College Slasher Novel

This project was completed in hopes of creating a new novel that combines the research and craft worlds of composition and creative writing while merging the social worlds of teaching and campus Greek life, as well as making relevant contemporary commentary on the genres of satire and horror. In preparation, beyond necessary course work completion and time to outline, write, workshop, and revise, I read numerous novels and articles and watched dozens of films and television episodes as well as conducted research regarding current campus demographic to compose the best novel I could write in my time within the program. The first half of the degree was completed while teaching high school full-time, whereas the second was spent as a full-time student and research assistant. Advisor: Timothy Schaffer

The Internet of Things and Big Data: A Litmus Test for Extension?

The Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data are radically changing the face of human activity, from driving our cars to preparing our food to managing our health. Billions of connections between machines and people will be directly tied to areas of life skills that Extension cares about. Can Extension gauge the impact of IoT and Big Data? How will Extension respond to the challenge of these technologies? What new skills should be included in Extension position descriptions? What organizational policies, support, and infrastructure will be needed? Will Extension proactively develop new organizational skills and programming relevant to digitally connected clients

Optimized optomechanical crystal cavity with acoustic radiation shield

We present the design of an optomechanical crystal nanobeam cavity that combines finite-element simulation with numerical optimization, and considers the optomechanical coupling arising from both moving dielectric boundaries and the photo-elastic effect. Applying this methodology results in a nanobeam with an experimentally realized intrinsic optical Q-factor of 1.2x10^6, a mechanical frequency of 5.1GHz, a mechanical Q-factor of 6.8x10^5 (at T=10K), and a zero-point-motion optomechanical coupling rate of g=1.1MHz.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The Other Left : 96th Street/Allisonville Road

This presentation documents the planning, design, construction, and operational effectiveness of the first full median u-turn intersection in the state of Indiana. The presentation contains a before-and-after study of the intersection, comparing operational measures of effectiveness prior to and 2 years subsequent to intersection construction. Safety, travel time, and LOS are highlighted

Dimerization and opposite base-dependent catalytic impairment of polymorphic S326C OGG1 glycosylase

Human 8-oxoguanine-DNA glycosylase (OGG1) is the major enzyme for repairing 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG), a mutagenic guanine base lesion produced by reactive oxygen species (ROS). A frequently occurring OGG1 polymorphism in human populations results in the substitution of serine 326 for cysteine (S326C). The 326 C/C genotype is linked to numerous cancers, although the mechanism of carcinogenesis associated with the variant is unclear. We performed detailed enzymatic studies of polymorphic OGG1 and found functional defects in the enzyme. S326C OGG1 excised 8-oxoG from duplex DNA and cleaved abasic sites at rates 2- to 6-fold lower than the wild-type enzyme, depending upon the base opposite the lesion. Binding experiments showed that the polymorphic OGG1 binds DNA damage with significantly less affinity than the wild-type enzyme. Remarkably, gel shift, chemical cross-linking and gel filtration experiments showed that S326C both exists in solution and binds damaged DNA as a dimer. S326C OGG1 enzyme expressed in human cells was also found to have reduced activity and a dimeric conformation. The glycosylase activity of S326C OGG1 was not significantly stimulated by the presence of AP-endonuclease. The altered substrate specificity, lack of stimulation by AP-endonuclease 1 (APE1) and anomalous DNA binding conformation of S326C OGG1 may contribute to its linkage to cancer incidence

Two-dimensional phononic-photonic bandgap optomechanical crystal cavity

We present the fabrication and characterization of an artificial crystal structure formed from a thin-film of silicon which has a full phononic bandgap for microwave X-band phonons and a two-dimensional pseudo-bandgap for near-infrared photons. An engineered defect in the crystal structure is used to localize optical and mechanical resonances in the bandgap of the planar crystal. Two-tone optical spectroscopy is used to characterize the cavity system, showing a large vacuum coupling rate of 220kHz between the fundamental optical cavity resonance at 195THz and a co-localized mechanical resonance at 9.3GHz.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Virus in Your Beans - What to Do?

Soybean viruses have become an increasing problem in Iowa soybeans since the late 1990\u27s. Losses due to virus disease include both decreased yield and seed quality conferred by mottling of seed coats or hilum bleeding. The principle viruses involved are Bean pod mottle (BPMV) and Soybean mosaic viruses (SMV). Of the two, BPMV has been by far the greater problem in Iowa. Unfortunately, the two viruses cannot be differentiated based upon symptoms. Both viruses cause similar foliar symptoms and seed coat mottling. However, the viruses belong to different virus families and have different insect vectors. The BPMV is primarily vectored by the bean leaf beetle (Cerotoma trifurcata) and SMV by at least 32 different aphid species, including the newly introduced soybean aphid (Hill et al., 2001), in a non-persistent manner. The two viruses can cause significant yield loss with estimates ranging from 8- 35% for SMV and up to 52% for BPMV In addition, synergistic interaction between the two viruses can cause loss that is more than additive, ranging up to 75%. Both viruses can be transmitted through seed with rates for SMV approximating 0- 5% in most commercial varieties and for BPMV less than 0.1% (Hill, 1999; Lin and Hill, 1983). For both viruses, mottling of seed coats is a poor indicator of virus presence in seed. A previous study showed that correlation coefficients between amount of SMV and seed coat mottling was dependent upon variety and ranged from 0.12 to 0.80 (Bryant et al., 1982). For BPMV, data showed that, even for a single variety, the correlation between amount of BPMV and seed coat mottling varied based upon planting date and year (Table l) (Krell et al., 2005)

Observation of Quantum Motion of a Nanomechanical Resonator

In this Letter we use resolved sideband laser cooling to cool a mesoscopic mechanical resonator to near its quantum ground state (phonon occupancy 2.6±0.2), and observe the motional sidebands generated on a second probe laser. Asymmetry in the sideband amplitudes provides a direct measure of the displacement noise power associated with quantum zero-point fluctuations of the nanomechanical resonator, and allows for an intrinsic calibration of the phonon occupation number