Digital Commons Network^™

Role Of Macroscopic Particles In Deep-Sea Oxygen Consumption, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Hendrik M. Van Aken, Gerhard J. Herndl

OES Faculty Publications

Macroscopic particles (> 500 µg), including marine snow, large migrating zooplankton, and their fast-sinking fecal pellets, represent primary vehicles of organic carbon flux from the surface to the deep sea. In contrast, freely suspended microscopic particles such as bacteria and protists do not sink, and they contribute the largest portion of metabolism in the upper ocean. In bathy- and abyssopelagic layers of the ocean (2,000-6,000 m), however, microscopic particles may not dominate oxygen consumption. In a section across the tropical Atlantic, we show that macroscopic particle peaks occurred frequently in the deep sea, whereas microscopic particles were barely detectable. In …

Turbulent Mixing In A Strongly Forced Salt Wedge Estuary, David K. Ralston, W. Rockwell Geyer, James A. Lerczak, Malcolm Scully

OES Faculty Publications

Turbulent mixing of salt is examined in a shallow salt wedge estuary with strong fluvial and tidal forcing. A numerical model of the Merrimack River estuary is used to quantify turbulent stress, shear production, and buoyancy flux. Little mixing occurs during flood tides despite strong velocities because bottom boundary layer turbulence is dislocated from stratification elevated in the water column. During ebbs, bottom salinity fronts form at a series of bathymetric transitions. At the fronts, near-bottom velocity and shear stress are low, but shear, stress, and buoyancy flux are elevated at the pycnocline. Internal shear layers provide the dominant source …

Investigation Of Nitrogen Release During Coal Pyrolysis In An Oxy-Fuel Combustion Process, John M. Sowa, Kolbein K. Kolste, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

Three coals were studied in a flat flame burner (FFB) to determine nitrogen release during pyrolysis as a function of the temperature from 1600 to 1900 K in an oxy-fuel environment. The oxy-fuel environment was created by replacing the background N2 with CO2 in the FFB experiments. Both types of experiments were conducted under fuel-rich conditions, with no O2 present in the postflame gases. The oxy-fuel results were compared to previous results from FFB experiments in a N2 atmosphere. A bituminous coal showed no difference in mass and nitrogen release between the two environments. The sub-bituminous coal exhibited higher mass …

A Sub-Grid, Mixture–Fraction-Based Thermodynamic Equilibrium Model For Gas Phase Combustion In Firetec: Development And Results, Michael M. Clark, Thomas H. Fletcher, Rodman R. Linn

Faculty Publications

The chemical processes of gas phase combustion in wildland fires are complex and occur at length-scales that are not resolved in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of landscape-scale wildland fire. A new approach for modelling fire chemistry in HIGRAD/FIRETEC (a landscape-scale CFD wildfire model) applies a mixture–fraction model relying on thermodynamic chemical equilibrium to predict combustion flame temperatures and product species compositions. The mixture–fraction approach is common in combustor modelling applications. However, since individual flame sheets are not resolved in HIGRAD/FIRETEC, application of the mixture–fraction approach requires the development of a sub-grid model, which is based on the two assumptions …

Redefining The Rural Experience: Change For The People Of The Appalachian Mountains, Magoffin County Crafts, Social, And Health Services Center Gifford, Kentucky, Katelyn Chapin

Architecture Theses and Projects

As an introductory attempt to develop improvements within economically challenged Magoffin County, Kentucky, and explore the relationship of program to an individual’s life, craft, social, and health initiatives would be introduced to the residents. A community would evolve where locals could receive education, have access to daycare, purchase food at discount prices, engage in indigenous craft making, and visit professional doctors in the health clinic and urgent care center. Done in order to facilitate individual advancement and community growth, this design will support social integration by allowing people to share the resources needed to end the problem of generational and …

Implications Of Civility For Children, Keely Wilkins, Paul Caldarella, Rachel Crook-Lyon, K. Richard Young

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to review the literature exploring various definitions of civility, along with reasons why civility is vital to children and adolescents in any community. The authors examine definitions and components of civility in both historical and current contexts. The need for increased civility in modern society is described. The authors also explore the relationship of civility education to character and moral education and outline civility interventions suggested in the literature. Finally, suggestions are given for methods and strategies that have been found to be successful in bringing civility into schools.

Mountain-Plains Consortium Annual Report 2010

UGPTI Mountain Plains Consortium Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Urban [Boxscape], Brad W. Bolte

Architecture Theses and Projects

Urban [BOXSCAPE] is a method of developing upon the existing Big Box Landscape in order to synthesize commercial, environmental, and social components of civic life into an integrated solution. This urban concept is demonstrated through a design vision for a Big Box Center in Seekonk, Massachusetts. However, the guidelines and options used in this exercise are meant to exceed this site’s immediate relevance and provide a model approach for similar sites across the nation.

Adaptive Housing: Transformation And Growth In The Urban Environment, Kevin Mowatt

Architecture Theses and Projects

The proposal for an adaptive housing project and its chosen location arose from two obstacles that all modern cities and the world as a whole, face. The urban environment is revered for its cultural amalgam of people and wide range of demographics; however with this density and diversity comes a shortage of one type or another of commodious housing. Additionally and consequentially, the city must expand and build new buildings, leaving older, unsuitable building vacant. An adaptive architecture would allow families to grow and demographics to shift within the established community, all the while reinvigorating that second obstacle the city …

A Probabilistic Morphological Analyzer For Syriac, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Peter J. Mcclanahan, George Busby, Robbie A. Haertel, Kristian Heal, Kevin Seppi, Eric K. Ringger

Faculty Publications

We define a probabilistic morphological analyzer using a data-driven approach for Syriac in order to facilitate the creation of an annotated corpus. Syriac is an under-resourced Semitic language for which there are no available language tools such as morphological analyzers. We introduce novel probabilistic models for segmentation, dictionary linkage, and morphological tagging and connect them in a pipeline to create a probabilistic morphological analyzer requiring only labeled data. We explore the performance of models with varying amounts of training data and find that with about 34,500 labeled tokens, we can outperform a reasonable baseline trained on over 99,000 tokens and …

Community Infrastructure: A Transformation Of The New Orleans Industrial Canal, Nicholas Thornton

Architecture Theses and Projects

The city of New Orleans is in need of a symbol of stability and hope. The design proposal is for a New Orleans Water Treatment Facility that focuses on purification, reclamation and desalination processes. The facility will create a pure water supply that will be distributed into public circulation as well as be made readily available during natural disasters. A public works building such as this is important to the growth of the ever rebuilding city. In 2005, New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina causing flooding and destruction to a great majority of the city. Once the hurricane subsided …

Finite Element Analysis Of Ring-Shaped Emission Profile In Plasma Bullet, Yukinori Sakiyama, David B. Graves, Julien Jarrige, Mounir Laroussi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Using a one-way coupled model of neutral gas flow and plasma dynamics we report a mechanism to explain the ring-shaped emission pattern that has been observed experimentally in plasma bullets at atmospheric pressure. We solve a fluid model with the local field approximation in one-dimensional cylindrical coordinates, corresponding to a cross-section of a plasma bullet. Pulselike uniform electric field is assumed to be applied perpendicular to the simulation domain. Time and spatially resolved spectroscopic measurements support the simulation results.

Experimental Studies On The Plasma Bullet Propagation And Its Inhibition, Erdinc Karakas, Mounir Laroussi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Plasma bullets generated by atmospheric pressure low temperature plasma jets have recently been an active research topic due to their unique properties and their enhanced plasma chemistry. In this paper, experimental insights into the plasma bullet lifetime and its velocity are reported. Data obtained from intensified charge-coupled device camera and time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy (OES) elucidated the existence of a weakly ionized channel between the plasma bullet and its source (such as the plasma pencil). Factors responsible for the inhibition of the propagation of the bullet, such as low helium mole fraction, the magnitude of the applied voltage, and the …

Destruction Of Α -Synuclein Based Amyloid Fibrils By A Low Temperature Plasma Jet, Erdinc Karakas, Agatha Munyanyi, Lesley Greene, Mounir Laroussi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Amyloid fibrils are ordered beta-sheet aggregates that are associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson. At present, there is no cure for these progressive and debilitating diseases. Here we report initial studies that indicate that low temperature atmospheric pressure plasma can break amyloid fibrils into smaller units in vitro. The plasma was generated by the plasma pencil, a device capable of emitting a long, low temperature plasma plume/jet. This avenue of research may facilitate the development of a plasma-based medical treatment.

Comment On "Superfluid Turbulence From Quantum Kelvin Wave To Classical Kolmogorov Cascades", Jeffrey Yepez, George Vahala, Linda L. Vahala, Min Soe

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Design Of Organic Tandem Solar Cells Using Pcpdtbt: Pc61 Bm And P3ht: Pc71bm, Gon Namkoong, Patrick Boland, Keejoo Lee, James Dean

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We conducted optical and electrical simulations with the goal of determining the optimal design for conjugated polymer-fullerene tandem solar cells using poly[2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)- 4H-cyclopenta[2,1- b;3,4- b′] dithiophene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PCPDTBT): [6,6]-phenyl C₆₁ butyric acid methyl ester (PC₆₁ BM) as a bottom cell and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT): [6,6]-phenyl C₇₁ butyric acid methyl ester (PC₇₁BM) as a top cell. The effects of photon density, absorption, balanced and unbalanced charge carrier transport, and bimolecular recombination in the two subcells were incorporated into the simulations. We found that the maximum energy conversion efficiency (η) is 9% when charge carrier mobilities in …

Dissecting The Biosyntheses Of Gilvocarcins And Ravidomycins, Madan Kumar Kharel

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Gilvocarcin V (GV) and ravidomycin (RMV) exhibit excellent antitumor activities in the presence of near-UV light at low concentration maintaining a low in vivo cytotoxicity. Although, the exact molecular mechanism for in vivo actions of these antibiotics has yet to be determined, a [2+2] cycloaddition reaction of the vinyl side chain with DNA thymidine residues in addition to the inhibition of topoisomerase II and DNAhistone H3 cross-linking are reported for the GV’s mechanism of action. Such activities have made these molecules interesting candidates for the biosynthetic investigation to generate analogues with improved activity/solubility. Previous biosynthetic studies have suggested that the …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Magnetic Hydrogel Nanocomposites For Cancer Therapy Applications, Samantha Ann Meenach

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Currently, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Conventional cancer treatment includes chemotherapy, radiation, and surgical resection, but unfortunately, all of these methods have significant drawbacks. Hyperthermia, the heating of cancerous tissues to between 41 and 45°C, has been shown to improve the efficacy of cancer therapy when used in conjunction with irradiation and/or chemotherapy. In this work, a novel method for remotely administering heat is presented. This method involves heating of tumor tissue using hydrogel nanocomposites containing magnetic nanoparticles which can be remotely heated upon exposure to an external alternating magnetic field (AMF). The …

Novel Approaches In Structured Light Illumination, Yongchang Wang

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Among the various approaches to 3-D imaging, structured light illumination (SLI) is widely spread. SLI employs a pair of digital projector and digital camera such that the correspondences can be found based upon the projecting and capturing of a group of designed light patterns. As an active sensing method, SLI is known for its robustness and high accuracy. In this dissertation, I study the phase shifting method (PSM), which is one of the most employed strategy in SLI. And, three novel approaches in PSM have been proposed in this dissertation. First, by regarding the design of patterns as placing points …

Hauerwas And The Redemption Of Bioethics, M. Therese Lysaught

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Mathematics Professional Development On Elementary Teachers' Mathematics Content Knowledge For Teaching And Implementation Of Innovative Pedagogical Practices, Vicki Oleson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study sought to understand the process of change elementary teachers experienced as they participated in mathematics professional development. This investigation explored the impact of mathematics professional development on teachers' content knowledge for teaching, their ability to implement innovative pedagogical practices, and the relationship between these two components of teacher change. Data collected from a semester-long professional development course involving 20 teachers from rural southwest Iowa was analyzed for this study.

Data was collected from six teachers involved in the professional development course. Data collected during the professional development course included a pre and post test of teachers' content knowledge, …

Leisure And Aging: A Content Analysis Of Leisure Textbooks And Leisure Academic Journal Articles, Leila Rod-Welch

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study will review literature related to leisure and aging. We live in an aging society. People are expected to live healthier and longer. Therefore, there is a need to analyze how older adults are portrayed in leisure textbooks and academic journal articles which are typically used to educate and train recreation professionals. This study explores whether leisure textbooks published in the United States addressed the topic of aging and, if so, to what extent. In addition, any differences between leisure textbooks and specialty leisure and aging textbooks were analyzed. A content analysis of 54 leisure textbooks from six U.S. …

Conflicting Identities And Ideologies: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The National Japanese American Memorial To Patriotism During World War Ii, Kaori Yamada

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis is a rhetorical criticism of the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II, located in Washington, D.C. It was erected on November 9, 2000, to memorialize Japanese Americans who were forced to move to the relocation camps and Japanese American soldiers who died as members of the U.S. armed forces during WWII. Examining the intended meaning of the Memorial by its creators is not a central focus of this study. Rather, I investigate how interactions among the rhetoric of the Memorial, social contexts, and audiences create multiple meanings.

The first analytic focus is the symbolic …

Periodontal Bacterial-Dna Initiated Immuno-Inflammatory Responses In Human Osteoblastic Cells, Chebel Najib Bou

Theses and Dissertations

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease initiated by gram negative anaerobic bacteria. These bacteria possess pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) that interact with various receptors including Toll like receptors (TLRs). Bacterial DNA (bDNA) is one of the PAMPs mainly recognized by TLR9. Interaction of bDNA and its receptors leads to activation of inflammatory signaling pathways potentially resulting in periodontal bone destruction. The aim of this study was to determine the production of IL- 6 and IL-8 in response to periodontal bDNA from human osteoblastic cells (MG-63). MG- 63 cells were stimulated in duplicate for 20 hours with 100ng/μl of bDNA from …

Human Rights And American Bioethics: Resistance Is Futile, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The Borg are always confident that humans will be assimilated into their collective hive and therefore that, as they say, “resistance is futile.” In Star Trek, of course, the humans always successfully resist. Elizabeth Fenton and John Arras, like the Borg, resist the idea that humans are uniquely special as well as the utility of the human rights framework for global bioethics. I believe their resistance to human rights is futile, and I explain why in this essay. Let me begin with their subtitle, because we do seem to agree that popular culture is a powerful aid to understanding human …

Assistive Technology Attrition: Identifying Why Teachers Abandon Assistive Technologies, Michael Edward Sharpe

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The study surveyed a sample of K-12 teachers who had used assistive technology (AT) in the classroom to determine answers to five research questions. These were, (1) why the teachers adopted AT, (2) their attitudes and perceptions about its value, (3) challenges they have experienced in adopting AT, (4) whether they have discontinued or decreased use of AT, and, if so, (5) the factors that led to this result.

The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. For the quantitative aspect, an online survey instrument was developed to answer five research questions. Participants were teachers who had used AT in …

Trust And Trustworthiness: A Framework For Successful Design Of Telemedicine, James Robert Templeton

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Trust and its antecedents have been demonstrated as a barrier to the successful adoption of numerous fields of technology, most notably e-commerce, and may be a key factor in the lack of adoption or adaptation in the field of telemedicine. In the medical arena, trust is often formed through the relationships cultivated over time via clinician and patient. Trust and interpersonal relationships may also play a significant role in the adoption of telemedicine. The idea of telemedicine has been explored for nearly 30 years in one form or another. Yet, despite grandiose promises of how it will someday significantly improve …

An Analysis Of The Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Technology Implementation Within An Independent Public Library System: A Case Study Of The North Canton, Ohio Public Library, Keith P. Lyons

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

An Analysis of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology Implementation within an Independent Public Library System:

A Case Study of the North Canton, Ohio Public Library

by

Keith P. Lyons

June 2010

Public libraries require efficient control systems to maintain accurate inventories, statistics, and records of patron borrowing. Generally, public libraries use barcode technology to accomplish these tasks. Radio frequency identification (RFID) has gained the attention of public library personnel in recent years as a replacement for barcodes. RFID implementation contributes to improved staff productivity, increased operational efficiency, and improved item security as well. While potential benefits are significant, issues …

Physician Information Seeking Behaviors: Are Physicians Successful Searchers?, Janice Swiatek-Kelley

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

In the recent past, physicians found answers to questions by consulting colleagues, textbooks, and professional journals. Now, the availability of medical information through electronic resources has changed physician information-seeking behaviors. Evidence-based medicine is now the accepted decision-making paradigm, and a physician's ability to locate best practice guidelines through electronic information resources has become an essential skill. As physicians struggle to stay current in the wake of an ever-growing volume of medical information, several electronic resources claim to provide one-stop access to the most current information with correct and complete answers to problems encountered in the practice of health care. The …

Climate Regulation Without Congressional Action, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The apogee of congressional support for comprehensive climate change legislation came on June 26, 2009, when the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy Security Act (Waxman-Markey) by a vote of 219 to 212. Its Senate counterpart, the American Power Act, known first as Kerry-Lieberman-Graham and then just Kerry-Lieberman, never gained traction, and in July 2010 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) announced he would not bring it to the floor this year.

Many observers believe Republicans will take control of the House and possibly of the Senate after the Nov. 2, 2010, elections. Republican leadership in both chambers …