Digital Commons Network^™

Cutting Effectiveness Of Diamond Burs On Dental Zirconia., Ching-Kai Lin

All ETDs from UAB

Monolithic zirconia restorations are popular but removing these crowns is difficult. The purpose of the study is to measure and compare the cutting effectiveness of 10 types of diamond burs through monolithic sintered zirconia. Ten types of diamond burs (n=8) were compared for the cutting effectiveness in Zirconia (CERCON; DeguDent) using a high speed computer controlled cutting device with water spray (5.45L/min). The turbine used to cut the blocks rotated at 150,000 rpm and with the burs at a depth of 2mm into the zirconia during cutting. A 100 gm load was applied during cutting for each bur which made …

Expression Of The Influenza Protein M2 During Viral Infection Inhibits Cftr Activity, James David Londino

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of these dissertation studies was to 1) determine whether influenza infection alters CFTR activity in polarized epithelium; 2) measure CFTR expression and activity in cells co-expressing influenza M2 protein; and 3) examine the role of M2 on the alteration of CFTR during viral infection. We determined that infection of polarized primary epithelial cells with influenza decreases CFTR expression and activity. In addition, individual cells infected with influenza had decreased CFTR conductance as measured by whole-cell patch clamp. We also found that the influenza ion channel, matrix protein 2 (M2), alone reduced CFTR expression and activity. M2 is expressed …

Interaction Between A Low-Iron Diet And Early-Life Methylmercury Exposure In Daphnia Pulex, Sherri Hudson

All ETDs from UAB

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a known neurotoxicant and bioaccumulates in fish, with exposure to humans in utero being of highest concern. Iron deficiency (ID) accounts for approximately 50% of anemia cases. Anemia is estimated to affect 1.62 billion people worldwide, and is particularly problematic during pregnancy and early life. Previous studies have shown that ID exacerbates toxicity associated with exposure to metals, including lead, manganese, and cadmium. The overall purpose of this thesis research is to investigate the interaction between a low-iron (Fe) diet and early-life exposure to MeHg in Daphnia pulex. I hypothesized when D. pulex are fed a low-Fe …

Starlings Fell On Alabama, Sarah Hayden Jennings

All ETDs from UAB

Starlings Fell on Alabama is a collection of stories that explores the impact of relationships. The characters in this collection have been deeply affected by another person or are affecting another person. They are all in the grip of deep psychological and emotional turmoil as they deal with loss, desire, illness, and grief. And in order to find themselves, Walter, Louise, Robin, and Rose must confront their invisible tethers. Some will find a way to exist without those tethers, those relationships, and others will find themselves pulled deeper into the connections that sustain them.

New Niosh Headforms: Developing Novel Methods For Fabricating A More Realistic Physical Headform And Custom Facepieces And Evaluating Existing Commercially-Available Respirators, Paula Susanne Joe

All ETDs from UAB

For over 30 years, respirator sizing has been based on an anthropometric survey performed by LANL using the young and predominantly Caucasian US Air Force personnel. NIOSH, having observed the increase in diversity in the workplace, began a new survey in 2003 weighted to the US census. Finding that the LANL panel was no longer representative of the modern workforce, a new fit test panel recommending five sizing categories was created in 2007. Anthropometrically accurate headforms three-dimensional models for the average face in each size were designed in 2010. While these headforms are intended for use in respirator design, it …

Understanding Internal, External, And Relational Attributions For Abusive Supervision., James P. Burton, Shannon G. Taylor, Larissa K. Barber

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Despite abundant research on the consequences of perceived abusive supervision, less is known about how employees develop perceptions of supervisory abuse. Across two studies, we integrate classic and recent theoretical work on attributions to understand the causal explanations underlying employee perceptions of and reactions to abusive supervision. In the first study, we develop measures of internal, external, and relational attributions for perceived supervisor abuse. In the second study, we demonstrate that internal and external attributions are indirectly related to aggressive and citizenship behaviors through employees’ perceptions of interactional justice. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Applying The Framework For Information Literacy To The Developmental Education Classroom, Larissa K. Garcia

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Translating the new Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education (ACRL November 2014) into learning outcomes, instructional content, and assessments might appear to be an overwhelming task; however, in many cases the revision exemplifies how many librarians have been teaching information literacy in the digital information landscape. This article describes the collaboration between a librarian and an instructor to integrate information literacy into a developmental reading class before the revision of information literacy standards were available and provides an example of adapting the new Framework to library sessions that already reflect a transformation in information literacy instruction for developmental education.

The Digital Powrr Project: Enabling Collaborative Pragmatic Digital Preservation Approaches, Stacey Erdman

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

The Digital POWRR Project has spent several years investigating scalable and practical digital preservation solutions that might be able to be implemented at smaller and less-resourced institutions.

Automatic Elections, Michael M. Oswalt

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

The idea that the right mix of conditions will spark workers to engage in mass collective action is a theme sometimes invoked by labor movement writers, activists, and reformers. It is also an assumption found — and intentionally embedded — in labor law’s basic statutory system for forming a union. To establish a certified bargaining representative under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a group of workers must first get together and petition the government for the right to vote for the union in a secret ballot election. While the fact that the law predicates elections on stirrings of collective …

The Legal Profession’S Monopoly: Failing To Protect Consumers, Laurel A. Rigertas

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

This article explores the implication of the legal monopoly that occurs through the current attorney regulation system used in most states. Through the lens of consumer protection, the author discusses how the current regulatory regime, limiting the practice of law to only those who have law licenses and law degrees, effects a landscape where many potential legal consumers' needs are not being met. First, the author provides a general discussion of consumer protection and the public interest. Then, the author focuses specifically on the legal profession, discussing the historical justification for the legal profession's monopoly: consumer protection, advancing the integrity …

The Immigrant “Other”: Racialized Identity And The Devaluation Of Immigrant Family Relations, Anita Maddali

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

This Article explores how current terminations of undocumented immigrants’ parental rights are reminiscent of historical practices that removed early immigrant and Native American children from their parents in an attempt to cultivate an Anglo-American national identity. Today, children are separated from their families when courts terminate the rights of parents who have been, or who face, deportation. Often, biases toward undocumented parents affect determinations concerning parental fitness in a manner that, while different, reaps the same results as the removal of children from their families over a century ago. This Article examines cases in which courts terminated the parental rights …

Usa: Regulating Non-Lawyers To Close The Access To Justice Gap, Laurel A. Rigertas

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Despite the fact that many new lawyers are struggling today to find employment, there are a few regulators of the legal profession willing to consider how non-lawyers can help to close the gap in consumer access to legal services. One would expect strong resistance from the legal profession to any competition for legal work, particularly in these economic times. The willingness of a few states to explore non-lawyer options, however, signals some recognition that a change in the scope of the legal profession's monopoly is needed to meet the growing demand for legal services that cannot be met through pro …

Constitutional Constraints On Second Parent Laws, Jeffrey A. Parness

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

American state parentage laws have traditionally required biological or adoptive ties and no more than two parents for any one child at any one time. Biological ties were demonstrated by giving birth or sperm. Adoptive ties were established by completion of formal procedures by those desiring to parent, where prospective adopters were assessed for parental worthiness by the state. While the two parent policy largely continues, increasingly for children with only one parent there are recognized long after birth second parents with no biological or formal adoptive ties and with no rights under a valid child creation pact predating birth …

How Do You Rate Your Lawyer?: Lawyers’ Responses To Online Reviews Of Their Services, Laurel A. Rigertas

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

With the proliferation of opportunities for consumers to review a variety of services on the Internet, it is probably only a matter of time until more clients review their attorneys’ services on the Internet. This raises a variety of potential ethical and public policy issues that will be discussed in this article. First, what can attorneys do to try to control their on-line reputations? Second, if a client posts negative comments about an attorney’s services on a public Internet forum, can the attorney respond on that forum without breaching the duty of confidentiality and, if so, how? Finally, when settling …

Survey Of Illinois Law: Stepparent Childcare, Jeffrey A. Parness

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

In Illinois, the “liberty interests of parents” are reflected in the “superior rights doctrine,” which holds, as elsewhere, that parents have superior rights regarding the care of their children. This doctrine is necessitated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Troxel v. Granville in 2000. The superior rights doctrine is incorporated into some Illinois statutes, as when childcare may be afforded to a nonparent “only if” the child “is not in the physical custody” of a parent and as when “reasonable visitation privileges” may only be afforded a stepparent who has lived with the child for at least five years. The …

Applying Insights From Behavioral Economics To Policy Design, Brigitte C. Madrian

Faculty Publications

The premise of this article is that an understanding of psychology and other social science disciplines can inform the effectiveness of the economic tools traditionally deployed in carrying out the functions of government, which include remedying market failures, redistributing income, and collecting tax revenue. An understanding of psychology can also lead to the development of different policy tools that better motivate desired behavior change or that are more cost-effective than traditional policy tools. The article outlines a framework for thinking about the psychology of behavior change in the context of market failures. It then describes the research on the effects …

What Makes Annuitization More Appealing?, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, Stephen P. Zeldes

Faculty Publications

We conduct and analyze two large surveys of hypothetical annuitization choices. We find that allowing individuals to annuitize a fraction of their wealth increases annuitization relative to a situation where annuitization is an “all or nothing” decision. Very few respondents choose declining real payout streams over flat or increasing real payout streams of equivalent expected present value. Highlighting the effects of inflation increases demand for cost of living adjustments. Frames that highlight flexibility, control, and investment significantly reduce annuitization. A majority of respondents prefer to receive an extra “bonus” payment during one month of the year that is funded by …

A Critical Examination Of Couple Leisure And The Application Of The Core And Balance Model, Peter J. Ward, Keith W. Barney, Neil R. Lundberg, Ramon Zabriskie

Faculty Publications

This study further clarified the relationship between couple leisure involvement, couple leisure satisfaction, and marital satisfaction through examining the core and balance framework as it has been applied to the relationship between couple leisure and marital satisfaction. The sample consisted of 1,187 couples across the United States (N = 2,374). SEM analyses supported previous findings, indicating satisfaction with couple leisure involvement was far more important when predicting marital satisfaction than the amount of leisure involvement. Furthermore, while core marital leisure satisfaction was the driving force in the explanation of variance in marital satisfaction, findings suggested before that can happen there …

Addressing Posttraumatic Stress Among Iraq And Afghanistan Veterans And Significant Others: An Intervention Utilizing Sport And Recreation, Jessie L. Bennett, Neil R. Lundberg, Ramon Zabriskie, Dennis Eggett

Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an existing "couples" adaptive sport and recreation program called Higher Ground developed by Sun Valley Adaptive Sports to reduce symptoms of PTSD, facilitate posttraumatic growth, and enhance marital satisfaction for veterans with PTSD and their significant others. The sample consisted of two experimental groups ( Group A five couples, Group B six couples) and a control group (six couples). ANCOVA analysis indicated significant decreases in PTSD symptoms and increases in marital satisfaction among the experimental groups following participation in the recreation program. Findings support the use of recreation programs …

A Force Sensing Tool For Disassembly Operations, Paul Schumacher, Musa Jouaneh

Mechanical, Industrial & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the design and characterization of a prototype disassembly tool that was designed to handle a family of electronic devices whose plastic, cantilever snap-fit covers house AA or AAA batteries. The tool was designed with the ability to release the snap-fit covers and the batteries contained inside. The tool design is based on the use of a force sensing tool tip that utilizes three force sensing resistors (FSRs) for force feedback. Two FSRs were used to measure horizontal forces applied to the tool tip while the third FSR was used to measure forces along a direction normal to …

A Comparison Of A Single Receiver And A Multi-Receiver Techniques To Mitigate Partial Band Interference, James Mcgee, Steven Schoenecker, Josko Catipovic, Peter F. Swaszek

Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Many acoustic channels suffer from interference which is neither narrowband nor impulsive. This relatively long duration partial band interference can be particularly detrimental to system performance. We survey recent work in interference mitigation as background motivation to develop a spatial diversity receiver for use in underwater networks and compare this novel multi-receiver interference mitigation strategy with a recently developed single receiver interference mitigation algorithm using experimental data collected from the underwater acoustic network at the Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center. The network consists of multiple distributed cabled hydrophones that receive data transmitted over a time-varying multipath channel in the …

Effect Of Local Materials On The Silver Sorption And Strength Of Ceramic Water Filters, Vinka Oyanedel-Craver, Sophia Narkiewicz, Richard Genovesi, Aaron Bradshaw, Dawn Cardace

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we present a systematic evaluation of the effects of local clays and the manufacturing process on the performance of ceramic water filters (CWFs) impregnated with silver compounds, which are used for point-of-use water treatment in developing countries. Mineral composition, silver sorption/desorption, and strength are the important characteristics that influence effectiveness and durability of CWFs during transport and use. Laboratory tests were conducted on ceramic samples obtained from five CWF factories around the world to determine their mineral composition, silver sorption/desorption, and flexural strength. The results of this study showed that clays that contain traces of crystalline albite …

Low-Dose Chemotherapy Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Through Triggered-Release From Bilayer-Decorated Magnetoliposomes, Yanjing Chen, Yuan Chen, Da Xiao, Arijit Bose, Ruitang Deng, Geoffrey D. Bothun

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Low-dose (LD) chemotherapy is a promising treatment strategy that may be improved by controlled delivery. Polyethylene glycol-stabilized bilayer-decorated magnetoliposomes (dMLs) have been designed as a stimuli-responsive LD chemotherapy drug delivery system and tested in vitro using Huh-7 hepatocellular carcinoma cell line. The dMLs contained hydrophobic superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles within the lipid bilayer and doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX, 2 μM) within the aqueous core. Structural analysis by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering showed that the assemblies were approximately 120 nm in diameter. Furthermore, the samples consisted of a mixture of dMLs and bare liposomes (no nanoparticles), which provided …

Did A Submarine Landslide Contribute To The 2011 Tohoku Tsunami?, David A. Tappin, Stephan T. Grilli, Jeffrey C. Harris, Robert J. Geller, Timothy Masterlark, James T. Kirby, Fengyan Shi, Gangfeng Ma, K.K.S. Thingbaijam, P. Martin Mai

Ocean Engineering Faculty Publications

Many studies have modeled the Tohoku tsunami of March 11, 2011 as being due entirely to slip on an earthquake fault, but the following discrepancies suggest that further research is warranted. (1) Published models of tsunami propagation and coastal impact underpredict the observed runup heights of up to 40 m measured along the coast of the Sanriku district in the northeast part of Honshu Island. (2) Published models cannot reproduce the timing and high-frequency content of tsunami waves recorded at three nearshore buoys off Sanriku, nor the timing and dispersion properties of the waveforms at offshore DART buoy #21418. (3) …

Development Of A Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure Management System For A Typical College Campus, Ajay K. Singh

Open Access Dissertations

An attempt was made to develop a sustainable Transportation Infrastructure Management System (TIMS) for a typical college campus and/or any low volume road network. First, a sustainable Pavement Management System (PMS) was developed using different Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) techniques. MicroPAVER^TM PMS software was utilized to analyze the present condition and to predict the future condition of pavement for the University of Rhode Island (URI) Kingston campus. Economic analysis was performed using the default rates of MicroPAVER for different M&R policies and compared with the ones used in one of typical municipalities, i.e., The City of Cranston, Rhode Island …

Senior Project Design Of A Two Meter Autonomous Sailboat, Ben Williamsz, Julia Kane, Richard J. Hartnett, Peter F. Swaszek

Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Here we describe an Electrical Engineering senior design project that was performed at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) in New London, CT, during the 2012-2013 academic year. The objective of this project was to design and prototype a fully autonomous sailboat capable of competing in the annual SailBot competition in the 2-meter class. SailBot is a North American competition for robotic sailboats, and competition is held at the 1-meter, 2-meter, and “open class” (up to 4-meters in length). While competition includes manual as well as autonomous events, our primary focus this year has been to design a vessel that …

Leveraging Spatial Diversity To Mitigate Interference In Underwater Acoustic Communication Networks, James Mcgee, Josko Catipovic, Peter F. Swaszek

Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Many acoustic channels suffer from interference which is neither narrowband nor impulsive. This relatively long duration partial band interference can be particularly detrimental to system performance. We survey recent work in interference mitigation as background motivation to develop a spatial diversity receiver for use in underwater networks. The network consists of multiple distributed cabled hydrophones that receive data transmitted over a time-varying multipath channel in the presence of partial band interference produced by interfering active sonar signals as well as marine mammal vocalizations. In operational networks, many “dropped” messages are lost due to partial band interference which corrupts different portions …

A Multiple Cots Receiver Gnss Spoof Detector -- Extensions, Peter F. Swaszek, Richard J. Hartnett

Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Spoofing refers to the intentional (and considered malicious) interference to a GNSS user's inputs so as to distort the derived position information. A variety of approaches to detect spoofing have been proposed in the literature. Much of this prior work has focused on the conceptual level with limited analysis of the resulting detection performance, and/or has proposed fundamental redesign of the receiver itself. Little eort has been directed towards using existing, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) stand-alone receiver technology to perform spoof detection.

At ION ITM 2013 these authors proposed a simple spoof detection concept based on the use of multiple COTS receivers …

Titchmarsh-Weyl Theory For Canonical Systems, Keshav R. Acharya

Publications

The main purpose of this paper is to develop Titchmarsh- Weyl theory of canonical systems. To this end, we first observe the fact that Schrodinger and Jacobi equations can be written into canonical systems. We then discuss the theory of Weyl m-function for canonical systems and establish the relation between the Weyl m-functions of Schrodinger equations and that of canonical systems which involve Schrodinger equations.

Validation Of The Brzycki And Epley Equations For The 1 Repetition Maximum Back Squat Test In Division I College Football Players, Thomas J. Distasio

Research Papers

No abstract provided.