The Emerging Role of Universities in Collective Impact Initiatives for Community Benefit

Universities are increasing their efforts to more clearly demonstrate their social value. This article illustrates how higher education administrators can incorporate collective impact partnerships in their community benefit strategies. The article explores two of the more familiar paradigms for community benefit—community engagement and anchor institution. Collective impact principles and practices are then presented. Finally, a case study provides a tangible example of how one university’s role in a collective impact initiative transitioned in response to the community. We end the article with ten takeaways and an invitation for higher education administrators to identify their own learning and action steps that can help shift focus from proving to improving their institution’s value to the community

Stratigraphic and Structural Analysis of Coals in the Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale and Fruitland Formation: Relationship to Coal Reservoir Permeability and Coalbed Methane Production

Coal reservoir quality in the Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale, and in the Fruitland Formation is dependent on coal cleat characteristics. Coal reservoir permeability increases as a result of high cleat density. From careful outcrop examination, we were able to identify several factors that increase cleat density. Vitrain coal typically has the highest fracture density as a result of having well-developed face cleats and conchoidal fractures. Clarain coal contains face and butt cleats. Cleat density in clarain is also controlled by mechanical layer thickness. As mechanical layer thickness decreases, cleat density increases. Durain and fusain coals typically contain no welldeveloped cleat system, although their presence can affect mechanical layer thickness in adjacent coals, as they may form bounding units. Cleat density increases in the damage zone of faults and in the hinge-line of folds. Cleat-controlled reservoir permeability has beneficially affected methane production in one portion of the Drunkards Wash Gas Field, Utah, and appears to have negatively influenced methane production in the coalbed methane field

Master of Science

thesisOxide based materials have recently shifted from their traditional passive role as simple insulators, to technologically important active roles. They possess capabilities that semiconductors cannot approach, mainly the ability to couple properties and serve multiple purposes. Oxide based materials, namely the perovskite structure, have strong coupling between mechanical, electrical, optical, and magnetic properties. In most cases these functions can be switched or reversed easily to give the desired property. Piezoelectricity, thermoelectric power, and nonlinear optical affects are a few of the well known oxide roles. However there have been great strides made in oxide electronics, such as high temperature superconductors, colossal magnetoresistance, nonvolatile ferroelectric memory, and the recent advent of 2-dimensional electron gases (2DEG). The work presented herein focuses on the creation and in depth study of all-oxide 2DEGS. The possible mechanisms that enable two band insulators to conduct metallically at the interface are included in this study. The bulk of this thesis focuses on two innovative and never before studied uses with oxide 2DEGs. The first novel study is that of thermoelectric power utilizing LAO/STO 2DEGs. These experiments yielded exciting results with very high Seebeck values, the highest being 780 μV/K. This is the first report to indicate the great potential of these devices for thermoelectric power. The last section focused on theoretical work predicting that an oxide based 2DEG could be made switchable with the application of external electric field. The advent of an all oxide field effect transistor using a quantum confined 2DEG had never been accomplished above the milli-Kelvin range. With the KN/STO material system successful devices were made with the resistance of the film being greatly dependant on the applied field. Furthermore a very unusual low temperature metal-insulator-transition was observed. This report is the first to show these types of results with this material system, or with any all-oxide 2DEG at room temperature

Development Of An Online Business-To-Business Gift Box Company

The Silvered Leaf & Co. project addresses a potential on-line web solution and e-business for marketing, selling and distributing specialized and contemporary theme-based gift baskets featuring products produced and manufactured on the Western Slope of Colorado. Currently, there are many web-based businesses that offer gift baskets with a variety of goods. However, all of the available options duplicate each other in quality, selection of products, and overall appeal. In addition, the web content and solutions on the existing sites are limited and cluttered. Each provides a few features that are appealing but none contain the majority of the important features users need to have a personalized experience. The Silvered Leaf & Co. project will seek to create the framework of a technologically, advanced and dynamic web site that will feature a variety of unique, theme-based gift baskets unlike any other available option. The web site will offer critical features that are most important to both the external and internal users. This potential online solution will also address important security issues that will allow a network to exist between the external and internal web sites, while protecting the integrity of the data passing through. By developing a secure, well planned, and dynamic e-business featuring unique theme-based gift baskets, the Silvered Leaf & Co. will be the key to capitalizing on the existing opportunity

GOurmet: A tool for quantitative comparison and visualization of gene expression profiles based on gene ontology (GO) distributions

BACKGROUND: The ever-expanding population of gene expression profiles (EPs) from specified cells and tissues under a variety of experimental conditions is an important but difficult resource for investigators to utilize effectively. Software tools have been recently developed to use the distribution of gene ontology (GO) terms associated with the genes in an EP to identify specific biological functions or processes that are over- or under-represented in that EP relative to other EPs. Additionally, it is possible to use the distribution of GO terms inherent to each EP to relate that EP as a whole to other EPs. Because GO term annotation is organized in a tree-like cascade of variable granularity, this approach allows the user to relate (e.g., by hierarchical clustering) EPs of varying length and from different platforms (e.g., GeneChip, SAGE, EST library). RESULTS: Here we present GOurmet, a software package that calculates the distribution of GO terms represented by the genes in an individual expression profile (EP), clusters multiple EPs based on these integrated GO term distributions, and provides users several tools to visualize and compare EPs. GOurmet is particularly useful in meta-analysis to examine EPs of specified cell types (e.g., tissue-specific stem cells) that are obtained through different experimental procedures. GOurmet also introduces a new tool, the Targetoid plot, which allows users to dynamically render the multi-dimensional relationships among individual elements in any clustering analysis. The Targetoid plotting tool allows users to select any element as the center of the plot, and the program will then represent all other elements in the cluster as a function of similarity to the selected central element. CONCLUSION: GOurmet is a user-friendly, GUI-based software package that greatly facilitates analysis of results generated by multiple EPs. The clustering analysis features a dynamic targetoid plot that is generalizable for use with any clustering application

Daubert on the Brain: How New Mexico’s Daubert Standard Should Inform its Handling of Neuroimaging Evidence

Part I of this article reviews the expert evidence admissibility standard set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc. and New Mexico’s adoption of the Daubert standard in State v. Alberico.2 Part II of the article provides a summary of the framework expressed in the 2014 publication Group to Individual (G2i) Inference in Scientific Expert Testimony.3 Part III explores case law where DNA testing was considered as evidence and why the courts have concluded that DNA evidence complies with Daubert/Alberico standards. Part IV provides a summary of the use of euroimaging evidence in court and provides an overview of the different neuroimaging techniques being used. Neuroimaging evidence is being increasingly offered in both criminal and civil cases and as a result we believe that a basic familiarity with the different types of techniques is important for all jurists. Part V highlights the distinction between novel science and clinically-established science in showing that Daubert finds its highest purpose when evaluating novel techniques and theories. Part VI concludes that certain types of neuroscience data can be and has been deemed reliable at both the general and individual level through the application of Daubert under a G2i framework

Antiferromagnetic critical pressure in URu2Si2 under hydrostatic conditions

The onset of antiferromagnetic order in URu2Si2 has been studied via neutron diffraction in a helium pressure medium, which most closely approximates hydrostatic conditions. The antiferromagnetic critical pressure is 0.80 GPa, considerably higher than values previously reported. Complementary electrical resistivity measurements imply that the hidden order-antiferromagnetic bicritical point far exceeds 1.02 GPa. Moreover, the redefined pressure-temperature phase diagram suggests that the superconducting and antiferromagnetic phase boundaries actually meet at a common critical pressure at zero temperature.Comment: 5 pgs, 4 figs; AFM ordered moment revised to 0.5 muB, added and corrected citations and reference

Using Horticulturalists\u27 Input to Inform a Home Horticultural Website Redesign Process

The Internet is a growing source of information for consumers. Website design and development become important factors in website usability as consumers’ Internet access increases and they seek home horticulture and gardening resources. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln developed a website in the 1990s to supplement its Backyard Farmer television program. Consumers’ expectations of websites changed as technology changed, which resulted in the site no longer meeting visitors’ needs. Two focus groups evaluating the website’s usefulness as an information source were conducted with home and professional horticulturalists. Participants were most interested in locating concise information about horticulture and gardening on a website that was easy to navigate; had many links to additional information; and contained timely and current information. Overall, content quality, usability and aesthetics were highly ranked as important for a “perfect” website