The 50 most-cited articles in Journal of Bioresource Management, 2016

In his sixth satire, Juvenal speculates about how Roman wives busy themselves while their husbands are away, namely, by entertaining a revolving door of exotic visitors who include a eunuch of the eastern goddess Bellona, an impersonator of Egyptian Anubis, a Judean priestess, and Chaldean astrologers. From these self-proclaimed religious specialists women solicit services ranging from dream interpretation to the coercion of lovers. Juvenal's catalogue suggests the popularity of such "freelance" experts at the turn of the second century and their familiarity to his audience, whom he could expect to get the joke. Heidi Wendt investigates the backdrop of this enthusiasm for the religion of freelance experts by examining their rise during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. Unlike civic priests and temple personnel, freelance experts had to generate their own authority and legitimacy, often through demonstrations of skill and learning in the streets, in marketplaces, and at the temple gates, among other locations in the Roman world. Wendt argues that these professionals…

This study was carried out to find the effect of some commonly present plant products on termite species (Heterotermis indicola) which are a major threat worldwide. Three different concentrations (20%, 10%, 5%) of various solutions consisting of garlic, Neem and tobacco was used in hot and cold water. Hot and cold water results showed that a high concentration treatment of the garlic (20%) solution caused 100% mortality after 48 hours, but in the case of the tobacco concentration (20%) of the solution in only cold water resulted in 100% mortality. As the concentration become lower, the efficiency becomes slower. 100% mortality in the 10% & 5% solutions of garlic and tobacco occurred in different days. In case of Neem, both hot and cold water was found less effective as compared to garlic and tobacco. The mortality occurred using Neem was significantly less than garlic and tobacco.

Fault Diagnosis and Fault-Tolerant Control of Quadrotor UAVs.Quadrotors represent a special class of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and have attracted significant attention in recent years due to their potential in various military and civilian applications.However, due to their intrinsic fabrication process and component damage, quadrotors are prone to various type of faults.This dissertation presents the design, analysis, and experimental implementation of fault diagnosis, fault-tolerant control, and controller verification methods to achieve safety assurance and trusted autonomy of quadrotor UAVs.First, the issue of sensor faults is investigated under two different scenarios: (1) the case when all Euler angles are available for measurement;(2) the case when roll and pitch angles are not measurable and need to be estimated.Nonlinear adaptive estimators are designed to provide possible simultaneous accelerometer and gyroscope fault detection, isolation, and bias estimation.Next, the issue of fault-tolerant control of quadrotor UAV in the presence of actuator faults is…

Xylanases are enzymes that degrade Xylan, a hemicellulose found in plant cell walls, into Xylose. They are a very important class of enzymes to be used in paper and pulp industry. Removal of lignin from paper and pulp by Chlorine and its compounds have caused a serious problem in the environment. Delignification of lignin by Xylanase is an alternative approach that is environmentally friendly. The present research was conducted to produce and characterize Xylanase from the fungus Aspergillus niger using agricultural wastes/byproducts like corn cobs, wheat bran and sugar cane bagasse with different concentrations. Submerged fermentation was carried out in 250ml Erlenmeyer flasks using Vogel’s medium at 37oC. Culture conditions like pH, temperature, incubation time and concentration of carbon sources were optimized to achieve maximum Xylanase production. Molecular weight was determined by SDS-PAGE to be 27.2KDa. It was revealed that the pH and thermal stability of Xylanase is very important for it to be used in industry.

This survey was carried out to prepare a plant inventory for the exploration of the ethnobotanical importance of the plants in the Miani Sahib Graveyard and to understand the effectiveness of graveyards in conserving plant diversity. Plants were collected in different seasons of the year and were dried, pressed, mounted and identified with the help of Flora of Pakistan. Our ethnobotanical study was carried out by interviewing the herbal drug dealers, timber dealers, fuel wood sellers, and the local elderly people residing in the adjacent areas of Miani Sahib and hakims through a questionnaire. Cyperaceae was noticed as the dominant plant family, showing the highest FIVI value. They are used in fever, flue, cough, asthma, digestive troubles, piles, diabetes, urinary diseases, male sexual diseases, gynecological diseases, joint pains and inflammation, ear diseases, tooth problems, cuts and wounds, dermal problems, and as cooling agents and other miscellaneous uses.

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a culturally responsive framework developed to provide targeted, evidence-based instruction to all students in regular education settings. A goal of RTI is to reduce the disproportionate number of students of color referred for special education services. However, numerous barriers often prevent teachers from effectively engaging in the RTI process and serve to impede the delivery of instruction. School counselors can provide rational emotive-social behavior (RE-SB) consultation for teachers to address psychosocial barriers and promote social justice. This article outlines RTI, barriers to implementation, and how school counselors can advocate for all students through RE-SB consultation.

The experiments were conducted at Adaptive Research Farm Karor Lal Eason and farmers’ field, i.e. Mouza Nawan Kot, Tehsil Choubara during Rabi 2014-15. The purpose of the experiment was to evaluate the effect of different herbicides for the control of weeds on chick pea.Two pre-emergence herbicides with two different doses, viz. Pendimethalin330 EC @ 2500 ml ha-1 before sowing, Pendimethalin330 EC @ 3750 ml ha-1before sowing, Top Max 90% EC. (Metachlor 83% + Pendimethalin13%) @ 2250 ml ha-1 before sowing and TopMax 96% (Metachlor83% + 13%)@ 3350 ml ha-1, were tested. An untreated plot was also included in the experiment. Fertilizer application (Nitrogen, Phosphorus,and Potash) and Cultural practices were according to the departmental recommendations.Weed control efficacy was better with higher doses of pre-emergence herbicides, i.e.Pendimethalin330 EC @ 3750 ml ha-1 and Top Max 96% (Metachlor 83% + Pendimethalin13%) @ 3350 ml ha-1, as compared to lower doses of Pendimethalinand Top Max. It was also noted that high doses of pre-emergence herbicides increase number of branches per…

Three-dimensional thinning is an important task in medical image processing when performing quantitative analysis on structures, such as bones and vessels. For researchers of this domain a fast, robust and easy to access implementation is required. The Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK) is often used in medical image processing and visualization as it offers a wide range of ready to use algorithms. Unfortunately, its thinning implementation is computationally expensive and can introduce errors in the thinning process. This paper presents an implementation that is ready to use for thinning of medical image data. The implemented algorithm evaluates a moving local neighborhood window to find deletable voxels in the medical image. To reduce the computational effort, all possible combinations of a local neighborhood are stored in a precomputed lookup table. To show the effectiveness of this approach, the presented implementation is compared to the performance of the ITK library.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin produced by several fungi of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium, principally P. verrucosum in temperate climate and A. ochraceous in warm regions. In poultry feed materials, mycotoxins are found most commonly in cereals and to a lesser degree, in meals. The presence of OTA in animal feed contributes significantly to health disorders and decreased production. In addition to aflatoxins, which is an ubiquitously distributed toxin, OTA is one of the reasons for economic losses in the poultry industry due to poor performance and immunosuppression. Moreover, OTA has also been noted for the carryover effect in meat and tissues. This review provides the information regarding the nephrotoxic and hepatotoxic effects of OTA in monogastric animals. Histopathological studies revealed a depletion of lymphoid tissues, granular degeneration in the epithelial and mononuclear proliferation and activation of capillary endothelium cells in the kidney and liver tissue of monogastric animals. Elevated liver enzymes and blood biochemical parameters related to kidney…

Motion planning and control of a differential drive robot in a supervised environment is presented in this thesis. Differential drive robot is a mobile robot with two driving wheels in which the overall velocity is split between left and right wheels. Kinematic equations are derived and implemented in Simulink to observe the theoretical working principle of the robot. A proportional controller is designed to control the motion of the robot, which is later implemented on a physical robot. Combination of linear velocity and orientation generates individual wheel velocities which are sent to the robot by wireless communication for its motion. Point to point motion and shapes, such as square and circle, are performed to implement and test the robustness of the controller designed. Others tasks such as leader-follower, pursuer-evader and obstacle detection and avoidance are carried out using multiple robots. For flexibility of the robot, a GUI software is developed for waypoint assignment for the robots to follow through. Different systems such as Vicon Camera, Matlab-Simulink, Xbees,…

This study describes the possible effects of tea residues on crop production. To investigate the negative effects of tea on two cereal crops, i.e. wheat and maize, laboratory experiments were conducted during May 2014 and repeated in June 2014 to study the effect of black tea extract on wheat and maize seeds’ germination and growth. The experiment was conducted in petri dishes and laid out in completely randomized designs, replicated thrice. The petri dishes were kept in a growth chamber, with the temperature set at 25°C. 50 g of each dried fresh and used black tea was separately soaked in 500 ml of hot and cold distilled water. The same amount of tea residue was soaked in 500 ml of methanol. Ten seeds of each wheat variety (Siran) and maize variety (Azam) were placed in each petri dish. 10 ml of each extract was applied to each petri dish according to the requirement. A control (distilled water) was used for comparison. Analysis of the data revealed that tea extract significantly suppressed seed germination and the growth of wheat and maize. Methanol extracts, on the other hand,…

To study the effect of row spacing and frequency of cuttings on spinach (Spinacia oleracea), an experiment was carried out at the Kitchen Gardening Training Center for Women at 61 JB Dharorh Faisalabad, Pakistan, during 2014. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with factorial arrangements having three replications with a plot size of 3 m × 6 m. This experiment was comprised of two factors, i.e. row spacing (Broadcast, 30 cm apart rows and 45 cm apart rows) and cutting frequency (45 days after sowing and 30 after the first cutting). The result showed that differences in row spacing have non-significant effects on plant height (cm), number of leaves, Fresh Biomass (kg/ha-1) and Dried Biomass (kg/ha-1). The broadcast method of sowing gave the prominent results in all the parameters, such as the maximum plant height of 25.49 (cm), maximum number of leaves at 37.8, maximum fresh biomass of 2252 (kg/ ha-1) and dried biomass of 217.95 (kg/ ha-1). However, the number of cuttings gave significant results for plant height (cm), fresh biomass (kg/ ha-1) and…

The popularity of open source tools is constantly increasing, as they offer the possibility to quickly create and use visualizations of arbitrary data sources. As the positive effects of uncertainty communication to all kinds of visualizations were discussed over the past years in the academic world, this work examines the uncertaintyawareness of open source solutions. Through a categorization and classification of available tools, this paper identifies the problems in uncertainty-awareness of available open source solutions. To solve this problem, a new paradigm of data handling that extends raw datasets by its uncertainty is suggested

Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I or COI in the mitochondrial genome (DNA Barcode) of goats was used to identify and differentiate two common breeds (beetal and berberi) and crossbreeds sampled in Punjab, Pakistan. This is the first study on the molecular taxonomy of the goat breeds of Pakistan. Sequencing of DNA barcode of the beetal goat showed a 99% similarity to Capra hircus isolate LS16 cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene. Beriberi goats showed a 99% similarity to Capra hircus breed Jining Qing goat mitochondrion. Identification of goat breeds via DNA barcoding may help in local genetic improvement and conservation programs, especially in pre-screening important breeds that can be considered for conservation in their pure form. However, more COI sequences should be determined from the native goat populations of Pakistan to improve reliability of using DNA barcodes to differentiate them from their exotic counterparts. Thus, the present study concluded that DNA barcoding can be used to confirm the species or breed origin of an unknown specimen and it is a reliable and…

Bio-assay of Diver® for mealy-bug and its parasitoid, A. bambawalei, was carried out during 2010-2011 in the IPM Laboratory, Department of Agri. Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. All the concentrations of Diver®, which were applied in laboratory conditions, were effective against mealy-bug. Diver® is the best mineral oil to control mealy-bug when compared to other synthetic pesticides. On the numerical basis of data, which were recorded on mortality basis, the highest concentration of Diver® was most effective against mealy-bug, followed by the other concentrations. All the concentrations of Diver® on the parasitoid of mealy-bug swerve less and their effects were increased day by day, e.g. in 3 days the effect was minimal and in 21 days the effect of mortality was at its maximum because the residual toxicity of Diver® was present for a long time.

Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the family Apiaceae and is mostly administered for stomach disorders. During the present research work, cold maceration and Microwave Assisted Extraction (MAE) of T. ammi Sprague was done by using methanol, dichloromethane and n-hexane separately as extracting solvents. For cold maceration, 2, 4, 6, 18 and 24 hours of time durations were used for each solvent. Maximum extract (50mg/g) was obtained at 18 hours of cold maceration with methanol, while maximum phenolics were also obtained from the same extract, which were calculated to be 170.89μg/g equivalent of Gallic acid. For Microwave Assisted Extraction, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180seconds of time durations for microwaves irradiations were used at power levels 200W, 500W, 800W and 1000W. Maximum extract (35mg/g) was obtained at 90 seconds with methanol at power level 800W, while maximum phenolics were obtained after 30 seconds of MAE in methanol (196.90μg/g). Hence, it is concluded that cold maceration has better extraction efficiency for extracts of T.…

Desert shrubs have a deep root system which allows them to explore the soil minerals and moisture from deeper horizons of soil and strongly support the local dwellers’ livelihoods. Capparis decidua (Forsk.) Edgew, generally known as karir, a xerophytic, densely branched shrub, is widely found in arid and semi-arid areas of Pakistan. The present study was conducted at four different sites in the Thal desert to determine the canopy effect of C. decidua on soil nutrients. Soil nutrients under the plant canopy (UC), at a distance of 150 cm away from the canopy (D150) and 300 cm away from the canopy area (D300) were determined. Data revealed that the soil nutrient status was higher in UC soils than the soils of (D150) and (D300). Levels of soil NPK in UC soil vs soils of D150 and D300 was: Nitrogen (N) = 0.49% vs 0.41% & 0.34%; Phosphorus (P) = 7.2 mg/L vs. 6.1 mg/L & 5.3 mg/L; Potassium (K) = 104 mg/L vs 91 mg/L & 83 mg/L. Similarly, soil organic matter (OM) = 1.25% vs 1.05% & 0.83%; sulphur (S) = 8.75 mg/L vs. 8.09 mg/L & 7.19 mg/L. Conversely, carbonates (CO3--), Bicarbonates (HCO3-),…

Among the edible mushrooms, Morchella esculenta (Pers.) is a highly prized mushroom which consists of a short stalk and a conical, pitted, hollow pileus. It is commonly known as a morel or sponge mushroom, or gucchi, etc. It belongs to the class Ascomycetes, order Pezizales and family Morchellaceae. It is found throughout the world. In Pakistan, it is found in northern areas from Murree, Patriata, and Gilgit under pine vegetation. It is therapeutic in nature; therefore its medicinal and biochemical properties are under investigation throughout the world, especially in regard to treating the hazardous diseases such as cancer, tumors, etc. The present in vitro study was conducted for the first time in Pakistan. The three media soil and soil extracts Agar and Luria Agar were used. Mycellial growth was obtained on all these media, but the LA medium showed better growth. Microscopic studies had shown pigmentation is most likely due to the secondary mycelium. Among these mycelium ascogenous hyphae are produced that may lead to the formation of ascogonium and antheridium with the dilated…

Through state-society relations, this book offers a compelling and fascinating comparison of Brazil and China, two emerging powers on the international stage.

This paper employs data envelopment analysis to investigate the extent to which publicly owned, operated, and managed universities in the United States have undergone efficiency and productivity changes in response to the financial crisis that induced the Great Recession and how post-recessionary conditions have altered those changes. The paper revisits an earlier study of like kind that used panel data covering the 2005-2008 academic years but could not, obviously, capture the dynamic changes of the 2007-2009 recession or the lingering post-recessionary financial and enrollment effects imposed on public universities. The present paper offers many improvements over that previous study by extending the panel data to 250 as compared to 133 universities and the academic years to evaluate efficiency and productivity to 2004-2013. Results indicate that university efficiency and productivity gains arose somewhat earlier during the recession than previous estimated but the significant improvements were in lagged response and arising in the 2010 and 2011 academic years. Post-recession…

Organizations need relevant and specific information systems to operate their carbon emissions, energy use, and other green activities to support its management of sustainability initiatives and related accounting and other reporting requirements. Green information systems (IS) and environmental management information systems (EMIS) thus become necessary for monitoring and controlling activities and procedures regarding environmental concerns. In the IS scholarly community, we have not yet given full attention to carbon management and environmental management IS, despite our increasing efforts in research around green information systems. In this paper, we aim to introduce the concepts of environmental management information systems by discussing some of their common software characteristics, such as whether support for ISO 14001 is provided. We provide an overview of a collection of such green and sustainable information systems and will discuss thoughts on directions for conducting IS research on these topics at the conference.

Ontology alignment systems establish the semantic links between ontologies that enable knowledge from various sources and domains to be used by automated applications in many different ways. Unfortunately, these systems are not perfect. Currently, the results of even the best-performing automated alignment systems need to be manually verified in order to be fully trusted. Ontology alignment researchers have turned to crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk to accomplish this. However, there has been little systematic analysis of the accuracy of crowdsourcing for alignment verification and the establishment of best practices. In this work, we analyze the impact of the presentation of the context of potential matches and the way in which the question is presented to workers on the accuracy of crowdsourcing for alignment verification. Our overall recommendations are that users interested in high precision are likely to achieve the best results by presenting the definitions of the entity labels and allowing workers to respond with true/false to the question of whether…

Criminals have been documented to launder clothing in an attempt to hide evidence; however, there limited studies on this type of evidence manipulation. This study looked at: 1) the effects of eighteen laundry additives at diluted and undiluted strengths on human blood, 2) the effects of a delay between deposit and laundering, 3) the amount of recoverable DNA on laundered clothing with different deposited volumes of blood, and 4) the transfer of genetic material within a primary load and between primary/secondary and primary/tertiary loads. There was a reduction in volume of DNA for some laundry additives. Nevertheless, all genotyped samples were consistent with expected profiles. The results show that DNA can be transferred between a primary and a secondary load but not to a tertiary with the best locations for genetic transfer recovery being towels and socks. This study helps further the understanding and treatment of DNA on laundered clothing

Software defined networking (SDN), a new networking paradigm that separates the network data plane from the control plane, has been considered as a flexible, layered, modular, and efficient approach to managing and controlling networks ranging from wired, infrastructure-based wireless (e.g., cellular wireless networks, WiFi, wireless mesh net- works), to infrastructure-less wireless networks (e.g. mobile ad-hoc networks, vehicular ad-hoc networks) as well as to offering new types of services and to evolving the Internet architecture. Most work has focused on the SDN application in traditional and wired and/or infrastructure based networks. Wireless networks have become increasingly more heterogeneous. Secure and collab- orative operation of mobile wireless ad-hoc networks poses significant challenges due to the decentralized nature of mobile ad hoc wireless networks, mobility of nodes, and re- source constraints. Recent developments in software defined networking shed new light on how to control and manage an ad hoc wireless network. Given the wide deployment and availability of…

Gas turbine technology for aerospace applications are approaching limits in efficiency gains as increases in efficiency today occurs in very small increments. One limitation in conventional gas turbine technology is the combustion process, which destroys most of the exergy in the cycle. To address this limitation in a traditional Brayton power cycle, a hybrid system which is integrated with Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) and gas turbine is developed. Hybrid systems involving fuel cells have better efficiencies than conventional power generation systems. Power generation systems with improved performance from low fuel utilizations and low maintenance costs are possible. The combination of a SOFC fuel cell with a gas turbine has shown higher efficiencies than conventional gas turbine systems due to the reduction of exergy destruction in the heat addition process. A one-dimensional dynamic model of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) integrated with a gas turbine model to develop an efficient electrical power generation system for aviation applications is investigated. The SOFC - Combustor…

Morphological variation attributable to allometry in the freshwater gastropod Elimia livescens Menke, 1830 is described. Geometric morphometric analyses were used to examine shape variation and visual ontogenic deformation patterns for a population of E. livescens along the West Fork of the White River, Delaware County, Indiana. A strong allometric slope from more globose and robust shelled smaller individuals to increasingly fusiform shell shapes in larger individuals was identified. The relatively high allometric slope was interpreted as evidence of functional importance and maintenance through selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current state-of the-art for digital receiver bandwidth coverage is now reaching multi-GHz. The conventional wideband digital receiver design is based on the Nyquist information theory, and its bandwidth coverage is limited by the Nyquist sampling rate. Therefore, receiver performance highly depends on the high speed analog-to-digital (ADC) technology and computation hardware such as FPGA. Having proved a fundamental theory that Nyquist waveform can be restored with a reduced sampling rate under certain situations, compressed sensing (CS) technique becomes an attractive solution to wideband digital receiver development. In this dissertation, performance analysis of the compressed sensing in receiver application is conducted. The compressed sensing receiver uses two modulations and sampling schemes: 1) Pseudo Random Code (PRC), a uniform sampling approach, and 2) a proposed non-uniform sampling (NUS) approach. Three algorithms are used to process the compressed signals: 1) Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP), 2) Parameter Estimation (PE), and 3) Nesterov's algorithm (NESTA). Signal…

This handout focuses on the evidence for the theory that massive meteor impact off the coast of Mexico caused the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The dinosaurs and about 75% of all marine invertebrate species and many other organisms died abruptly at this time.It is part of a set of four articles on possible causes of the Permian and Cretaceous mass extinctions can be used to organize classroom debates or to have students compare and contrast the events and their causes.

In this chapter, the author discusses the value of integrating the Esri Story Map app into STEM-based general education courses and provides a model for implementing the technology. The experience with an introductory spatial science class at the University of Southern California suggests that Story Maps can be success-fully introduced to students who have no prior experience with GIS software. With a minimum of instruction and support, students were able to design and create their own spatially oriented web applications. Students enjoyed the creative process, learned new skills, and generated a polished app that can be published on the web. This positive experience indicates that the versatile Story Map platform can be molded into a mapping platform that reaches across the natural sciences,social sciences, and humanities and fits the skill level and topic interest of almos tany course.

An Autoencoder-Based Image Descriptor for Image Matching and Retrieval.Local image features are needed in many computer vision applications.For this purpose, a large number of point detectors and descriptors have been developed throughout the years.However, creation of effective descriptors is still a topic of research.The Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) proposed by David Lowe is an example of a widely used image descriptor in image analysis and image retrieval.SIFT first detects interest points in an image based on a scale-space analysis.It then creates a descriptor for each detected point, encoding gradient information in a patch centered at the point.SIFT descriptors are scale and rotation invariant and provide a high matching rate; however, they are computationally too slow to be useful in many image analysis and retrieval applications.Autoencoder is an effective computational method for representation learning.In this dissertation it is used to construct a low-dimensional representation for a high-dimensional data while preserving structural information within the…

Ambient temperature dwell sensitivity is known to be deleterious to the fatigue response of near-alpha titanium alloys. Dwell fatigue refers to the presence of a sustained hold at peak stress as opposed to the continuous variation of normal cyclic fatigue loading. This reduction in failure life-times from dwell loading is attributed to early crack nucleation and faster crack propagation. The degradation is the result of plastic anisotropy on the microstructural scale along with tendency of titanium alloys to creep at low temperatures at stresses well below the 0.2% offset yield strength. Despite being the most widely used titanium alloy, Ti-6Al-4V has not been the subject of most dwell fatigue research. Generally, dwell sensitivity is microstructurally dependent and believed to only affect Ti-6Al-4V when severe crystallographic texture is present and under high peak stress loading. Recent studies, however, have suggested that small clusters of preferred crystal orientations, known as micro-textured regions (MTR), can have a significant effect on the dwell sensitivities in Ti-6Al-4V…

Insufficient Effort Responding (IER) is prevalent enough in self-report data to cause issues with construct validity. There are many ways to detect IER, but they are less than ideal as they each detect different forms of IER. I compared an Item Response Theory (IRT) approach consisting of the lz person-fit statistic and the Person Fluctuation Parameter (PFP) to longstring, non-consecutive longstring, even-odd split, and psychological synonyms indices. I simulated 3200 samples with one of four types of random responding: consecutive responding, non-consecutive patterned responding, random responding following a normal distribution, and random responding following a uniform distribution. Also, I generated an additional sample that consisted of all types of IER examined within this study. I found that the IRT methods are able to detect IER considerably better than the other indices, excluding using the longstring method to detect consecutive responding. As such, they are robust enough to detect most forms of IER. I conclude that using IRT approaches after removing the obvious IER cases…

Feasibility of Attaining Fully Equiaxed Microstructure through Process Variable Control for Additive Manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V.One of the greatest challenges in additive manufacturing is fabricating titanium structures with consistent and desirable microstructure.To date, fully columnar deposits have been achieved through direct control of process variables.However, the introduction of external factors appears necessary to achieve fully equiaxed grain morphology using existing commercial processes.This work introduces and employs an analytic model to relate process variables to solidification thermal conditions and expected beta grain morphology at the surface of and at the deepest point in the melt pool.The latter is required in order to ensure the deposited microstructure is maintained even after the deposition of subsequent layers and, thus, the possibility of equiaxed microstructure throughout.By exploring the impact of process variables on thermal, morphological, and geometric trends at the deepest point in the melt pool, this work evaluates four commercial processes,…

Many advances in technology are expected to increase the capabilities of next generation aircraft, and these advances will increase the thermal load on the aircraft as well. In order to assess and account for these increased thermal loads, three studies were performed: a fuel pump trade study, a high energy pulsed system (HEPS) implementation study, and a legacy vehicle environmental control system (ECS) study. The fuel pump study addresses the effect of the implementation of a centrifugal fuel pump versus a variable displacement fuel pump. Traditionally, aircraft designers have used a centrifugal fuel pump over a piston based pump based primarily on mass, volume, cost, and reliability. This study considers specific excess power (SEP), fuel burn and thermal margin and shows the piston based pump performing superior mainly because it eliminates fuel recirculation resulting in an increased thermal margin. This investigation demonstrates the benefit of capturing component level models and thermal concerns in the conceptual design process. Both of these issues are vital to the…

The effect of implicit bias on discriminatory grading in education has received considerable attention but, to date, no study has examined the effectiveness of using a rubric to reduce biased grading. Current research has demonstrated that the presence of a gender-normative name is sufficient to activate implicit gender bias, which can result in disparate treatment. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of implicit and explicit gender bias on grading decisions for written assignments. When grading identical essays on the topic of computers (stereotypically-male), participants assigned significantly lower grades when the essay was supposedly written by a female author, compared to a male author. This difference was more pronounced in participants who had a stronger implicit association of men with science (high implicit bias). Male and female author grades did not differ when assigned by participants who were low in implicit bias. Further, participants who were high in implicit bias, but reported low explicit prejudice toward women in STEM graded the female author more…

Most applications of flat plate, low-temperature solar thermal panels are for water heating, such as producing domestic hot water or raising the temperature of swimming pools. This is reasonable given that the large masses of water present in these systems inherently provide built-in thermal energy storage so that a separate energy storage tank does not have to be purchased. For a space heating system, extra thermal energy storage generally has to be purchased and is a detriment to the economics of these systems. Despite the economic drawbacks of solar thermal space heating, this thesis focuses on the size of thermal systems required to heat an average size home in Minneapolis, MN and Dayton, OH. For these two locations and for a standard test case, this thesis studies the effect of solar panel size and orientation, heat exchanger size, and operation parameters including flow rates through the solar panels and heat exchanger. Liquid, flat plate collectors are one of the simplest methods for collecting solar energy. These panels are generally inexpensive and can have collection…

AIM:This study evaluated biomechanical behavior of human cadaveric mandibles in terms of fatigue life, failure modes, maximum load to failure, and stiffness variation under cyclic compressive loading. METHODS: Twelve fresh-frozen mandibles were harvested from donated human cadavers, and grouped two ways to undergo different cyclic compressive loading configurations simulating biting cycles. Fracture locations, maximum load to failure and number of loading cycles to failure were noted, and stiffness variation was determined. Mann-Whitney test and Pearson’s correlation test were used for statistical data analyses. RESULTS: The mandibles in molar loading group exhibited fracture at mandibular angle as the prominent failure mode whereas those in incisor loading group predominantly failed in condylar region. Stiffness reduction in the mandibles of both groups showed a steep initial decline followed by a transition into constant stiffness. The distribution of age, maximum load to failure, cycles to failure, and overall change in stiffness were not significantly different (P>0.05 for…

The purpose of this study was to explore the personal characteristics of transition-aged youth served by a Midwest state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency and to determine if these characteristics are predictive of service provision and successful employment. Chi-square tests and logistic regression analysis were used to determine the relationships between personal characteristics variables (such as disability type, gender, and race/ethnicity) and the provision of VR services and employment outcome. Individuals with sensory and other health impairments were less likely to be employed while individuals with a mental illness were more likely to be employed. Implications for practice, policy, and further research are discussed.

The PTPN22 gene plays vital role in T1D onset by encoding Lymphoid-specific phosphatase (LYP) that lead to T-cell receptor-associated CsK kinase inactivation and preventing T-cell spontaneous activation by dephosphorylation. VDR gene encoded for VDR receptor is involved indirectly in prevention of T1D onset by promoting insulin production. The present study was conducted to determine the mutations on rs2476601 and rs1544410 polymorphic sites on the PTPN22 and VDR genes respectively. We genotyped 50 patients and 50 control subjects from Lahore by using sequencing and Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) techniques. It was observed that the allelic frequency of r and b were higher in patients as compared to controls and significantly associated with the onset of T1D. The genotype distribution frequencies varied significantly among patients and controls (p < 0.01). The mutation on the rs2476601 polymorphic site led to the change of Isoleucine to tryptophan in patients. In conclusion, compelling evidence was found of T1D onset association with the…

The paper presentscomparative study of urease and alpha-amylase inhibitory activities in two varieties of Malus species, i.e. unripened apple and gold coloured ripe apple. It is very important to know the anti enzymatic potential of these two varieties because the enzyme inhibition can be therapeutic and cure illness caused by malfunctioning of some enzymes. Objectives of this study was to determine the presence of chemical constituents, their role and inhibition activities of urease and alpha-amylase in selected apple varieties. Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometric (GC-MS) was used to identify their chemical constituents. Both varieties exhibited profound activities of urease and alpha-amylase that increased by the increase in the sample’s concentration. The IC50 (μg/mL) were 19.77, 19.60, 19.95 and 99.92 for red delicious and golden delicious respectively, whereas, thiourea standard was at 107.90 μg/mL. The IC50 of unripe and ripe fruits were respectively 0.063, 0.051, 0.06 and 0.065 μg/mL comparing with acarbose standard, i.e. 0.044 μg/mL. GC-MS confirmed the presence of…

In this study an assessment (VirEMiA) on college students' knowledge and misconceptions of the Ebola virus was created and validated. VirEMiA was then used to determine what misconceptions college students have about Ebola, if there is a difference in misconceptions between students with and without a strong science background, and if Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) increases students' knowledge of Ebola and decreases their misconceptions. VirEMiA was shown to be a valid and reliable assessment whether confidence was integrated (seprel=0.97) or not (seprel=0.98), and for measuring misconceptions (seprel=0.97). If psychology and nursing majors were considered to have a strong background in science, the difference in misconceptions between students with and without a strong background in biology was not statistically or practically significant (tdf=392=1.86, p=0.06, d=0.19). However, if psychology and nursing majors were not considered to have a strong science background, there was a statistically and practically significant difference in misconceptions between students with and without…

Despite having one of the highest rates of institutionalized birth in the region, Dominican maternal mortality rates are higher than the regional average. This phenomenon is referred to as the “Dominican Paradox.” The purpose of this paper is to identify factors beyond the established healthcare system that may contribute to the “Dominican Paradox.” Literature about the “Dominican Paradox” often attempts to explain the paradox in terms of the current healthcare system alone. Over reliance on the healthcare system has likely contributed to the “Dominican Paradox.” Most of prevalent causes of maternal mortality in the Dominican Republic are strongly linked to maternal obesity. Obesity is a major, and potentially the most important, behavioral risk factor that could explain the “Dominican Paradox.” For this reason it is important to explore the other domains that influence health when considering this issue. Preconception care is an intervention that could help empower Dominican women to take control of preventable risk and ensure healthy pregnancies.

The ability to quantify trace chemicals in human breath enables the possibility of identifying breath biomarkers to aid in diagnosis. The vast majority of the studies in the analytical breath analysis rely on GC-MS techniques for quantification of the human breath composition1,2,3,4. THz spectroscopy of breath is rapid, sensitive, and highly specific molecular identification in complex mixtures containing 10-100 analytes with near `absolute' specificity. THz spectroscopic breath analyzers require chemical preconcentration. A newly developed custom preconcentrator was constructed and compared in its performance to a commercial system. Unlike the commercial counterpart, the new system does not require cryogenic liquids, is compact, and offers significant advantages in terms of ease of operation and facilitates further development of THz breath sensors. Its preconcentration efficiency was assessed. The THz spectrometer coupled with the custom preconcentrator demonstrated first THz detection of breath isoprene, a chemical not detected with the commercial device.

Although interruptions experienced by nurses during intensive care have been indicated to affect patient safety, not much is known regarding the complex situations that drive interruptions to eventually aid in intervention design and implementation.

Aircraft Thermal Management using Liquefied Natural Gas Many technological advances are expected to increase the capabilities of the future aircraft, both civilian and military.These improvements come in many forms such as new wing or fuselage shapes to improve lift or decrease drag.Other improvements are internal.One of these areas is the inclusion of advanced electronic systems for various roles.These changes affect a wide range of aircraft systems including, but not limited to avionics, power generation and thermal management.While these modifications promise to increase aircraft capabilities such as its range, payload or other key performance parameters, there are some significant drawbacks.One drawback is the thermal and power requirements needed to meet these needs.This problem will only be amplified by the addition of a High Energy Pulsed System (HEPS).This improvement, along with existing electronic systems that could be featured on next generation aircraft could cause a significant thermal load on an aircraft, where heat dissipation is already a problem.HEPS of this sort…

School based health centers (SBHC) have been shown to benefit domestic populations both in terms of bettering health and bettering academics while being effective over the long term. There is, however, lacking evidence on how they impact immigrant and refugee communities, which are some of the most vulnerable United States communities in terms of health risks. Through discussion of literature, this paper defines and reviews the criteria for vulnerable populations and explains how this term applies to immigrant and refugee populations. School based health centers and their documented health and academic benefits for domestic high risk populations are discussed and extrapolated to the vulnerable immigrant and refugee populations. A case study of Kiser K-6, a school in Dayton, Ohio, is presented to illustrate the potential impact of a school based health center. The population of the neighborhoods in the Kiser K-6 district is described through census and neighborhood data to give a description of the school’s student body. Based on the evidence-based recommendations this manuscript…

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 3 (ERK3) is an atypical member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family. Recent studies have shown that ERK3 is highly upregulated in multiple cancers, such as lung cancer and colon cancer. Importantly, ERK3 promotes cancer cell migration and invasion by phosphorylating steroid receptor activator 3 (SRC-3), hence upregulating pro-invasive matrix metalloproteinase genes. While the link between ERK3 and cancers has been recognized, little is known about ERK3 mutations in cancer progression. In this study, we have investigated ERK3 mutations on arginine 64 (arginine 64 mutated to cysteine or histidine, R64C or R64H) and leucine 290 (leucine 290 mutated to proline or valine, L290P or L290V) that are found in cancers of lung, large intestine and skin (COSMIC database). Interestingly, both R64 and L290 residues are located in the kinase domain of ERK3 and are conserved in all ERK isoforms (ERKs1-4). In order to characterize these mutations, we generated expression vectors coating plasmids of ERK3 and each ERK3 constructs containing point…

The Lower Great Miami River (LGMR) has recently experienced algal blooms due to excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Some Ohio water treatment plants were ordered to reduce the amount of P that they release into the river, but N also can stimulate eutrophication and algal blooms, either alone or in combination with P. In this study, LGMR sediment N transformations and effects of river impoundments on N cycling were compared with external N loads during different flow conditions to determine the extent to which N is removed or recycled within the system. Sediment nutrient fluxes, sediment N sinks and sources (denitrification/anammox and N fixation, respectively), and potential dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) were evaluated. Results suggest that LGMR sediments were a net N sink, with high rates of denitrification during spring and summer. In contrast, LGMR sediments were a source of NH4+ and o-PO43-, which may support algal blooms. LGMR sediments removed between 8 and 33% of N loads via denitrification/anammox, but can also return nutrients to the water column,…

Intelligent Caching to Mitigate the Impact of Web Robots on Web ServersWith an ever increasing amount of data that is shared and posted on the Web, the desire and necessity to automatically glean this information has led to an increase in the sophistication and volume of software agents called web robots or crawlers.Recent measurements, including our own across the entire logs of Wright State University Web servers over the past two years, suggest that at least 60% of all requests originate from robots rather than humans.Web robots display different statistical and behavioral patterns in their traffic compared to humans, yet present Web server optimizations presume that traffic exhibits predominantly human-like characteristics.Robots may thus be silently degrading the performance and scalability of our web systems.This thesis investigates a new take on a classic performance tool, namely web caches, to mitigate the impact of robot traffic on web server operations.It proposes a cache system architecture that: (i) services robot and human traffic in separate physical memory stores,…