Digital Commons Network^™

Vitrimerization Of Rigid Thermoset Polyurethane Foams: A Mechanochemical Method To Recycle And Reprocess Thermosets, Alireza Bandegi, Maya Montemayor, Ica Manas‐Zloczower

Faculty Scholarship

Polyurethane (PU) thermosets are extensively used in different applications and recycling the large amount of PU thermoset waste remains a universal challenge. Recycling the thermoset waste through vitrimerization is a feasible, cost-effective, and environmental-friendly approach. In this work, triazabicyclodecene (TBD) is used as organocatalyst in the vitrimerization process to recycle and reprocess thermoset rigid polyurethane foams. The results show that the permanent crosslinked structure of the PU thermoset foam is converted to a dynamic network upon vitrimerization. The vitrimerized network can rapidly relax the stress in 10 s at temperatures as low as 120°C. The topology rearrangement happens through the …

Lifelines Fall 2022, Southern Adventist University

Lifelines - Biology Department Newsletter

The Fall 2022 issue of Lifelines contains an alumni spotlight, department happenings, and student missionaries.

Columns Fall 2022, Southern Adventist University

Alumni Newsletter

Features information about LifeGroups, Southern’s 130-year-history, missionary work, and homecoming weekend.

School Of Nursing Newsletter Fall 2022, Southern Adventist University

Southern Nursing - School of Nursing Newsletter

The Fall 2022 2020 issue of the newsletter features information Giving Day, a message from the Dean, and departmental changes.

Feminist Legal Theory And #Metoo: Revisiting Tarana Burke's Vision Of Empowerment Through Empathy, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

It is my purpose to ground this article in ubuntu and the politics of radical love as applied to the goals of #MeToo and its pursuit of redress for victims of sexual harms. Part II explores the convergences and divergences of #MeToo with feminist campaigns of an earlier era. Part III questions whether a renewed quest for gender equality, largely spawned by a Twitter/social media campaign, may lead to sustainable change built on notions of empathy and restorative justice, which influenced Tarana Burke when she founded #MeToo. Part IV examines restorative justice approaches in the South African Truth and Reconciliation …

Virtual Meeting Best Practices For The Participant, Sue Cagle

UNH Cooperative Extension

Virtual meetings provide an opportunity to gather people in different locations efficiently. In order to make your meeting as productive as possible, meeting participants should consider the following best practices.

Sustaining Patient Portal Continuous Use Intention And Enhancing Deep Structure Usage: Cognitive Dissonance Effects Of Health Professional Encouragement And Security Concerns, Murad Moqbel, Barbara Hewitt, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Rosann M. Mclean

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

Sustaining patient portal use is a major problem for many healthcare organizations and providers. If this problem can be successfully addressed, it could have a positive impact on various stakeholders. Through the lens of cognitive dissonance theory, this study investigates the role of health professional encouragement as well as patients' security concerns in influencing continuous use intention and deep structure usage among users of a patient portal. The analysis of data collected from 177 patients at a major medical center in the Midwestern region of the United States shows that health professional encouragement helps increase the continuous use intention and …

Studying Dynamic Pricing In Electrical Power Markets With Distributed Generation: Agent-Based Modeling And Reinforcement-Learning Approach, Gasser G. Ali, Islam H. El-Adaway, Charles Sims, J. Scott Holladay, Chien Fei Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Distributed generation (DG) refers to small-scale generation resources that are located at or near end-consumers, such as photovoltaic (PV) solar systems. DG systems have become increasingly popular in recent years owing to their economic efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. However, the increasing adoption of DG is creating new obstacles for system operators due to the uncertainty in forecasting future demand. One concern is the possibility of facing a utility death spiral as a feedback loop between, on the one hand, the increasing adoption of DG and increasing electricity rates to cover generation and transmission overheads with, on the other hand, reduced …

On The Sublime And Beautiful: Edmund Burke, Ottobah Cugoano, And Reverberations Of Eighteenth-Century Racial Aesthetics, Tacuma Peters

Publications and Research

This article examines Edmund Burke and Ottobah Cugoano’s aesthetic thought in relation to eighteenth-century racial slavery. It interrogates their ideas of the sublime and beautiful which contribute to their different political positions on the abolition of slavery: whereas the former advocated the gradual abolition of the slave trade and distant emancipation, the latter sought the immediate abolition of the trade and rapid emancipation. It contends that Burke’s discussions of the sublime and beautiful were racialized, his advocacy of white authority on plantation slavery was rooted in his aesthetics, and his evocation of the Black sublime throughout his long career fit …

Predicting Electrical Faults In Power Distribution Network, Ahmad Adel Bin Sulaiman

Theses

Electricity is becoming increasingly important in modern civilization, and as a result, the emphasis on and use of power infrastructure is gradually expanding. Simultaneously, investment and distribution modes are shifting from the large-scale centralized generation of electricity and sheer consumption to decentralized generators and extremely sophisticated clients. This transformation puts further strain on old infrastructure, necessitating significant expenditures in future years to ensure a consistent supply. Subsequent technical and prediction technologies can help to maximize the use of the current grid while lowering the probability of faults. This study discusses some of the local grid difficulties as well as a …

Fraudulent Insurance Claims Detection Using Machine Learning, Arif Ismail Alrais

Theses

As the different countries around the world evolve into a more economical-based and stimulating their economy is the goal. The main purpose of most of these countries is to fight off money launderers and fraudsters for better economic growth. A popular fraud topic in this regard is insurance fraud since it costs the companies and the public billions. Applying data analysis and machine learning are great ways used to address many problems regarding any automated system. To address this problem, first extensive research should be made to check out what has been applied and what the most promising solution using …

Traffic Accidents Analysis & Prediction In Uae, Majid Alhosani

Theses

UAE has state-of-the-art roads and traffic infrastructure, and yet there has been a rapid increase in the number of traffic accidents. As per National Agenda 2021, the UAE traffic departments are working to minimize the rate of road traffic death per 100 thousand people. The Traffic and Patrols Directorate in Abu Dhabi launched a road safety management plan. This aims at decreasing the fatalities from traffic accidents to 3 per 100,000 inhabitants by 2021. According to police, distracted driving, sudden swerving, entering a road without ensuring that it is clear, tailgating and speeding without considering the road conditions has caused …

The Effect Of Specimen Thickness On The Lüders Phenomena In Aisi 1524 Steel Alloy, Joost H. Van Der Heijde

Theses

At certain temperatures, strain rates and slender geometries, low carbon steels, as well as some aluminum, magnesium and nickel-based alloys, exhibit plastic flow instability at the onset of their respective yield points, known as the Lüders phenomena. Such phenomenon is recognized by a distinct yield point and subsequent plateau on the stress-strain curve. This thesis aims to investigate the effect of the sample’s thickness on the Lüders phenomena in AISI 1524 hot-rolled steel alloy. Sixteen samples were machined from hot-rolled plates and uniaxial testing in conjunction with digital image correlation were performed to gain insight and quantify the Lüders band’s …

Health-Related Quality Of Life And Mental Well-Being During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Five Countries: A One-Year Longitudinal Study, Di Long, Gouke J. Bonsel, Erica I. Lubetkin, John N. Yfantopoulos, Mathieu F. Janssen, Juanita A. Haagsma

Publications and Research

This study aimed to investigate socioeconomic and health-related determinants and recent life events and their relation to changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and mental well-being during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A web-based survey was administered repeatedly to participants from Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Primary outcome measures were HRQoL (measured by EQ-5D-5L) and mental well-being (measured by WHO-5). Linear regression analyses were performed to estimate the impact of determinants on HRQoL and well-being. In total, 6765 respondents completed the questionnaire at T1 (April–May 2020) and T2 (May–June 2021). Regarding …

Linguistic Validation Of The Spanish Version Of The Anal Cancer High-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions Outcomes Research Health-Related Symptom Index (A-Hrsi): Amc-A04, Thomas M. Atkinson, Kathleen A. Lynch, Jacqueline Vera, Nuria Mendoza Olivares, Andrew Webb, Lisa C. Diamond, Javier González, Erica I. Lubetkin, Gary Bucher, Isabella Rosa-Cunha, J. Michael Berry-Lawhorn, Rebecca Levine, David Aboulafia, Jeffrey Schouten, Susan M. Holland, David Cella, Joel M. Palefsky

Publications and Research

Objectives: The Anal Cancer High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) Outcomes Research (ANCHOR) Health-Related Symptom Index (A-HRSI) is a 25-item measure that assesses physical symptoms and impacts, and psychological symptoms. To promote generalizability and equity in the capture of these concepts in Spanish-speaking participants, we linguistically validated a Spanish version of A-HRSI.

Methods: Following independent forward translation and reconciliation of A-HRSI from English to Spanish, two rounds of cognitive interviews were completed with ANCHOR participants who had been diagnosed with anal HSIL in the prior nine months and preferred delivery of their healthcare in Spanish. Interviews were coded to highlight any …

Und Strategic Planning Feedback: Mission, Vision, And Core Values Qualtrics Survey, University Of North Dakota

LEADS Development Documents

Qualtrics survey response report from the UND strategic planning feedback process on mission, vision, and core values. The report compiles campus and community input used to inform the development of UND LEADS.

Und Strategic Planning Feedback: Mission, Vision, And Values Paper Responses Report, University Of North Dakota

LEADS Development Documents

Paper response report from the UND strategic planning feedback process on mission, vision, and values. The report compiles participant responses used to gather campus and community input during the development of UND LEADS.

Predicting Delays In The Supply Chain With The Use Of Machine Learning, Raghad Al-Saghir

Theses

The supply chain includes all the steps in an item's life cycle starting from raw material and all the way to the customers. Delays in these steps have always been a problem faced by businesses due to the huge financial loss these delays account for. These delays frequently cause significant financial losses, irritate customers, and loss of customer confidence. The aim of this study is to construct a prediction model that predicts late deliveries before its occurrence with the use of big data and machine learning. The study used Dataco Supply Chain dataset and cleaned, visualized, and trained it using …

Push Them Forward: Challenges In Intergovernmental Organizations' Influence On Rural Broadband Infrastructure Expansion, Javier Valentín-Sívico, Casey I. Canfield, Ona Egbue

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Many rural US communities lack access to adequate broadband services. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019 with 16 Regional Planning Commissions to uncover dynamics of how these intergovernmental organizations contribute to the deployment of broadband infrastructure in rural Missouri. The proposed framework integrates the decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Theory of Reasoned Goal Pursuit, and Stakeholder Theory. Many participants reported a low level of involvement in broadband infrastructure initiatives even though supporting infrastructure development to promote economic growth is one of the Regional Planning Commissions' primary goals. Regional Planning Commissions are highly influenced by four …

Effect Of Cu Additions On Scale Structure And Descaling Efficiency Of Low C Steel Reheated In A Combustion Gas Atmosphere, Richard Osei, Simon Lekakh, Ronald J. O'Malley

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Modern EAF steelmaking employs scrap as its primary source of raw material. Different sources of scrap have varying levels of residuals, which can negatively influence product properties, performance, and surface quality. The presence of some residuals, such as Cu and Ni in controlled quantities, can also positively impact steel performance for some applications. It is also well known that interactions between residuals and alloying elements in steel can modify the structure of scale formed during slab reheating prior to hot rolling. These changes in the scale structure can influence scale removability. In this study, the effect of varying Cu concentrations …

Exploring Vestibular Ocular Motor Screening In Adults With Persistent Complaints After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Lucy Parrington, Laurie A. King, Carrie W. Hoppes, Maxwell J. Klaiman, Patrick Michielutti, Peter C. Fino, Leland E. Dibble, Mark E. Lester, Margaret M. Weightman

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to (1) explore differences in vestibular ocular motor screening (VOMS) symptoms between healthy adults and adults with persistent symptoms after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and (2) explore the relationships between VOMS symptoms and other measures (self-reported vestibular symptoms, clinical measures of balance and gait, and higher-level motor ability tasks).

Setting:

Research laboratory setting.

Participants:

Fifty-three persons with persistent symptoms (>3 weeks) following mTBI and 57 healthy controls were recruited. Eligibility for participation included being 18 to 50 years of age and free of medical conditions that may affect balance, with the …

Kir-Based Inhibitory Cars Overcome Car-Nk Cell Trogocytosis-Mediated Fratricide And Tumor Escape, Ye Li, Rafet Basar, Guohui Wang, Enli Liu, Judy S Moyes, Li Li, Lucila N Kerbauy, Nadima Uprety, Mohsen Fathi, Ali Rezvan, Pinaki P Banerjee, Luis Muniz-Feliciano, Tamara J Laskowski, Emily Ensley, May Daher, Mayra Shanley, Mayela Mendt, Sunil Acharya, Bin Liu, Alexander Biederstädt, Hind Rafei, Xingliang Guo, Luciana Melo Garcia, Paul Lin, Sonny Ang, David Marin, Ken Chen, Laura Bover, Richard E Champlin, Navin Varadarajan, Elizabeth J Shpall, Katayoun Rezvani

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Trogocytosis is an active process that transfers surface material from targeted to effector cells. Using multiple in vivo tumor models and clinical data, we report that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) activation in natural killer (NK) cells promoted transfer of the CAR cognate antigen from tumor to NK cells, resulting in (1) lower tumor antigen density, thus impairing the ability of CAR-NK cells to engage with their target, and (2) induced self-recognition and continuous CAR-mediated engagement, resulting in fratricide of trogocytic antigen-expressing NK cells (NK

Perspectives Of Zambian Clinical Oncology Trainees In The Md Anderson And Zambia Virtual Clinical Research Training Program (Mozart), Kevin Diao, Darya A Kizub, Noveen Ausat, Catherine K Mwaba, Chidinma P Anakwenze Akinfenwa, Carrie A Cameron, Elizabeth Y Chiao, Dorothy C Lombe, Susan C Msadabwe, Lilie L Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: African countries are underrepresented in cancer research, partly because of a lack of structured curricula on clinical research during medical education. To address this need, the MD Anderson and Zambia Virtual Clinical Research Training Program (MOZART) was developed jointly by MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDA) and the Cancer Diseases Hospital in Zambia (CDH) for Zambian clinical oncology trainees. We explored participant perspectives to provide insight for implementation of similar efforts.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The MD Anderson and Zambia Virtual Clinical Research Training Program consisted of weekly virtual lectures and support of Zambian-led research protocols through longitudinal mentorship groups that …

Surge In Incidence And Coronavirus Disease 2019 Hospital Risk Of Death, United States, September 2020 To March 2021, Bela Patel, Robert E Murphy, Siddharth Karanth, Salsawit Shiffaraw, Richard M Peters, Samuel F Hohmann, Raymond S Greenberg

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Studies of the early months of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic indicate that patient outcomes may be adversely affected by surges. However, the impact on in-hospital mortality during the largest surge to date, September 2020-March 2021, has not been studied. This study aimed to determine whether in-hospital mortality was impacted by the community surge of COVID-19.

METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of 416 962 adult COVID-19 patients admitted immediately before or during the surge at 229 US academic and 432 community hospitals in the Vizient Clinical Database. The odds ratios (ORs) of death among hospitalized patients …

Development Of The Invasive Candidiasis Discharge [I Can Discharge] Model: A Mixed Methods Analysis, Jinhee Jo, Truc T Tran, Nicholas D Beyda, Debora Simmons, Joshua A Hendrickson, Masaad Saeed Almutairi, Faris S Alnezary, Anne J Gonzales-Luna, Edward J Septimus, Kevin W Garey

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Patients with invasive candidiasis (IC) have complex medical and infectious disease problems that often require continued care after discharge. This study aimed to assess echinocandin use at hospital discharge and develop a transition of care (TOC) model to facilitate discharge for patients with IC. This was a mixed method study design that used epidemiologic assessment to better understand echinocandin use at hospital discharge TOC. Using grounded theory methodology focused on patients given echinocandins during their last day of hospitalization, a TOC model for patients with IC, the invasive candidiasis [I Can] discharge model was developed to better understand discharge barriers. …

Diagnostic Value Of Ultrasound In Children With Transverse Testicular Ectopia, Wei Zhou, Shoulin Li, Hao Wang, Jianchun Yin, Xiaodong Liu, Junhai Jiang, Guanglun Zhou, Jianguo Wen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to investigate the diagnostic value of ultrasound in children's transverse testicular ectopia (TTE).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively studies all TTE cases diagnosed in our hospital from January 2017 to December 2021. All cases were evaluated by ultrasound examination and compared to physical examination and diagnostic laparoscopy results.

RESULTS: This study included 14 TTE patients in total, with a median age was 1.08 years. In the 14 TTE, physical examination found 10 TTE cases, of which nine testes were located in the opposite scrotum, one testis was located in the opposite groin, and the other four …

Aging After Stroke: How To Define Post-Stroke Sarcopenia And What Are Its Risk Factors?, Sheng Li, Javier Gonzalez-Buonomo, Jaskiran Ghuman, Xinran Huang, Aila Malik, Nuray Yozbatiran, Elaine Magat, Gerard E Francisco, Hulin Wu, Walter R Frontera

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia, generally described as "aging-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function", can occur secondary to a systemic disease.

AIM: This project aimed to study the prevalence of sarcopenia in chronic ambulatory stroke survivors and its associated risk factors using the two most recent diagnostic criteria.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study.

SETTING: A scientific laboratory.

POPULATION: Chronic stroke.

METHODS: Twenty-eight ambulatory chronic stroke survivors (12 females; mean age=57.8±11.8 years; time after stroke=76±45 months), hand-grip strength, gait speed, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) were measured to define sarcopenia. Risk factors, including motor impairment and spasticity, were identified using regression …

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Have Clinical Activity In Patients With Recurrent Chordoma, Andrew J Bishop, Behrang Amini, Heather Lin, Shaan M Raza, Shreyaskumar Patel, David R Grosshans, Amol Ghia, Ahsan Farooqi, B Ashleigh Guadagnolo, Devarati Mitra, Kadir C Akdemir, Alexander J Lazar, Wei-Lien Wang, Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge, Justin Bird, Laurence D Rhines, Neeta Somaiah, Anthony P Conley

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The aim of this study is to evaluate the outcomes and tolerance of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for patients with recurrent chordoma. We reviewed the records of 17 patients with recurrent chordomas who received ICIs for progressing disease as part of their treatment between 2016 and 2020. Response was assessed using response evaluation criteria in solid tumors 1.1 criteria. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the duration of response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Clinical benefit was defined as having stable disease (SD), a partial response, or a complete response. The median follow-up from the start of …

Svat: Secure Outsourcing Of Variant Annotation And Genotype Aggregation, Miran Kim, Su Wang, Xiaoqian Jiang, Arif Harmanci

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Sequencing of thousands of samples provides genetic variants with allele frequencies spanning a very large spectrum and gives invaluable insight into genetic determinants of diseases. Protecting the genetic privacy of participants is challenging as only a few rare variants can easily re-identify an individual among millions. In certain cases, there are policy barriers against sharing genetic data from indigenous populations and stigmatizing conditions.

RESULTS: We present SVAT, a method for secure outsourcing of variant annotation and aggregation, which are two basic steps in variant interpretation and detection of causal variants. SVAT uses homomorphic encryption to encrypt the data at …

Investigation Of A Prolonged And Large Outbreak Of Healthcare-Associated Mucormycosis Cases In An Acute Care Hospital-Arkansas, June 2019-May 2021, Alexander Jordan, Allison E James, Jeremy A W Gold, Karen Wu, Janet Glowicz, Frankie Wolfe, Keyur Vyas, Anastasia Litvintseva, Lalitha Gade, Hazel Liverett, Mary Alverson, Mary Burgess, Amy Wilson, Ruoran Li, Isaac Benowitz, Trent Gulley, Naveen Patil, Rohan Chakravorty, Winston Chu, Atul Kothari, Brendan R Jackson, Kelley Garner, Mitsuru Toda

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Outbreaks of healthcare-associated mucormycosis (HCM), a life-threatening fungal infection, have been attributed to multiple sources, including contaminated healthcare linens. In 2020, staff at Hospital A in Arkansas alerted public health officials of a potential HCM outbreak.

METHODS: We collected data on patients at Hospital A who had invasive mucormycosis during January 2017-June 2021 and calculated annual incidence of HCM (defined as mucormycosis diagnosed within ≥7 days after hospital admission). We performed targeted environmental assessments, including linen sampling at the hospital, to identify potential sources of infection.

RESULTS: During the outbreak period (June 2019-June 2021), 16 patients had HCM; clinical …