Digital Commons Network^™

The Importance Of Computing Education Research, Steve Cooper, Armando Fox, Susanne Hambrusch, Andrew Ko, Beth Simon

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Interest in computer science is growing. As a result, computer science (CS) and related departments are experiencing an explosive increase in undergraduate enrollments and unprecedented demand from other disciplines for learning computing. According to the 2014 CRA Taulbee Survey, the number of undergraduates declaring a computing major at Ph.D. granting departments in the US has increased 60% from 2011-2014 and the number of degrees granted has increased by 34% from 2008-2013.

The Man-Pocalpyse: Doomsday Preppers And The Rituals Of Apocalyptic Manhood, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay argues that recent male performances of disaster preparedness in reality television recuperate a preindustrial model of hegemonic masculinity by staging the plausible “real world” conditions under which manly skills appear necessary for collective survival. Representations of masculinity in uncertain times intensify the masculinity-in-crisis motif to cultivate anticipation of an apocalyptic event that promises a final resolution to male alienation. An examination of Nat Geo’s Doomsday Preppers illustrates how these staged performances of everyday life cultivate a dangerous vision of apocalyptic manhood that consummates a fantasy of national virility in the demise of feminine society.

Camp Horror And The Gendered Politics Of Screen Violence: Subverting The Monstrous-Feminine In Teeth (2007), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay argues that Mitchell Lichtenstein’s film Teeth (2007) is an exemplary appropriation of the femme castratrice, a sadistic and castrating female figure that subverts the patriarchal mythologies undergirding the gendered logics of both screen violence and cultural misogyny. The film chronicles Dawn’s post-sexual assault transformation from a passive defender of women’s purity to an avenging heroine with castrating genitals. First, I illustrate how Teeth intervenes in the gendered politics of spectatorship by cultivating identification with a violent heroine who refuses to abide by the stable binary between masculine violence/feminized victimhood. This subversive iteration of rape-revenge cinema is assisted by …

Cubic Spline Interpolation Reveals Different Evolutionary Trends Of Various Species, Zhiqiang Li, Peter Z. Revesz

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Instead of being uniform in each branch of the biological evolutionary tree, the speed of evolution, measured in the number of mutations over a fixed number of years, seems to be much faster or much slower than average in some branches of the evolutionary tree. This paper describes an evolutionary trend discovery algorithm that uses cubic spline interpolation for various branches of the evolutionary tree. As shown in an example, within the vertebrate evolutionary tree, human evolution seems to be currently speeding up while the evolution of chickens is slowing down. The new algorithm can automatically identify those branches and …

Unraveling The Hidden Function Of A Stabilizer In A Precursor In Improving Hybrid Perovskite Film Morphology For High Efficiency Solar Cells, Zhengguo Xiao, Dong Wang, Qingfeng Dong, Qi Wang, Wei Wei, Jun Dai, Xiwei Zheng, Jinsong Huang

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

The morphology of the organometal trihalide perovskite (OTP) plays a critical role in the performance of solar cell devices. Nevertheless it has been frequently reported that the morphology of OTP films tends to be different in different laboratories even with the same film preparation procedure, which makes it very difficult to compare and understand the material and device physics. Here, we unravel a critical role of the H₃PO₂ stabilizer in HI, which has been largely ignored, in controlling the morphology of the perovskite films. The H₃PO₂ stabilizer in HI solution introduces MAH₂PO …

Tuning The Electronic Properties Of Monolayer And Bilayer Ptse2 Via Strain Engineering, Pengfei Li, Lei Li, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

The recently synthesized monolayer PtSe₂ belongs to the class of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) materials (Nano Lett., 2015, 15, 4013). Based on first-principles calculations, we show that the band gaps of monolayer and bilayer PtSe₂ can be tuned over a wide range via strain engineering. Both isotropic and uniaxial strains are investigated. For bilayer PtSe₂, the vertical out-of-plane strain is also considered. In most cases, the strain can reduce the band gap except for the bilayer PtSe₂ under the isotropic strain (Ɛ≤ 4%) for which the band gap can be slightly enlarged. Importantly, the …

Resolving The Hono Formation Mechanism In The Ionosphere Via Ab Initio Molecular Dynamic Simulations, Rongxing He, Lei Li, Jie Zhong, Chongqin Zhu, Joseph S. Francisco, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

Solar emission produces copious nitrosonium ions (NO⁺) in the D layer of the ionosphere, 60 to 90 km above the Earth’s surface. NO⁺ is believed to transfer its charge to water clusters in that region, leading to the formation of gaseous nitrous acid (HONO) and protonated water cluster. The dynamics of this reaction at the ionospheric temperature (200–220 K) and the associated mechanistic details are largely unknown. Using ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations and transition-state search, key structures of the water hydrates—tetrahydrate NO⁺(H₂O)₄ and pentahydrate NO⁺(H₂O)_{5 …}

Polyurethane Foam (Puf) Passive Samplers For Monitoring Phenanthrene In Stormwater, Yueqin Dou, Tian C. Zhang, Jing Zeng, John S. Stansbury, Massom Moussavi, Dana L. Richter-Egger, Mitchell R Klein

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Pollution from highway stormwater runoff has been an increasing area of concern. Many structural Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been implemented for stormwater treatment and management. One challenge for these BMPs is to sample stormwater and monitor BMP performance. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using polyurethane foam (PUF) passive samplers (PSs) for sampling phenanthrene (PHE) in highway stormwater runoff and BMPs. Tests were conducted using batch reactors, glass-tube columns, and laboratory-scale BMPs (bioretention cells). Results indicate that sorption for PHE by PUF is mainly linearly relative to time, and the high sorption capacity …

Expedient Airfield Runway Repair Using Folded Fiberglass Mat, Christopher Y. Tuan, Willaim C. Dass

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

For expedient airfield runway repair, the US Air Force has developed a folded fiberglass mat to cover craters repaired with a well-compacted granular base material. The objective of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of using polymer plugs to anchor the mat to a repaired asphalt pavement for heavy aircraft operations. The effort consisted of materials testing, field experiments and analytical modeling. An 89,800-kg (198,000-pound) load cart having the footprint of a single C-5 main gear was pulled on a mat with wheels locked to simulate full braking forces. Anchor bushings were instrumented to measure anchor loads. A simplified …

Development Of Adsorptive Membranes By Confinement Of Activated Biochar Into Electrospun Nanofibers, Mehrdad Taheran, Mitra Naghdi, Satinder K. Brar, Emile Knystautas, Mausam Verma, Rao Y. Surampalli, Jose R. Valero

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Adsorptive membranes have many applications in removal of contaminants, such as heavy metals and organic contaminants from water. Recently, increasing concentrations of pharmaceutically active compounds, especially antibiotics, such as chlortetracycline in water and wastewater sources has raised concerns about their potentially adverse impacts on environment and human health. In this study, a series of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/activated biochar nanofibrous membranes (NFMs) with different loadings of biochar (0–2%, w/w) were fabricated using electrospinning. The morphology and structure of fabricated membranes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared and thermogravimetric analysis. The results showed that at 1.5% of biochar loading, the …

Evaluation Of The Midwest Guardrail System Stiffness Transition With Curb, Jennifer D. Schmidt, Scott K. Rosenbaugh, Ronald K. Faller

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

A W-beam to thrie beam stiffness transition with a 102-mm (4- in.) tall concrete curb was developed to connect 787-mm (31-in.) tall W-beam guardrail, commonly known as the Midwest Guardrail System (MGS), to a previously developed thrie beam approach guardrail transition system. This upstream stiffness transition was configured with standard steel posts that are commonly used by several state departments of transportation. The toe of a 102-mm (4-in.) tall sloped concrete curb was placed flush with the backside face of the guardrail and extended the length of the transition region. Three full-scale crash tests were conducted according to the Test …

Pulses In The Sand: Impulse Response Analysis Of Wireless Underground Channel, Abdul Salam, Mehmet C. Vuran, Suat Irmak

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs) are becoming ubiquitous in many areas and designing robust systems requires extensive understanding of the underground (UG) channel characteristics. In this paper, UG channel impulse response is modeled and validated via extensive experiments in indoor and field testbed settings. Three distinct types of soils are selected with sand and clay contents ranging from 13% to 86% and 3% to 32%, respectively. Impacts of changes in soil texture and soil moisture are investigated with more than 1,200 measurements in a novel UG testbed that allows flexibility in soil moisture control. Time domain characteristics of channel such …

Table Headers: An Entrance To The Data Mine, George Nagy, Sharad C. Seth

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Algorithmic methods are demonstrated for information extraction from table header elements, including data categories and data hierarchies. The table headers are found with the Minimum Index Point Search algorithm. The header-path alignment and header completion algorithms yield database-ready table content and configuration statistics on a random sample of 400 diverse tables with ground truth and 1120 tables without ground truth from international statistical data sites.

The Effectiveness Of A Computer-Based Program On The Reading Performance Of Fourth-Grade Students, Latonya L. Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this applied dissertation was to determine whether a reading intervention of a computer-based program would increase the reading comprehension and vocabulary skills of students in fourth grade in a Title I elementary school. Although the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) covers various federal education programs, the law’s requirements for testing, accountability, and school improvement receive the most attention. NCLB requires states to test students in reading and mathematics annually in Grades 3-8 and once in Grades 10-12. Schools must test students in science once in Grades 3-5, 6-8, and 10-12. Individual schools, school districts, and states …

Constructing Stability Landscapes To Identify Alternative States In Coupled Social-Ecological Agent-Based Models, Patrick Bitterman, David A. Bennett

Geography Program: Faculty Publications

The resilience of a social-ecological system is measured by its ability to retain core functionality when subjected to perturbation. Resilience is contextually dependent on the state of system components, the complex interactions among these components, and the timing, location, and magnitude of perturbations. The stability landscape concept provides a useful framework for considering resilience within the specified context of a particular social-ecological system but has proven difficult to operationalize. This difficulty stems largely from the complex, multidimensional nature of the systems of interest and uncertainty in system response. Agent-based models are an effective methodology for understanding how cross-scale processes within …

False Rubicons, Moral Panic & Conceptual Cul-De-Sacs: Critiquing & Reframing The Call To Ban Lethal Autonomous Weapons, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Casting into the indeterminate future and projecting visions of so-called killer robots, The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots (The Campaign) has incited moral panic in an attempt to stimulate a discussion and ultimately a ban on lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS). Their efforts have been superficially successful but come at a self-defeating substantive cost. In the hope of shifting the dialogue from the hyperbolic to a constructive dialogue on the interaction between human and machine abilities in both current and future weapon systems, this article explores the conceptual paradox implicit in The Campaign and proposes an alternative.

Having provoked the international …

How Cheap Is Corporate Talk? Comparing Companies' Comments On Regulations With Their Securities Disclosures, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

When companies face adverse proposed rules, they may want to convince regulators that the proposed rules are unworkable and should be changed while, at the same time, reassuring investors that the rules will be manageable. These conflicting incentives may lead to inconsistent messages in regulatory comments and securities disclosures, fueling a perception that corporate submissions to regulators are cheap talk. Despite this perception, there has been no empirical study comparing statements to these two audiences. This project performs such a study, taking the example of comments submitted on the Environmental Protection Agency's Renewable Fuel Standard. This standard provides an ideal …

Effects Of A Music Literacy Integration Intervention On Teachers’ Self-Efficacy And Proactive Attitudes Toward Music Integration In Classroom Instruction, Mary Louise Keyloun Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

With the adoption of the common core state standards, pressure to raise the achievement of young learners was intense. Classroom teachers were scrutinized to teach lessons with high levels of thinking and rigor. Teachers were inclined to eliminate or ignore artsenriched lessons that would benefit students. The reason for this action was associated with the efficacy of the classroom teacher toward music integration in literacy curriculum. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of the Music Literacy Integration Intervention (MLII) on the self-efficacy and proactiveness of teachers at a small elementary school in Florida toward integration of …

Universal Communications Hub, Ian Robins, Christopher Pangalos, Cargill Chan

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Student Publications

To design a mobile communications system capable of maintaining a data and communications link in scenarios where traditional communications have been lost or are unavailable. In a practical scenario, this type of hub would be mounted to several UAVs and deployed in a matter of minutes to create a mesh network which facilitates emergency communications over a variety of methods.

Light Exoskeleton Gear (L.E.G.), Andy Myers, Ali Al Matouq, Kelsey Dejesus-Banos, Jessica Vidmark

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Student Publications

The L.E.G. combines the inherent mechanical support of a knee brace with extra assistance provided in a similar way as a robotic leg. Surface Electromyography (SEMG) sensors are connected to the user’s leg to assess in what direction the brace should assist the user. In addition to providing assistive and resistive features for the user’s physical benefit, there is an option for the user to send the voltage data of the L.E.G. to a computer via Bluetooth and display the results in a VI executable.

Omnisphere, Chris Ballentine, Gerardo Dudamel, James Frisbie, Macdonald Taylor

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Student Publications

Our Omnisphere robot is a user-friendly controlled platform with three spheres for wheels. A friction-based drive system rotates each sphere with 360 degrees of full planar freedom. This system eliminates the restrictive motions associated with common cylindrical-wheel systems and utilizes previously unattainable motions.

Evidence Of Magnetic Field Decay In Massive Main-Sequence Stars, Luca Fossati, Fabian R.N. Schneider, Norberto Castro, Norbert Langer, Sergio Simón-Díaz, André Luís Müller, Alex De Koter, Thierry Morel, Véronique Petit, Hugues Sana, Gregg A. Wade

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

A significant fraction of massive main-sequence stars show strong, large-scale magnetic fields. The origin of these fields, their lifetimes, and their role in shaping the characteristics and evolution of massive stars are currently not well understood. We compile a catalogue of 389 massive main-sequence stars, 61 of which are magnetic, and derive their fundamental parameters and ages. The two samples contain stars brighter than magnitude 9 in the V-band and range in mass between 5 and 100 M⊙. We find that the fractional main-sequence age distribution of all considered stars follows what is expected for a magnitude limited sample, while …

Scaling Properties Of Fractional Momentum Loss Of High- Pt Hadrons In Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions At √Snn From 62.4 Gev To 2.76 Tev, Andrew Marshall Adare, Gyöngyi Baksay, László A. Baksay, Klaus Dehmelt, Marcus Hohlmann, S. Rembeczki, Phenix Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Measurements of the fractional momentum loss (Sloss ≡ δpT/pT) of high-transverse-momentum-identified hadrons in heavy-ion collisions are presented. Using π⁰ in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at √sNN=62.4 and 200 GeV measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and and charged hadrons in Pb+Pb collisions measured by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, we studied the scaling properties of Sloss as a function of a number of variables: the number of participants, Npart, the number of quark participants, Nqp, the charged-particle density, dNch/dη, and the Bjorken energy density times the equilibration time, ᵋᵦjτ₀. We find that …

Measurement Of Higher Cumulants Of Net-Charge Multiplicity Distributions In Au + Au Collisions At √Snn =7.7-200 Gev, Andrew Marshall Adare, Gyöngyi Baksay, László A. Baksay, Klaus Dehmelt, Marcus Hohlmann, Phenix Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

We report the measurement of cumulants (Cn,n=1,...,4) of the net-charge distributions measured within pseudorapidity (|η|<0.35) in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=7.7-200GeV with the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The ratios of cumulants (e.g., C₁/C₂, C₃/C₁) of the net-charge distributions, which can be related to volume independent susceptibility ratios, are studied as a function of centrality and energy. These quantities are important to understand the quantum-chromodynamics phase diagram and possible existence of a critical end point. The measured values are very well described by expectation from negative binomial distributions. We do not observe any nonmonotonic behavior in the ratios of the cumulants as a function of collision energy. The measured values of C₁/C₂ and C₃/C₁ can be directly compared to lattice quantum-chromodynamics calculations and thus allow extraction of both the chemical freeze-out temperature and the baryon chemical potential at each center-of-mass energy. The extracted baryon chemical potentials are in excellent agreement with a thermal-statistical analysis model.

Transverse Energy Production And Charged-Particle Multiplicity At Midrapidity In Various Systems From √Snn =7.7 To 200 Gev, Andrew Marshall Adare, Gyöngyi Baksay, László A. Baksay, Klaus Dehmelt, Marcus Hohlmann, S. Rembeczki

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Measurements of midrapidity charged-particle multiplicity distributions, dNch/dη, and midrapidity transverse-energy distributions, dET/dη, are presented for a variety of collision systems and energies. Included are distributions for Au+Au collisions at sNN=200, 130, 62.4, 39, 27, 19.6, 14.5, and 7.7 GeV, Cu+Cu collisions at √sNN=200 and 62.4 GeV, Cu+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV, U+U collisions at √sNN=193 GeV, d+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV, ³He+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV, and p+p collisions at √sNN=200 GeV. Centrality-dependent distributions at midrapidity are presented in terms of the number of nucleon participants, Npart, and the number of constituent quark participants, Nqp. For all A+A collisions down …

Measurement Of The Higher-Order Anisotropic Flow Coefficients For Identified Hadrons In Au + Au Collisions At √Snn =200 Gev, Andrew Marshall Adare, Baksay Gyöngyi, Baksay A. László, Marcus Hohlmann, Phenix Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Measurements of the anisotropic flow coefficients v₂{Ψ₂}, v₃{Ψ₃}, v₄{Ψ₄}, and v₄{Ψ₂} for identified particles (π±,K±, and p+p⁻) at midrapidity, obtained relative to the event planes Ψm at forward rapidities in Au + Au collisions at √sNN=200GeV, are presented as a function of collision centrality and particle transverse momenta pT. The vn coefficients show characteristic patterns consistent with hydrodynamical expansion of the matter produced in the collisions. For each harmonic n, a modified valence quark-number Nq scaling [plotting vn{Ψm}/(Nq)n/2 versus transverse kinetic energies (KET)/Nq] is observed to yield a single curve for all the measured particle species for a broad range …

Azimuthally Anisotropic Emission Of Low-Momentum Direct Photons In Au + Au Collisions At √Snn =200 Gev, Andrew Marshall Adare, Baksay Gyöngyi, Baksay A. László, Klaus Dehmelt, Marcus Hohlmann, Phenix Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

The PHENIX experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured second- and third-order Fourier coefficients of the azimuthal distributions of direct photons emitted at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV for various collision centralities. Combining two different analysis techniques, results were obtained in the transverse momentum range of 0.4

Modification Of The Lower Ionospheric Conductivity By Thunderstorm Electrostatic Fields, Mohammad A. Salem, Ningyu Liu, Hamid K. Rassoul

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

This paper reports a modeling study of the modifications of the nighttime lower ionospheric conductivity by electrostatic fields produced by underlying thunderstorms. The model used combines Ohm's law with a simplified lower ionospheric ion chemistry model to self-consistently calculate the steady state nighttime conductivity above a thunderstorm. The results indicate that although the electron density is generally increased, the lower ionospheric conductivity can be reduced by up to 1-2 orders of magnitude because electron mobility is significantly reduced due to the electron heating effect. For a typical ionospheric density profile, the resulting changes in the reflection heights of extremely low …

Officer Accountability, Megan Wischmeier Shaner

Faculty Articles

The officer is at the center of modern corporate governance. Wielding immense power and influence, officers’ conduct and decision-making can determine the success or failure of their companies and impact the economy more broadly. Fiduciary duties under state law serve as a vital check on officer power. This article is the third piece in a study of the role of fiduciary duties in regulating officer behavior. It examines an underlying premise in prior scholarship – that officers are rarely being held accountable for their conduct in the traditional fiduciary duty litigation context of state court. This article reviews opinions of …

The Effect Of Trinexapac-Ethyl And Seeding Rate On Rice Milling Yields, İsmai̇l Sezer, Rasi̇m Ünan, Mevlüt Şahi̇n, Michael Orrin Way

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

The effects of the plant growth regulator trinexapac-ethyl (TE), conjoined with different seeding rates of rice (Oryza sativa L.) milling yields, were evaluated in Turkey between 2009 and 2010. Two rice cultivars (Osmancık-97 and Karadeniz), three seeding rates (400, 500, and 600 seeds m-2), and four doses of TE (0, 100, 200, and 300 g ai ha-1) were compared. The experiments were designed in a randomized block in factorial ordering with 3 replicates. Quality factors including head, cargo, and total rice milling yields, 1000 grain weight, and lodging score were evaluated. Head rice milling yield was affected significantly; however, no …