Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Spatial Inhomogeneities On The Membrane Surface On Receptor Dimerization And Signal Initiation, Romica Kerketta, Adam M. Halasz, Mara P. Steinkamp, Bridget S. Wilson, Jeremy S. Edwards

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Important signal transduction pathways originate on the plasma membrane, where microdomains may transiently entrap diffusing receptors. This results in a non-random distribution of receptors even in the resting state, which can be visualized as “clusters” by high resolution imaging methods. Here, we explore how spatial in-homogeneities in the plasma membrane might influence the dimerization and phosphorylation status of ErbB2 and ErbB3, two receptor tyrosine kinases that preferentially heterodimerize and are often co-expressed in cancer. This theoretical study is based upon spatial stochastic simulations of the two-dimensional membrane landscape, where variables include differential distributions and overlap of transient confinement zones (“domains”) …

Career Expectancy Of Physicians Active In Patient Care: Evidence From Mississippi, Jamie Boydstun, Jeralynn S. Cossman

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Introduction: Physician shortages in the USA, an issue that has been particularly challenging in Mississippi, have been a concern among health scholars and policy makers for several decades. Physician shortages hinder residents from easily obtaining routine care, potentially magnifying health disparities. This study examines physician career life expectancy, or how long physicians typically practice, in Mississippi. Methods: Data on Mississippi’s physician population actively involved between 2007 and 2011 were obtained from the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. Abridged career life tables were constructed for all Mississippi physicians and population subgroups based on practice specialty, gender, race, urban–rural practice, and …

Convergence Of Exterior Solutions To Radial Cauchy Solutions For ∂ 2 T U − C 2∆U = 0, Helge Kristian Jenssen, Charis Tsikkou

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Consider the Cauchy problem for the 3-D linear wave equation ∂ 2 t U − c 2∆U = 0 with radial initial data U(0, x) = Φ(x) = ϕ(|x|), Ut(0, x) = Ψ(x) = ψ(|x|). A standard result states that U belongs to C([0, T]; Hs (R3 )) whenever (Φ, Ψ) ∈ Hs × Hs−1 (R3 ). In this article we are interested in the question of how U can be realized as a limit of solutions to initial-boundary value problems on the exterior of vanishing balls Bε about the origin. We note that, as the solutions we compare are …

A Search For Rotating Radio Transients And Fast Radio Bursts In The Parkes High-Latitude Pulsar Survey, A. Rane, D. R. Lorimer, S. D. Bates, N. Mcmann, M. A. Mclaughlin, K. Rajwade

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Discoveries of rotating radio transients and fast radio bursts (FRBs) in pulsar surveys suggest that further transient sources await discovery in archival data sets. Here we report on a single-pulse search for dispersed radio bursts over a wide range of Galactic latitudes ($|b| < 60^{\circ}$) in data previously searched for periodic sources by Burgay et al. We detected 20 of the 42 pulsars reported by Burgay et al. and one radio transient. No FRBs were discovered in this survey. Taking into account this null result, along with other recent surveys at Parkes, and correcting for detection sensitivity based on the search algorithms used in the analyses, we find that the all-sky FRB event rate for sources with peak fluxes $> 0.1$ Jy to be ${\cal R} = 3.3^{+5.0}_{-2.5} \times 10^3$ FRBs day$^{-1}$ sky$^{-1}$, where the uncertainties represent a $99\%$ confidence interval. While this rate is several times lower than inferred from previous studies, it is consistent with all systematic FRB searches at Parkes to date and does not require the need to postulate a dearth of FRBs …

Comparing Tree-Ring And Permanent Plot Estimates Of Aboveground Net Primary Production In Three Eastern U.S. Forests, Alex Dye, Audrey Barker Plotkin, Daniel Bishop, Neil Pederson, Benjamin Poulter, Amy Hessl

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Forests account for a large portion of sequestered carbon, much of which is stored as wood in trees. The rate of carbon accumulation in aboveground plant material, or aboveground net primary productivity (aNPP), quantifies annual to decadal variations in forest carbon sequestration. Permanent plots are often used to estimate aNPP but are usually not annually resolved and take many years to develop a long data set. Tree rings are a unique and infrequently used source for measuring aNPP, and benefit from fine spatial (individual trees) and temporal (annual) resolution. Because of this precision, tree rings are complementary to permanent plots …

Streamflow Response To Increasing Precipitation Extremes Altered By Forest Management, Charlene N. Kelly, Kevin J. Mcguire, Chelcy Ford Miniat, James M. Vose

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Published (Publication status)

Cardiac Rehabilitation Using The Family-Centered Empowerment Model Versus Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation In Patients With Myocardial Infarction: A Randomised Controlled Trial, Amir Vahedian-Azimi, Andrew C. Miller, Mohammadreza Hajiesmaieli, Mari Kangasniemi, Fatemah Alhani, Hosseinali Jelvehmoghaddam, Mohammad Fathi, Behrooz Farzanegan, Seyed H. Ardehali, Sevak Hatamian, Mehdi Gahremani, Seyed M. M. Mosavinasab, Zohreh Rostami, Seyed J. Madani, Morteza Izadi

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Objective To determine if a hybrid cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programme using the Family-Centered Empowerment Model (FCEM) as compared with standard CR will improve patient quality of life, perceived stress and state anxiety of patients with myocardial infarction (MI).

Methods We conducted a randomised controlled trial in which patients received either standard home CR or CR using the FCEM strategy. Patient empowerment was measured with FCEM questionnaires preintervention and postintervention for a total of 9 assessments. Quality of life, perceived stress, and state and trait anxiety were assessed using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the 14-item Perceived Stress, and …

Synergistic Effects Of Climate Change And Grazing On Net Primary Production Of Mongolian Grasslands, Shree R. S. Dangal, Hanqin Tian, Chaoqun Lu, Shufen Pan, Neil Pederson, Amy Hessl

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In arid and semi-arid regions, grassland degradation has become a major environmental and economic problem, but little information is available on the response of grassland productivity to both climate change and grazing intensity. By developing a grazing module in a process-based ecosystem model, the dynamic land ecosystem model (DLEM), we explore the roles of climate change, elevated CO2, and varying grazing intensities in affecting aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) across different grassland sites in Mongolia. Our results show that both growing season precipitation totals and average temperature exert important controls on annual ANPP across six sites over a precipitation gradient, …

Topological Crystalline Insulator In A New Bi Semiconducting Phase, F. Munoz, M. G. Vergniory, T. Rauch, J. Henk, E. V. Chulkov, I. Mertig, S. Botti, M. A. L. Marques, A. H. Romero

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Topological crystalline insulators are a type of topological insulators whose topological surface states are protected by a crystal symmetry, thus the surface gap can be tuned by applying strain or an electric field. In this paper we predict by means of ab initio calculations a new phase of Bi which is a topological crystalline insulator characterized by a mirror Chern number nM =−2, but not a Z2 strong topological insulator. This system presents an exceptional property: at the (001) surface its Dirac cones are pinned at the surface high-symmetry points. As a consequence they are also protected by time-reversal symmetry …

Experimental Observation And Computational Analysis Of Striations In Electronegative Capacitively Coupled Radio-Frequency Plasmas, Yong-Xin Liu, Edmund Schüngel, Ihor Korolov, Zoltán Donkó, You-Nian Wang, Julian Schulze

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Self-organized spatial structures in the light emission from the ion-ion capacitive rf plasma of a strongly electronegative gas (CF_{4}) are observed experimentally for the first time. Their formation is analyzed and understood based on particle-based kinetic simulations. These "striations" are found to be generated by the resonance between the driving radio frequency and the eigenfrequency of the ion-ion plasma (derived from an analytical model) that establishes a modulation of the electric field, the ion densities, as well as the energy gain and loss processes of electrons in the plasma. The growth of the instability is followed by the numerical simulations.

Light Interception By Pasture Canopies As Affected By Height And Botanical Composition, Edward Barrow Rayburn

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

White Paper On Mentoring Research And Best Practices, Elina Erzikova, Diana Martinelli

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Sponsored by the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, this white paper draws upon mentorship research literature and summarizes 12 key insights and eight best practices gleaned from that work. Key insights include: mentoring as a bi-directional and multiple relationship process, mentors as co-learners, long-term benefits for protégés, mentorship’s long-term value, the roles of involvement and similarity, the power of both formal and informal mentorship, mentorship as leadership development, and the promise of e-mentoring. The paper also includes sections on mentoring college students and ways to evaluate mentoring programs.

Seeing The Forest Through The Trees: Considering Roost-Site Selection At Multiple Spatial Scales, David S. Jachowski, Christopher T. Rota, Christopher A. Dobony, W. Mark Ford, John W. Edwards, Danilo Russo

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Conservation of bat species is one of the most daunting wildlife conservation challenges in North America, requiring detailed knowledge about their ecology to guide conservation efforts. Outside of the hibernating season, bats in temperate forest environments spend their diurnal time in day-roosts. In addition to simple shelter, summer roost availability is as critical as maternity sites and maintaining social group contact. To date, a major focus of bat conservation has concentrated on conserving individual roost sites, with comparatively less focus on the role that broader habitat conditions contribute towards roost-site selection. We evaluated roost-site selection by a northern population of …

Two-Photon Lif On The Hit-Si3 Experiment: Absolute Density And Temperature Measurements Of Deuterium Neutrals, Drew Elliott, Derek Sutherland, Umair Siddiqui, Earl Scime, Chris Everson, Kyle Morgan, Aaron Hossack, Brian Nelson, Tom Jarboe

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Presented XXXXX; received XXXXX; accepted XXXXX; published online XXXXX) (Dates appearing here are provided by the Editorial Office) Two-photon laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) measurements were performed on the helicity injected torus (HIT-SI3) device to determine the density and temperature of the background neutral deuterium population, and to demonstrate the diagnostic's feasibility for use on short pulse fusion experiments. Measurements were taken in 2 ms long pulsed plasmas after the inductive helicity injectors were turned off. Attempts to measure neutrals during the main phase of the plasma were unsuccessful, likely due to the density of neutrals being below the detection threshold of …

Echo Behavior In Large Populations Of Chemical Oscillators, Tianran Chen, Mark R. Tinsley, Edward Ott, Kenneth Showalter

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Experimental and theoretical studies are reported, for the first time, on the observation and characterization of echo phenomena in oscillatory chemical reactions. Populations of uncoupled and coupled oscillators are globally perturbed. The macroscopic response to this perturbation dies out with time: At some time τ after the perturbation (where τ is long enough that the response has died out), the system is again perturbed, and the initial response to this second perturbation again dies out. Echoes can potentially appear as responses that arise at 2τ,3τ,... after the first perturbation. The phase-resetting character of the chemical oscillators allows a detailed analysis, …

Scalable Methods For Monitoring Limited Access Roadways Using Crowd-Sourced Probe Data, Howell Li, Stephen M. Remias, Aaron Taylor, Darcy M. Bullock

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Real-Time Probe Data Dashboards For Interstate Performance Monitoring During Winter Weather And Incidents, Margaret Mcnamara, Howell Li, Stephen Remias, Deborah Horton, Ed Cox, Darcy M. Bullock

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Scaling Detailed High-Resolution Data Split Performance Measures To Statewide System Level Management, Howell Li, Christopher M. Day, James R. Sturdevant, Darcy M. Bullock

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Use Of High Resolution Signal Controller Data To Identify Red Light Running, Steven M. Lavrenz, Christopher M. Day, Jay Grossman, Rick Freije, Darcy M. Bullock

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Rate Of Pedestrian Signal Phase Actuation As A Proxy Measurement Of Pedestrian Demand, Christopher M. Day, Hiromal Premachandra, Darcy M. Bullock

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Extending Link Pivot Offset Optimization To Arterials With Single Controller Diverging Diamond Interchange, Christopher M. Day, Steven M. Lavrenz, Amanda L. Stevens, R Eric Miller, Darcy M. Bullock

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Opportunities For Detector-Free Signal Offset Optimization With Limited Connected Vehicle Market Penetration: A Proof-Of-Concept Study, Christopher M. Day, Darcy M. Bullock

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Assessment Of Water Use And Reuse Through Reported Data: A Us Case Study, Maria J. Wiener, Chad T. Jafvert, Loring F. Nies

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Increasing demands for freshwater make it necessary to find innovative ways to extend the life of our water resources, and to manage them in a sustainable way. Indirect water reuse plays a role in meeting freshwater demands but there is limited documentation of it. There is a need to analyze its current status for water resources planning and conservation, and for understanding how it potentially impacts human health. However, the fact that data are archived in discrete uncoordinated databases by different state and federal entities, limits the capacity to complete holistic analysis of critical resources at large watershed scales. Humans …

Christian Faith And Evolution: One Person's Journey In Science And In Faith, Logan Wilson

Honors Theses

Evolution has always proved to be controversial to many people of faith, but it has been specifically problematic to many Christians including myself. This thesis explores the history and substance of the controversy between different expressions of Christianity and evolution by providing a relatable rendition of the theory of evolution. It breaks down the contributions of Charles Darwin and explains them in a manner than can be understood by a non-biologist. It also explores the stances of certain authors such as Richard Dawkins and Michael Ruse on the matter. This thesis is an independent study comprised of input from articles, …

Courtship Lateralization And Its Effect On Mating Success Of Male Wild Turkeys (Meleagris Gallopavo), Mara E. Vernier

Honors Theses

Lateralization results from unequal processing of tasks in the different hemispheres of the brain. While lateralization is a widely researched topic of study, little is known about the effects of sexual selection on lateralization. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is lateralization of male wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) courtship and whether the presence of lateralization is associated with male mating success. Male behavioral data were collected from video recordings of courtship made by Dr. Richard Buchholz during a previous mating study. Males were categorized as either successful or unsuccessful males based on how often they were …

Liquid Gold: The Ancient Olive Oil Trade Between Baetica And Rome, Mary Martin

Honors Theses

The paper provides an overview of the olive oil trade between the city of Rome and its colony, Baetica, focusing on the 1st-3rd centuries AD. Topics covered include the procedure for making oil, a discussion of how the oil was packaged for shipment, hypotheses about what routes might have been taken to deliver each shipment, and estimates on the total consumption of Baetican oil in Rome. A special attention was placed on linking the records of people involved in the trade to their jobs and business functions. To accomplish this work, epigraphic records from statue bases, amphorae and dedicatory plaques …

G-Quadruplex Mediated Splicing Of P53 Mrna, Melissa Holy

Honors Theses

The protein p53 is a master regulator of the cell cycle and its mutation/inactivation is associated with over 50% of cancer cases. Mutations in p53 are associated with worse survival rates, resistance to therapies, and other risk factors in breast cancer specifically. p53 is encoded by the TP53 gene and is expressed as several transcripts. In the G-rich portion of intron 3, secondary DNA structures known as G-quadruplexes are able to form. The stabilization of these G-quadruplexes leads to correct splicing of intron 2, thus making a functional p53 protein. A known quadruplex-stabilizing compound (TMPyP4) was tested to determine its …

Paleosol Development And Trace Fossils In The Upper Triassic Cooper Canyon Formation Of The Dockum Group In Andrews County, Texas, Michael Charles Gratzer

Honors Theses

It is unknown whether a relationship exists between paleosol development and the number of burrows in a paleosol. It is also unknown whether a relationship exists between the number of burrows in a paleosol and the diameters of those burrows. This paper details the methods, results, and conclusions of an investigation of these relationships. I assess the development of several paleosols in a core sample of the Upper Triassic Cooper Canyon Formation of the Dockum Group from well B-133 in Andrews County, Texas, using development scales based on methods from Bown and Kraus (1993) and Abels et al. (2013). I …

In Six Days: The Creation Study Committee And The Pca's Struggle For Consensus On Anti-Darwinism, Michael Calhoun Wilkerson

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the historic struggle and development of the American Evangelical community to form a unified front against naturalistic evolution during the twentieth century: focusing on the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) as a microcosm in the battle for a general consensus. Conservative six-day creationists who felt threatened by more liberal views within the denomination over the issue pressured the 1998 PCA General Assembly to appoint a special Creation Study Committee. The outcome of the work of the committee only broadened acceptable views within the denomination, much to the chagrin of the conservative elders who pushed for the Committee's …

Nondepository Credit Intermediation And Its Effects On The Financial Well-Being Of Consumers, Nathan Simpson

Honors Theses

This paper investigates whether the availability of consumer loans has a positive or negative effect on the indicators of financial well being for consumers in the same area. By observing the number of consumer lending establishments and regressing those numbers on financial indicators, such as percent in poverty and median household income, this paper observes any statistically significant correlations that arise out of the presence of these establishments as well as the sign (positive or negative) of the correlation. The data period is 2007 to 2013. This process is used for nationwide numbers as well as six selected Southern states. …