Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Assessment Of Demand For Postpartum Tubal Ligation Among Publicly Insured Women In Texas, Joseph E. Potter, Kristen L. Burke, Kathleen Broussard, Kristine Hopkins, Daniel Grossman, Kari White

Faculty Publications

Objective: To assess an alternative method for estimating demand for postpartum tubal ligation and evaluate reproductive trajectories of low-income women who did not obtain a desired procedure. Study design: In a 2-year cohort study of 1700 publicly insured women who delivered at 8 hospitals in Texas, we identified those who had an unmet demand for tubal ligation prior to discharge from the hospital. We classified unmet demand as explicit or prompted based on survey questions that included a prompt regarding whether the respondent would like to have had a tubal ligation at the time of delivery. We assessed persistence of …

Reporting Of Concussion Symptoms By A Nationwide Survey Of United States Parents Of Middle School Children, Zachary Y. Kerr, Brittany M. Ingram, Christine E. Callahan, Aliza K. Nedimyer, Avinash Chandran, Melissa K. Kossman, Julia Hoang, Paula Gildner, Johna K. Register-Mihalik

Faculty Publications

This cross-sectional study assessed concussion symptom knowledge of parents of middle school (MS) children (aged 10–15 years) through a free-response item that solicited concussion symptoms and compared findings to a pre-validated scale-based measure. A self-administered online questionnaire was sent to a panel of randomly selected United States residents who were recruited by a third-party company, aged ≥ 18 years, and identified as parents of MS children. Via a free-response item, parents listed what they believed were concussion symptoms. Multiple sections later, parents identified potential concussion symptoms via a scale measure, which featured 25 items (22 actual symptoms, three distractor symptoms) …

Traffic Collision Avoidance System: False Injection Viability, John Hannah, Robert F. Mills, Richard Dill, Douglas D. Hodson

Faculty Publications

Safety is a simple concept but an abstract task, specifically with aircraft. One critical safety system, the Traffic Collision Avoidance System II (TCAS), protects against mid-air collisions by predicting the course of other aircraft, determining the possibility of collision, and issuing a resolution advisory for avoidance. Previous research to identify vulnerabilities associated with TCAS’s communication processes discovered that a false injection attack presents the most comprehensive risk to veritable trust in TCAS, allowing for a mid-air collision. This research explores the viability of successfully executing a false injection attack against a target aircraft, triggering a resolution advisory. Monetary constraints precluded …

Event-Triggered Control Using A Positive Systems Approach, Frédéric Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Corina Barbalata, Zhong Ping Jiang

Faculty Publications

We provide a new event-triggered control strategy that relies on the notion of positive systems. Our results cover output feedback, and robustness with respect to uncertain dynamics. Our proofs are based on interval observers. Our examples show potential advantages of our approach over earlier event-triggered methods.

A Flexible Zinc-Ion Battery Based On The Optimized Concentrated Hydrogel Electrolyte For Enhanced Performance At Subzero Temperature, Ying Wang, Yehong Chen

Faculty Publications

The emerging aqueous zinc-ion rechargeable batteries have attracted much attention, owing to their intrinsic safety and low cost. However, it is not practical to use zinc-ion batteries in frigid environments due to their liquid water-based electrolytes. To alleviate this issue, we have developed a flexible zinc-ion battery consisting of an optimized concentrated hydrogel electrolyte sandwiched between an ultrathin zinc anode and a NH4V3O8•1•9H2O cathode for enhanced performance at subzero temperature. The hydrogel electrolytes, synthesized by simply mixing xanthan gum and aqueous ZnCl2 solution, are examined via various characterizations, such as thermogravimetric analysis, tensile tests, adhesion tests, and impedance measurements, for …

Virtual Traffic Signals: Safe, Rapid, Efficient And Autonomous Driving Without Traffic Control, Zhao Zhang, Feng Liu, Brian Wolshon, Yu Sheng

Faculty Publications

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) will open the future to vast possibilities in transportation, most of which have yet to be imagined. As these new technologies emerge, they also have the potential to render many of today's most common transportation control methods irrelevant. In this paper, concepts of connected and autonomous are applied to coordinate and synchronize the arrival and departure of vehicles at intersections; effectively ending the need for traffic signals. Under a set of 'autonomous rules of operation', vehicles can be kept in near-continuous motion while also maintaining safe separation, creating a system of 'virtual traffic signal' (VTS). …

Twin Reactor Catalytic Assisted Pyrolysis For Food Court Waste Conversion Into High End Chemicals, Răzvan Nicolae State, Gabriela Ionescu, Mariana Pătrașcu, Adrian Volceanov, Dorin Boldor, Cosmin Mărculescu

Faculty Publications

Waste generation is growing every day and its disposal presents multiple challenges. One particular type of waste consists of food court waste (FCW) from food areas in malls. Its disposal requires many stages, starting with transportation, continuing with sorting and recycling, and ending with landfilling or combustion. Thus, this study managed to convert FCW into valuable products, disposing of it at the same time in an environmentally friendly way. For this ex situ catalytic pyrolysis process, experiments were performed by passing products from pyrolysis performed at 500 °C through HZSM5 or MeHZSM5 catalyst (Me = Co, Mo) kept at 300, …

Dissociable Roles Of The Nucleus Accumbens Core And Shell Subregions In The Expression And Extinction Of Conditioned Fear, Sohini Dutta, Jasmin Beaver, Carly J. Halcomb, Aaron M. Jasnow

Faculty Publications

The nucleus accumbens (NAc), consisting of core (NAcC) and shell (NAcS) sub-regions, has primarily been studied as a locus mediating the effects of drug reward and addiction. However, there is ample evidence that this region is also involved in regulating aversive responses, but the exact role of the NAc and its subregions in regulating associative fear processing remains unclear. Here, we investigated the specific contribution of the NAcC and NAcS in regulating both fear expression and fear extinction in C57BL/6J mice. Using Arc expression as an indicator of neuronal activity, we first show that the NAcC is specifically active …

Spatiotemporal Non-Uniformly Correlated Beams, Milo W. Hyde Iv

Faculty Publications

We present a new partially coherent source with spatiotemporal coupling. The stochastic light, which we call a spatiotemporal (ST) non-uniformly correlated (NUC) beam, combines space and time in an inhomogeneous (shift- or space-variant) correlation function. This results in a source that self-focuses at a controllable location in space-time, making these beams potentially useful in applications such as optical trapping, optical tweezing, and particle manipulation. We begin by developing the mutual coherence function for an ST NUC beam. We then examine its free-space propagation characteristics by deriving an expression for the mean intensity at any plane z ≥ 0. To validate …

Development And Validation Of Subject Librarian Consultation Competencies, Holt Zaugg

Faculty Publications

This study seeks to identify and validate competencies which subject librarians may use in their consultations with students. For the purposes of this study, subject librarians are defined as any library employee who has one-on-one consultations with students. It may include liaison librarians, curators, and others within an academic library. Using a literature review, we identified 22 competencies that may be used to guide subject librarian consultations. Validation efforts included reviews and ratings by subject librarians and students. The article also indicates limitations, future steps, and potential uses of these competencies.

Making Spatial-Temporal Marine Ecosystem Modelling Better – A Perspective, Jeroen Steenbeek, Joe Buszowski, David Chagaris, Villy Christensen, Marta Coll, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Stelios Katsanevakis, Kristy A. Lewis, Antonios D. Mazaris, Diego Macias, Kim De Mutsert, Greig Oldford, Maria Grazia Pennino, Chiara Piroddi, Giovanni Romagnoni, Natalia Serpetti, Yunne Jai Shin, Michael A. Spence, Vanessa Stelzenmüller

Faculty Publications

Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) provide a deeper understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development has highlighted the need to deploy these complex mechanistic spatial-temporal models to engage policy makers and society into dialogues towards sustainably managed oceans. From our shared perspective, MEMs remain underutilized because they still lack formal validation, calibration, and uncertainty quantifications that undermines their credibility and uptake in policy arenas. We explore why these shortcomings exist and how to enable the global modelling community to increase MEMs’ usefulness. We identify a clear gap between proposed solutions to assess model …

Editorial: Fresh Faces, A New Look, And A Bright Future For Lajam, Miriam Marmontel, Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Blockchain Applications: Sme Interviews And Financial & Banking Use Case, Van Tran, Matt Barton, Dan Bumblauskas, Arti Mann

Faculty Publications

Blockchain is an emerging technology that is believed to be “the next internet.” In this paper, we try to answer the questions- What is blockchain? How does blockchain work? and what are its uses across different industries? We also explore blockchain from a theoretical perspective and discusses its various applications. We analyze the drawbacks of this technology and also explore the uses of this technology in banking security and risk management.

Leading Through Paradox In A Covid-19 World: Human Resources Comes Of Age, David G. Collings, Anthony J. Nyberg, Patrick M. Wright, John Mcmackin

Faculty Publications

The impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented. At an organisational level, the crisis has been hugely disruptive, complex and fraught with ambiguity for leaders. The crisis is fundamentally a human one, making human resource (HR) leaders central in enabling organisations to manage through and ultimately exit the crisis successfully. We apply a paradox lens to understand the HR leadership challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. We argue that how the HR function responds to the challenges of the crisis and its role in mapping the exit route from the crisis are likely to shape the trajectory of …

Towards Herd Humanity: Covid-19 Vaccination Reluctance In Bangladesh, Mohammad Ali, Dan Bumblauskas

Faculty Publications

Researchers have considered different types of vaccines and monitored their efficacy during crisis, but few have considered the readiness of society to inoculate against COVID-19. Among mass populace areas, there remains reluctance although the endorsed vaccines have generally been shown to be highly effective. Bangladesh is aiming to move forward to actualization of an immunization rate to reach herd immunity using a diverse methodology and program to overcome vaccine reluctance. This reluctance to receive the vaccine is potentially leading to a worldwide risk of not reaching herd immunity in a timely fashion. The well-being of numerous nations is dependent on …

Society And Sites Of Conscience: Operational Excellence In Prison Industries, Dan Bumblauskas,, Russell Guay, Steve Forbes, Salil Kalghatgi

Faculty Publications

Prisons can utilize effective operations management and continuous improvement techniques to fulfil the obligations of stakeholders and provide an opportunity to try and support the rehabilitation of inmates. Iowa Prison Industries (IPI) offers a work training program for incarcerated individuals under the supervision of the Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC). The program works with approximately 800 incarcerated “associates” to help them acquire skills necessary to obtain gainful employment upon release. This article shares some of the history of IPI’s Operational Excellence (OpEx) as well as reports on program impact. Preliminary findings and success outcomes have been encouraging.

Low Light Intensity Delays Vegetative Phase Change, Mingli Xu, Tieqiang Hu, R Scott Poethig

Faculty Publications

Plants that develop under low light (LL) intensity often display a phenotype known as the “shade tolerance syndrome (STS)”. This syndrome is similar to the phenotype of plants in the juvenile phase of shoot development, but the basis for this similarity is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that the STS is regulated by the same mechanism that regulates the juvenile vegetative phase by examining the effect of LL on rosette development in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). We found that LL prolonged the juvenile vegetative phase and that this was associated with an increase in the expression of the master …

Meshfree Simulation And Experimental Validation Of Extreme Thermomechanical Conditions In Friction Stir Extrusion, Lei Li, Varun Gupta, Xiao Li, Anthony P. Reynolds, Glenn Grant, Ayoub Soulami

Faculty Publications

Friction stir extrusion (FSE) is a novel solid-phase processing technique that consolidates and extrudes metal powders, flakes, chips, or billets into high-performance parts by plastic deformation, which has the potential to save substantial processing time and energy. Currently, most studies on FSE are experimental and only a few numerical models have been developed to explain and predict the complex physics of the process. In this work, a meshfree simulation framework based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) was developed for FSE. Unlike traditional grid-based methods, SPH is a Lagrangian particle-based method that can handle severe material deformations, capture moving interfaces and …

Evaluation Of Orthogonal Strain Components In Friction Extrusion, X Li, Md. Reza-E Rabby, M Ryan, G. Grant, Anthony P. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Friction extrusion is a thermomechanical process that combines conventional extrusion with the action of a rotating die. The plastic deformation of the material being sheared and extruded is the primary source of process heat and it produces strain distributions unlike those resulting from conventional extrusion. This paper proposes an improved strain analysis that evaluates three main strain components in a series of rate-controlled friction extrusions in which the steady state was achieved. Cylindrical AA1100 extrusion billets with two embedded markers were extruded to wire with a 10:1 diametral reduction. The shape change of the embedded markers was determined via serial, …

Effects Of Sesame Consumption On Inflammatory Biomarkers In Humans: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Randomized Controlled Trials, Shabnam Rafiee, Roghaye Faryabi, Mohammad Ali Zareian, Jessie Hawkins, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Laila Shirbeigi

Faculty Publications

Objectives. Existing evidence produces conflicting findings regarding the effect of sesame intake on inflammatory biomarkers; thisknowledge gap has yet to be met through systematic review and meta-analysis. )is meta-analysis of randomized, controlledclinical trials (RCTs) was conducted to evaluate the effects of sesame consumption on markers of inflammation in humans. Methods. PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched through August 2020 to identify relevant papers for inclusion. Using the random-effects model, data were evaluated as weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Cochrane’s Q and I-squared (I2) tests were used to …

Best-Practices For Trauma-Informed Preaching, Rodney A. Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Solar Memory From Hours To Decades, Markus J. Aschwanden, Jay R. Johnson

Faculty Publications

Waiting-time distributions allow us to distinguish at least three different types of dynamical systems, including (i) linear random processes (with no memory); (ii) nonlinear, avalanche-type, nonstationary Poisson processes (with memory during the exponential growth of the avalanche rise time); and (iii) chaotic systems in the state of a nonlinear limit cycle (with memory during the oscillatory phase). We describe the temporal evolution of the flare rate λ(t) ∝ t p with a polynomial function, which allows us to distinguish linear (p ≈ 1) from nonlinear (p  2) events. The power-law slopes α of the observed waiting times (with full …

Weaponizing En Banc, Neal Devins, Allison Orr Larsen

Faculty Publications

The federal courts of appeals embrace the ideal that judges are committed to rule-of-law norms, collegiality, and judicial independence. Whatever else divides them, these judges generally agree that partisan identity has no place on the bench. Consequently, when a court of appeals sits “en banc,” (i.e., collectively) the party affiliations of the three-judge panel under review should not matter. Starting in the 1980s, however, partisan ideology has grown increasingly important in the selection of federal appellate judges. It thus stands to reason—and several high-profile modern examples illustrate—that today’s en banc review could be used as a weapon by whatever party …

Election Observation Post-2020, Rebecca Green

Faculty Publications

The United States is in the midst of a crisis in confidence in elections, despite the many process protections baked into every stage of election administration. Part of the problem is that few Americans know just how rigorous the protections in place are, and most Americans have no concept of how modern elections are run. Election observation statutes are intended to provide a window for members of the public to learn about and oversee the process and to satisfy themselves that elections are fair and that outcomes are reliable. Yet in 2020, in part due to unforeseen pandemic conditions, election …

A Work/Life Teeter Totter: Using Demand Based Principles For Spiritual Operations Management, Dan Bumblauskas, Paul Bumblauskas

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to detail how spirituality is a critical component to work/life balance and how individual and organizational spirituality impact operations management. Balancing key areas of work and professional life become an important part of creating happy and mutually satisfying relationships. We have identified six critical elements of life balance that lead towards optimized productivity (in no order of significance): Career, Family, Community, Spiritual, Health (includes sleep), Pleasure. Spirituality is one of the six components that must be defined, with a corresponding work and personal development plan, at an individual and organizational and operations management level.

An Approach To Preventing Conflict: Unpacking The Standing Neutral, Dan Bumblauskas,, Kate Vitasek, Jim Groton

Faculty Publications

Contractual relationships are vulnerable to the damage caused by friction in relationships, particularly when this turns into a formal dispute. If negotiations fail, the next step is calling in a mediator, and perhaps ending up in arbitration or the court system. This paper argues for the proactive use of a “Standing Neutral” – a trusted, independent expert advisor (or a panel of three advisors) chosen by the contracting parties to help during their contractual relationship. Rather than being reactive to disputes, an organization can be proactive by a standing neutral as chosen by the contracting parties to help during their …

Vaccine Clinical Trials And Data Infrastructure, Ana Santos Rutschman

Faculty Publications

We find ourselves at a momentous turn in the history of vaccines. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a quasi-global vaccine race that not only compressed vaccine research and development (R&D) timelines, but also paved the way for the administration of a new type of vaccine technology – mRNA vaccines, which work in substantially different ways from the vaccines in use before the pandemic.

While the process of bringing emerging COVID-19 vaccines to market has taken place in an unusually short timeframe, it was largely predicated on the same scientific and regulatory processes that govern the development, approval and deployment of new …

A Scoping Review Investigating Relationships Between Depression, Anxiety, And The Prep Care Continuum In The United States, Sarah J. Miller, Sayward Harrison, Kamla Devi Sanasi-Bhola

Faculty Publications

Men who have sex with men and transgender women in the United States are at increased risk for HIV and may benefit from pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a once-a-day pill to prevent HIV. Due to stigma and discrimination, sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations are also at risk for depression and anxiety. This scoping review sought to identify literature addressing relationships between the PrEP care continuum, depression, and anxiety among SGM individuals and others at high risk for HIV. We conducted a systematic review of four databases (i.e., PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Google Scholar) and identified 692 unique articles that …

Monetary Transmission In Money Markets: The Not-So-Elusive Missing Piece Of The Puzzle, Zhengyang Chen, Victor Valcarcel

Faculty Publications

We investigate the effects of U.S. monetary policy shocks from alternative policy indicators for a modern sample encompassing 1988–2020. The choice of the Wu and Xia (2016) shadow federal funds rate leads to persistent price puzzles. These puzzles arise despite inclusion of the usual suspect fixes such as commodity prices, federal funds futures and forward rate data. We find they occur at monthly and quarterly frequencies. We consider alternative indicators with the same broad monetary aggregates Keating et al. (2019) employed in their investigation of a historical sample. They provide a consistent resolution of the price puzzle and they do …

Evaluation Of Seasonal Heat Stress On Transcriptomic Profiles And Global Dna Methylation Of Bovine Oocytes, Fabian A. Diaz, Emilio J. Gutierrez-Castillo, Brittany A. Foster, Paige T. Hardin, Kenneth R. Bondioli, Zongliang Jiang

Faculty Publications

Heat stress affects oocyte developmental competence and is a major cause of reduced fertility in heat stressed cattle. Negative effects of heat stress on the oocyte have been observed at morphological, biochemical and developmental levels. However, the mechanisms by which heat stress affects the oocyte at the transcriptional and epigenetic levels remain to be further elucidated. Here we aimed to investigate the effect of heat stress on oocyte quality, transcriptomic profiles and DNA methylation of oocytes collected through the transition from spring to summer under Louisiana conditions. Summer season resulted in a lower number of high quality oocytes obtained compared …