Digital Commons Network^™

Vanlife: Creating Community On The Road, John Digiorno

Architecture Theses

Van life is an ever-growing movement across North America and the rest of the world. Driven by high costs of living, mundane desk jobs, poor quality of life, and the urge to be free, thousands of people are packing up their houses and apartments and moving into self-converted full-size cargo vans. Van-lifers tend to gravitate towards each other, creating community on the road. What is the potential of community-based infrastructure for van-lifers? How can a prototypical rest area for van-lifers be placed in almost any location in the world? The research will begin with a compilation of case studies that …

Supporting Undergraduate Underrepresented Minority Students For Success In Stem, Nadia Kennedy, Urmi Ghosh-Dastidar, Sandie Han, Diana Samaroo, Armando Solis

Publications and Research

This presentation reports on a model for engaging, retaining, and supporting undergraduate STEM students, and in particular women and underrepresented minorities (URM), which aims at: recruitment of students in the STEM disciplines and in particular URM students; increased persistence of students; increased graduation rates, and shortened time to graduation. The model has been tested and found to be successful at an urban northeastern university in the USA that has been designated as a Hispanic-serving institution. In this presentation, we describe this model, built from support strategies that include mandatory academic advisement; increased exposure to early research experiences; expanded one-on-one faculty …

From Open Access To Open Science: The Path From Scientific Reality To Open Scientific Communication, Christian Heise, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Although opening up of research is considered an appropriate and trend-setting model for future scientific communication, it can still be difficult to put open science into practice. How open and transparent can a scientific work be? This article investigates the potential to make all information and the whole work process of a qualification project such as a doctoral thesis comprehensively and freely accessible on the internet with an open free license both in the final form and completely traceable in development. The answer to the initial question, the self-experiment and the associated demand for openness, posed several challenges for a …

Enhancing Final Image Contrast In Off-Axis Digital Holography Using Residual Fringes, Manuel Bedrossian, Kent Wallace, Eugene Serabyn, Chris Lindensmith, Jay Nadeau

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show that background fringe-pattern subtraction is a useful technique for removing static noise from off-axis holographic reconstructions and can enhance image contrast in volumetric reconstructions by an order of magnitude in the case for instruments with relatively stable fringes. We demonstrate the fundamental principle of this technique and introduce some practical considerations that must be made when implementing this scheme, such as quantifying fringe stability. This work also shows an experimental verification of the background fringe subtraction scheme using various biological samples.

Membraneless H2o2 Fuel Cells Driven By Metallophthalocyanine Electrocatalysts, Bao Nguyen, Neal Kuperman, Gary Goncher, Raj Solanski

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

One-compartment hydrogen peroxide fuel cells with Co, Cu, and Fe phthalocyanine (PC) and iron nitride (FexN) as cathodes and Ni anode have been investigated as sustainable energy sources. The cells were operated under acidic conditions and at room temperature. The potentials for onset of the catalytic currents in these cells were determined via cyclic voltammograms. The reduction current onset potentials of FePC, CoPC, CuPC and FexN were 0.56 V, 0.42 V, 0.51 V and 0.57 V, respectively. Potentialcurrent linear sweep voltammetry was utilized to determine the open circuit potentials (OCP) and the power densities the fuel cells. The OCPs for …

Openfoam Simulations Of Late Stage Container Draining In Microgravity, Joshua Thomas Mccraney, Mark M. Weislogel, Paul Steen

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the reduced acceleration environment aboard orbiting spacecraft, capillary forces are often exploited to access and control the location and stability of fuels, propellants, coolants, and biological liquids in containers (tanks) for life support. To access the ‘far reaches’ of such tanks, the passive capillary pumping mechanism of interior corner networks can be employed to achieve high levels of draining. With knowledge of maximal corner drain rates, gas ingestion can be avoided and accurate drain transients predicted. In this paper, we benchmark a numerical method for the symmetric draining of capillary liquids in simple interior corners. The free surface is …

Crowdsourcing Image Extraction And Annotation: Software Development And Case Study, Ana Jofre, Vincent Berardi, Kathleen P.J. Brennan, Aisha Cornejo, Carl Bennett, John Harlan

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We describe the development of web-based software that facilitates large-scale, crowdsourced image extraction and annotation within image-heavy corpora that are of interest to the digital humanities. An application of this software is then detailed and evaluated through a case study where it was deployed within Amazon Mechanical Turk to extract and annotate faces from the archives of Time magazine. Annotation labels included categories such as age, gender, and race that were subsequently used to train machine learning models. The systemization of our crowdsourced data collection and worker quality verification procedures are detailed within this case study. We outline a data …

Validation Of Predictive Empirical Weed Emergence Models Of Abutilon Theophrasti Medik Based On Intercontinental Data, Valle Egea-Cobrero, Kevin Bradley, Isabel M. Calha, Adam S. Davis, Jose Dorado, Frank Forcella, John L. Lindquist, Christy L. Sprague, Jose L. Gonzalez-Andujar

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Good weed management relies on the proper timing of weed control practices in relation to weed emergence dynamics. Therefore, the development of models that predict the timing of emergence may help provide growers with tools to make better weed management decisions. The aim of this study was to validate and compare two previously published predictive empirical thermal time models of the emergence of Abutilon theophrasti growing in maize with data sets from the USA and Europe, and test the hypothesis that a robust and general weed emergence model can be developed for this species. Previously developed Weibull and Logistic models …

Gis-Based Trending Analysis Of Cropland Associated With Riparian From 2008 To 2018 In Wisconsin, Yanyun Li

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

One of important characteristics of riparian area is to protect surface and underground water from nutrient contaminated runoff from nearby farmland. Comparing with the traditional fixed-width riparian buffer delineation, the Riparian Buffer Delineation Model (RBDM) to be used in this study, is a GIS-based tool designed to map variable-width riparian buffers by taking into consideration the watercourse and its associated floodplain. As the use of biofuels increases especially derived from corn, riparian areas are often converted to agricultural fields due to the nutrient rich soils and flat topography commonly found in these locations. Meanwhile, it also gives rise to nonpoint …

Virus Purification Framework And Enhancement In Aqueous Two-Phase System, Pratik Umesh Joshi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Viral infections regularly pose detrimental health risks to humans. Preventing viral infections through global immunization requires the production of large doses of vaccines. The increasing demand for vaccines, especially during pandemics such as COVID-19, has challenged current manufacturing strategy to develop advanced unit operations with high throughput capability. Over the decade, the upstream processing responsible for synthesizing viral products in cell cultures has shown significant success in yielding high titers of viruses and virus-like particles. The progress in the upstream stage has now shifted the bottleneck to the downstream processing (DSP). Overlooked for decades, the DSP responsible for viral product …

A Novel Pixel-Based Multiple-Point Geostatistical Simulation Method For Stochastic Modeling Of Earth Resources, Adel Asadi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Uncertainty is an integral part of modeling Earth's resources and environmental processes. Geostatistical simulation technique is a well-established tool for uncertainty quantification of earth systems modeling. Multiple-point statistical (MPS) algorithms are specifically advantageous when dealing with the complexity and heterogeneity of geological data. MPS algorithms take advantage of using training images to mimic physical reality. This research presents a novel and efficient pixel-based multiple-point geostatistical simulation method for mineral resource modeling. Pixel-based simulation implies the sequential modeling of individual points on the simulation grid by borrowing spatial information from the training image and honoring conditioning data points. The developed method …

Stochastic Inversion Integrating Seismic Data, Litho-Facies Physical Properties, And Multiple-Point Geostatistics For Reservoir Characterization, Mohamed Mohamed

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

We proposed a novel seismic inversion approach that integrates the physical properties of litho-facies, and geophysical data, within the multiple-point geostatistical frameworks to reduce the uncertainty in predictions of litho-facies spatial arrangement away from wells or control points. The litho-facies groups (rock-type) in the well locations are defined and conditioned to the distribution of elastic properties, including P-wave velocity (Vp) and facies density (ρ) in the well locations. A conceptual geological model (training image) is utilized within a wavelet-based multiple-point geostatistical simulation (WAVESIM) algorithm to generate litho-facies realizations. In our inversion algorithm, the forward model is created by implementing the …

Severe Thunderstorms Create Windfall Of Opportunity For Ecosystem-Based Management Of Mixed Northern Hardwoods, Elizabeth Montgomery Barnes

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The regeneration and reorganization of organisms and their habitat post-disturbance is a primary mechanism by which ecosystems maintain functionality in a changing environment. This adaptation to disturbance lends dynamism and resiliency to landscapes. Yet, the 20^th century was marked by an alarming loss of global biodiversity, pointing to the likelihood that the rate of ecological disturbance generated by human systems today is either too frequent or too intense to be beneficial to ecosystems, and rather poses a risk to ecosystem functionality and the carrying capacity of Earth systems. Compounding these risks is high uncertainty regarding the potential for stronger, …

การประมาณปริมาตรของมันสำปะหลังโดยใช้กล้อง Rgb-D, ชนิกานต์ บัญชาจารุรัตน์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

มันสำปะหลังเป็นพืชที่ปลูกง่ายและปลูกเป็นจำนวนมากในประเทศไทย เครื่องมือที่เกี่ยวข้องในการตรวจวัดคุณภาพมันสำปะหลังหลังการเก็บเกี่ยวจนไปถึงก่อนแปรรูปที่ใช้ในปัจจุบันเป็นเครื่องมือที่ใช้หลักการวัดทางกลพื้นฐานและใช้ความรู้สึกของผู้ประเมินร่วมด้วย ทำให้มีโอกาสที่จะได้ผลประเมินที่ไม่เป็นความจริง วิทยานิพนธ์นี้เสนอแนวทางการตรวจวัดคุณภาพมันสำปะหลังในห่วงโซ่อุปทานโดยใช้กล้อง Kinect ซึ่งเป็นกล้อง RGB-D ถ่ายรูปภาพของหัวมันสำปะหลังเพื่อหาปริมาตรของมันสำปะหลัง การศึกษาทำโดยถ่ายภาพมันสำปะหลังพันธุ์เกษตรศาสตร์ 50 จำนวน 90 ตัวอย่างแล้วนำมาวิเคราะห์หาปริมาตรด้วยโปรแกรม MATLAB และใช้วิธีการประมาณปริมาตรมันสำปะหลัง 2 วิธีได้แก่ การประมาณปริมาตรโดยใช้ Depth image และการประมาณปริมาตรโดยใช้ Point Cloud image ทั้งสองวิธีการนี้มีพื้นฐานมาจากการหาปริมาตรของรูปทรงเรขาคณิต ผลการหาปริมาตรของมันสำปะหลังจากการประมาณด้วยวิธีการ depth image และวิธีการ point cloud image เมื่อนำมาพล็อตกับปริมาตรของมันสำปะหลังที่ได้จากวิธีการแทนที่น้ำให้ค่าความคลาดเคลื่อน RMSE เท่ากับ 66.94 มิลลิลิตรและ 41.4 มิลลิลิตร หรือคิดเป็นร้อยละ 21.12 และ 13.06 ตามลำดับเมื่อเทียบกับค่าเฉลี่ยของปริมาตรของหัวมันสำปะหลังจากวิธีการแทนที่น้ำ และค่า R-squared ที่ได้จากการประมาณทั้งสองวิธีมีค่า 0.9561 และ 0.9626 ดังนั้นจึงสรุปได้ว่าการประมาณปริมาตรหัวมันสำปะหลังด้วยวิธีการใช้รูป point cloud จะดีกว่าจากค่า R-squared ที่มากกว่าและค่า RMSE ที่น้อยกว่า ปริมาตรของมันสำปะหลังที่ประมาณด้วยรูปถ่ายนี้สามารถนำไปประยุกต์หาเปอร์เซ็นต์แป้งมันสำปะหลังได้

Speaking The Truth: Supporting Authentic Advocacy With Professional Identity Formation, Laura A. Webb

Law Faculty Publications

When law students are asked to articulate legal rules in a persuasive communication such as a brief, they may experience internal tension. Their version of the rule, as framed to benefit a particular client’s position, may be different from the way they would articulate the rule if they were not taking on an advocate’s role. The conflict between those two versions of a legal rule leads some students to wonder if advocacy itself is deceptive, if an advocate’s role requires one to sacrifice ethics for success, and if ancient Greek philosophers were correct when they derided persuasive communication as “trickery …

The Hidden Value Of Abandoned Applications To The Patent System, Christopher A. Cotropia, David L. Schwartz

Law Faculty Publications

Some inventors abandon their patent applications without ever receiving a patent. Although patent scholars view such abandoned patent applications as essentially worthless, we question that conventional wisdom. Conducting an empirical analysis of a recently released patent application dataset in light of a 1999 change that requires publication of most abandoned applications, we find that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) often uses abandoned applications as “prior art” when examining future patent applications. Abandoned applications thus generate an “administrative disclosure” that prevents the issuance of broader patent rights to later applicants. By narrowing the scope of new patents, abandoned …

Filling The California Federal District Court Vacancies, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

"President Donald Trump frequently argues that confirming federal appellate judges constitutes his quintessential success. The President and the Republican Senate majority have dramatically eclipsed appeals court records by appointing fifty-one conservative, young, and capable appellate court nominees, which leaves merely one vacancy across the country. Nonetheless, these approvals have imposed costs, especially among the plentiful district courts that address seventy-four openings in 677 judicial positions.

The most striking example is the four California districts, which realize seventeen pressing vacancies among sixty posts. The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO), the federal judiciary’s administrative arm, designates all of them …

Patent-Eligible Subject Matter... Still Wielding The Wrong Weapon - 12 Years Later, Kristen Jakobsen Osenga

Law Faculty Publications

I am delighted to have participated in the Second Annual Intellectual Property Redux Conference and to publish this essay. I rarely look back at my older articles, but in Fall 2018 I was asked to give a keynote address at a conference held by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), where the organizers asked me to speak about 35 U.S.C. § 101 and patent-eligible subject matter. In preparing my remarks, I had the opportunity to refer back to one of my earliest scholarly pieces—a 2007 article entitled Ants, Elephant Guns, and Statutory Subject Matter, published in the Arizona State Law Journal.1 …

Filling The Federal District Court Vacancies, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

"President Donald Trump’s major success has been confirming judges for the thirteen federal appellate courts. The President shattered records by appointing a dozen circuit jurists in his administration’s first year, eighteen judges over the course of 2018, and twenty additional judges throughout his third year. Indeed, by June 2019, the appeals courts experienced four vacancies in 179 judgeships and today, only one position remains empty. This achievement is critical, as these tribunals are the courts of last resort for nearly every appeal, and appellate court opinions articulate greater policy than district court rulings and cover multiple states.

However, that accomplishment …

Supporting Novice Mathematics Teacher Educators Teaching Elementary Mathematics Content Courses For The First Time, Siobahn Suppa, Joseph Dinapoli, Eva Thanheiser, Jennifer M. Tobias, Sheunghyun Yeo

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In order to be effectively prepared by a teacher education program, prospective elementary teachers (PTs) need to experience high quality mathematics instruction in their mathematics content courses. The instructors of these courses typically consist of individuals (mathematicians and mathematics educators) with ranging experiences, from tenured faculty members to first-year assistant professors or graduate students. This paper explores how to support novice mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) who are teaching elementary content coursework for PTs for the first time. We detail and describe how to implement three systems for supporting novice MTEs: working with a mentor, being provided with educative curriculum materials, …

A Primer On Laplacian Dynamics In Directed Graphs, J. J. P. Veerman, R. Lyons

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We analyze the asymptotic behavior of general first order Laplacian processes on digraphs. The most important ones of these are diffusion and consensus with both continuous and discrete time. We treat diffusion and consensus as dual processes. This is the first complete exposition of this material in a single work.

Naked Price And Pharmaceutical Trade Secret Overreach, Robin C. Feldman, Charles Graves

Faculty Scholarship

Trade secret has drifted from a quiet backwater doctrine to a pervasive force in intellectual property. As always, the risk of distortion is great when a legal arena is developing and expanding rapidly. Nowhere do the theoretical tensions of trade secret law appear in such stark relief as in the modern pharmaceutical debates, where the heart of the theoretical question involves whether pricing is a proper subject for trade secrecy claims.

We aim to bring trade secret into greater harmony with broad concepts that reach across all intellectual property regimes. As with other areas of intellectual property law, trade secret …

Moral Character: Making Sense Of The Experiences Of Bar Applicants With Criminal Records, Hadar Aviram

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

In Vivo Activity Of Copper(Ii), Manganese(Ii), And Silver(I) 1,10-Phenanthroline Chelates, Rafael M. Ghandra, Pauraic Mccarron, Livia Viganor, Mariana Farias Fernandes, Kevin Kavanagh, Malachy Mccann, Marta H. Branquinha, André L.S. Santos, Orla L. Howe, Michael Devereux

Articles

Candida haemulonii is an emerging opportunistic pathogen resistant to most antifungal drugs currently used in clinical arena. Metal complexes containing 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) chelating ligands have well-established anti-Candida activity against different medically relevant species. This study utilized larvae of Galleria mellonella, a widely used model of in vivo infection, to examine C. haemulonii infection characteristics in response to different copper(II), manganese(II), and silver(I) chelates containing phen, which had demonstrated potent anti-C. haemulonii activity in a previous study. The results showed that C. haemulonii virulence was influenced by inoculum size and incubation temperature, and the host G. mellonella immune …

I Was Determined To Breastfeed, And I Always Found A Solution: Successful Experiences Of Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Chinese Mothers In Ireland, John Kearney, Qianling Zhou, Haoyue Chen, Katherine Younger, Tanya M. Cassidy

Articles

Background: The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding for at least 4 months was previously found to be very low among Chinese immigrants in Ireland, at 5.8% (Zhou et al., Front Public Health 6:351, 2018). This study investigates the successful experiences of Chinese mothers living in Ireland who exclusively breastfeed for between four and 6 months.

Methods: Participants were recruited from the sample of the Ireland Chinese Mother Survey. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with fourteen participants in their homes or public places.

Results: A content analysis revealed that various factors contributed to a successful experience of exclusive breastfeeding among the group …

Vibrational Spectroscopy Of Liquid Biopsies For Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Dinesh Medipally, Daniel Cullen, Valérie Untereiner, G.D. Sockalingum, Adrian Maguire, T.N.Q. Nguyen, Jane Bryant, Emma Noone, Shirley Bradshaw, Marie Finn, Mary Dunne, Aoife M. Shannon, John Armstrong, Aidan Meade, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Background: Screening for prostate cancer with prostate specific antigen and digital rectal examination allows early diagnosis of prostate malignancy but has been associated with poor sensitivity and specificity. There is also a considerable risk of over-diagnosis and overtreatment, which highlights the need for better tools for diagnosis of prostate cancer. This study investigates the potential of high throughput Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy of liquid biopsies for rapid and accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Methods: Blood samples (plasma and lymphocytes) were obtained from healthy control subjects and prostate cancer patients. FTIR and Raman spectra were recorded from plasma …

Adherence To Dietary And Physical Activity Guidelines Among Shift Workers: Associations With Individual And Work-Related Factors, Ciara Kelly, Fiona M. Nea, Kirsty Pourshahidi, John Kearney, Victoria M O'Brien, M Barbara E Livingstone, Clare Corish

Articles

Objectives Shift work is associated with adverse effects on the health and lifestyle behaviours of employees. This study aimed to examine factors associated with adherence among shift workers to selected indicators of dietary and physical activity guidelines. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1300 shift workers. Data were collected using a 15 minute telephone-administered questionnaire. Logistic regression methods were used for data analysis. Results Male shift workers (p

Antimicrobial Action Of 1,10-Phenanthroline-Based Compoundson Carbapenemase-Producing Acinetobacter Baumannii Clinical Strains: Efficacy Against Planktonic- And Biofilm-Growing Cells, Roberta F. Ventura, Anna Clara M. Galdino, Livia Viganor, Ricardo P. Schuenck, Michael Devereux, Malachy Mccann, André L.S. Santos, Ana Paula F. Nunes

Articles

Therapeutic options are limited for patients infected with Acinetobacter baumannii due to its multidrug-resistance profile. So, the search for new antimicrobials against this gram-negative bacterial pathogen has become a worldwide priority. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione (phendione), [Ag(phendione)2]ClO4 (Ag-phendione) and [Cu(phendione)3](ClO4)2.4H2O (Cu-phendione) on 26 carbapenemase-producing A. baumannii strains. The susceptibility to carbapenems was performed by detecting the metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) genes by PCR and by determining the MIC. Also, disk diffusion method was applied to evaluate the susceptibility to other antimicrobial classes. The test compounds were evaluated on both planktonic- and biofilm-growing bacterial cells. …

Are Maternal Feeding Practices And Mealtime Emotions Associated With Toddlers’ Food Neophobia?A Follow-Up To The Dit-Coombe Hospital Birth Cohort In Ireland, Meijing An, Qianling Zhou, Katherine Younger, Xiyao Liu, John M. Kearney

Articles

This study was conducted to explore the associations between maternal feeding practices,mealtime emotions, as well as maternal food neophobia and toddlers’ food neophobia in Ireland.A follow-up to the Technological University Dublin (DIT)-Coombe Hospital birth cohort wasconducted. Mothers in the original cohort were invited to the present study by telephone calls.Postal questionnaires with stamped addressed envelopes were distributed to those who agreed toparticipate in the study. Toddler food neophobia was assessed by the modified version of the ChildFood Neophobia Scale (CFNS). There were 205 participants included in this study, with a median scoreof child food neophobia of 12. A higher degree …

Dietary Fat Intakes In Irish Children: Changes Between 2005 And 2019, Aileen O’Connor, Maria Buffini, Anne Nugent, Laura Kehoe, Albert Flynn, Janette Walton, John Kearney, Breige Mcnulty

Articles

Objective:To examine current dietary fat intakes and compliance in Irish childrenand to examine changes in intakes from 2005 to 2019.Design:Analyses were based on data from the Irish National Children’s FoodSurvey (NCFS) and the NSFS II, two cross-sectional studies that collected detailedfood and beverage intake data through 7-day and 4-day weighed food diaries,respectively.Setting:NCFS and NCFS II, Republic of Ireland.Participants:A nationally representative sample of 594 (NCFS) and 600 (NCFS II)children aged 5–12 years. Current intakes from the NCFS II were compared withthose previously reported in the NCFS (www.iuna.net).Results:Current intakes of total fat, SFA, MUFA, PUFA andtransfat as a percentageof total energy are …