrode structure promotes ultrafast kinetics. The micro-supercapacitor shows a high power density of 227 mW cm⁻² with an energy …

Unmanned Aerial Remote Sensing Of Coastal Vegetation: A Review, Grayson R. Morgan, Michael E. Hodgson, Cuizhen Wang, Steven R. Schill

Faculty Publications

Coastal wetlands contribute greatly to our coasts economically and ecologically. The utility of coastal wetland vegetation, along with the multitude of dynamic forces they encounter, suggests the need of regular monitoring for sustainable management. While traditional in situ survey methods and remote sensing from space and manned platforms have provided means to monitor and study the coastal zone thus far, the recent developments of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) fill a small void between traditional in situ survey methods and the high spatial resolution of manned aircraft imagery. As an on-demand personal remote sensing device, an sUAS can be deployed …

Antilisterial Activity Of Freeze-Dried Bacteriocin-Containing Powders Produced By Lactic Acid Bacteria Against Listeria Innocua Nrrl B-33016 On Cantaloupe (Cucumis Melo) Surface, Alvaro Garcia, Franklin Bonilla, Elio Villasmil, Vondel Reyes, Subramaniam Sathivel

Faculty Publications

Bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria may reduce pathogenic loads on cantaloupe surfaces. The efficacy of these bacteriocins on reducing the pathogenic loads of Listeria was evaluated. Non-pathogenic bacteria, Listeria innocua NRRL B-33016 was used as a surrogate for L. monocytogenes. Two bacteriocins, (1) nisin and (2) pediocin, were produced from Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis ATCC 11454 and Pediococcus acidilactici RS2, respectively. L. innocua NRRL B-33016 was inoculated on the cantaloupes surface at a concentration of 4.69 ± 0.37 log CFU/cm2, and then the melons were stored for 16 days at 4 °C. The antimicrobial activity on L. innocua of …

Search For Continuous Gravitational Waves From 20 Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars In O3 Ligo Data, Ligo Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, Kagra Collaboration, Tiffany Z. Summerscales

Faculty Publications

Results are presented of searches for continuous gravitational waves from 20 accreting millisecond x-ray pulsars with accurately measured spin frequencies and orbital parameters, using data from the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The search algorithm uses a hidden Markov model, where the transition probabilities allow the frequency to wander according to an unbiased random walk, while the J-statistic maximum-likelihood matched filter tracks the binary orbital phase. Three narrow subbands are searched for each target, centered on harmonics of the measured spin frequency. The search yields 16 candidates, consistent with a false alarm probability of …

Coupling Between Alfvén Wave And Kelvin–Helmholtz Waves In The Low Latitude Boundary Layer, Eun-Hwa Kim, Jay R. Johnson

Faculty Publications

The Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability of magnetohydrodynamic surface waves at the low latitude boundary layer is examined using both an eigenfrequency analysis and a time-dependent wave simulation. The analysis includes the effects of sheared flow and Alfvén velocity gradient. When the magnetosheath flows are perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field direction, unstable KH waves that propagate obliquely to the sheared flow direction occur at the sheared flow surface when the Alfvén Mach number is higher than an instability threshold. Including a shear transition layer between the magnetosphere and magnetosheath leads to secondary KH waves (driven by the sheared flow) that are …