Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Metallization Of Nanofilms In Strong Adiabatic Electric Fields, Maxim Durach, Anastasia Rusina, Matthias F. Kling, Mark I. Stockman

Maxim Durach

We introduce an effect of metallization of dielectric nanofilms by strong, adiabatically varying electric fields. The metallization causes optical properties of a dielectric film to become similar to those of a plasmonic metal (strong absorption and negative permittivity at low optical frequencies). This is a quantum effect, which is exponentially size-dependent, occurring at fields on the order of 0.1  V/Å and pulse durations ranging from ∼1  fs to ∼10  ns for a film thickness of 3–10 nm.

Substrate Specificity And Kinetic Studies Of Pads 1, 3, And 4 Identify Potent And Selective Inhibitors Of Protein Arginine Deiminase 3, Bryan Knuckley, Corey P. Causey, Justin E. Jones, Monica Bhatia, Christina J. Dreyton, Tanesha C. Osborne, Hidenari Takahara, Paul R. Thompson

Tanesha C. Osborne

Protein citrullination has been shown to regulate numerous physiological pathways (e.g., the innate immune response and gene transcription) and is, when dysregulated, known to be associated with numerous human diseases, including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. This modification, also termed deimination, is catalyzed by a group of enzymes called the protein arginine deiminases (PADs). In mammals, there are five PAD family members (i.e., PADs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6) that exhibit tissue-specific expression patterns and vary in their subcellular localization. The kinetic characterization of PAD4 was recently reported, and these efforts guided the development of the two most …

A Chloroacetamidine-Based Inactivator Of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1: Design, Synthesis, And In Vitro And In Vivo Evaluation, Obiamaka Obianyo, Corey P. Causey, Tanesha C. Osborne, Justin E. Jones, Young-Ho Lee, Michael R. Stallcup, Paul R. Thompson

Tanesha C. Osborne

Protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) catalyze the post-translational methylation of arginine residues. PRMT1 is the predominant mammalian isozyme, and is responsible for generating the majority of the asymmetrically dimethylated arginine found in vivo. The dysregulation of this enzyme has been implicated in heart disease and cancer; thus, its inhibition would be useful in the treatment of these diseases. Herein, we describe the most potent PRMT1 inhibitor described to date. This compound, denoted C21, is a chloroacetamidine-containing peptide that is able to irreversibly bind and inactivate the enzyme selectively. We have also shown that the coactivator activity of PRMT1 is selectively inhibited …

Pseudokarst Of East Texas: Geomorphic Features And Evolution [Abstract], Kevin W. Stafford, Melinda G. Shaw-Faulkner, Wesley A. Brown

Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

Geochemical Spatial Variability Of The Colorado River Associated With Karst Springs, Colorado Bend State Park, Central Texas [Abstract], Katie Mitchell, Sherri Dornak, Kevin W. Stafford

Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

Broad-Scale Relations Between Conservation Reserve Program And Grassland Birds: Do Cover Type, Configuration And Contract Age Matter?, Sam Riffell, Daniel Scognamillo, L. Wes Burger Jr., Shawn Bucholtz

Faculty Publications

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a voluntary cropland set-aside program where environmentally-sensitive cropland is retired to a conservation practice. Grassland birds should benefit because most CRP is grass habitat and because amount of land in CRP is highest in agriculture-dominated areas of the United States where grassland habitat has been most impacted. We used the Breeding Bird Survey and Common Land Unit (CLU) data (spatially-explicit data of farm field boundaries and land cover) to identify relations between types and configurations of CRP and grassland bird abundance in 3 Midwestern states. All 13 species we studied were related to at …

Sfa Weather Station-January 2010, Arthur Temple College Of Forestry And Agriculture, Stephen F. Austin State University

Weather Station Data

No abstract provided.

Platinum And Palladium Complexes Containing Cationic Ligands As Catalysts For Arene Hid Exchange And Oxidation., J. Brannon Gary

Faculty Publications

The direct functionalization of CH bonds has frequently been deemed a “Holy Grail” of organometallic chemistry.[1] A seminal example of this transformation was the demonstration by Shilov and co-workers that platinum(II) salts catalyze the direct oxidation of alkanes into their corresponding alcohols and alkyl halides.[2] Subsequent work in this area has focused on surveying diverse ligands for these reactions in an effort to enhance reactivity and selectivity, slow catalyst decomposition, and replace platinum(IV)-based oxidants with more cost-effective alternatives.[3–5] In a key development, chemists at Catalytica identified [bpymPtCl2] (bpym = bipyrimidine) as a pre-catalyst for the oxidation of CH4 into CH3OSO3H …

A Partial Taxonomy Of Substitutability & Interchangeability, Shant Karakashian, Robert J. Woodward, Berthe Y. Choueiry, Steven D. Prestwich, Eugene C. Freuder

CSE Conference and Workshop Papers

•Introduction

–Basic form & extensions

–Features & use

–Further developments

•Taxonomy using a partial order

–One example

•Relation to

–General forms of symmetry

–Symmetry breaking during search

•Future research & conclusions

A Partial Taxonomy Of Substitutability And Interchangeability, Shant Karakashian, Robert J. Woodward, Berthe Y. Choueiry, Steven D. Prestwich, Eugene C. Freuder

CSE Conference and Workshop Papers

Substitutability, interchangeability and related concepts in Constraint Programming were introduced approximately twenty years ago and have given rise to considerable subsequent research. We survey this work, classify, and relate the different concepts, and indicate directions for future work, in particular with respect to making connections with research into symmetry breaking. This paper is a condensed version of a larger work in progress.

The Communicator, Volume [6], Issue[1], February 2010

The Communicator: News from the Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

New Faces (Christopher Jorgensen; Ryan Stutzman; Christina Hoffman)

NSF Assistantships

New Research

Assessing Landscape Constraints on Habitat Management of Upland Birds

Avian Conservation in the Prairie Pothole Region: Understanding the Links Between Climate, Ecosystem Processes, Wetland Management, and Bird Communities

Missouri River Mitigation: Implementation of Amphibian Monitoring and Adaptive Management for Wetland Restoration Evaluation

Research Highlight

Monitoring, Mapping and Risk Assessment for Non-Indigenous Invasive Species in Nebraska (Nebraska Invasive Species Project)

ANNUAL MEETING

Conferences/Meetings/Workshops

Graduate Student News (Michelle Hellman; Christina Hoffman; Christopher Jorgensen; Kristine Nemec; Ryan Stutzman)

Teaching

Droughtscape- Winter 2010, Kelly Smith

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

USDM Forum Highlights

Drought Likely to Ease

Research Shows Birds Vulnerable to Drought

Drought Recedes in 2009

CA, TX Suffer Impacts from Ongoing Drought

NDMC Wishes Ryu Well

Conferees Pick SPI for Global Drought Index

Magnetic Properties Of Nickel Hydroxide Nanoparticles, X. H. Liu, W. Liu, X. K. Lv, F. Yang, X. Wei, Z. D. Zhang, David J. Sellmyer

David Sellmyer Publications

The magnetic properties of 10 nm size Ni(OH)₂ nanoparticles prepared by sol-gel method have been studied. The magnetic moments increase with decreasing temperature in a low applied field, which is due to the spin-frozen-like state at low temperatures, and the metamagnetic transition is not clearly observed even in an applied field of 70 kOe due to the size effect. Furthermore, the transition from paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic in the Ni(OH)₂ nanoparticles occurs at lower temperature (22 K).

Measurement Of The Depth Of Maximum Of Extensive Air Showers Above 1018 Ev, J. Abraham, Gregory Snow, Pierre Auger Collaboration

Gregory Snow Publications

We describe the measurement of the depth of maximum, X_max, of the longitudinal development of air showers induced by cosmic rays. Almost 4000 events above 10¹⁸ eV observed by the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory in coincidence with at least one surface detector station are selected for the analysis. The average shower maximum was found to evolve with energy at a rate of (106⁺³⁵_-21) g/cm²/decade below 10^{18.24 ±0.05} eV, and (24 ± 3) g/cm²/decade above this energy. The measured shower-to-shower fluctuations decrease from about 55 to 26 …

Transverse-Momentum And Pseudorapidity Distributions Of Charged Hadrons In Pp Collisions At √S=7 Tev, V. Khachatryan, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, J. Keller, T. Kelly, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, Carl Lundstedt, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow, Cms Collaboration

Gregory Snow Publications

Charged-hadron transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV are measured with the inner tracking system of the CMS detector at the LHC. The charged-hadron yield is obtained by counting the number of reconstructed hits, hit pairs, and fully reconstructed charged-particle tracks. The combination of the three methods gives a charged-particle multiplicity per unit of pseudorapidity dN_ch=dη ⃒_|η|<0.5= 5.78 ± 0.01(stat) ± 0.23(syst) for non-single-diffractive events, higher than predicted by commonly used models. The relative increase in charged-particle multiplicity from √s=0.9 to 7 TeV is [±66.1 ± 1.0(stat) ± 4.2(syst)]%. The mean transverse …

Combination Of Tevatron Searches For The Standard Model Higgs Boson In The W+W- Decay Mode, V. M. Abazov, Kenneth A. Bloom, Gregory Snow, D0 Collaboration

Kenneth Bloom Publications

We combine searches by the CDF and D0 Collaborations for a Higgs boson decaying to W⁺W^-. The data correspond to an integrated total luminosity of 4.8 (CDF) and 5.4 (D0) fb^-1 of pp collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. No excess is observed above background expectation, and resulting limits on Higgs boson production exclude a standard model Higgs boson in the mass range 162–166 GeV at the 95% C.L.

Search For The Standard Model Higgs Boson In The Zh → ΝνBb Channel In 5.2 Fb-1 Of Pp Collisions At √S = 1.96 Tev, V. M. Abazov, Kenneth A. Bloom, Gregory Snow, D0 Collaboration

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search is performed for the standard model Higgs boson in 5.2 fb^-1 of pp collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV, collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The final state considered is a pair of b jets and large missing transverse energy, as expected from pp → ZH → ννbb production. The search is also sensitive to the WH → ℓνbb channel when the charged lepton is not identified. For a Higgs boson mass of 115 GeV, a limit is set at the 95% C.L. on the cross section multiplied by branching …

Why Ferroelectric Polyvinylidene Fluoride Is Special, Matt Poulsen, Stephen Ducharme

Stephen Ducharme Publications

Ferroelectric polymers entail a number of constraints, which together limit the useful compositional variations. These constraints include the following: a stable molecular dipole moment, compact crystal structure, conformational flexibility, and minimal steric hindrance. They are well satisfied by the prototype ferroelectric polymer, polyvinylidene fluoride, and yet almost every other conceivable molecular structure is limited by comparison.

Biointeraction Analysis By High-Performance Affinity Chromatography: Kinetic Studies Of Immobilized Antibodies, Mary Anne Nelson, Annette C. Moser, David S. Hage

David Hage Publications

A system based on high-performance affinity chromatography was developed for characterizing the binding, elution and regeneration kinetics of immobilized antibodies and immunoaffinity supports. This information was provided by using a combination of frontal analysis, split-peak analysis and peak decay analysis to determine the rate constants for antibody–antigen interactions under typical sample application and elution conditions. This technique was tested using immunoaffinity supports that contained monoclonal antibodies for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Association equilibrium constants measured by frontal analysis for 2,4-D and related compounds with the immobilized antibodies were 1.7–12 × 10⁶ M⁻¹ at pH 7.0 and 25 °C. Splitpeak …

A General Approach For Receptor And Antibody-Targeted Detection Of Native Proteins Utilizing Split-Luciferase Reassembly, Cliff I. Stains, Jennifer L. Furman, Jason R. Porter, Srivats Rajagopal, Richard T. Wyatt, Indraneel Ghosh

Cliff Stains Publications

The direct detection of native proteins in heterogeneous solutions remains a challenging problem. Standard methodologies rely on a separation step to circumvent nonspecific signal generation. We hypothesized that a simple and general method for the detection of native proteins in solution could be achieved through ternary complexation, where the conditional signal generation afforded by split-protein reporters could be married to the specificity afforded by either native receptors or specific antibodies. Toward this goal, we describe a solution phase split-luciferase assay for native protein detection, where we fused fragmented halves of firefly luciferase to separate receptor fragments or single-chain antibodies, allowing …

Piezoelectric Tuning Of Exchange Bias In A Batio3/Co/Coo Heterostructure, Srinivas Polisetty, W. Echtenkamp, Keith Jones, X. He, Sarbeswar Sahoo, Christian Binek

Christian Binek Publications

Piezoelectrically controlled strain is used for electric tuning of exchange-bias fields. A generic exchange-bias Co/CoO bilayer is deposited on the surface of a ferroelectric and thus piezoelectric BaTiO₃ substrate which allows to apply electrically and thermally tunable stress in the adjacent ferromagnetic Co thin film. The stress-induced strain alters foremost the magnetic anisotropy of the Co film and by that the magnetization orientation at the Co/CoO interface modifying the exchange-bias field. This results in a pronounced electrically induced weakening of the exchange bias but also includes the possibility of tuning the exchange-bias field through a subtle sign change from …

Working With Beaver For Better Habitat Naturally, Sherri Tippie, Mary O'Brien

Other Publications in Wildlife Management

There are many reasons to encourage the return of beaver to their historical creeks and streams, including increased stream functioning, enhanced biodiversity, adaptation to climate change, and wetlands creation.

This publication teaches us how to respect and live with beaver; but if we insist on moving beaver, it provides information on how to do so with care.

Selection Of Andrill Papers

ANDRILL Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Heat Flow And Hydrologic Characteristics At The And-1b Borehole, Andrill Mcmurdo Ice Shelf Project, Antarctica, Roger H. Morin, Trevor Williams, Stuart A. Henrys, Diana Magens, Frank Niessen, Dhiresh Hansaraj

ANDRILL Research and Publications

The Antarctic Drilling Program (ANDRILL) successfully drilled and cored
a borehole, AND-1B, beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf and into a flexural moat basin that surrounds Ross Island. Total drilling depth reached 1285 m below seafloor (mbsf) with 98 percent core recovery for the detailed study of glacier dynamics. With the goal of obtaining complementary information regarding heat flow and permeability, which is vital to understanding the nature of marine hydrogeologic systems, a succession of three temperature logs was recorded over a five-day span to monitor the gradual thermal recovery toward equilibrium conditions. These data were extrapolated to true, undisturbed temperatures, …

40Ar–39Ar Dating Of Volcanogenic Products From The And-2a Core (Andrill Southern Mcmurdo Sound Project, Antarctica): Correlations With The Erebus Volcanic Province And Implications For The Age Model Of The Core, Gianfranco Di Vincenzo, Laura Bracciali, Paola Del Carlo, Kurt Panter, Sergio Rocchi

ANDRILL Research and Publications

The AND-2A drillcore (Antarctic Drilling Program—ANDRILL) was successfully completed in late 2007 on the Antarctic continental margin (Southern McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea) with the aim of tracking ice proximal to shallow marine environmental fluctuations and to document the 20-Ma evolution of the Erebus Volcanic Province. Lava clasts and tephra layers from the AND-2A drillcore were investigated from a petrographic and stratigraphic point of view and analyzed by the ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar laser technique in order to constrain the age model of the core and to gain information on the style and nature of sediment deposition in the Victoria Land …

2010 Western Mensurationists’ Conference, David Affleck, John Goodburn, Christopher Keyes, Renate Bush

JFSP Research Project Reports

The 2010 Western Mensurationists’ Conference in Missoula, MT, drew together forest scientists and land managers with primary expertise in the measurement and modeling of forest resources. The meeting provided an opportunity to focus the collective technical expertise of this group on crossdisciplinary conifer crown modeling issues that are of increasing importance to existing and emerging forest management strategies in western North America. Thus, a special invited session on conifer crown modeling results and opportunities was added to the conference agenda together with a participatory workshop on crown modeling needs and challenges. Funding was provided by the Joint Fire Science Program …

The Role Of Adaptive Capacity In Creating Fire-Adapted Human Communities, Pamela J. Jakes, Matthew S. Carroll, Travis B. Paveglio, Soren Newman

JFSP Research Project Reports

In this research we sought answers to the question: What are the social characteristics and conditions of human communities that promote adaptive capacity for wildfire? The Quadrennial Fire Review (USDA and USDI 2009) promotes a goal of “achieving fire-adapted communities” in the wildland urban interface (WUI), and identifies metrics for determining whether a community is fire-adapted. While these metrics address some of the biophysical conditions necessary for fire-adapted human communities, they offer little insight into the social elements that promote or sustain adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity refers to the individual and collective resources, capabilities, and actions that alleviate the risk …

The Communicative Construction Of Safety In Wildland Firefighting, Jody Jahn, Linda Putnam, Anne Black

JFSP Research Project Reports

This document is a summary of a mixed methods dissertation that examined the communicative construction of safety in wildland firefighting. For the dissertation, I used a twostudy mixed methods approach, examining the communicative accomplishment of safety from two perspectives: high reliability organizing (Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 1999), and safety climate (Zohar, 1980). In Study One, 27 firefighters from two functionally similar wildland firefighting crews were interviewed about their crew-level interactions involved in implementing safety rules and firefighting tasks. These critical incident narratives (Flanagan, 1954; Gremler, 2004) were compared to extract workgroup level similarities and differences in interaction patterns relating to …

A Proposal To Improve Performance Of The Forest Vegetation Simulator - Fire And Fuels Extension, Dave C. Cawrse, Michael G. Van Dyke, Nicolas Nicholas L. Crookston, Donald Robinson, Sarah Beukema

JFSP Research Project Reports

The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) and its associated Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE) have been used to provide information required by larger software systems like the Interagency Fuels Treatment - Decision Support System (IFT-DSS). Interacting with FVS in an automated fashion has been difficult, and simulations with very large numbers of stands, such as those necessary for landscape analyses for fire planning, could take a significant amount of time to process. This project was designed to: (A) develop a requirements document considering Service Oriented Architecture and how that may apply to FVS, and how FVS will be used interactively; (B) …

Assessment Of Canopy Fuel Loading Across A Heterogeneous Landscape Using Lidar, Kenneth L. Clark, Nicholas Skowronski, Michael Gallagher, Nicholas Carlo, Michael Farrell, Melanie R. Maghirang

JFSP Research Project Reports

Our research used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems coupled with sequential harvesting of Pitch pine (Pinus rigida Mill.) to quantify canopy fuels in three dimensions across a large, heterogeneous landscape impacted by multiple wildfires, prescribed burns and insect defoliation events. We used a three-tiered approach; 1) calibration of upward sensing profiling LiDAR data with sequential harvesting of 20 x 20 meter plots to quantify the mass of foliage, branches and stems in Pitch pine canopies in 1-meter height layers, 2) scaling results to the landscape scale using previously-published relationships between upward sensing and downward sensing scanning LiDAR systems in …