Digital Commons Network^™

Industry Versus Government Regulation Of Food Date Labels: Observed Adherence To Industry-Endorsed Phrases, Brian E. Roe, Danyi Qi, Kathryn E. Bender, Julia Hilty

Faculty Publications

© 2019 by the authors. A leading factor in the creation of avoidable household food waste is confusion about food date labels. In the United States, date labels are largely unregulated, resulting in a plethora of date label phrases used in commerce. Federal regulation has been proposed but never passed, while both industry and government have provided voluntary guidance on preferred label phrases. We study food producer adherence to the label phrases endorsed by the Trading Partner Alliance (TPA, an industry group), which includes "Use By" for perishable products subject to a material degradation of critical performance or potential food …

Morphologic Adjustments Of Actively Evolving Highly Curved Neck Cutoffs, Derek Richards, Kory Konsoer

Faculty Publications

Neck cutoffs and their resultant oxbow lakes are important and prominent features of riverine landscapes. Detailed field-based research focusing on the morphologic evolution of neck cutoffs is currently insufficient to fully characterize cutoff evolution. High-resolution bathymetric data were collected over 3 years for the purpose of determining channel morphology and morphologic change on three actively evolving neck cutoffs. Results indicate the following general trends in morphologic adjustment: (1) a longitudinal bar in the upstream meander limb that develops near the entrance to the abandoned bend; (2) a deep scour hole in the downstream meander limb immediately downstream of the cutoff …

Anti-Viral Immunity In The Tumor Microenvironment: Implications For The Rational Design Of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Oncolytic Virotherapy, Paul J.F. Rider, Ifeanyi K. Uche, Larissa Sweeny, Konstantin G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

© 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Purpose of Review: The design of novel herpes simplex type I (HSV-1)–derived oncolytic virotherapies is a balancing act between safety, immunogenicity, and replicative potential. We have undertaken this review to better understand how these considerations can be incorporated into rational approaches to the design of novel herpesvirus oncolytic virotherapies. Recent Findings: Several recent papers have demonstrated that enhancing the potential of HSV-1 oncolytic viruses to combat anti-viral mechanisms present in the tumor microenvironment leads to greater efficacy than their parental viruses. Summary: It is not entirely clear how the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment affects oncolytic …

Identification And Visualization Of Functionally Important Domains And Residues In Herpes Simplex Virus Glycoprotein K(Gk) Using A Combination Of Phylogenetics And Protein Modeling, Paul J.F. Rider, Lyndon M. Coghill, Misagh Naderi, Jeremy M. Brown, Michal Brylinski, Konstantin G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

© 2019, The Author(s). Alphaherpesviruses are a subfamily of herpesviruses that include the significant human pathogens herpes simplex viruses (HSV) and varicella zoster virus (VZV). Glycoprotein K (gK), conserved in all alphaherpesviruses, is a multi-membrane spanning virion glycoprotein essential for virus entry into neuronal axons, virion assembly, and pathogenesis. Despite these critical functions, little is known about which gK domains and residues are most important for maintaining these functions across all alphaherpesviruses. Herein, we employed phylogenetic and structural analyses including the use of a novel model for evolutionary rate variation across residues to predict conserved gK functional domains. We found …

Identification And Visualization Of Functionally Important Domains And Residues In Herpes Simplex Virus Glycoprotein K(Gk) Using A Combination Of Phylogenetics And Protein Modeling, Paul J.F. Rider, Lyndon M. Coghill, Misagh Naderi, Jeremy M. Brown, Michal Brylinski, Konstantin G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

© 2019, The Author(s). Alphaherpesviruses are a subfamily of herpesviruses that include the significant human pathogens herpes simplex viruses (HSV) and varicella zoster virus (VZV). Glycoprotein K (gK), conserved in all alphaherpesviruses, is a multi-membrane spanning virion glycoprotein essential for virus entry into neuronal axons, virion assembly, and pathogenesis. Despite these critical functions, little is known about which gK domains and residues are most important for maintaining these functions across all alphaherpesviruses. Herein, we employed phylogenetic and structural analyses including the use of a novel model for evolutionary rate variation across residues to predict conserved gK functional domains. We found …

One Week Of Continuous Corticosterone Exposure Impairs Hepatic Metabolic Flexibility, Promotes Islet Β-Cell Proliferation, And Reduces Physical Activity In Male C57bl/6 J Mice, Susan J. Burke, Heidi M. Batdorf, Tai Yu Huang, Joseph W. Jackson, Katarina A. Jones, Thomas M. Martin, Kristen E. Rohli, Michael D. Karlstad, Tim E. Sparer, David H. Burk, Shawn R. Campagna, Robert C. Noland, Paul L. Soto, J. Jason Collier

Faculty Publications

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Clinical glucocorticoid use, and diseases that produce elevated circulating glucocorticoids, promote drastic changes in body composition and reduction in whole body insulin sensitivity. Because steroid-induced diabetes is the most common form of drug-induced hyperglycemia, we investigated mechanisms underlying the recognized phenotypes associated with glucocorticoid excess. Male C57BL/6 J mice were exposed to either 100ug/mL corticosterone (cort) or vehicle in their drinking water. Body composition measurements revealed an increase in fat mass with drastically reduced lean mass during the first week (i.e., seven days) of cort exposure. Relative to the vehicle control group, mice receiving cort had …

Diversification And Biogeography Of An Indo-Pacific Bird Radiation (Pachycephalidae), Serina S. Brady

Biology ETDs

The utility of islands as natural laboratories of evolution is exemplified in the patterns of differentiation in widespread, phenotypically variable lineages. Pachycephalidae is one of the most complex avian radiations spanning the vast archipelagos of the Indo-Pacific, making it an ideal group to study the patterns and processes of diversification on islands. Here, we present a robust phylogenetic hypothesis for all five genera within Pachycephalidae, based on thousands of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) generated with a target-capture approach and high-throughput sequencing. We clarify certain taxonomic relationships within Pachycephala and discover that Wallacea plays a much larger role in pachycephalid evolutionary history …

Change In Attribution Perspective, Shame, And Academic Identity For Freshmen On Probation Enrolled In University Academic Recovery Courses: A Mixed Methods Study, Christine L. Robinson

Dissertations

Student retention is critical to the success of the student, the college or university, and society in general. Consequently, institutions of higher education continue to focus efforts on student retention strategies and one such strategy utilizes academic recovery courses to support probationary freshmen. Previous research studies of these courses largely focus on academic outcomes without examining the “why” or “how” behind such outcomes. Some studies also discuss constructs including attribution perspective, shame, and academic identity. However, the relationship between these constructs has not been researched, particularly with regard to any change that may occur for probationary freshmen engaged with an …

Foreclosure's Fallout: Economic Adversity And Voter Turnout, Paru Shah, Amber Wichowsky

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

With the foreclosure crisis continuing to impact individuals and communities across the country, understanding the extent of its effect on political life is tantamount. In this paper, we ask how political behaviors are influenced by the economic adversities created by this crisis: loss of home, loss of resources, and perhaps loss of political efficacy. Previous research on economic adversity focuses almost exclusively on unemployment. Here we explore the demobilizing effects of foreclosures at the individual level, community levels, and the intersection of individuals nested in communities. With a unique dataset that matches voter file data to a database on individual …

Third-Degree Price Discrimination Versus Uniform Pricing, Dirk Bergemann, Francisco Castro, Gabriel Weintraub

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We compare the revenue of the optimal third-degree price discrimination policy against a uniform pricing policy. A uniform pricing policy offers the same price to all segments of the market. Our main result establishes that for a broad class of third-degree price discrimination problems with concave revenue functions and common support, a uniform price is guaranteed to achieve one half of the optimal monopoly profits. This revenue bound obtains for any arbitrary number of segments and prices that the seller would use in case he would engage in third-degree price discrimination. We further establish that these conditions are tight, and …

Uniform Pricing Versus Third-Degree Price Discrimination, Dirk Bergemann, Francisco Castro, Gabriel Weintraub

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We compare the revenue of the optimal third-degree price discrimination policy against a uniform pricing policy. A uniform pricing policy offers the same price to all segments of the market. Our main result establishes that for a broad class of third-degree price discrimination problems with concave revenue functions and common support, a uniform price is guaranteed to achieve one-half of the optimal monopoly profits. This revenue bound holds for any arbitrary number of segments and prices that the seller would use in case he would engage in third-degree price discrimination. We further establish that these conditions are tight and that …

Fully Modified Least Squares For Multicointegrated Systems, Igor Kheifets, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Multicointegration is traditionally defined as a particular long run relationship among variables in a parametric vector autoregressive model that introduces links between these variables and partial sums of the equilibrium errors. This paper departs from the parametric model, using a semiparametric formulation that reveals the explicit role that singularity of the long run conditional covariance matrix plays in determining multicointegration. The semiparametric framework has the advantage that short run dynamics do not need to be modeled and estimation by standard techniques such as fully modified least squares (FM-OLS) on the original I(1) system is straightforward. The paper derives FM-OLS limit …

Book Review Of Taking Aim At Attack Advertising: Understanding The Impact Of Negative Campaigning In U.S. Senate Races, By Kim L. Fridkin And Patrick J. Kenney. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 266p. $99.00 Cloth, $27.95 Paper., Amber Wichowsky

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Portable Electrochemical System For Flexible Hybrid Electronics, Anthony Joseph Hanson

Masters Theses

This work focuses on the fabrication and design of a portable electrochemical sensing system for flexible hybrid electronic (FHE) sensors. A three-electrode chemical sensor was fabricated using copper tape on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, using laser etching process. An electronic circuit was designed to measure the sensor response through electrochemical techniques to detect different concentrations of glucose. The device was calibrated to give the user a concentration value in 5 seconds. The system was also designed to preform tests such as cyclic voltammogram and chronoamperogram for various chemicals. A Bluetooth Low Energy module was used to wirelessly transmit the results …

Human-Machine Teamwork: An Exploration Of Multi-Agent Systems, Team Cognition, And Collective Intelligence, Lorenzo Barberis Canonico

All Dissertations

One of the major ways through which humans overcome complex challenges is teamwork. When humans share knowledge and information, and cooperate and coordinate towards shared goals, they overcome their individual limitations and achieve better solutions to difficult problems. The rise of artificial intelligence provides a unique opportunity to study teamwork between humans and machines, and potentially discover insights about cognition and collaboration that can set the foundation for a world where humans work with, as opposed to against, artificial intelligence to solve problems that neither human or artificial intelligence can solve on its own.

To better understand human-machine teamwork, it’s …

Cognitive Processes In Undergraduate Anatomy And Physiology Courses, Staci Neas Johnson

All Dissertations

Multiple problems facing society in the 21st century, including climate change and global concern over pandemics, require a greater number of STEM graduates with content knowledge and critical thinking skills. This has led to additional funding and research in teaching and learning, but much of the published literature in the context of biology education has investigated the impact of specific instructional practices across a spectrum of classrooms (undergraduate and professional) or the learning strategies specifically of medical students.

As the science of learning has developed, it has become clear that the process of learning is context-dependent. Despite continued attention to …

The Economics Of Durable Goods And The College Textbook Market, Yuvaluck Setboonsrung

All Dissertations

This paper examined factors determine the update frequency of college economics textbook in six subjects, which are Economics, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Econometrics, Industrial Organization, and Game Theory. The unique data set of books published in the U.S. between 1964 and 2018 gathered from the Internet by searching the title of the book and collected all previous versions that the textbook has. The results show that each book has its update pattern, and the update frequency is different among categories and levels. On average, it takes approximately three years to update a new edition of a book. Books in introductory and intermediate …

Midblock Crash Analysis Using Short Segments And Precisely Geocoded Crashes, Adika Iqbal

All Dissertations

This research focused on evaluating how crash geocoding has improved over the years and how this enhanced spatial accuracy of crashes can potentially lead to a new paradigm for midblock crash safety analysis. Robust midblock safety analysis exhibits special challenges because methods of locating crashes have historically not been very accurate. One objective of this research was to assess how the accuracy of crashes has improved over time and what the current state of the art is.

The second objective focused on using segment lengths less than the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) recommended minimum of 0.1 miles for statewide screening …

On Resilient Control For Secure Connected Vehicles: A Hybrid Systems Approach, Roberto Merco

All Dissertations

According to the "Internet of Things Forecast" conducted by Ericsson, connected devices will be around 29 billion by 2022. This technological revolution enables the concept of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) that will transform many applications, including power-grid, transportation, smart buildings, and manufacturing. Manufacturers and institutions are relying on technologies related to CPSs to improve the efficiency and performances of their products and services. However, the higher the number of connected devices, the higher the exposure to cybersecurity threats. In the case of CPSs, successful cyber-attacks can potentially hamper the economy and endanger human lives. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to …

Stochastic Simulation Of Hurricane Wind And Rain Hazards, Prashant Rawal

All Dissertations

Quantification of hurricane hazard, which includes wind, rainfall and storm surge, is essential for engineering design as well as financial loss assessment. The objective of this study is to develop a stochastic simulation framework which integrates the simulation process of hurricane rainfall and wind hazard. This study is divided into two parts. The main objective of the first part is to develop a method for the estimation of the hurricane wind field parameters radius to maximum wind speeds (R_max) and Holland B parameter (B). The second part develops a stochastic model to simulate hurricane rainfall, which is named the ‘NormRain’ …

The Impact Of Transportation Disadvantage On Healthcare Access, Ying Zhou

All Dissertations

Millions of Americans have difficulties in transporting themselves to desired locations and thus are considered to be transportation disadvantaged (Wallace, Hughes-Cromwick, Mull, & Khasnabis, 2005). This population group is found to participate in fewer out-of-home activities, which may eventually result in social exclusion and impaired well-being (Kenyon, Rafferty, & Lyons, 2003; Marottoli et al., 2000). This research examines one critical aspect that is important for people’s well-being—healthcare access. Despite the effort and resources the government has put into improving healthcare access, impaired access remains a problem in the United States (Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Transportation disadvantage has …

Physicochemical And Colligative Investigation Of Α (Shrimp Shell)-And Β (Squid Pen)-Chitosan Membranes: Concentration-Gradient-Driven Water Flux And Ion Transport For Salinity Gradient Power Andseparation Process Operations, Clifford R. Merz

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Chitin, and its derivative chitosan, is a naturally occurring biopolymer and an abundant polysaccharide containing acetylated units of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine. Chitosan membranes produced from shrimp shell (α) and squid pen (β) biowaste were prepared by solvent-casting, after which water flux and ionic transport diffusion experiments were conducted using a side-by-side concentration test cell under differing salinity concentration gradients. Physicochemical and experimental investigations were conducted, which confirmed that β-chitin possesses differing and enhanced performance characteristics than α-chitin with respect to diffusive water flux and ionic transport capabilities. In addition, novel colligative investigations through osmotic equilibrium were conducted to determine electrochemical characteristics …

The Scoop Vol. 6 Issue 9, December 2019, Health Sciences Library

Volume 6

Latest news and events from the Health Sciences Library in our monthly newsletter for December 2019.

Assessing Physical Activity And Sleep In Axial Spondyloarthritis: Measuring The Gap., Atul Deodhar, Lianne S Gensler, Marina Magrey, Jessica A Walsh, Adam Winseck, Daniel Grant, Philip Mease

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) frequently report pain, stiffness, fatigue, and sleep problems, which may lead to impaired physical activity. The majority of reported-on measures evaluating physical activity and sleep disturbance in axSpA are self-reported questionnaires, which can be impacted by patient recall (reporting bias). One objective measure, polysomnography, has been employed to evaluate sleep in patients with axSpA; however, it is an intrusive measure and cannot be used over the long term. More convenient objective measures are therefore needed to allow for the long-term assessment of both sleep and physical activity in patients' daily lives. Wearable technology that utilizes …

Interpreter Education In Emerging Settings, George Major, Ineke Crezee

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

Contextualizing Interpreter Training In Africa: Two Case Studies From Kenya, Carmen Delgado Luchner

International Journal of Interpreter Education

This article explores the potential and limitations of interpreter training in Africa. It considers relevant features of the context, namely, the kind of multilingualism that characterizes postcolonial societies (with a coexistence of official, national, regional and vehicular languages within the same geographic space), and the social and geographic distribution of these languages within and across countries. My argument is based on two different interpreter training initiatives implemented in Kenya between 2010 and 2015: a Master’s degree program in conference interpreting for Kenyan and international students with English, French and/or Swahili; and a Certificate program in community interpreting for refugees from …

Interview Withjoneti Rokotuibau: Building Capacity In The Pacific Islands, Deb Russell, Joneti Rokotuibau

International Journal of Interpreter Education

This open forum article highlights an interview conducted with JonetiRokotuibau, a signed language interpreter from Fiji. She has recently been elected as the Oceania Regional Representative for the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI). She highlights her path to becoming a Fijian Sign Language interpreter and teacher, and how she developed an interest in working with interpreters and the Deaf community. She also describes the ways in which signed language interpreting is developing in the Pacific Islands and how she is partnering with the National Deaf Association to bring about change. Her experiences offer interpreters and educators a glimpse …

Interviewwith An Agent Of Change: Dr. Xiaoyan Xiao, Deb Russell, Xiao Xiaoyan

International Journal of Interpreter Education

This interview was conducted with Dr. Xiaoyan Xiao, a professor from Xiamen University in China. She describes her path to becoming a spoken language interpreter and linguist and explains how she developed an interest in signed language research. She also explains how signed language interpreting is developing in China and how she is partnering with the national Deaf association to bring about change. Her experiences offer interpreters and educators a glimpse into some of the many exciting developments in China.

Bowles, Hunter Joe, B. 1996 (Fa 1384), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1384. Interviews with honey and mushroom producers in southcentral Kentucky, conducted by Hunter Bowles in fall 2019 for a WKU folk studies class in foodways.

How Conflict Shapes Evolution In Poeciliid Fishes, Andrew I. Furness, Bart J.A. Pollux, Robert Meredith, Mark S. Springer, David N. Reznick

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In live-bearing animal lineages, the evolution of the placenta is predicted to create an arena for genomic conflict during pregnancy, drive patterns of male sexual selection, and increase the rate of speciation. Here we test these predictions of the viviparity driven conflict hypothesis (VDCH) in live-bearing poecilid fishes, a group showing multiple independent origins of placentation and extreme variation in male sexually selected traits. As predicted, male sexually selected traits are only gained in lineages that lack placentas; while there is little or no influence of male traits on the evolution of placentas. Both results are consistent with the mode …