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Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - December 9, 2018, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the December 9, 2018 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine's newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents Include:

• USA Faculty Honored at Inventor Recognition Luncheon
• Register Now: Pediatrics Symposium Set for Jan. 18
• 12th Annual COM Research Forum Winners Announced
• Mark Your Calendar: Forum on Community-Engaged Scholarship Set for Jan. 11
• Med School Café: Expert Advice for the Community

Building Solidarity In Disease Communities’ Quest For Better Care And Treatments: A Conversation With A Young Tennis Award-Winner, Kenneth P. Serbin

At Risk for Huntington's Disease

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of State Unfunded Retirement Benefits In The United States, Darian Los

Honors Capstones

States have not been required to include underfunded pension liabilities on their financial statements until GASB No. 67 and No. 68 was issued in 2012. This means that citizens have not be getting all of information relating to the financial stability of the state. In this project, I gather pension liability data from the states Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports. The data gathered will be used by Truth In Accounting for analysis and reporting to the public. This information will allow citizens to determine the financial stability of their state and if plans are being underfunded, they can call for major …

Evaluation Of The Ecosystem Services Of The Central Marsh In Southern Iraq, Nadheer A. Fazaa, Jonathon C. Dunn, Mark J. Whittingham

Baghdad Science Journal

Ecosystems provide humans with services that include benefits from food, fresh water, climate regulation, and socio-economic assets. The Mesopotamian marshlands are among the largest wetlands in the Middle East and they provide various benefits. However, ecosystem services of the Marshlands are consistently undervalued in national economic analysis and decision making. This study focusses on the Central Marshes, the first National Park in Iraq, and is the first attempt at valuing a series of ecosystem services from a valuable natural ecosystem in Iraq. We adopted the Toolkit for Ecosystem Services Site-Based Assessment (TESSA) for the determination of biophysical and economic values …

Anticorrosion Behavior Of Deposited Magnetite On Galvanized Steel In Saline Water Using Rf-Magnetron Sputtering, Nafeesa J. Kadhim, Ahlam M. Farhan, Harith I. Jaafer

Baghdad Science Journal

Thin films of Magnetite have been deposited on Galvanized Steel (G-S) alloy using RF-reactive magnetron sputtering technique and protection efficiency of the corrosion of G-S. A Three-Electrodes Cell was used in saline water (3.5 % NaCl) solution at different temperatures (298, 308, 318 and 328K) using potentiostatic techniques with. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and fitting impedance data via Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) were applied to G-S alloy with Fe3O4 and tested in 3.5 % NaCl solution at 298K.Results taken from Nyquist and Bode plots were analyzed using software provided with the instrument. The results obtained show that the rate of …

Climate Change Adaptation Strategies And Approaches For Outdoor Recreation, Daniel O'Toole, Leslie A. Brandt, Maria K. Janowiak, Danielle Shannon, Patricia Leopold, Stephen D. Handler, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Climate change will alter opportunities and demand for outdoor recreation through altered winter weather conditions and season length, climate-driven changes in user preferences, and damage to recreational infrastructure, among other factors. To ensure that outdoor recreation remains sustainable in the face of these challenges, natural resource managers may need to adapt their recreation management. One of the major challenges of adapting recreation to climate change is translating broad concepts into specific, tangible actions. Using a combination of in-depth interviews of recreational managers and a review of peer-reviewed literature and government reports, we developed a synthesis of impacts, strategies, and approaches, …

Project Icarus, Amro A. Shanshal

Honors Capstones

Project Icarus is an autonomous surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) prototype designed to aid first responders by providing rapid aerial assessment of locations affected by disaster. Additionally, Project Icarus is capable of restoring local Wi-Fi based communications during grid failure. Icarus has the capabilities to provide logistical assistance to emergency personnel by providing immediate aerial surveillance of ongoing dangerous situations. Furthermore, the Icarus platform operates on an umbilical system that provides a long-term aerial surveillance solution and can be easily modified to accommodate specific situations using its modular design. The low-cost system that does not require a drone pilot is …

Motorized Assistive Walker For Improving Mobility In Cerebral Palsy Patients, Hnin Eaindray Lin

Honors Capstones

For this project, the CIS mobility team from the College of Engineering & Engineering Technology was approached by the family of a 13-year-old high school student named Kelly, who is diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy symptoms and has severe mobility issues. She has involuntary muscle movements, especially in the lower extremities, and problems with posture, balance and depth perception, making it difficult for her to walk. Kelly is currently relying on a wheelchair, and the family has concerns that if she remains bound to her wheelchair, she will need to undergo more surgeries that could potentially lead to her losing the …

Wear Of Tools Used In Sheet Metal Stamping, Rafael David Ortega-Perea

Honors Capstones

Stamping is an operation that is widely used in the manufacturing industry to produce products in high volume and in a continuous cycle. This operation can be performed by pressing and drawing. The process of sheet metal stamping has four components listed as follow: punch, blank holder, sheet metal blank, and die cavity. The purpose of a punch is to press the sheet metal blank, with a downward force, to stretch the material into the die cavity. The die cavity is fixed while the sheet metal blank is held down by the blank holder to properly stamp the sheet to …

Structure-Mediated Excitation Of Air Plasma And Silicon Plasma Expansion In Femtosecond Laser Pulses Ablation, Qingsong Wang, Lan Jiang, Changji Pan, Weina Han, Guoyan Wang, Feifei Wang, Kaihu Zhang, Ming Li, Yongfeng Lu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Femtosecond laser-induced surface structures upon multiple pulses irradiation are strongly correlated with the pulse number, which in turn significantly affects successive laser-material interactions. By recording the dynamics of femtosecond laser ablation of silicon using time-resolved shadowgraphy, here we present direct visualization of the excitation of air plasma induced by the reflected laser during the second pulse irradiation. The interaction of the air plasma and silicon plasma is found to enhance the shockwave expansion induced by silicon ablation in the longitudinal direction, showing anisotropic expansion dynamics in different directions. We further demonstrate the vanishing of air plasma as the pulse number …

Correlation Between Journal Citation Indices For Biochemistry And Molecular Biology Journals, Shakil Ahmad

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper investigated the possibility of utilizing SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), Eigenfactor Score and Google H5 index indicator as an alternative to the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) for quality assessment in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology. Principal factors such as researchers and librarians concerns of methods of scientific journal ranking, publication of language, analysis time and self-citation impact are looked into across indicated options and alternatives. The SJR, ES, Google H5 and JIF scores and ranking order of biochemistry and molecular biology journals were downloaded from their relevant websites. Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation coefficients were gauged to weigh …

Context Analysis Of Top Seven Retracted Articles: Should Retraction Watch Revisit The List?, Rosy Jan, Shohar Bano, Ikhlaq Ur Rehman Syed, Midhat Mehraj

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Significant and serious scientific misconduct in a research article leads to its retraction. Citing such articles further perpetuates the erroneous work. An article unknowingly builds on false claims of a

retracted article, the new and unsuspicious article may compromise the integrity of the scientific literature. This type of implicit dependency on a retracted article can be highly risky and harmful. Thus the focus of the study is to identify the journals citing the retracted articles with emphasis on the examination of context of citations received by top seven highly cited retracted papers identified and listed by Retraction watch. In-depth analysis …

Information Technology Application In Health Science Libraries: A Study Of Delhi, Jamal Ahmad Siddiqui

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The present study covers the changing scenario of libraries with the application of Information Technology. The application of IT is widely visible on every function of the library. The present study deals with the use of IT in different sections of the libraries and also highlights the condition of Human power, gender analysis, qualification and experience of staff, collection development and the infrastructural facilities of Health Science Libraries under study. The results reveal that most of the staff members of libraries are qualified and find that the IT has changed the entire functioning of the libraries and has improved our …

Information Literacy Assessment Among Students – Madurai Kamaraj University And Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Govindarajan R, Dhanavandan S

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information literacy enables the society to utilize the information power in holistic way. Information literacy helps to extend the learning beyond formal classroom settings. The main aim of this study is to assess the information literacy level of students undergoing higher education in Tamil Nadu. In order to do this, the study enrolled a total of 207 students from Madurai Kamaraj University and Manonmaniam Sundaranar University. A total of 68 female students and 134 male students were included in the study. Majority of the students are in the age group

The Effect Of Syntax On Interoperability Among Metadata Standards: Another Step Towards Integrating Information Systems, Seyed Mahdi Taheri, Mahmood Khosrowjerdi

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This research aims to find out the effect of syntax on interoperability among metadata standards. The interoperability of “MARC21 in XML (MARCXML)”, “Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS)”, “Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS)”, “Metadata Authority Description Schema (MADS)”, “Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)”, “PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategy (PREMIS)”, “Technical Metadata for Text (TextMD)”, and “Metadata for Images in XML (MIX)” are examined. The first section of the paper describes the tools and types of interoperability among metadata standards. In the second section, METS is selected as a core standard. Finally, models of how the studied metadata standards interact with each …

Maritime Information Databank – A Suggested Model, Samavedam Padmashree, Sasikala

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

As a part of continuing research, it is important for any country to identify technological advances in any field and create a national trust of information for use by researchers and general users. With reference to the marine sector, which is a prime sector for the development of any country, it is essential to create such data banks of information to cater to the needs of ship builders, ship owners and the researchers. This article discusses few of the processes involved for the creation of a maritime data bank.

The Detection Of Hazardous Materials Using Genetically Engineered Bacteria, Daniel Wynn

Open Access Dissertations

The development of technology that can be used to quickly and reliably assay a wide variety of matrices for the presence of specific small molecules has long been a high priority for scientists. These methods are valuable tools that see use in many fields, including biomedicine and environmental analysis. Although many contemporary technologies exist, their use is, for the most part, limited by their expense, required instrumentation, and long assay times. In an effort to address these limitations, many examples of biotechnology have been produced and this interest in biosensors continues. Herein, a number of projects to develop new bioanalytical …

Stem Stories, December 2018, #2, Brooke Wiese

STEM Stories

Program Spotlight - UNI REAP Program

A Speech Recognition Noise Analysis Using A Biological Neural Network, Logan Matthew Walters

Student Theses and Dissertations

Typically, modern Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) engines are developed using artificial neural networks (ANN) that utilize probabilistic and stochastic models for analyzing data and computing outputs. As such, limitations are seen with this structure of implementation due to the volume of data required for accuracy and scalability. Resultantly, different software solutions are being considered to improve the accuracy of ASR engines in these unique cases where commonly used models fall short. The presented research illustrates the potential of a biological neural network (BNN) if implemented as an ASR engine. Theoretical comparisons are made between the efficiency of a BNN and …

Examining The Varied Impacts Of Economic Globalization: A Comparative Analysis Of Four American States, Marina Smoske

Honors Program Theses and Projects

As a subject of extensive scholarship and a potent political buzzword, globalization is a deeply polarizing concept that inspires conflicting views about its effects. In the United States, popular debate often describes globalization as having uniformly positive or negative impacts on the country’s economic health. This line of reasoning is employed particularly with respect to shifts in the labor market and its implications on Americans’ economic prosperity. This reasoning, however, is not a theoretically sound or an empirically useful way to describe and understand the economic impact of globalization, for it implies that a complex, multifaceted phenomenon produces uniform results …

Multi-Task Zipping Via Layer-Wise Neuron Sharing, Xiaoxi He, Zimu Zhou, Lothar Thiele

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Future mobile devices are anticipated to perceive, understand and react to the world on their own by running multiple correlated deep neural networks on-device. Yet the complexity of these neural networks needs to be trimmed down both within-model and cross-model to fit in mobile storage and memory. Previous studies squeeze the redundancy within a single model. In this work, we aim to reduce the redundancy across multiple models. We propose Multi-Task Zipping (MTZ), a framework to automatically merge correlated, pre-trained deep neural networks for cross-model compression. Central in MTZ is a layer-wise neuron sharing and incoming weight updating scheme that …

Making The Invisible Visible: Affordances And Hindrances Of Using Tangible Objects In Identity Research, Amber Simpson

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this manuscript is to highlight the role of tangible objects (i.e., rings) in understanding individual’s STEM identity, which in this study is defined as an interdisciplinary belief that an individual has about her or himself regarding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The rings allowed participants to position themselves within STEM disciplines and to further illustrate and narrate this position through the various ring sizes, and for some, the spatial arrangement of the rings. However, the use of the rings seemed to limit participants to describing who they are within STEM in the moment, as well as not …

Advent Traditions: What Are We Waiting For?, April Fiet, Kayt E. Frisch, Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Posting about ­­­­­­­­Advent traditions and celebrations from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/advent-traditions-what-are-we-waiting-for/

Advantages And Peculiarities Of Using Fiber-Optic Communication Lines, Yu V. Pisetskiy, S S. Dusmatov, O S. Olimova

Scientific-technical journal

This article describes the main benefits of fiber-optic communication lines to the cable lines, wired and wireless channel. Quantitative parameters of fiber-optic communication lines. A simplified model of a fiber-optic communication lines and structure of the optical fiber. Also considered types of optical fibers.

Improving The Efficiency Of Operation Of Refrigerated Transport, J R. Kobulov, D I. Ilesaliev, J S. Barotov

Scientific-technical journal

In this paper, the optimization of the capacity of a refrigerated cars is proposed. Interrelations between the parameters of a transport package and a refrigerated car in the form of mathematical models are presented. An algorithm of search of the rational capacity of a refrigerated car has been developed. In this paper the method of directed enumeration is used. The practical significance of the paper consists of increasing of the technical load of vehicles.

Algorithm And Program To Increase The Speed Of The Internal Memory Of Multi-Core Processors, Kh N. Zaynidinov, O U. Mallaev

Scientific-technical journal

The article analyzes the internal memory of the processor, its methods of work, types of data exchange in memory and problems arising in the form of a hierarchical pyramid. The algorithm and program of parallelization of processes of multi-core processor cores using OpenMP technology is proposed [1,2,7,8,9,10]. The results of the parallel program are obtained and discussed in detail.

[2018-12-07] Governance And Compensation Committee Of The Board Of Visitors, Virginia Commonwealth University. Board Of Visitors

VCU Board of Visitors Minutes

Official minutes of the VCU Board of Visitors and its Executive Committee.

[2018-12-07] Meeting Of The Academic And Health Affairs Policy Committee, Virginia Commonwealth University. Board Of Visitors

VCU Board of Visitors Minutes

Official minutes of the VCU Board of Visitors and its Executive Committee.

Strahm Family Collection (Mss 655), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 655. Data, clippings and information about the Strahm family and related families. Most of the material relates to Franz J. Strahm, WKU music director from 1910-1941, and his son Victor H. Strahm’s career in military service. Includes photographs of Franz, Victor, and other family members.

Science In The News, Jui-Min Chang

CHEM151

Hamers, Laurel. “Smuggling a CRISPR Gene Editor into Staph Bacteria Can Kill the

Pathogen.” Science News, 4 Oct. 2018, www.sciencenews.org/article/smuggling-crispr-gene-editor-staph-bacteria-can-kill-pathogen.