Digital Commons Network^™

Shielded Radiography With A Laser-Driven Mev-Energy X-Ray Source, Shouyuan Chen, Grigory V. Golovin, Cameron Miller, Daniel Haden, Sudeep Banerjee, Ping Zhang, Cheng Liu, Jun Zhang, Baozhen Zhao, Shaun Clarke, Sara Pozzi, Donald Umstadter

Donald Umstadter Publications

We report the results of experimental and numerical-simulation studies of shielded radiography using narrowband MeVenergy X-rays from a compact all-laser-driven inverse-Compton-scattering X-ray light source. This recently developed Xray light source is based on a laser-wakefield accelerator with ultra-high-field gradient (GeV/cm). We demonstrate experimentally high-quality radiographic imaging (image contrast of 0.4 and signal-to-noise ratio of 2:1) of a target composed of 8-mm thick depleted uranium shielded by 80-mm thick steel, using a 6-MeV X-ray beam with a spread of 45% (FWHM) and 107 photons in a single shot. The corresponding dose of the X-ray pulse measured in front of the target …

Final Report: Eunis – Eurocris Joint Survey On Cris And Ir, Lígia Ribeiro, Pablo De Castro, Michele Mennielli

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The rising strategic importance of Current Research Information Systems (CRISs) and Institutional Repositories (IRs) for higher education and research institutions relates to the need to foster research and innovation and to provide a faster and broader technology transfer to industry and society. These are critical factors for global competitiveness, and the increasing competition among institutions to increase and disseminate excellence in research is another area where these systems provide a key contribution. Additional important elements with a strong impact on such strategic evolution are the new policies on Open Access, National Research Assessment and Research Funding. It is indeed from …

Phylogeny And Biogeography Of Species Of Syphacia Seurat, 1916 (Nemata : Oxyurida : Oxyuridae) From The Australian Bioregion, Haylee J. Weaver, Scott Monks, Scott Gardner

Scott L. Gardner Publications

Pinworm nematodes of the genus Syphacia (Nemata : Oxyurida : Oxyuridae) have a global distribution, and infect the caecum of rodents. Within the Australian Bioregion, 17 species of Syphacia infect a range of rodent hosts. Pinworms are traditionally thought to have coevolutionary relationships with their hosts, but the evolution and dispersal of Australian rodents and their helminths remains unclear. This combination of factors allowed us to investigate the likely relationships of Australian Syphacia species based on phylogenetic analysis, overlaid with the ecology and relationships of host species. We conducted a phylogenetic analysis using morphological characters of the species of Syphacia …

Founder’S Award Speech, Nchc 50th Anniversary Conference, Chicago, Illinois, November 14, 2015, Bernice Braid

Honors in Practice Online Archive

We have always concentrated on how it is that people transform space into place. We have always asked people to look at the surface, then look beneath the surface, to ask “What is it like to live here? For whom? What makes you think so?” If you have time, go to the Art Institute of Chicago, and visit the exhibit “Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye.” He uses a version of City as Text to read a culture and environment before he even begins to design a building, in his case because he hopes to reshape “place” by addressing …

Evaluating The Application Of Program Outcomes To Study Abroad Experiences, Patricia Joanne Smith, Lawrence J. Mrozek

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Study abroad is a critical component of a comprehensive higher education experience in today’s global society. The Institute of International Education (IIE) reported that, in 2013–2014, 304,467 U.S. students participated in study abroad. This number has more than tripled over the last two decades, and while short-term study abroad is still the most popular, the number of American students spending a semester or a year abroad is also increasing (IIE). According to Kuh, O’Donnell, and Reed, study abroad has been deemed a high-impact practice, and, as an experiential approach to global learning, study abroad has the power to transform the …

Why Not Honors? Understanding Students’ Decisions Not To Enroll And Persist In Honors Programs, Timothy J. Nichols, Jacob Ailts, Kuo-Liang Chang

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In recent years, retention and graduation of honors students have received increasing attention in scholarly literature. In the spring of 2013, as a part of the strategic planning process, the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College invited current honors students to complete an online survey aimed at collecting information about the key factors that affected students’ initial decision to enroll in the honors college, the main reasons affecting their decision to continue their enrollment, and the challenges and levels of satisfaction they experienced. Study results indicated that most students were highly satisfied with …

Honoring Controversy: Using Real-World Problems To Teach Critical Thinking In Honors Courses, Sarita Cargas

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Discussing controversy is an important practice for living in a democracy. If we want to live in a pluralist society, then we have to accept differences and be able to talk in light of them. In addition to examining opinions they do not hold, honors students, perhaps more than most other undergraduates, face the possibility of disagreeing with faculty and each other in the safe and controlled environment of the seminar classroom. Since respectful disagreement is not usually modeled in TV shows or the news media, it becomes morally imperative for us as honors teachers to practice it with our …

Anisotropy, Band-To-Band Transitions, Phonon Modes, And Oxidation Properties Of Cobalt-Oxide Core-Shell Slanted Columnar Thin Films, Alyssa Mock, Rafał Korlacki, Chad Briley, Derek Sekora, Tino Hofmann, Peter Wilson, Alexander Sinitskii, Eva Schubert, Mathias Schubert

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Highly ordered and spatially coherent cobalt slanted columnar thin films (SCTFs) were deposited by glancing angle deposition onto silicon substrates, and subsequently oxidized by annealing at 475˚C. Scanning electron microscopy, Raman scattering, generalized ellipsometry, and density functional theory investigations reveal shape-invariant transformation of the slanted nanocolumns from metallic to transparent metal-oxide core-shell structures with properties characteristic of spinel cobalt oxide. We find passivation of Co-SCTFs yielding Co-Al₂O₃ core-shell structures produced by conformal deposition of a few nanometers of alumina using atomic layer deposition fully prevents cobalt oxidation in ambient and from annealing up to 475˚C.

A Survey Of Wireless Communication Technologies & Their Performance For High Speed Railways, Subharthi Banerjee, Michael Hempel, Hamid Sharif

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

High Speed Railway (HSR) provides its customers not only safety, security, comfort and on-time commuting, but also a fast transportation alternative to air travel or regular passenger rail services. Providing these benefits would not be possible without the tremendous growth and prevalence of wireless communication technologies. Due to advances in wireless communication systems, both trains and passengers are connected through high speed wireless networks to the Internet, data centers and railroad control centers. Railroad communities, academia, related industries and standards bodies, even the European Space Agency, are involved in advancing developments of HSR for highly connected train communication systems. The …

Detecting Microbial Dysbiosis Associated With Pediatric Crohn Disease Despite The High Variability Of The Gut Microbiota, Feng Wang, Jess L. Kaplan, Benjamin D. Gold, Manoj K. Bhasin, Naomi L. Ward, Richard Kellermayer, Barbara S. Kirschner, Melvin B. Heyman, Scot E. Dowd, Stephen B. Cox, Haluk Dogan, Blaire Steven, George Ferry, Stanley A. Cohen, Robert N. Baldassano, Christopher J. Moran, Elizabeth A. Garnett, Lauren Drake, Hasan H. Otu, Leonid A. Mirny, Towia A. Libermann, Harland S. Winter, Kirill S. Korolev

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

The relationship between the host and its microbiota is challenging to understand because both microbial communities and their environments are highly variable. We have developed a set of techniques based on population dynamics and information theory to address this challenge. These methods identify additional bacterial taxa associated with pediatric Crohn disease and can detect significant changes in microbial communities with fewer samples than previous statistical approaches required. We have also substantially improved the accuracy of the diagnosis based on the microbiota from stool samples, and we found that the ecological niche of a microbe predicts its role in Crohn disease. …

Sticking With The Pointy End? Molecular Configuration Of Chloro Boron-Subphthalocyanine On Cu(111), Nahid Ilyas, Shashank S. Harivyasi, Percy Zahl, Rocio Cortes, Oliver T. Hofmann, Peter Sutter, Egbert Zojer, Oliver L. A. Monti

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this combined low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) study, we investigate self-assembly of the dipolar nonplanar organic semiconductor chloro boron-subphthalocyanine (ClB-SubPc) on Cu(111). We observe multiple distinct adsorption configurations and demonstrate that these can only be understood by taking surface-catalyzed dechlorination into account. A detailed investigation of possible adsorption configurations and the comparison of experimental and computational STM images demonstrates that the configurations correspond to “Cl-up” molecules with the B− Cl moiety pointing toward the vacuum side of the interface, and dechlorinated molecules. In contrast to the standard interpretation of adsorption of nonplanar molecules in …

Hybrid Quantum Dot-Tin Disulfide Field-Effect Transistors With Improved Photocurrent And Spectral Responsivity, Yuan Huang, Huidong Zang, Jia -Shiang Chen, Eli Sutter, Peter Sutter, Chang- Yong Nam, Mircea Cotlet

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We report an improved photosensitivity in few-layer tin disulfide (SnS2) field-effect transistors (FETs) following doping with CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots (QDs). The hybrid QD-SnS₂ FET devices achieve more than 500% increase in the photocurrent response compared with the starting SnS₂-only FET device and a spectral responsivity reaching over 650 A/W at 400 nm wavelength. The negligible electrical conductance in a control QD-only FET device suggests that the energy transfer between QDs and SnS₂ is the main mechanism responsible for the sensitization effect, which is consistent with the strong spectral overlap between QD photoluminescence and SnS_{2 …}

Broadband Compact Microstrip Patch Antenna Design Loaded By Multiple Split Ring Resonator Superstrate And Substrate, Shobhit K. Patel, Christos Argyropoulos, Yogeshwar P. Kosta

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We present microstrip patch antenna loaded with multiple split ring resonator substrate and superstrate. We analyze how the loading of split ring resonator superstrate and substrate can improve the bandwidth compared to the simple microstrip patch antenna and microstrip patch antenna loaded with split ring resonator superstrate. Another important observation is made for multiple split ring resonator loading in superstrate and substrate of microstrip patch antenna. The design is compared for two, three, and four-ring split ring resonator loading. The designs are also compared for different gap spacing between the rings. All three designs are compared for small gap and …

Meta-Analysis Of Transcriptome Data Identifies A Novel 5-Gene Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Classifier, Manoj K. Bhasin, Kenneth Ndebele, Octavian Bucur, Eric U. Yee, Hasan H. Otu, Jessica Plati, Andrea Bullock, Xuesong Gu, Eduardo Castan, Peng Zhang, Robert Najarian, Maria S. Muraru, Rebecca Miksad, Roya Khosravi-Far, Towia A. Libermann

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is largely incurable due to late diagnosis. Superior early detection biomarkers are critical to improving PDAC survival and risk stratification.

Experimental Design: Optimized meta-analysis of PDAC transcriptome datasets identified and validated key PDAC biomarkers. PDAC-specific expression of a 5-gene biomarker panel was measured by qRT-PCR in microdissected patient-derived FFPE tissues. Cell-based assays assessed impact of two of these biomarkers, TMPRSS4 and ECT2, on PDAC cells.

Results: A 5-gene PDAC classifier (TMPRSS4, AHNAK2, POSTN, ECT2, SERPINB5) achieved on average 95% sensitivity and 89% specificity in discriminating PDAC from non-tumor samples in four training sets and similar …

Coordinate-Invariant Lyddane-Sachs-Teller Relationship For Polar Vibrations In Materials With Monoclinic And Triclinic Crystal Systems, Mathias Schubert

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

A coordinate-invariant generalization of the Lyddane-Sachs-Teller relation is presented for polar vibrations in materials with monoclinic and triclinic crystal systems. The generalization is derived from an eigendielectric displacement vector summation approach, which is equivalent to the microscopic Born-Huang description of polar lattice vibrations in the harmonic approximation. An expression for a general oscillator strength is also described for materials with monoclinic and triclinic crystal systems. A generalized factorized form of the dielectric response characteristic for monoclinic and triclinic materials is proposed. The generalized Lyddane-Sachs-Teller relation is found valid for monoclinic β-Ga2O3, where accurate experimental data became available recently from a …

Dst Approach To Enhance Audio Quality On Lost Audio Packet Steganography, Qilin Qi, Dongming Peng, Hamid Sharif

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Lost audio packet steganography (LACK) is a steganography technique established on the VoIP network. LACK provides a high-capacity covert channel over VoIP network by artificially delaying and dropping a number of packets in use to convey stegnogram. However, the increasing loss of packets will hurt the quality of the VoIP service. The quality deterioration will not only affect the legitimate VoIP service but also constrain the capacity of the covert channel. Discrete spring transform (DST) is proven to be a way to eliminate the perceptual redundancy in the multimedia signal. In this paper, the DST is applied on the LACK …

Embeddable Advanced Sensors For Harsh Environment Sensing Applications, Lei Yuan, Yinan Zhang, Yan Lu, Xiaobei Zhang, Mengmeng Wang

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Research and development in advanced sensors with embedded monitoring capability have experienced significant growth in recent years, fueled by their broad applications in real-time measurement of a wide variety of physical, chemical, and biological quantities. Compared with conventional sensors with bulky assemblies, recent progress in 3D manufacturing technologies (e.g., ultrafast laser micromachining and additive manufacturing) has opened up a new avenue in one-step fabrication of assembly-freemicro devices in various materials as well as the development of compact, customized, and intricate smart structures/components. The merits of these advanced manufacturing techniques enable the integration of embeddable advanced sensors into smart structures and …

A Wideband And Polarization-Independent Metasurface Based On Phase Optimization For Monostatic And Bistatic Radar Cross Section Reduction, Jianxun Su, Yao Lu, Zengrui Li, Rongrong Zhang, Yaoqing (Lamar) Yang

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

A broadband and polarization-independent metasurface is analyzed and designed for both monostatic and bistatic radar cross section (RCS) reduction in this paper. Metasurfaces are composed of two types of electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) lattice, which is a subarray with “0” or “𝜋” phase responses, arranged in periodic and aperiodic fashions. A new mechanism is proposed for manipulating electromagnetic (EM) scattering and realizing the best reduction of monostatic and bistatic RCS by redirecting EM energy to more directions through controlling the wavefront of EMwave reflected from the metasurface. Scattering characteristics of two kinds of metasurfaces, periodic arrangement and optimized phase layout, are …

Anisotropy, Phonon Modes, And Free Charge Carrier Parameters In Monoclinic Β-Gallium Oxide Single Crystals, Mathias Schubert, Rafal Korlacki, Sean Knight, Tino Hofmann, Stefan Schöche, Vanya Darakchieva, Erik Janzén, Bo Monemar, Daniela Gogova, Q.-T. Thieu, R. Togashi, H. Murakami, Yoshinao Kumagai, Ken Goto, Akito Kuramata, S. Yamakoshi, Masataka Higashiwaki

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We derive a dielectric function tensor model approach to render the optical response of monoclinic and triclinic symmetry materials with multiple uncoupled infrared and far-infrared active modes. We apply our model approach to monoclinic β-Ga₂O₃ single-crystal samples. Surfaces cut under different angles from a bulk crystal, (010) and (2̅01), are investigated by generalized spectroscopic ellipsometry within infrared and far-infrared spectral regions. We determine the frequency dependence of 4 independent β-Ga₂O₃ Cartesian dielectric function tensor elements by matching large sets of experimental data using a point-by-point data inversion approach. From matching our monoclinic …

Mobile Facial Recognition System For Patient Identification In Medical Emergencies For Developing Economies, Kingsley C. Nwosu

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

Medical emergencies are part of the common daily lives of people in developing and under-developed economies. Frequently, some of these medical emergencies end up tragically for many people in these countries due to many reasons, among which is the delivery of medical treatment when the patient is uncommunicative or unresponsive. The ability of the attending medical personnel to access a patient’s medical history is critical for the quality of the treatment rendered. Unfortunately, today many lives are lost in low income economies during medical emergencies due to lack or inaccessibility of a patient’s medical information. One of the major contributing …

Early Life History Of Three Pelagic-Spawning Minnows Macrhybopsis Spp. In The Lower Missouri River, T. A. Starks, M. L. Miller, J. M. Long

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

Life-history characteristics of age-0 sturgeon chub Macrhybopsis gelida, shoal chub Macrhybopsis hyostoma and sicklefin chub Macrhybopsis meeki were compared using several methods. All Macrhybopsis species consumed mostly midge pupae, but M. meeki had the most general diet (Levins’ index, B=0⋅22) compared with M. hyostoma (B=0⋅02) and M. gelida (B=0⋅09). Morisita’s diet overlap index among species pairs ranged from 0⋅62 to 0⋅97 and was highest between M. hyostoma and M. gelida. Daily ages estimated from lapilli otoliths for each species ranged from 15 to 43 days for M. gelida, 19 to 44 for …

Monitoring, Measuring, And Modeling A Reservoir Flush On The Niobrara River In The Sandhills Of Nebraska, Stanford Gibson, Paul Boyd

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

Organizations managing aging dams and those designing new dams must consider the long term sediment sustainability of these projects. Flushing, a common sustainable management alternative, entrains and transports reservoir delta deposits by drawing the reservoir down to run of river flows. Agencies often apply one-dimensional sediment transport models to design these flush releases and predict their impact. A flushing event at Spencer Dam on the Niobrara River was monitored, measured, and modeled with HEC-RAS 5.0, an unsteady, one-dimensional (1D), mobile bed sediment model. This paper documents qualitative observations from the flush and compares model results to prototype measurements to evaluate …

A Shipboard Instrument For Underway Estimates Of Marine N2 Fixation, Weiyi Tang

Link Foundation Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellowship Reports

Marine N2 fixation converts nitrogen gas into ammonia and accounts for the largest external nitrogen input to the oceans1. Since large portions of the global oceans are nitrogen deficient, marine N2 fixation can relieve the nitrogen limitation, thereby increasing the growth of phytoplankton and stimulating biological uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide2,3,4. However, the magnitude and distribution of marine N2 fixation are poorly constrained5. In addition, the environmental controls on marine N2 fixation remain elusive6. This situation is in part attributable to the limited number of observations and poor coverage of marine N2 fixation measurements. Current observations rely on discrete sampling …

The Persistence Of Working Poor Families In A Changing U.S. Job Market: An Integrative Review Of The Literature, Richard J. Torraco

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

This article explores the persistence of working poor families in the United States— families that live on the threshold of poverty despite at least one family member working full-time. The persistence of poverty in the United States has been exacerbated by recent changes in the job market that have altered the composition and availability of jobs due to technological unemployment, the polarization of jobs, declining job quality, and stagnation in job growth. The relationships between the persistence of working poor families and these changes in the job market are examined. The article concludes with a review of human resource development …

Left Unsaid: The Role Of Work Expectations And Psychological Contracts In Faculty Careers And Departure, Kerryann O’Meara, Jessica Chalk Bennett, Elizabeth Niehaus

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Faculty leave higher education institutions for many reasons, including higher salaries, more prestigious departments, lack of collegiality, a better geographic location, and to be closer to family (O'Meara, Lounder, & Campbell, 2014; Rosser, 2004; Smart, 1990; Xu, 2008). At the same time, research suggests that factors such as a higher salary and a more prestigious department are not really "pull" factors if faculty members are satisfied and thriving within their institution (Matier, 1990; O'Meara, 2014). Rather, faculty become predisposed to leave by virtue of dissatisfaction with certain aspects of their work environment (Daly & Dee, 2006; Johnsrud & Rosser, 2002; …

A Scalable Low-Cost Cgmp Process For Clinical Grade Production Of The Hiv Inhibitor 5p12-Rantes In Pichia Pastoris, Fabrice Cerini, Hubert Gaertner, Knut Madden, Ilya Tolstorukov, Scott Brown, Bram Laukens, Nico Callewaert, Jay C. Harner, Anna M. Oommen, John T. Harms, Anthony R. Sump, Robert C. Sealock, Dustin J. Peterson, Scott K. Johnson, Stephan B. Abramson, Michael M. Meagher, Robin Offord, Oliver Hartley

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

In the continued absence of an effective anti-HIV vaccine, approximately 2 million new HIV infections occur every year, with over 95% of these in developing countries. Calls have been made for the development of anti-HIV drugs that can be formulated for topical use to prevent HIV transmission during sexual intercourse. Because these drugs are principally destined for use in low-resource regions, achieving production costs that are as low as possible is an absolute requirement. 5P12-RANTES, an analog of the human chemokine protein RANTES/CCL5, is a highly potent HIV entry inhibitor which acts by achieving potent blockade of the principal HIV …

Retargeting The Clostridium Botulinum C2 Toxin To The Neuronal Cytosol, Benjamin J. Pavlik, Elizabeth J. Hruska, Kevin E. Van Cott, Paul H. Blum

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

Many biological toxins are known to attack specific cell types, delivering their enzymatic payloads to the cytosol. This process can be manipulated by molecular engineering of chimeric toxins. Using toxins with naturally unlinked components as a starting point is advantageous because it allows for the development of payloads separately from the binding/translocation components. Here the Clostridium botulinum C2 binding/translocation domain was retargeted to neural cell populations by deleting its non-specific binding domain and replacing it with a C. botulinum neurotoxin binding domain. This fusion protein was used to deliver fluorescently labeled payloads to Neuro-2a cells. Intracellular delivery was quantified by …

Astrogliosis In A Dish: Substrate Stiffness Induces Astrogliosis In Primary Rat Astrocytes, Christina L. Wilson, Stephen L. Hayward, Srivatsan Kidambi

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

Astrogliosis due to brain injury or disease can lead to varying molecular and morphological changes in astrocytes. Magnetic resonance elastography and ultrasound have demonstrated that brain stiffness varies with age and disease state. However, there is a lack in understanding the role of varied stiffness on the progression of astrogliosis highlighting a critical need to engineer in vitro models that mimic disease stages. Such models need to incorporate the dynamic changes in the brain microenvironment including the stiffness changes. In this study we developed a polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) based platform that modeled the physiologically relevant stiffness of brain in both …

Learning Through Personal Connections: Cogenerative Dialogues In Synchronous Virtual Spaces, Stephanie Bondi, Tareq Daher, Amy Holland, Adam R. Smith, Stacy Dam

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

This study describes the role of cogenerative dialogues in a synchronous virtual classroom. Cogenerative dialogues are a way for students and instructors to reflect upon in-class events and work collaboratively during the course to optimize teaching and learning. In the present study, cogen has been found to be a tool for enhancing connections among graduate students in the class leading to a reported increase of motivation and engagement. Cogenerative dialogues were essential in shifting responsibilities so that students took a more active role in their own learning while supporting each other.

Finite Element And Probabilistic Analysis Of Soft Tissue Structures Of The Human Lumbar Spine, Dana Joseph Coombs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human lumbar spine mechanics are influenced by soft tissue structures. Understanding and properly modeling these structures can help determine pathology, treatment, and implant design and performance. Finite element models of the L4-L5 level of the lumbar spine are often used, which include a representation of the intervertebral disc and spinal ligaments. Validation of these models are typically based on torque rotation data from a single subject or the models use average properties reported in literature. However, experimental testing reports variation up to 40% in ligament stiffness and even greater variability for annulus fibrosis properties. Probabilistic approaches enable consideration of the …