Digital Commons Network^™

Ecological Homogenization Of Residential Macrosystems, Peter M. Groffman, Meghan Avolio, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Neil D. Bettez, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Susannah B. Lerman, Dexter H. Locke, James B. Heffernan, Jennifer L. Morse, Christopher Neill, Kristen C. Nelson, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Diane E. Pataki, Colin Polsky, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Tara Trammell

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Similarities in planning, development and culture within urban areas may lead to the convergence of ecological processes on continental scales. Transdisciplinary, multi-scale research is now needed to understand and predict the impact of human-dominated landscapes on ecosystem structure and function

Reduction Of Opioid Medication Use In Chronic Pain Patients By Adding Memantine: A Pilot Study, Adam J. Bertino

PCOM Biomedical Studies Student Scholarship

An investigational clinical research pilot study is being conducted at a nursing facility and an academic primary care office to evaluate memantine as an adjunct to opioid therapy for treatment of chronic pain. Memantine can be beneficial in reducing pain because it is an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAr) antagonist with a pivotal action in the hippocampus: it initiates long-term potentiation in the anterior cingulate cortex and forebrain. These areas of action have a high probability for reducing the affective quality of pain.

This open-label, non-randomized pilot study is designed to observe any effects which may occur during addition of memantine to …

Putting Equality To A Vote: Individual Rights, Judicial Elections, And The Arkansas Supreme Court, Billy Corriher

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pharmaceutical Federalism, Patricia J. Zettler

Faculty Publications By Year

There is growing interest in states regulating pharmaceuticals in ways that challenge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) federal oversight. For example, in 2013 Maine enacted a law to permit the importation of unapproved drugs, reflecting concerns that federal requirements are too restrictive, while in 2014 Massachusetts banned an FDA-approved painkiller, reflecting concerns that federal requirements are too lax. This Article provides an account of this recent state interest in regulating drugs and considers its consequences. It argues that these state regulatory efforts, and the nascent litigation about them, demonstrate that the preemptive reach of the FDA’s authority extends …

The Disobedient Jury: Why Lawmakers Should Codify Jury Nullification, Caisa E. Royer

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Oncolog, Volume 62, Number 07, July 2017, Joe Munch, Bryan Tutt

OncoLog MD Anderson's Report to Physicians (All issues) Archives

• RAS Mutations and Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases: Gene mutations may have implications for local therapy for liver metastases from colorectal cancer.
• Active Surveillance for Prostate Cancer: Clinical trial may clarify which patients with prostate cancer will benefit from active surveillance rather than immediate treatment.
• Gut Microbiome May Affect Immunotherapy Response in Melanoma: Metastatic melanoma patients who experience responses to checkpoint inhibitors have a distinct gut bacterial genetic signature.
• HOUSE CALL: Cancer-Related fatigue-Tips for fighting fatigue

Beyond "Best Practices": Employment-Discrimination Law In The Neoliberal Era, Deborah Dinner

Indiana Law Journal

Why does U.S. legal culture tolerate unprecedented economic inequality even as it valorizes social equality along identity lines? This Article takes a significant step toward answering this question by examining the relationship between U.S. employment-discrimination law and neoliberalism. It shows that the rise of anti-discrimination ideals in the late twentieth century was intertwined with the de-regulation of labor and with cutbacks in the welfare state. The Article argues that even “best practices” to prevent employment discrimination are insufficient to realize a labor market responsive to the needs of low-income workers for adequate wages, safe work conditions, and work hours and …

American Society Of Parasitologists Newsletter, Volume 39, Number 1, Summer 2017, Scott Lyell Gardner

American Society of Parasitologists: Newsletter

Summer 2017 issue of the ASP newsletter.

Nebline, July 2017

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: The Road to Great (and Safe!) Grilling

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

Bat Community Composition And Monitoring For White-Nose Syndrome At First State National Historical Park, Delaware And Pennsylvania, Juliet Nagel, J. Edward Gates

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

In recent years, bats have faced increasingly deadly threats on multiple fronts. Cave-dwelling bats have been decimated by the emergence of a disease, white-nose syndrome (WNS), caused by a fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans; and tree bats are dying in large numbers at wind power facilities. First State National Historical Park (FRST) is a new national park unit located in northern Delaware and Pennsylvania. Prior to this study, little information was available on bat species and their activity and distribution within FRST. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted an inventory of bat species present at FRST. We used …

Cross Reactivity Of Immune Responses To Porcine Reproductive And Respiratory Syndrome Virus Infection, Ignacio Correas, Fernando A. Osorio, David Steffen, Asit K. Pattnaik, Hiep L. X. Vu

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Because porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) exhibits extensive genetic variation among field isolates, characterizing the extent of cross reactivity of immune responses, and most importantly cell-mediated immunity (CMI), could help in the development of broadly cross-protective vaccines. We infected 12 PRRSV-naïve pigs with PRRSV strain FL12 and determined the number of interferon (IFN)-γ secreting cells (SC) by ELISpot assay using ten type 2 and one type 1 PRRSV isolates as recall antigens. The number of IFN-γ SC was extremely variable among animals, and with exceptions, late to appear. Cross reactivity of IFN-γ SC among type 2 isolates was …

Water Current, Volume 49, No. 3, Summer 2017

Water Current Newsletter

New University competition is “Testing Ag Performance Solutions”

Summer brings research work, students, tours and farm shows

Undergraduate And Graduate Course Descriptions, 2017 Summer, Wright State University

Course Descriptions

Wright State University undergraduate and graduate course descriptions from Summer 2017.

Counterintuitive Roles Of Experience And Weather On Migratory Performance, Adrian I. Rus, Adam E. Duerr, Tricia A. Miller, James R. Belthoff, Todd Katzner

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Migration allows animals to live in resource-rich but seasonally variable environments. Because of the costs of migration, there is selective pressure to capitalize on variation in weather to optimize migratory performance. To test the degree to which migratory performance (defined as speed of migration) of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) was determined by age- and season-specific responses to variation in weather, we analyzed 1,863 daily tracks (n = 83 migrant eagles) and 8,047 hourly tracks (n = 83) based on 15 min GPS telemetry data from Golden Eagles and 277 hourly tracks based on 30 s data …

Examining The Use Of Amazon's Mechanical Turk For Edge Extraction Of The Occlusal Surface Of Fossilized Bovid Teeth, Gregory J. Matthews, George K. Thiruvathukal, Maxwell P. Luetkemeier, Juliet K. Brophy

Faculty Publications

In order to reconstruct environments associated with Plio-Pleistocene hominins in southern Africa, researchers frequently rely upon the animals associated with the hominins, in particular, animals in the Family Bovidae. Bovids in southern Africa are typically identified by their teeth. However, identifying the taxon of a bovid tooth is challenging due to various biasing factors. Furthermore, inaccurate identification of fossil bovids can have significant consequences on the reconstructed paleoenvironment. Recent research on the classification of bovid fossil teeth has relied on using elliptical Fourier analysis to summarize the shape of the outline of the occlusal surface of the tooth and the …

Benchmarking The Energy Intensity Of Small Nebraska Wastewater Treatment Plants, Steven M. Hanna

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

To help small communities improve the energy efficiency of their wastewater treatment plants, this study created energy benchmarking models for small wastewater plants serving populations of 10,000 or less and having average flows less than 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD). The purpose of these models is to allow comparisons among plants of similar type and size, identify what factors most significantly impact energy usage, and predict potential savings from changes in key plant characteristics.

Energy usage and plant data from 83 small, mechanical wastewater plants in Nebraska were collected and used to create energy benchmarking models. Data obtained from …

Querying And Visualization Of Moving Objects Using Constraint Databases, Semere M. Woldemariam

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Good querying and visualization of moving objects and their trajectories is still an open problem. This thesis investigates three types of moving objects. First, projectiles, whose parabolic motion is difficult to represent. Second, moving objects that slide down a slope. The representation of these objects is challenging because of their accelerating motion. Third, the motion of migrating animals. The motion of migrating animals is challenging because it also involves some spatio-temporal interpolation. The thesis shows a solution to these problems using ideas from physics and an implementation in the MLPQ constraint databases system. The MLPQ implementation enables several complex spatio-temporal …

Organic Chemistry I Lab (Clayton), Tatiana Krivosheev, Caroline Sheppard, Patricia Todebush, Bram Boroson, Justin Mays

Chemistry Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Organic Chemistry I was created under a Round Four ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Elementary Statistics (Augusta), Neal Smith, Daphne Skipper, Marvalisa Payne, Robert Scott, Christopher Terry

Mathematics Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Elementary Statistics was created under a Round Four ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Introductory Physics I & Ii (Vsu), Dereth Jan Drake, Shantanu Chakraborty, Michael Holt

Physics and Astronomy Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Introductory Physics I & II was created under a Round Four ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Principles Of Physics Ii Lab (Clayton), Tatiana Krivosheev, Caroline Sheppard, Patricia Todebush, Bram Boroson, Justin Mays

Physics and Astronomy Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Principles of Physics I was created under a Round Three ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

To What Extent Is There A Relationship Between Middle Grades Educator Stressors And Phases Of The Career Teacher?, Jessica Joy Morris

Theses and Dissertations

The issue of teacher stress is an international area of concern. The primary means of gathering this work-related stress data from educators however, has been quantitatively with participants in elementary or secondary sectors, with little comparative data recorded for middle grades teachers. Along with this shortage of middle school educator stress data, is the rarely investigated variable of phases of the career teacher as it relates to middle grades educator stress. The intention of this research is to investigate the relationship between middle grades educator stress and phases of the career teacher.

A sequential mixed methods research approach was utilized …

What Is The Impact Of Effective Questioning And Critical, Relevant Conversations On Sixth Grade Science Students’ Agentic Engagement?, Corrie L. Christensen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question in this project was, “What is the impact of effective questioning and critical, relevant conversations on sixth grade science students’ agentic engagement?” It documents a teacher’s investigation into the impact of two isolated components, effective questioning and relevant conversations, on the agentic engagement of a group of sixth grade students. The author describes the outcomes of data collection using randomized student agentic engagement surveys. She outlines the successes and struggles that were realized during the process as well as the realization that an isolated component or two does not make a significant change in agentic engagement.

How Does Experience-Based Learning Impact Students’ Decisions To Perform Sustainable Actions?, Andrew J. Pierson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to answer the question: how does experience-based learning impact students’ decisions to perform sustainable actions. Three specific key points that surfaced throughout the capstone focused on appropriate environmentally sustainable actions for students, influences that change behaviors and effective implementation methods for sustainable actions. This six week study took place in a third grade elementary classroom. Experience-based learning incorporated in the study included tracking daily and weekly classroom and food waste as well as recycling. The featured experience-based learning activity of the study was using vermicompost in the classroom to develop student understanding of compost …

Curriculum Development And Analysis To Encourage Positive Environmental Attitudes In High School Students, Matthew Johnston

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project used a qualitative research design to explore the research question, how do students who are participating in a course on ecology and resource conservation, describe their understanding of ecology and conservation? The capstone researcher designed a student centered curriculum that used project based learning and outdoor experiences in an elective science course. A major goal of the course was to engage high school students in environmental education and shift students’ attitude to be more positive toward the environment. To measure students’ attitudes, the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) (Anderson, 2012) survey was completed at the start and end …

Teachers’ Descriptions Of The Impact Of False Accusations By Students And Parents, Elizabeth De Leon

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This mixed method study utilized grounded theory analysis through the use of survey and interview to research how teachers describe the impact of false accusations by students and parents. The study focused on survey results as well as interviews of a selection of teachers and administrators from various levels, rural, suburban, urban areas and disciplines of education. The concepts that emerged from the data illustrated the impact of false accusations on teachers with regard to their emotional and physical health, teaching practice, relationship with administrator(s), and relationships with students and parents. The data also indicate the need for increased training …

Feedforward Chemical Neural Network: An In Silico Chemical System That Learns Xor, Drew Blount, Peter Banda, Christof Teuscher, Darko Stefanovic

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Inspired by natural biochemicals that perform complex information processing within living cells, we design and simulate a chemically implemented feedforward neural network, which learns by a novel chemical-reaction-based analogue of backpropagation. Our network is implemented in a simulated chemical system, where individual neurons are separated from each other by semipermeable cell-like membranes. Our compartmentalized, modular design allows a variety of network topologies to be constructed from the same building blocks. This brings us towards general-purpose, adaptive learning in chemico: wet machine learning in an embodied dynamical system.

Analysis Of Ultrafast Transient Absorption Spectroscopy Data Using Integrative Data Analysis Platform: 1. Data Processing, Fitting, And Model Selection, Evgenii L. Kovrigin

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

This manuscript describes a workflow for analysis of transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy data using Integrative Data Analysis Platforms (IDAP) software package. Time-dependent spectral series are analyzed through evaluation of the isosbestic point and kinetics of excited state and ground-state bleach decays. Model fitting and selection based on Akaike's Information Criterion is discussed. As a practical example, we analyze excitation decays of a common protein label, Alexa Fluor 647.

Foundations For Sustainable Development: Harmonizing Islam, Nature And Law, Norah Bin Hamad

Dissertations & Theses

Human society is weakening Earth’s environment, its only home. In 2015, nations agreed on a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to guide restoring and sustaining the wellbeing of peoples everywhere. If the SDGs are to succeed, all cultural and religious communities will need to urgently implement them. Islam offers a holistic view of God’s creation and the Qur’an clearly sets forth duties to care for the Earth. In the past, most people have ignored the world-wide trends of environmental degradation which scientist have reported. There is a pressing need to expand education and public awareness about the threats …

Microdischarges Utilized In Portable Gas Sensing And Their Atmospheric Contaminants, Colin H. Sillerud

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

Portable applications of microdischarges such as the chemical detection, remediation of gaseous wastes, or the destruction of volatile organic compounds will mandate operation in the presence of contaminant species. This work examines the temporal evolution of microdischarge optical and ultraviolet emissions during pulsed operation by experimental methods. By varying the pulse length of a microdischarge initiated in a 4-hole silicon microcavity array operating in a 655 Torr ambient primarily composed of Ne, we were able to measure the emission growth rates for different contaminant species native to the discharge environment as a function of pulse length. It was found that …