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Novel Precursors For Carbon Fiber Prepared By Direct Carbonization, Leah Noble

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

For decades carbon fiber-based composites have been most heavily employed in lightweight, structural applications where low density and high strength are necessary, most notably within the aerospace industry. However, the advancement of carbon fiber into a wider array of industries has largely been limited by the high financial and energetic costs associated with its manufacture. Moreover, with an increasing societal emphasis on sustainability, there is an ever-growing desire for low-energy carbon fiber production pathways. One such pathway is the conversion of precursor fiber to carbon fiber by direct carbonization, wherein the energy-intensive, pre-carbonization stabilization step is omitted from the carbonization …

Volume 37, Full Contents, Jhcs Staff

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

No abstract provided.

Ivermectin, Colleen Aldous, Eleftherios Gkioulekas, Philip Oldfield

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Myokine Probdnf-P75ntr Signaling In Skeletal Muscle Injury And Sterile Inflammation, Katherine Aby

Dissertations and Theses

Originally discovered in the brain, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been shown to be expressed and released from skeletal muscle as a myokine. However, the function of myokine BDNF is not fully understood. Of interest to this study is the function of the BDNF precursor proBDNF in skeletal muscle. We first show that skeletal muscle expresses unique BDNF splice variants compared to the brain, and at the protein level, skeletal muscle expresses significantly more proBDNF than mature BDNF under basal conditions. Consistent with this, expression of major protein convertases in skeletal muscle were significantly lower. The role of myokine proBDNF …

The Effects Of The Video Modeling Product Gemiini© On Verbal Response Production Of Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder Who Are Nonspeaking Or Minimally Speaking, Miranda Ann Galvin

Dissertations and Theses

The current study evaluates the effectiveness of the commercial video modeling program GemIIni© (GemIIni© Educational Systems, 2012) in increasing expressive spoken language production in individuals who exhibit characteristics of autism spectrum disorder and are considered nonspeaking or minimally speaking. Based upon the principles of Applied Behavioral Analysis, video modeling has been identified as an evidence-based practice in teaching skills to students with disabilities. In this study, the criteria for using a single-case alternating treatment design embedded within an AB experimental design was implemented to evaluate the effect of the video modeling system on the number of responses produced.

Bolivian Indigenous Quakerism, Emma C. Mamani

Quaker Religious Thought

Bolivians received the tradition of Quakerism from a group of young adult Friends missionaries from the United States of America in 1919. Bolivia is a multicultural country because of the thirty-six Indigenous communities that make up seventy percent of the Bolivian population. Bolivian Quakerism has kept the roots of Quakerism practiced by early Friends since 1919, yet the influence of Indigenous traditions is also present: in the worship service format, in Bolivian Quakers’ theology, and in church work. Quakers in Bolivia are a Christ-centered, evangelical, and programmed faith community in South America. I was born in an Indigenous Quaker family. …

Whiteness And Quaker Universalism In Britain, Mark D. Russ

Quaker Religious Thought

In this article I do not address Fox’s message or his cultural limitations. Rather, I turn this question back on to the Quaker universalist discourse itself. How is the theology of the Quaker Universalist Group shaped by the conditions of its time?

Association Between Serum Procalcitonin Level With Exacerbation Severity In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients, Dalia Abdellateif Abdelghany, Shimaa R. Hendawy, Rania Mostafa, Heba Wagih Abdelwahab

Mansoura Medical Journal

Background: There is a significant impact on morbidity, mortality, and quality of life due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations. Individuals with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease had considerably higher mean serum procalcitonin levels (PCT) compared to individuals with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to previous investigations. Objective: This study aimed to assess whether procalcitonin levels were associated with the severity of exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Methods: thirty-nine patients who were suffering from an acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were included. Included patients were classified as having either no respiratory failure, …

A Bayesian Analysis Of E-Cigarette Risk Perceptions In The United Kingdom, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Public Health England has communicated that e-cigarettes provide at least a 95% risk reduction compared to conventional cigarettes. This article's survey evidence indicates that adults in the United Kingdom believe that e-cigarettes are only 30%–40% safer overall and that they reduce lung cancer risks and total mortality risks by a similar percentage. A Bayesian analysis of risk beliefs finds that e-cigarette risk perceptions are anchored on prior cigarette risk beliefs. The public, especially smokers, underestimates the magnitude of the risk reduction being communicated by public health officials. Those who are aware of e-cigarette messages from Public Health England assess lower …

Lower Courts After Loper Bright, Lisa Schultz Bressman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

If Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overrules or ousts Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. National Resources Defense Council, Inc., its “consequences will be enormous, and almost uniformly bad.” The decision will instantly destabilize federal law across all sectors of the national economy. It also will undo another longstanding precedent and reinforce the public’s negative perception of the Court. These effects are certain, and they are reason enough not to dislodge a bedrock principle. Less certain are Loper Bright’s precise effects on judicial deference and agency authority. Those effects depend on the new rule that emerges, as to which Court-watchers …

The Impact Of Banning Confidential Settlements On Discrimination Dispute Resolution, Joni Hersch, Blair D. Bullock

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The #MeToo movement exposed how workplace harassment plagues employment in the United States. Several states responded by passing legislation aimed at curbing harassment and employment discrimination in the workplace. One of the most common legislative efforts was to ban confidentiality provisions in certain settlement agreements. These bans, in part, attempted to stop “secret settlements” by shining light on workplace discrimination and exposing serial harassers as a means to motivate firms to actively deter workplace discrimination.

But do bans on confidentiality agreements deter the bad act? For these laws to have a deterrent effect, claims must be revealed in a public …

Exacting Assessments: Sheetz And The Problem Of Stategraft, Christopher Serkin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In the spring of 2024, the United States Supreme Court decided Sheetz v. County of El Dorado. The case resolved a long-standing question: whether the constitutional rules applying to ad hoc development exactions also apply to legislated exactions. They do. It is an important case, and one that may reconfigure the financing of municipal infrastructure. This Essay examines the case through the lens of Professor Bernadette Atuahene's concept of "stategraft," or the government illegally using its regulatory power to raise money from the poor and politically powerless. This Essay compares legislative exactions to other forms of municipal finance like special …

Thoughts On Corporate Law And The Problem Of Human Capital, Margaret Blair

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The theme of this Symposium takes me back more than thirty years to work I did on corporations and human capital at the Brookings Institution in the 1990s. Although I have been on the faculty of law schools since 2000, I am not a lawyer, and in fact, never went to law school. I did my Ph.D. in economics, and I wrote my dissertation on merger waves-in particular, I developed a macroeconomic theory to explain the wave of corporate mergers and takeo- vers that happened in the 1980s. The most prominent and popular idea about takeovers at the time was …

Household Food Waste Generation In High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review And Pooled Analysis Between 2010 And 2022, Courage Y. Krah, Majid Bahramian, Paul Hynds, Anushree Priyadarshini

Articles

Based on the high volume of research pertaining to household food waste (FW) generation, a significant proportion of existing studies present findings that lack comparability and general transferability, largely due to their confinement to individual countries or regions. Likewise, results frequently exhibit considerable variability and cross-study incongruities. Merging individual studies into broader scoping reviews can elucidate the underlying reasons for this variability between studies, enhance overall comparability and generalizability of findings, and subsequently expand overall applicability. The current scoping review and pooled analysis examined household FW generation data from high-income countries using the Population Concept Context (PCC) framework, identifying and …

Classification Of White Blood Cells (Leucocytes) From Blood Smear Imagery Using Machine And Deep Learning Models: A Global Scoping Review, Rabia Asghar, Sanjay Kumar, Arslan Shaukat, Paul Hynds

Conference papers

Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models are being increasingly employed for medical imagery analyses, with both approaches used to enhance the accuracy of classification/prediction in the diagnoses of various cancers, tumors and bloodborne diseases. To date however, no review of these techniques and their application(s) within the domain of white blood cell (WBC) classification in blood smear images has been undertaken, representing a notable knowledge gap with respect to model selection and comparison. Accordingly, the current study sought to comprehensively identify, explore and contrast ML and DL methods for classifying WBCs. Following development and implementation of a formalized …

Automatic Classification Of 10 Blood Cell Subtypes Using Transfer Learning Via Pre-Trained Convolutional Neural Networks, Rabia Asghar, Sanjay Kumar, Paul Hynds

Articles

Human blood is primarily composed of plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. It plays a vital role in transporting oxygen and nutrients to all organs, and stores essential health-related data about the human body. Blood cells are utilized to defend the body against infections and disease. Hence, analysis of blood permits physicians to assess an individual's physiological condition. Blood cells are sub-classified into eight groups: Neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, immature granulocytes (promyelocytes, myelocytes, and metamyelocytes), erythroblasts, and platelets (thrombocytes) on the basis of their nucleus, shape and cytoplasm. Traditionally, pathologists and hematologists have identified and examined …

Influence Of Seasonality And Public-Health Interventions On The Covid-19 Pandemic In Northern Europe, Gerry A. Quinn, Michael Connolly, Norman E. Fenton, Steven J. Hatfill, Paul Hynds, Coilín Óhaiseadha, Karol Sikora, Willie Soon, Ronan Connolly

Articles

Background: Most government efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic revolved around non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and vaccination. However, many respiratory diseases show distinctive seasonal trends. In this manuscript, we examined the contribution of these three factors to the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Pearson correlation coefficients and time-lagged analysis were used to examine the relationship between NPIs, vaccinations and seasonality (using the average incidence of endemic human beta-coronaviruses in Sweden over a 10-year period as a proxy) and the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic as tracked by deaths; cases; hospitalisations; intensive care unit occupancy and testing positivity rates in six …

Development Of A “Big Data” Groundwater Microbial Contamination Index And Spatial Comparisons With Enteric Infection Rates In Southern Ontario, Ioan Petculescu, Paul Hynds, R. Stephen Brown, Martin Boudou, Kevin Mcdermott, Anna Majury

Articles

Big data have become increasingly important for policymakers and scientists but have yet to be employed for the development of spatially specific groundwater contamination indices or protecting human and environmental health. The current study sought to develop a series of indices via analyses of three variables: Non-E. coli coliform (NEC) concentration, E. coli concentration, and the calculated NEC:E. coli concentration ratio. A large microbial water quality dataset comprising 1,104,094 samples collected from 292,638 Ontarian wells between 2010 and 2021 was used. Getis-Ord Gi* (Gi*), Local Moran's I (LMI), and space-time scanning were employed for index development based on identified cluster …

The Use Of E. Coli Phylogrouping And Microbial Source Tracking (Non-Species Specific, Human-Specific, Bovine-Specific Bacteroidales Markers) To Elucidate Hydro(Geo)Logical Contamination Mechanisms In Southeastern Ontario, Canada, Madeleine Kelly, Paul Hynds, R. Stephen Brown, Kevin Mcdermott, Ioan Petculescu, Anna L. Majury

Articles

In Ontario, monitoring, maintenance, and treatment of private drinking systems (e.g. wells) are the responsibility of the well owner. Fecal contamination of drinking water threatens public health, particularly in rural communities which are often fully reliant on unregulated private groundwater as a primary drinking water source. Private well users face a higher risk of acute gastrointestinal illness compared to those served by municipally operated systems (Murphy et al., 2016). Accordingly, the current study sought to characterize the fecal indicator, E. coli, isolated from southeastern Ontario private groundwater wells, including phylogroups and host source. Results were examined in the context of …

A Rapid On-Site Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Technology As An Early Warning System For The Detection Of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia Coli In Water, Zina Alfahl, Sean Biggins, Owen Higgins, Alexandra Chueiri, Terry J. Smith, Dearbháile Morris, Jean O'Dwyer, Paul D. Hynds, Liam P. Burke, Louise O'Connor

Articles

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is an important waterborne pathogen capable of causing serious gastrointestinal infections with potentially fatal complications, including haemolytic–uremic syndrome. All STEC serogroups harbour genes that encode at least one Shiga toxin (stx1 and/or stx2), which constitute the primary virulence factors of STEC. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) enables rapid real-time pathogen detection with a high degree of specificity and sensitivity. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an on-site portable diagnostics workstation employing LAMP technology to permit rapid real-time STEC detection in environmental water samples. Water samples (n=28) were collected from groundwater wells (n=13), …

‘If It Works, Don't Fix It': A Qualitative Study Of Knowledge, Perception, And Behaviour Among Private Well Owners In Southeastern Ontario, Sarah Lavallee, Tessa Latchmore, Rylan Egan, Paul D. Hynds, R. Stephen Brown, Anna Majury

Conference papers

Private well owners in Ontario are responsible for maintaining their wells and monitoring the quality of their well water supplies. Protective actions including well maintenance, treatment and regular water quality testing are crucial in preventing well water contamination and reducing exposure to waterborne pathogens, however participation rates are low. The current study sought to explore knowledge, perceptions, and behaviours among private well owners in two communities in southeastern Ontario (i.e., Town of Greater Napanee and Stone Mills Township) and contextualize relationships between motivators and barriers to undertaking protective actions. Semi-structured interviews were used to collate data from 40 private well …

Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment Of Commercial And Household Food Waste: A Critical Global Review Of Emerging Techniques, Majid Bahramian, Paul Dylan Hynds, Anushree Priyadarshini

Articles

DLCA has been applied to several food waste streams, however, to date no critical assessment of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) is available in the scientific literature. Accordingly, the present review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the available literature on DLCA and its application to Household and Commercial Food Waste (HCFW) by providing critical assessment and perspectives for future research. The Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) framework for literature review was employed, with just 12 relevant studies identified between 1999 and 2022, highlighting a dearth of research on DLCA of food waste and the need …

Individual Dignity As The Foundation Of An Inclusive Society, Cory R. Liu, Anthony Pericolo

SMU Law Review

In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, the Supreme Court considered voluminous evidence that Harvard discriminated against Asian Americans to keep the racial composition of its student body similar year after year. The Court held that Harvard engaged in unlawful discrimination, providing clarity to an area of the law that was filled with ambiguities and self-contradictions. The Court’s decision made clear that discrimination in favor of some racial groups necessarily inflicts discriminatory, race-based harms on others.

This Article explores how Fair Admissions sheds light on the failure of identity politics to create a genuinely …

Social Media And Social Reform: Why States Should Consider Protecting The Rising Kidfluencers, Rina Wong

SMU Law Review

The rise of social media in the twenty-first century has led to multi-million-dollar careers for influencers, adults, and children alike. Similarly, the rise of child influencers, often colloquially coined as “kidfluencers,” have raised legal issues because kidfluencers are currently unprotected by child labor laws. The Coogan Law, enacted in 1939 to protect child performers in California and similar laws across the United States do not currently apply to kidfluencers. This places kidfluencers at a severe risk of having their financial earnings squandered by their parents or guardians managing their funds.

Fortunately for kidfluencers, legislators both domestically and internationally have started …

Exergetic Indicators For Evaluation Of High Bypass Turbofan Engine At Take-Off Condition, Fahad G. Alharbi, Mohamed H. Mohamed, Bandar M. Fadhl

Trends in advanced sciences and technology

Aircraft engines consume significant amounts of energy while energy sources depletion, climate change and greenhouse emission effects are rising problems worldwide. Exergy analysis has been a proven useful tool to examine and assess the performance of different energy systems. In this paper, several exergetic performance indicators are performed to evaluate CFM56-5B3 high bypass turbofan engine components namely the fan, low-pressure compressor (LPC), high-pressure compressor (HPC), combustion chamber (CC), high-pressure turbine (HPT), low-pressure turbine (LPT) and exhaust nozzle (EN) at take-off. The results indicate that the combustion chamber is the most irreversible component within the engine with an exergy destruction value …

A Case Of Amyloidosis Presenting With Nephrotic Syndrome And Acute Renal Failure, Ahmed Ali, Ahmed Abdelhaleem, Farrah Ibrahim, Ali Hachem

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2024 clinical vignette poster

Psyched For Surgery — Preoperative Evaluation Of A Patient With Extensive Psychiatric History, Ashely Archer, Fizza Mahmood, Tarak Vasavada

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2024 clinical vignette poster

Id: Identifying Best Practices For Patients With Intellectual Disabilities, Jacqueline Beard, Nikki Ahuja, Yesenia Lopez, Meredith Lewis

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2024 clinical vignette poster

Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome Leading To Diagnosis Of Acute Post‐Infectious Glomerulonephritis In A Pediatric Patient: A Case Report, Samuel B. Hayworth, Desalyn L. Johnson, Erinn O. Schmit

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2024 clinical vignette poster

The Mental Health Crisis In Schools, Madison Jeziorski, Clinton Martin, Zachary Gilliam, Janaki Nimmgadda

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2024 clinical vignette poster