Digital Commons Network^™

Scares: A Clinician Guide To Spinal Cord Awareness, Response, And Emergency Support Creation And Implantation Of Scares Protocol Among Hospitalist Advanced Practice Providers, Brittany Biega

DNP Scholarly Projects

While they are more common in patients with oncological disease and trauma, SCE still exist among patients without these comorbidities. Less has been established regarding care protocols in this population. The absence of standardized procedures has been linked to preventable, adverse patient outcomes, including cases of permanent damage due to delayed treatment. This project employs Lean Six Sigma methodologies and Johns Hopkins Evidence- Based Practice to devise a robust SCE protocol, aimed at standardizing care and improving patient outcomes. A multidisciplinary team including general medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, and neuroradiology developed “Spinal Emergency Management Guidelines” protocol, which was implemented within the …

Effectiveness Of Diversion Tube On Peripheral Blood Culture Contamination Rates From Intravenous Catheters In A Community Hospital Emergency Department, Anne Meginniss

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Obtaining blood cultures is routine care for patients who are suspected to have sepsis. Contaminated blood cultures can lead to increased healthcare costs for patients suspected of sepsis. Reducing contaminated specimens could improve the quality of care delivered as well as increase patient satisfaction.

AIM: This quality improvement project aimed to reduce the number of contaminated blood cultures in a community hospital emergency department by using an initial specimen diversion tube to meet the new national benchmark of below 1% contamination rate.

METHODS: Twenty-seven diversion specimens were collected over an eight-week period via initial intravenous catheter insertion in a …

Impact Of Personal Continuous Glucose Monitor Use During Hospitalization On Rates Of Hypoglycemia And Provider Confidence, Rebecca Longo

DNP Scholarly Projects

Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) are an essential tool for managing diabetes in the outpatient setting, helping individuals achieve glucose goals. However, CGMs are not currently FDA-approved for use in the hospital setting. Despite this limitation, many individuals continue using their personal CGM during hospitalization or begin using them prior to discharge if the care team believes the technology will support glucose management during and after leaving the hospital.

This project aimed to evaluate whether individuals using personal CGMs during hospitalization experienced less hypoglycemia and whether reviewing CGM data could improve provider confidence in insulin dosing. While initiating CGM use during …

Experimental Investigation Of High-Temperature Brine-Shale Interactions, Anna Atasha Hoffmann

Doctoral Dissertations

"Hydrofracturing (fracking), a common practice in the Petroleum Industry to induce or improve fluid flow in tight formations, creates chemical disequilibrium that further alters the porosity and permeability of host rocks and results in the production of saline and contaminated produced waters (PW). The PW of the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) are Na-Ca-Mg-K-Cl brines with mean concentrations of approximately 16% Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and circumneutral pH. Analysis of composition suggests the PW result from a 20 to 80% dilution of formation waters (relict brines of the Louann Salt) by fracking fluid. Trace element concentrations generally show moderate to strong …

The Comprehensive Study Of High Viscosity Friction Reducers In High-Tds And High-Temperature Environments, Xiaojing Ge

Doctoral Dissertations

"High viscosity friction reducers (HVFRs) have been recently gaining more attention and increasing in use, not only as friction-reducing agents but also as proppant carriers. Reusing of produced water has also been driven by both environmental and economic benefits. Currently, most friction reducers on the market are anionic friction reducers, which are fully compatible with most produced water with low to medium level of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) but show a significant drop at high TDS conditions in term of their friction reduction performance in most cases. On the contrary, cationic friction reducers are believed to have better TDS tolerance …

Communication Modality And Activity Recognition In Smart Manufacturing, Haodong Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

"Advancements in sensors, computational intelligence, and big data have been rapidly transforming and revolutionizing the manufacturing sector, leading to robot-rich and digitally connected factories. To facilitate such a transformative process, workforce training and coordination between the human workforce and robots have remained a major challenge. This study aims to create intelligent workforce training systems for human-computer interaction and human-robot collaboration. It proposes the use of dynamic gestures and speech commands for seamless communication between a worker and a robot, leveraging Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and multiple threading for recognition and integration. Additionally, a fine-grained activity recognition model has been crafted …

Optimization Of Fire Emergency Preparedness In Underground Mining Environments: An Agent-Based Evacuation Approach, Oluwafemi Babatunde Salami

Doctoral Dissertations

"Underground mining environments present a complex interplay of thermal and non-thermal hazards, with fires constituting a significant risk due to the release of heat smoke from incomplete combustion. The propagation of these hazards through the ventilation networks underscores the critical need for understanding fire scenarios and their interaction with the underground environment. Existing knowledge regarding past mine fire disasters, and quantification of associated hazards and risks are insufficient for optimizing emergency evacuation strategies in the event of an underground fire emergency.

This research endeavors to bridge this gap by developing advanced quantitative risk assessment and evacuation models tailored specifically for …

Investigating The Potential Of Blended Feedstocks For Biofuel Production Via Pyrolysis Process: Experimental And Aspen Simulation Approach, Hasan Jawad Hammood Al-Abedi

Doctoral Dissertations

"The development of renewable energy sources has become increasingly urgent considering the climate crisis and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Pyrolysis, which is decomposition of an organic feedstock without oxygen, is a thermo-chemical process that has garnered significant attention as a promising technology for sustainable energy production, capable of converting biomass and waste materials into biofuels.

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis behaviors of corn stover (CS), refuse-derived fuel (RDF), and oil shale (OS) in equal mass ratios. Utilizing a thermogravimetric analyzer and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the co-pyrolysis process is …

Uncertainty Quantification For Peec Based On Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Network, Yuan Ping, Yanming Zhang, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article proposes a modified generative adversarial network (GAN)-based approach, namely Wasserstein GAN (WGAN), for the uncertainty quantification (UQ) in partial equivalent element circuit (PEEC) models. Initially, the stochastic PEEC is constructed to obtain the sample data of the quantities of interest (QoI). This sample data, along with the fake data from the generator, serves as input for the discriminator in WGAN. The loss function of the generator in WGAN is constructed using the Wasserstein distance to provide a more usable gradient than that in the traditional GAN. By estimating the distribution of sample data using the fake data in …

Evaluation Of Transfer Learning Models On Traumatic Brain Injury Severity Classification, Ngoc Do, Daniel B. Hier, Tayo Obafemi-Ajayi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

After traumatic brain injury (TBI), clinicians use the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) to classify patients by severity and radiologists use the Rotterdam score and the Marshall score to classify CT scans by severity. This work investigates a viable efficient low-cost transfer learning model to use MRI images to predict GCS, Rotterdam, and Marshall severity class after TBI. The enhanced transfer learning model architecture integrates multiple fine-tuning steps in which a few layers of the pre-trained model is unfrozen in each iteration so that the neural network is able to learn layer by layer further aspects of the image for better …

Low Noise Wireless Sensing In Termite Detection, Wei Zhang, Xiangshu Qi, Yunlong Luo, Alex Qi, Yihong Qi, Gang Feng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Termites cause enormous financial damages all around the world every year. The majority of research on wireless sensing is always concerned with the various human-centric applications, however, the vast potential of wireless sensing for termite detection is often disregarded. In this article, a Wireless Intelligent Sensing (WISe) millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar system for termite detection is proposed. Here, we design a three-layer architecture with some intelligent resources to monitor the movement signs of the termites. In addition, we present a low noise sensing architecture that minimizes the noise in hardware and digital signal processing, which can reduce the impact of environment …

Dk And Df Characterization Of Low-Loss Dielectric Liquid By Cylindrical Cavity Resonator, Chaofeng Li, Seyedmehdi Mousavi, Reza Asadi, Seyedmostafa Mousavi, Reza Vahdani, Xiaoning Ye, Kai Wang, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel cylindrical cavity resonator-based measurement method was developed to characterize the dielectric property of the low-loss dielectric liquid in the paper. The proposed method can be used to accurately measure the dielectric constant (Dk) and the loss tangent (Df) of the low-loss coolant for signal integrity analysis. The cylindrical cavity resonator works at tangential magnetic (TM010) mode is used in the paper to demonstrate the proposed method. A cylindrical cavity resonator apparatus was designed and investigated using full-wave simulations at first. The relative error of Dk and Df extractions based on the designed apparatus are less than 1% and …

In-Plane And Out-Of-Plane 2-D Microdisplacement Sensor Based On A Single Microwave Resonator With Machine Learning, Shiyu Li, Osamah Alsalman, Jie Huang, Chen Zhu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Microwave displacement sensors have garnered significant research interest in recent years and have found successful applications in industrial automation and aerospace engineering. However, most microwave sensors are limited to measuring in-plane displacement, with the assumption that out-of-plane displacement remains constant during operation. In this work, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel concept for 2-D micro displacement sensing that simultaneously measures both in-plane and out-of-plane displacement. We developed a proof-of-concept sensor system based on a custom-made coaxial cable resonator (CCR) serving as the stator and a rubber-metal heterogeneous plate as the movable part. The in-plane and out-of-plane micromovements of the …

Statistical Eye Diagrams For High-Speed Interconnects Of Packages: A Review, Junyong Park, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An eye diagram, a critical metric in signal integrity analysis for high-speed interconnects such as packages, interposer, and printed circuit boards (PCBs), is generated by superposition of the received waveform. Obtaining an eye diagram is time-consuming, thus signal integrity analysis is inefficient. This article reviews that have been proposed to overcome this limitation. The statistical eye diagram provides a probability distribution depending on a sampling time and voltage, therefore it can be expanded to other metrics, such as the bit-error rate and shmoo plot. This article introduces previous research on statistical eye diagrams applied to complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOSs), noise, and …

Optical Fiber Sensors Based On Advanced Vernier Effect - A Review, Wassana Naku, Jie Huang, Chen Zhu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Optical Vernier Effect Has Emerged as a Powerful Tool for Enhancing the Sensitivity of Optical Fiber Interferometer-Based Sensors, Ushering in a New Era of Highly Sensitive Fiber Sensing Systems. While Previous Research Has Primarily Focused on the Physical Implementation of Vernier Effect-Based Sensors using Different Combinations of Interferometers, Conventional Vernier Sensors Face Several Challenges. These Include the Stringent Requirements on the Sensor Fabrication Accuracy to Achieve a Large Amplification Factor, the Necessity of using a Source with a Very Large Bandwidth and a Bulky Optical Spectrum Analyzer, and the Associated Complex Signal Demodulation Processes. This Article Delves into Recent …

Addressing Reactive Power Sharing In Parallel Inverter Islanded Microgrid Through Deep Reinforcement Learning, Oroghene Oboreh-Snapps, Sophia A. Strathman, Jonathan Saelens, Arnold Fernandes, Jonathan W. Kimball

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Parallel Inverter Microgrids (MGs) Present a Significant Challenge in the Form of Inverter-Based Distributed Generators (IBDGs) Connected with Varying Line Impedances, Potentially Leading to Substantial Reactive Power-Sharing Errors (RPSE). This Paper Proposes the Fusion of Data-Driven Control into the Conventional Virtual Synchronous Generator in a Bid to Minimize the Sharing Error. First, All State Variables Associated with Each IBDG in the Microgrid Are Sensed and Used as Input Data for a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) Agent. Next, the DRL Agent, motivated by a Unique Reward Function, is Trained to Satisfy Two Objectives: (1) Ensure the Output Voltage of All IBDGs …

Empowering Urban Traffic Management: Elevated 3d Lidar For Data Collection And Advanced Object Detection Analysis, Nawfal Guefrachi, Hakim Ghazzai, Ahmad Alsharoa

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The 3D object detection capabilities in urban environments have been enormously improved by recent developments in Light Detection and Range (LiDAR) technology. This paper presents a novel framework that transforms the detection and analysis of 3D objects in traffic scenarios by utilizing the power of elevated LiDAR sensors. We are presenting our methodology's remarkable capacity to collect complex 3D point cloud data, which allows us to accurately and in detail capture the dynamics of urban traffic. Due to the limitation in obtaining real-world traffic datasets, we utilize the simulator to generate 3D point cloud for specific scenarios. To support our …

Angle-Dependent Photoinduced Changes Of Near-Infrared Transmission In Amorphous Selenium Films, Kaitlin Hellier, Emily Enlow, Seyedehnajmeh Montazeri, Mina Esmaeelpour, Shiva Abbaszadeh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Amorphous selenium (a-Se) is a promising semiconductor for a variety of photoconductive applications, predominantly in X-ray detection. In addition, material properties introduce several other potential applications in nonlinear optics. Photodarkening (PD) presents an interesting area of study; when exposed to band-region light, metastable structural changes induce a shift in the band edge and increase tail absorption. In this work, we investigate these effects utilizing a near-infrared (NIR) probe to avoid generating any darkening during beam transmission. We observe an unexpected result; here, we present the effects of band region exposure in NIR transmission (1570 nm). We observe a shift from …

Highly Sensitive Liquid-Level Sensing Based On Microwave Frequency Domain Reflectometry And Interferometry, Chen Zhu, Osamah Alsalman, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) and interferometry are two widely used investigative techniques that have been instrumented using optical and microwave devices for a diverse array of sensing applications. In this paper, we present a highly sensitive liquid-level sensor using a custom hollow coaxial cable transmission line. Measurements of liquid levels with high sensitivity and resolution can be achieved by both FDR and interferometry-based measurements using the same sensor device. We show that FDR-based measurements are more straightforward for liquid-level sensing and are suitable for both small and large variations of liquid level, while interferometry-based measurements provide slightly higher measurement resolution …

An Effective Method For Long-Term Control Of American Bullfrogs Syntopic With Special-Status Native Amphibians In California, Usa, Jeff A. Alvarez, Jeffery T. Wilcox

Human–Wildlife Interactions

American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) are invasive in western North America and are well established in California, USA, where they are widespread. This invasive species has been implicated in the decrease of native amphibian populations and is believed to have contributed to the decline of threatened and endangered amphibians regionally. We utilized air rifles, tin alloy pellets, and 2 shooters to systematically control L. catesbeianus in both lentic and lotic habitat types within 2 counties in California. We visited sites monthly (April through November) for approximately 8 and 14 years to lethally target and remove L. catesbeianus …

Quantifying Wild Pig Disturbance In Pastures And Wetlands Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Derived Imagery, Wesley M. Anderson, Bethany Wight, Raoul K. Boughton

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for agricultural and environmental research has increased markedly in recent years, and a key application has been to conduct damage assessments. Invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) cause both agricultural and environmental damage, and past studies have utilized UAVs to quantify this damage. Each methodology has advantages, but they also have drawbacks such as high rates of damage omission or reliance upon a near-infrared camera, which may be prohibitively expensive for some land managers and scientists. Our objective was to develop a methodology that could be easily implemented to conduct wild pig …

Coexistence Conservation: Time To Change The Paradigm, Jorge Tobajas

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This letter to the editor recommends that coexistence conservation should be recognized as a new discipline within conservation biology with vast potential for the future of biodiversity conservation. The term “coexistence conservation” must be broadened to accommodate different techniques and their development, regardless of the context of invasive species.

Flashtags: Evaluating A Novel Deterrent To Reduce Livestock Depredation, C. Aaron Bott, Stewart W. Breck, Tom W. Murphy, Brad A. Freking, Carlos A. López González, David Prause, Corey Peavey, Albert Sommers, Coke Landers, Julie K. Young

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Social tolerance of carnivores can be improved by preventing conflicts through nonlethal predator deterrents (e.g., livestock protection dogs [Canis lupus familiaris] and human presence) that have been used for centuries. However, many livestock producers feel the existing preventative methods are inadequate for extensive production systems where livestock can be spread widely and have less human supervision. To address this issue, we developed and tested a new nonlethal tool called FlashTags to reduce livestock predation. FlashTags are ear tags worn by livestock that flash a random-light pattern at night when motion-triggered. In the first year, we tested the devices …

Is Mitigation Translocation An Effective Method For Reducing Laysan Albatross–Military Aircraft Collisions?, Brian E. Washburn, Katherine D. Rubiano, William P. Bukoski

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Wildlife–aircraft collisions (wildlife strikes) pose a serious risk to civil and military aircraft. Each year, Laysan albatrosses (Phoebastria immutabilis) attempt to establish a breeding colony on the airfield at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) located on the island of Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i, USA, resulting in a hazard to safe military aircraft operations at this facility. A long-term management program, with an emphasis on mitigation translocation (e.g., live-capture and translocation away from the area) of problematic individuals, has been conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services. However, the efficacy of mitigation translocation as a nonlethal …

Open Access Is Only The Beginning: Extending The Readership Of Human–Wildlife Interactions Research Through Inclusive Communication Design, Rosanna M. Vail

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Readers must be able to access, understand, and engage with published work, especially in an area like human–wildlife interactions, where viral coverage of altercations with wildlife sparks widespread interest in species or management issues. What should authors be doing to make their writing more inclusive and effective for as many readers as possible? In this article, the managing editor of Human-Wildlife Interactions integrates updated guidelines from the Council of Science Editors with communication frameworks to prioritize a reader-focused approach that extends the reach of article publication.

The Violence Of Free Speech And Press Metaphors, Erin C. Carroll

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Today, our free speech marketplace is often overwhelming, confusing, and even dangerous. Threats, misdirection, and lies abound. Online firestorms lead to offline violence. This Article argues that the way we conceptualize free speech and the free press are partly to blame: our metaphors are hurting us.

The primary metaphor courts have used for a century to describe free speech—the marketplace of ideas—has been linked to violence since its inception. Originating in a case about espionage and revolution, in a dissent written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, a thrice-injured Civil War veteran, the marketplace has been described as a space where competition …

Breaking The Rules, Rima Sirota

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

“Breaking the Rules” is a legal research and writing assignment that I crafted for students completing their first year of law school. The assignment honors new students’ desire for skills that will allow them to effectively challenge the status quo of settled but discriminatory legal rules. Part I of this article is an essay that contextualizes and explains the assignment; Part II provides the assignment itself.

The Trade Origins Of Privacy Law, Anupam Chander

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The desire for trade propelled the growth of data privacy law across the world. Countries with strong privacy laws sought to ensure that their citizens’ privacy would not be compromised when their data traveled to other countries. Even before this vaunted Brussels Effect pushed privacy law across the world through the enticement of trade with the European Union, Brussels had to erect privacy law within the Union itself. And as the Union itself expanded, privacy law was a critical condition for accession.

But this coupling of privacy and trade leaves a puzzle: how did the U.S. avoid a comprehensive privacy …

Mandatory Anti-Bias Cle: A Serious Problem Deserves More Meaningful Response, Rima Sirota

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay addresses the problematic convergence of two recent trends: (1) the expansion of jurisdictions requiring anti-bias training (ABT) as part of mandatory continuing legal education (CLE), and (2) the growing recognition among social scientists that such training, at least as currently practiced, is of limited effectiveness.

Forty-six American states require continuing legal education (CLE), and eleven of these states now require lawyer ABT as one facet of CLE requirements. I have previously criticized the mandatory CLE system because so little evidence supports the conclusion that it results in more competent lawyers. The central question tackled by this essay is …

Fears, Faith, And Facts In Environmental Law, William W. Buzbee

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Environmental law has long been shaped by both the particular nature of environmental harms and by the actors and institutions that cause such harms or can address them. This nation’s environmental statutes remain far from perfect, and a comprehensive law tailored to the challenges of climate change is still elusive. Nonetheless, America’s environmental laws provide lofty, express protective purposes and findings about reasons for their enactment. They also clearly state health and environmental goals, provide tailored criteria for action, and utilize procedures and diverse regulatory tools that reflect nuanced choices.

But the news is far from good. Despite the ambitious …