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The Casnr L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter: Learning Innovation Network For K-12 Schools, Edition 7, August 2022, Bailey Feit, Tammy Mittelstet

CASNR L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter

The purpose of this L.I.N.K.S. newsletter is to provide a monthly update of opportunities and resources for K-12 schools to connect with the University of Nebraska's CASNR Food, Energy, Water, and Societal Systems (FEWS²) programs and partners.

Included in this issue:

How can we support you and your students in the 2022-2023 school year?

UNL CASNR Teaching and Learning K-12 Partners website is live

Eye on curriculum and resources

Curriculum and classroom resources for all levels

Biological Systems Engineering announcement

Teacher opportunities

Link to list of new partnerships

Ask an expert

Eye on CASNR research: Erin Blankenship

Student experiences

Send …

Deep Learning For Protein Property And Structure Prediction, Yuzhi Guo

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

I present my work towards solving the fundamental, challenging, and valuable problem for protein property and structure prediction. Specifically, I focus on solving the problem from three critical aspects: (1) designing powerful deep learning networks for specific protein structure property prediction tasks; (2) proposing general methods that enhancing the protein sequence homologous feature, which is an important input feature of relevant tasks; (3) developing a self-supervised pre-training model for learning structure embeddings from protein tertiary structures. To evaluate the effectiveness of the developed methods, I apply several protein downstream tasks including protein secondary structure, solvent accessibility, backbone dihedral angles, protein …

Towards Security Aware Crowdsourcing, Mingyan Xiao

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a novel problem-solving paradigm, which facilitates addressing problems by outsourcing them to the crowd. The openness of crowdsourcing renders it vulnerable to misbehaving workers that impair data trustworthiness. They may attempt to submit calibrated data/parameters to manipulate crowdsourcing outcomes for higher beneficial gain. Those misbehaviors would infringe crowdsourcing's process and, overall, its usefulness. In this dissertation, I intend to secure the crowdsourcing platform from worker's untrustworthy data reporting. The main contributions are mainly threefold. First, we secure task allocation, an essential but vulnerable stage in crowdsourcing, from individual misreporting. To be specific, misbehaving workers may manipulate …

Near-Infrared Accretion Signatures From The Circumbinary Planetary-Mass Companion Delorme 1 (Ab)B, S. K. Betti, K. B. Follette, K. Ward-Duong, Y. Aoyama, G. D. Marleau, J. Bary, C. Robinson, M. Janson, W. Balmer, G. Chauvin, P. Palma-Bifani

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Accretion signatures from bound brown dwarf and protoplanetary companions provide evidence for ongoing planet formation, and accreting substellar objects have enabled new avenues to study the astrophysical mechanisms controlling the formation and accretion processes. Delorme 1 (AB)b, a ?1/430-45 Myr circumbinary planetary-mass companion, was recently discovered to exhibit strong Hα emission. This suggests ongoing accretion from a circumplanetary disk, somewhat surprising given canonical gas disk dispersal timescales of 5-10 Myr. Here, we present the first NIR detection of accretion from the companion in Paβ, Pa?3, and Br?3 emission lines from SOAR/TripleSpec 4.1, confirming and further informing its accreting nature. The …

Antiabortion Civil Remedies And Unwed Fatherhood As Genetic Entitlement, Yvonne F. Lindgren

Faculty Works

Antiabortion civil remedy laws in effect in five states grant putative fathers the right to sue abortion providers for wrongful death regardless of their relationship to the gestating parent. While these laws represent an important new development in the movement to restrict the abortion right, they also expand parental recognition of unwed fathers. Constitutional law requires that unwed fathers who seek to assert parental rights must establish that they possess both biological connection and a relationship with their child or the gestating parent—what has come to be known as “biology-plus.” However, antiabortion civil remedy laws vest parental recognition and rights …

Analysis Of A Food Assessment Survey For Food Security And Food Sovereignty Of The Chugach Region, Joseph J. Nyholm

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

This project analyzed a food assessment questionnaire that was conducted amongst the Alutiiq and Eyak peoples in the Chugach region of Alaska in 2016-2017. This questionnaire, conducted by the Chugach Regional Resource Commission, garnered 87 responses from seven communities. The project used meaningful data analysis of the questionnaire results to discuss food security and food sovereignty in the Chugach region. Additionally, this project formulated recommendations based on recent findings and research in the area of food security and food sovereignty in rural Alaska. The questionnaire was split into six sections: Community Food Resources, Diet and Health, Culture, Organization and Governance, …

Using Oer At Psu​ 2022, Ruth Monnier, Kristen Livingston

Open Educational Resources - Presentations

Open Educational Resources (OER) helps ensure affordability (free!) for all students and their access to materials. Join this session to learn about what is OER, how to locate OER materials, why to use OER at PittState, and put your new knowledge to the test. Please bring your own device as a portion of the session will be your individual discovery of OER materials.

Embedding A Grid Of Load Cells Into A Dining Table For Automatic Monitoring And Detection Of Eating Events, Mohammad Mayyan

All Dissertations

This dissertation describes a “smart dining table” that can detect and measure consumption events. This work is motivated by the growing problem of obesity, which is a global problem and an epidemic in the United States and Europe. Chapter 1 gives a background on the economic burden of obesity and its comorbidities. For the assessment of obesity, we briefly describe the classic dietary assessment tools and discuss their drawback and the necessity of using more objective, accurate, low-cost, and in-situ automatic dietary assessment tools. We explain in short various technologies used for automatic dietary assessment such as acoustic-, motion-, or …

Understanding The Shear Deformation Mechanism Of Transition Metal/Ceramic Interfaces Using Computational Methods, Nisha Dhariwal

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this research was to investigate the deformation behavior of metal/ceramic interfaces under external loadings in a multi-scale framework including first principles density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The mechanical properties of the metal/ceramic interfaces are dominated by defects on a length scale that first principles computations cannot access. Since the DFT calculations become computationally expensive for such large sized systems, therefore, MD simulations are required to deal with such systems. For MD simulations, second nearest neighbor modified embedded atom method (MEAM) potentials were developed to study metal/ceramic interfaces involving Cr, Ti, Al, and N. …

Social Media Usage: Implications On Consumer Well-Being And Maladaptive Behavior, Breanne Mertz

Doctoral Dissertations

Social media marketing is frequently leveraged due to the amount of time consumers spend on such platforms. However, research within the marketing literature rarely investigates the repercussions that time spent on social media can have on consumer well-being and behavior. Thus, this dissertation explores the effect that actual social media usage (ASMU) can have on consumers and considers the approachesthrough which healthy social media usage could be achieved. More specifically, the relationships within this study are assessed via Structural Equation Model (SEM) and contribute to the literature by exploring: 1) the effect that objective social media usage has on consumer …

Mutagenicity Assessment Of Salacia Chinensis By Bacterial Reverse Mutation Assay Using Histidine Dependent Salmonella Typhimurium Tester Strains, Madhuranthakam Reddi Nagesh, Mansour K. Gatasheh, Nasrul Hoda, Natesan Vijayakumar

Neurology Articles

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Genotoxicity analysis is one of the most important non-clinical environmental safety investigations required for pharmaceutical and agrochemical product registration. Any medicinal product must undergo a risk evaluation to determine its mutagenicity and carcinogenicity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Ames test is a commonly used in vitro test for determining a test chemical's mutagenic activity. Histidine-dependent Salmonella typhimurium strains with a defective gene that causes the bacteria to synthesis the necessary amino acid histidine for life were tested for mutagenic potential. In order to reveal pro-mutagens and mutagens, the mutagenic potential of both plate integration and pre-incubation techniques was …

Covid-19-Induced Seizures: A Meta-Analysis Of Case Series And Retrospective Cohorts, Helai Hussaini, Sylvette Rogers, Saurabh Kataria, Khalid Uddin, Khalid H. Mohamed, Alaa S. Mohamed, Farhan Tariq, Sarfaraz Ahmad, Anum Awais, Zahoor Ahmed, Anthony Chukwurah, Aadil Khan

Neurology Articles

The adverse events and complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continue to challenge the medical profession despite the worldwide vaccination against the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19. Other than typical respiratory manifestations, COVID-19 also presents a wide range of neurological manifestations. This article underlines the pooled incidence of COVID-19-induced seizures in patients with epilepsy and without epilepsy. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocols, we conducted a bibliographical search, and an initial search revealed 1,375 articles. In total, 21 articles were included in the final analysis by following the inclusion …

Investigating Best Practices For Engaging Chemistry Students In Online Learning, Megan Smith

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

This project investigated two online delivery methods to identify how to best support student learning. Students were grouped based on chemistry background and took part in one of two content lessons appropriate to their experience. These two content groups were then divided based on delivery method: asynchronous or synchronous. Participants completed a pre- and post-test around the lesson, with only content delivery method differing within groups; asynchronous students watched a video lecture, while synchronous students participated in a real-time lecture online. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. While student test scores improved pre-post, no statistical significance was seen in …

Prenatal Buprenorphine/Naloxone Or Methadone Use On Neonatal Outcomes In Michigan, Gregory Goshgarian, Rasha Jawad, Laura O'Brien, Robert Muterspaugh, Dimitrios Zikos, Sudhakar Ezhuthachan, Christine Newman, Chaur-Dong Hsu, Beth Bailey, Neli Ragina

Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health Services Articles

Background: Maternal opioid exposure during pregnancy has various effects on neonatal health. Buprenorphine/naloxone and methadone are examples of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) used for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). Research comparing the impacts of these MOUD modalities on neonatal outcomes when used to treat pregnant people with OUD remains limited. We evaluated the differences in outcomes between neonates with in-utero exposure to buprenorphine/naloxone versus methadone.

Methodology: We performed a retrospective cohort chart review between October 15, 2008, and October 15, 2019, evaluating mother/neonate dyads at two medical centers in Michigan. The charts of female patients, aged …

Storing Water For The Environment: Technical Appendix B: An Experimental Reservoir Model For Storage And Allocation Of An Ecosystem Water Budget, Sarah Null, Harrison Zeff, Anna Sturrock

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Dams alter flow regimes, fragment rivers, and harm freshwater ecosystems (Munsch et al. 2022; Barbarossa et al. 2020). Yet, freshwater ecosystems are increasingly dependent on surface reservoirs for environmental flows and suitable water temperatures as rivers have become irrevocably altered by water development, consumptive water uses, land use change, and climate change (Grantham et al. 2020; Yarnell et al. 2020). This creates a paradox where dams have contributed to freshwater ecosystem decline, but are now instrumental for managing environmental water and enhancing downstream ecosystems.

Phenology Effects On Productivity And Hatching-Asynchrony Of American Kestrels (Falco Sparverius) Across A Continent, Kathleen R. Callery, Sarah E. Schulwitz, Anjolene R. Hunt, Jason M. Winiarski, Christopher J. W. Mcclure, Richard A. Fischer, Julie A. Heath

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Optimal reproductive performance occurs when birds time reproduction to coincide with peak food availability. Deviation from optimal timing, or mismatch, can affect productivity, though birds may mediate some mismatch effects by altering their incubation behavior. We studied the consequences of nesting timing (i.e., clutch initiation relative to an index of spring start) on productivity across the breeding range of American kestrels (Falco sparverius) in the United States and southern Canada, and associations between nesting timing, incubation behavior, and hatching asynchrony. We used observations from long-term nest box monitoring, remote trail cameras, and community-scientist-based programs to obtain data on …

Filarial Nematode Phenotypic Screening Cascade To Identify Compounds With Anti-Parasitic Activity For Drug Discovery Optimization, Natalie Hawryluk, Li Zhiru, Clotilde Carlow, Suzanne Gokool, Simon Townson, Tamara Kreiss, Agnieszka Chojnowski, Monika Prorok, John Siekierka, Alexandra Ehrens, Marianne Koschel, Nathaly Lhermitte-Vallarino, Coralie Martin, Achim Hoerauf, Geraldine Hernandez, Stacie Canan

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Filarial diseases, including lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, are considered among the most devastating of all tropical diseases, affecting over 86 million people worldwide. To control and more rapidly eliminate onchocerciasis requires treatments that target the adult stage of the parasite. Drug discovery efforts are challenged by the lack of preclinical animal models using the human-pathogenic filariae, requiring the use of surrogate parasites for Onchocerca volvulus for both ex vivo and in vivo evaluation. Herein, we describe a platform utilizing phenotypic ex vivo assays consisting of the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, microfilariae and adult filariae of the bovine filariae Onchocerca lienalis …

Interpreting Sentinel-1 Sar Backscatter Signals Of Snowpack Surface Melt/Freeze, Warming, And Ripening, Through Field Measurements And Physically-Based Snowmodel, Jewell Lund, Richard R. Forster, Elias J. Deeb, Glen E. Liston, S. Mckenzie Skiles, Hans-Peter Marshall

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The transition of a cold winter snowpack to one that is ripe and contributing to runoff is crucial to gauge for water resource management, but is highly variable in space and time. Snow surface melt/freeze cycles, associated with diurnal fluctuations in radiative inputs, are hallmarks of this transition. C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) reliably detects meltwater in the snowpack. Sentinel-1 (S1) C-band SAR offers consistent acquisition patterns that allow for diurnal investigations of melting snow. We used over 50 snow pit observations from 2020 in Grand Mesa, Colorado, USA, to track temperature and wetness in the snowpack as a function …

High-Precision Ca-Id-Tims U-Pb Zircon Geochronology Of Felsic Rocks In The Finlayson Lake Vms District, Yukon: Linking Paleozoic Basin-Scale Accumulation Rates To The Occurrence Of Subseafloor Replacement-Style Mineralization, Matthew J. Manor, Stephen J. Piercey, Corey J. Wall, Nikola Denisová

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Felsic igneous complexes and associated volcano-sedimentary rocks in continental back-arc environments host large-tonnage and/or high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits. The emplacement mechanisms, style, and preservation of these deposits is thought to be partially dependent on depositional rates of the host lithofacies (i.e., discrete volcanic eruptions) relative to the setting of massive sulfide genesis on the seafloor as mounds and/or via subseafloor replacement of existing strata. The localization and occurrence of subseafloor replacement-style VMS deposits is therefore strongly influenced by the characteristics of the volcano-sedimentary facies in the hosting basin and the rates of their emplacement; the latter are poorly …

Modern Pyromes: Biogeographical Patterns Of Fire Characteristics Across The Contiguous United States, Megan E. Cattau, Adam Mahood, Jennifer K. Balch, Carol Wessman

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent decades, wildfires in many areas of the United States (U.S.) have become larger and more frequent with increasing anthropogenic pressure, including interactions between climate, land-use change, and human ignitions. We aimed to characterize the spatiotemporal patterns of contemporary fire characteristics across the contiguous United States (CONUS). We derived fire variables based on frequency, fire radiative power (FRP), event size, burned area, and season length from satellite-derived fire products and a government records database on a 50 km grid (1984–2020). We used k-means clustering to create a hierarchical classification scheme of areas with relatively homogeneous fire characteristics, or modern …

An Empirical Comparison Of The Extended Parallel Process Model With The Terror Management Health Model, David M. Hunt, Omar Shehryar

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Extended Parallel Process Model posits that fear-appeal messages are processed only when message recipients perceive a critical level of threat. The more recent Terror Management Health Model suggests that, in addition to level of perceived threat, the nature of the threat also influences how target audiences process fear appeals. Specifically, fear appeals that utilize the threat of death as a consequence trigger both conscious and nonconscious responses that influence message recipients’ health-related decisions. Accounting for the influence of consciousness of death helps explain maladaptive responses that extant theory has been unable to explain. Results from an experiment indicate that, …

Early Math Interventions In Informal Learning Environments: Technical Report, Gena Nelson, Hannah Carter, Peter Boedeker

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this technical report is to document the procedures of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded grant (DUE #2000292), Investigating Effective Methods that Adults Use to Improve Children's Math Achievement in Informal Learning Environments: A Meta Analysis. Specifically, this technical report documents the method and results of the literature search process, abstract screening, and full text-review. In addition, Appendix A includes our abstract screening protocol and Appendix B includes our full-text review protocol. This technical report also describes the article coding procedures and all the methods that senior personnel used to train graduate assistants (GAs) about each phase …

Gender Disparities In Increased Parenting Time During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Research Note, Jennifer Augustine, Kate Prickett

Faculty Publications

Public health measures aimed at curbing the transmission of COVID-19 increased parenting responsibilities during the early stages of the pandemic. This research note examines time-use data from the American Time Use Surveys to provide several fresh insights as to how mothers took on a disproportionate share of this responsibility compared to fathers during this period. First, the gender gap in total parenting time narrowed by 18%. Meanwhile, the gender disparity in time in educational activities increased by 113% and was not explained by changes in mothers’ labor force participation. Mothers also took on 20% more time in secondary caregiving compared …

The Bangsamoro: A Search For Autonomy In An Era Of Contested Priorities And Global Changes – Implications For Education For All, Anil Khamis

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an offshoot of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), was established in the 1970s to struggle for autonomy and self-determination of the Bangsamoro. The Bangsamoro home of the Moro Muslim community in the Southern Philippines achieved its strategic goal of a measure of autonomy through a national plebiscite in December 2019. A transition period of three years is underway, with funding from international and bilateral agencies, to strengthen the Bangsamoro Transitional Authority’s governing framework and for its service provision particularly education for all. Local educational authorities, personnel, and schools over the past five decades have …

Teachers’ And Students’ Views On The Use Of Songs In Teaching And Learning Ionic Bonds, Omollo D. O, Winston Edward Massam

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Taking into consideration learner engagement during a chemistry lesson is a very crucial step if conceptual understanding is one of the goals. In the current times, teachers are drastically losing a grasp of their learners during lessons, especially chemistry lessons. However, studies that borrowed from the kindergartens have proved that incorporation of songs during lessons may engage learners. This qualitative research, which took an action research design, explored the feasibility of applying songs in rich science content in enhancing interest, motivation and engagement in ionic bonding and similar chemistry concepts among Kenyan high school students. The aim of the study …

Perspectives On Living Shorelines: Marine Contractors And Agents In Southeast Virginia, Michelle Covi, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

No abstract provided.

Thin Film Evaporation Through Engineered Copper Micropillar Arrays, Alejandro Amador

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This work explored and characterized the evaporator section of a fully engineered heat pipe, a proposed semi-passive cooling solution for the thermal management at high heat fluxes, with the use of thin film evaporation. High heat loads present a problem in electronics, circuitry, space, and defense applications which are the main target areas for this cooling solution. Conventionally manufactured flat samples made of copper micropillar arrays were tested to determine their heat removal capabilities for high heat flux applications. The samples were manufactured with 400 μm micropillar hydraulic diameter, various micropillar spacings ranging from 500-1100 μm, with 500 μm and …

Land Use/ Land Cover Change Patterns And Trends In Two Dryland Regions, Omar Sulaiman Belhaj

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Development and climate change affect the environment in numerous ways and to varyingdegrees. This effect appears prominent and more influential in arid regions. Therefore, land use/ land cover in these regions experience profound changes such as plant cover decrease and extinction of some plant species. Also, land use/ land cover in these regions has critical impacts on the environment and its components, such as shrublands shrinking and losing the habitat of animal species. The degree of changes and effects reaches severe levels that become urgent to figure out the impacts and find solutions to stop or mitigate the negative consequences. …

Characterization Of 3d Printed Parts Containing Integrated Functionality Via Ultrasonically Embedded Wires, David Abraham Sepulveda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Material extrusion additive manufacturing has been widely adopted because it offers freedom of design, which allows complex geometry fabrication, and rapid prototyping. Interest in producing components with integrated functionality allowed forms of hybrid manufacturing to be developed such as the Multi3D system. This system produces parts with embedded components by combining additive, subtractive, soldering, dispensing, and embedding techniques. However, this involves pausing the printing process (which takes place in a controlled environment) and exposing it to ambient temperature where embedding takes places. In this research, the effect of embedding parts with 24 AWG copper for improved functionality was quantified mechanically. …

Multi-Material/Fiber/Particulate Selective Laser Sintering System Capable Of Local Composition Control And Material Gradients, Jonathan James Slager

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Multi-material (M2) manufacturing with functional gradients and local composition control (LCC) is an emerging technology with high demand in numerous industries. This research investigated multi-material technology that has potential impact to joint implants, synthetic joints, and damage resistant parts. Novel manufacturing subsystems within established selective laser sintering (SLS) additive manufacturing processes were pioneered to enable printing M2 parts with LCC and functionally graded materials. Powder bed fusion (PBF) material blends consisting of low temperature thermoplastics, low temperature thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), carbon fibers (CF), and hydroxyapatite (HA) particulates were explored to match the designed and tested M2 SLS prototype. M2 sintering, …