Digital Commons Network^™

The Occurrence Of Shiga-Toxin Producing Escherichia Coli (Stec) And Salmonella Species In Cattle Feedlot Runoff, Nessie Nanyongo Tabe

Food Safety

Zoonotic foodborne pathogens such as shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and Salmonella on farm environments can potentially contaminate organic manure or agricultural watersheds and subsequently fresh produce during fertilization or irrigation. This study investigated the occurrence of STEC and Salmonella serotypes in cattle feedlot runoff samples in two feedlots in North Dakota. Using standard laboratory culture methods this study reported a 39% prevalence of STEC O45, 33 % (O103), 31 % (O157), 27 % (O121), 16 % (O26), 10% (O111), 10% (O113), 10 % (O145) and 39.7 % Salmonella. Additionally, occurrence of some STEC serotypes was influenced by feedlot (O111 …

First Flowering Date Trends In Clay County, Minnesota And Pollination And Life History Characteristics Of Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum Canescens), Elise Marie Maxson

Environmental and Conservation Sciences

Plant species in Clay County, Minnesota have been changing their first flowering dates (FFDs) in response to climate changes. To document those shifts, in 2011 and 2012 I recorded phenological data for Clay County, Minnesota. I added that data to data which had been collected since 1910 for two locations in Minnesota and found that, on average, plants flowered 1 day later than their historical averages in 2011 and 16.1 days earlier in 2012. I also performed experiments upon Lithospermum canescens, a native prairie forb which has shifted its first flowering date (FFD) significantly earlier than in the past century …

A Robust Sound Perception Model Suitable For Neuromorphic Implementation., Martin Coath, Sadique Sheik, Elisabetta Chicca, Giacomo Indiveri, Susan L. Denham, Thomas Wennekers

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

We have recently demonstrated the emergence of dynamic feature sensitivity through exposure to formative stimuli in a real-time neuromorphic system implementing a hybrid analog/digital network of spiking neurons. This network, inspired by models of auditory processing in mammals, includes several mutually connected layers with distance-dependent transmission delays and learning in the form of spike timing dependent plasticity, which effects stimulus-driven changes in the network connectivity. Here we present results that demonstrate that the network is robust to a range of variations in the stimulus pattern, such as are found in naturalistic stimuli and neural responses. This robustness is a property …

Disparity Implications Of The Medicare Medication Therapy Management Eligibility Criteria: A Literature Review, Kiraat D. Munshi, Ya-Chen Tina Shih, Lawrence M. Brown, Samuel Dagogo-Jack, Jim Y. Wan, Junling Wang

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The emphasis on eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare has received national attention, with various policy initiatives addressing this problem and proposing solutions. However, in the current economic era requiring tight monetary constraints, emphasis is increasingly being placed on economic efficiency, which often conflicts with the equality doctrine upon which many policies have been framed. The authors’ review aims to highlight the disparity implications of one such policy provision – the predominantly utilization-based eligibility criteria for medication therapy management services under Medicare Part D – by identifying studies that have documented racial and ethnic disparities in health status and …

Phase Composition Control Of Calcium Phosphate Nanoparticles For Tunable Drug Delivery Kinetics And Treatment Of Osteomyelitis. Part 1: Preparation And Drug Release, Vuk Uskoković, Tejal A. Dasai

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Developed in this study is a multifunctional material for simultaneous osseoinduction and drug delivery, potentially applicable in the treatment of osteomyelitis. It is composed of agglomerates of nanoparticles of calcium phosphate (CAP) with different monophasic contents. The drug loading capacity and the release kinetics were investigated on two model drug compounds with different chemical structures, sizes and adsorption propensities: bovine serum albumin and fluorescein. Loading of CAP powders with small molecule drugs was achieved by physisorption and desiccation-induced agglomeration of nanoparticulate subunits into microscopic blocks. The material dissolution rate and the drug release rate depended on the nature of the …

Revisiting The Fundamentals In The Design And Control Of Nanoparticulate Colloids In The Frame Of Soft Chemistry, Vuk Uskoković

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

This review presents thoughts on some of the fundamental features of conceptual models applied in the design of fine particles in the frames of colloid and soft chemistry. A special emphasis is placed on the limitations of these models, an acknowledgment of which is vital in improving their intricacy and effectiveness in predicting the outcomes of the corresponding experimental settings. Thermodynamics of self-assembly phenomena illustrated on the examples of protein assembly and micellization is analyzed in relation to the previously elaborated thesis that each self-assembly in reality presents a co-assembly, since it implies a mutual reorganization of the assembling system …

Aberrant Proliferation In Cxcr7+ Endothelial Cells Via Degradation Of The Retinoblastoma Protein, Jennifer Totonchy, Jessica M. Osborn, Sara Botto, Lisa Clepper, Ashlee V. Moses

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Angiogenesis is a critical factor in the growth and dissemination of solid tumors. Indeed, tumor vasculature is abnormal and contributes to the development and spread of malignancies by creating a hostile microenvironment. The alternative SDF-1/CXCL12 receptor, CXCR7, is frequently and specifically expressed in tumor-associated vessels. In this study, we examine the role of endothelium-expressed CXCR7 in tumor vascular dysfunction by specifically examining the contribution of CXCR7 to endothelial cell (EC) proliferation. We demonstrate that CXCR7 expression is sufficient to drive post-confluent growth in EC cultures. Further, we provide a novel mechanism for CXCR7-mediated proliferation via proteasomal degradation of the tumor …

Organic Coatings To Protect Ferrous Structures, Yaping Huang

Coatings and Polymeric Materials

Corrosion induces damages that can result in enormous costs and safety issues. Steels are the most commonly used metallic structural materials but they can corrode rapidly when exposed to corrosive environments and need to be protected. The thesis research focuses on two aspects of steel protection. The first aspect is using barrier protection mechanism to protect steel pipeline structures in the presence of Super-Critical CO2. The second aspect is improving cathodic protection of steels by metal rich coatings in ground vehicles, bridges, water tanks, and other structures. In part one, coatings for protection of steel pipeline used for carbon transportation …

“It’S All About That Piece Of Paper”: Vocational Anticipatory Socialization Messages Received By First Generation College Students, Hailey Anne Adkisson

Communication

The number of first-generation college students (FGCSs) attending four-year colleges/universities is on the rise. While numerous studies have examined descriptive characteristics of this growing population, few studies have examined why FGCSs choose to attend college. This study sought to tackle this question by conducting focus groups with thirty-five FGCSs. Participants were asked to identify sources of vocational anticipatory socialization (VAS) that were influential in their decision to pursue a college degree as well as the VAS messages they received from these sources. Focus group data revealed seven sources of VAS with parents being the number one source of VAS messages …

Novel Conducting Polymer Containing Composite Coatings For The Corrosion Protection Of Metal Alloys, Niteen Jadhav

Coatings and Polymeric Materials

Corrosion is a persistent problem faced by manmade structures made up of metal alloys. Aluminum 2024-T3 is high strength, light weight alloy used in aerospace applications. It suffers from the problem of corrosion due to its composition. Cold rolled steel is employed in structural applications but undergoes severe corrosion when exposed to corrosive conditions. Coatings are one of the best avenues to protect metal alloys from the corrosion. Traditional coating systems such as barrier type coatings, metal rich coatings, and inhibitor containing coatings have their own drawbacks. Conducting polymers (CPs), such as polypyrrole (PPy) can be used for the corrosion …

Image Correction Using Reed Muller Code, Siva Krishna Ginjupalli

Computer Science

Image signal processing is one of the important aspects while communicating from long distances. Background noise of images is one of the primary concerns in obtaining clear accurate images. This problem is further amplified if the spacecraft transmitting images are farther away from the earth’s orbit. The larger the distance of the transmitter from the earth the greater is the problem of background noise. In order to overcome this problem, the image information obtained is reconstructed using error-correcting codes. In my paper I have used the Hadamard matrices to generate a 32x32 matrix consisting of binary digits with each row …

Design And Development Of Naive Bayes Classifier, Bandana Garg

Computer Science

The naïve Bayes classifier is a simple form of Bayesian classifiers which assumes all the features are independent of each other. Despite this assumption, the naïve Bayes classifier’s accuracy is comparable to other sophisticated classifiers. In this paper we designed and developed a naïve Bayes classifier for a better understanding of the algorithm. The classifier is tested on two different data sets from the University of California at Irvine machine learning repository. Different cross validation methods are used to calculate the accuracy of the developed classifier. The different accuracies obtained are compared to get the best accuracy of the classifier. …

Towards Providing Test Case Meta-Data To Assist Dynamic Regression Test Scheduling, Arti Katiyar

Computer Science

Autonomic software is typically characterized by dynamic adaptation, a self-management process in which the system adds, removes, and replaces its own components at runtime. At the end of maintenance, the modified software would be retested to: (1) validate added or updated software features, and (2) ensure that new errors were not introduced into previously tested components, i.e., regression testing. King et al [14] introduced an implicit self-test characteristic into autonomic software. His approach modifies the success of a runtime testing approach for autonomic software depends on the way tests are selected and scheduled for execution, which still remains an open …

Job Scheduling With Genetic Algorithm, Debarshi Barat

Computer Science

In this paper, we have used a Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach for providing a solution to the Job Scheduling Problem (JSP) of placing 5000 jobs on 806 machines. The GA starts off with a randomly generated population of 100 chromosomes, each of which represents a random placement of jobs on machines. The population then goes through the process of reproduction, crossover and mutation to create a new population for the next generation until a predefined number of generations are reached. Since the performance of a GA depends on the parameters like population size, crossover rate and mutation rate, a series …

Chemical Compound Classification Ensemble, Ya Zhu

Computer Science

In the research of health science, scientists often need to screen numerous chemical compounds to find drugs that can treat a disease. The process of testing the functionality of these compounds in the laboratory is very time-consuming. Computational methods have been used to accelerate this process. These computational methods are implemented based on the principle that chemical compounds with similar structure often have similar function. Thus, these methods maintain a database of chemical compounds whose function has been verified using laboratory experiments. The database contains the chemical structural formula of a compound, the 3D coordinate of every atom, and whether …

Agent Communication And Negotiation In A Supply Chain, Rajat Upadhyay

Computer Science

Supply Chain Management is an essential management paradigm for almost every organization. Effective implementation of Supply Chain Management (SCM) can significantly increase an organization’s profit. In this paper, a simple SCM is implemented using multi-agent modeling. A typical SCM consists of the supplier, manufacturer, inventory, seller, and customer. A multi-agent system provides a natural solution for SCM because various entities involved in SCM can be represented as intelligent agents. In the present approach various agents representing various entities of SCM, negotiate with each other in order to achieve their goals. Apart from the entities associated with typical SCM, additional entities …

Mindset, Whitney Feimer

Architecture Theses

Society utilizes space as a tool to distance its most challenging and difficult citizens. In examining the question, “How can architecture influence the re-establishment of psychiatric stability in the mentally ill?”, the understanding of spacial issues and how the users interact with the space can better the understanding of psychiatric facilities and the environment. Once the interaction is understood, the challenge of creating spaces that better addresses the user's needs can be applied as a solution to the situation. The premise of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between architecture, the space that architecture creates, the manner in which …

Inspire - Refugee Center, Amar Hussein

Architecture Theses

In today’s world, many people are forced to flee their homeland due to war, unrest, and persecution. Because of conflict, millions of people worldwide become refugees. Many refugees have experienced persecution, torture, and trauma,which have a lasting impact. This trauma continues in refugee camps which are similiar to prisons with wire fencing. The refugee camps use tents as living quarters, have limited resources and provide little or no medical care. Many refugees spend years in the refugee camps without a permenant solution. Only one percent of the refugee population is resettled worldwide. As one of the most powerful countries in …

Vista Rehabilitation, Matthew Smith

Architecture Theses

Vista Rehabilitation is a thesis project that explores the possibilities and affects that design, and its relation to nature, has on healing and the overall health of the inhabitants of a structure. In times of sickness and injury, time is spent with professionals in environments that are meant to repair our health in a timely, painless, sensible manner. These environments can be designed to promote a healthy mind and body through a strong connection between the built environment and its natural surroundings. There are many factors that are involved in our body's biological recovery time, and many of these biological …

Leveraging Family Values To Decrease Unhealthy Alcohol Use In Aging Latino Day Laborers, Homero E. Del Pino, Carolyn Méndez-Luck, Georgiana Bostean, Karina Ramírez, Marlom Portillo, Alison A. Moore

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

In one Los Angeles study, 20% of day laborers reported excessive drinking. Older adults are more sensitive to alcohol’s effects, yet heavy drinking persists among Latinos until they are in their 60s. No interventions to reduce heavy drinking exist for aging day laborers. We recruited 14 day laborers aged 50 and older in Los Angeles. We identified their unhealthy alcohol use behaviors and comorbidities and conducted semi-structured interviews to understand their perceptions of unhealthy alcohol use. We found social disadvantages and conditions exacerbated by alcohol use, like depression. Participants were concerned with dying and premature aging, and reported that family …

Improving Diabetes Merchandising, One Shelf At A Time, Caroline Christine Godwin

Apparel Design and Hospitality Management

The outcome of this study is to propose more-effective ways to merchandise diabetes products, with a cross-merchandised approach that provides education and a better in-store experience for shoppers. This research aims to help shoppers by proposing and testing—through in-store intercepts and a questionnaire—a well organized and comprehensive merchandising approach for drugstores, specifically Walgreens and Rite Aid. The results of the questionnaire indicate that the proposed merchandising solution (see Appendix B) provided welcomed improvements to the following areas: 1) organization of products and cross-merchandise product options, 2) shelf signage/navigation, and 3) education. Questionnaire respondents reported that the proposed merchandising solution offered …

Conspicuous Hydrology: The Untapped Potential Of Stormwater, Courtney Duchene

Landscape Architecture Theses

Freshwater only represents 1% of the total water supply on Earth and is an essential entity for life to exist. Urban development has lead to the pollution and degradation of this essential element. Due to the existing urban development and lack of stormwater management facilities, water cannot be used for its natural process throughout the city. Since urban development has implemented impervious surfaces 70 percent of water pollution in our country comes from non-point sources such as urban runoff. By implementing a stormwater management system into Tacoma, Washington, residents and tourists will better utilize the core of the city, through …

Sex Differences In Verbal Aggression Use In Romantic Relationships: A Meta-Analytic Study And Review, Laura Stockdale, Sarah Tackett, Sarah M. Coyne

Faculty Publications

Purpose - The current study aimed to investigate potential sex differences in the use of verbal aggression in romantic relationships.

Design/methodology/approach - The current study used meta-analytic methodology to analyze 20 studies to understand gender differences in the use of verbal aggression in romantic relationships.

Findings - The results found that women used more verbal aggression than men in romantic relationships; however, overall levels of verbal aggression use were relatively high regardless of sex.

Research imitations/implications - Limitations of the current research, such as calling for less exploratory research and the need for theories grounded in human coupling research, and …

A More Optimistic Perspective On Government-Supported Marriage And Relationship Education Programs For Lower Income Couples, Alan J. Hawkins, Scott M. Stanley, Philip A. Cowan, Frank D. Fincham, Steven R. H. Beach, Carolyn Pape Cowan, Galena Kline Rhoades, Howard J. Markman, Andrew P. Daire

Faculty Publications

In the past decade, the federal government, some states, and numerous communities have initiated programs to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships in order to increase family stability for children. Thus, we value the attention given to this emerging policy area by the American Psychologist in a recent article (Johnson, May–June 2012). However, it is important to challenge some of Johnson's points about the effectiveness and reach of interventions to lower income couples and couples of color and his suggested prioritization of basic over applied research.

Perceived Food And Labor Equity And School Attendance Among Ugandan Children Living In Kin Care, Jini Roby, Stacey Shaw, Laurel George

Faculty Publications

Emerging research suggests that biological relatedness contributes to differential treatment between children being raised by kin and the biological children in the caregiver’s household. This potential concern may be elevated especially when household resources are stretched thin. In this study, 518 Ugandan youth and their caregivers were interviewed individually, examining the association between relatedness and perceived food and work equity, and school attendance. Household income, but not relatedness, was negatively associated with food inequity. However, relatedness was positively associated with perceived disparity in the distribution of work among children living in the household, and with children’s school attendance. These findings …

The History Of Lds Seminaries And Institutes In Taiwan, John Hilton Iii, Po N. Chou

Faculty Publications

Taiwan is a vibrant nation of approximately twenty-three million people, living in an area about one-sixth the size of the state of Utah. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints remains relatively small in Taiwan. Its 55,805 members compose just 0.2% of the population. Yet the LDS Church is growing, and an important part of that growth is found in the Seminary and Institute (S&I) program.

The Silent Lesson, John Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

One day during my second semester as a part-time seminary teacher, a student named Mindy came into class and asked, “Brother Hilton, are we going to do a silent lesson this year?” When I told her that I had never heard of a silent lesson, she said, “Brother Kirkham just taught a silent lesson, and I heard it was really awesome. You should ask him how to do it.” Wanting to be a good seminary teacher, I approached Brother Kirkham and asked him to teach me about silent lessons. He obliged, and I began regularly using them in a variety …

Maude Adams And The Mormons, J. Michael Hunter

Faculty Publications

Maude Ewing Adams Kiskadden was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1872. Her mother, Annie Adams, was the daughter of first generation Mormons who trekked across the plains and an actress at the Salt Lake Theatre. Maude Adams began her acting career at the age of five in some of her mother’s plays. She continued to act into her adult years, achieving her greatest success as the character Peter Pan, first playing the role in the 1905 Broadway production. She became the highest-paid performer of her day. Discussed here is Adams’s career and her relationship with her Mormon relatives …

Sundance Film Festival / Computer Generated Imagery / Video Game Industry / Battlestar Galactica / Pageants / Stereophonic Sound, J. Michael Hunter

Faculty Publications

Many people are unaware of how influential Mormons, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), have been on American popular culture. Mormons and Popular Culture: The Global Influence of an American Phenomenon parts the curtain and looks behind the scenes at the little-known but important influence Mormons have had on popular culture in the United States and beyond. Included here are six sidebars that reveal some of the more fascinating contribution Mormons have made to American popular culture.

Respite Care, Marital Quality, And Stress In Parents Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Amber Harper, Tina Taylor, James Harper, Susanne Olsen Roper, Mikle South

Faculty Publications

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at risk for having higher stress and lower marital quality than other parents. Survey data regarding respite care, marital quality, and daily hassles and uplifts were obtained from 101 mother-father dyads who were together raising at least one child with ASD (total # of children = 118). Number of hours of respite care was positively related to improved marital quality for both husbands and wives, such that a one-hour increase in weekly respite care was associated with a one-half standard deviation increase in marital quality. This relationship was significantly mediated by …