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Needs Assessment for Creating partnerships between veterinarians and small and medium-sized ranchers to enhance profitability and sustainability
No full textSurvey Results from surveying veterinarians and producers' perspectives of working with each other to enhance the profitability and sustainability of livestock operations.Survey Results from surveying veterinarians and producers' perspectives of working with each other to enhance the profitability and sustainability of livestock operations.This work is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program grant no. 2021-68006-33878 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Modulation of the Electronic Structure and Chemical Reactivity of 2D Materials by the Application of Force/Strain
No full textIn recent years, sustainability has increasingly become a global concern throughout many sectors and governments. This growing investor and regulatory focus on sustainability has deviated efforts towards R&D for improving energy efficiency of processes. Transition to renewable energy, green energy, is a strategic focus area that positions the international community to realize long term value creation and climate risk mitigation. Mechanochemistry has been viewed as a viable route in green chemistry due to utilizing mechanical energy to drive chemical reactions can result in solvent-free reactions that have increased yield and selectivity. However, the lack of models to bridge the gap between the complexity of macroscale and precise control of force at atomic scale has left mechanochemistry with much fundamental understanding left to be uncovered.
Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials offer a wide range of structural and electronic properties to explore mechanochemical processes. Being an integral part of material technologies used in many applications and an inert basal plane make these materials suitable as models to investigate the modulation of the structure by controlled force and directionality to induce mechanochemical reactions.
Here, computational approaches are used to establish fundamental understanding for the influence of out-of-plane distortion on the chemical reactivity of the surface. Graphene was shown to have increased reactivity to aryl radicals and water ions on the convex side when out-of-plane structural distortion is applied to the basal plane. Calculations have uncovered that on the concave side a decrease in reactivity to the surface relative to flat graphene. First-principles calculations were used to investigate the influence of layer thickness and substrate effect on the oxidation of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) in the presence of atomic and molecular oxygen (AO, O2). This work revealed that Au(111) can influence the reactivity of the basal plane while preserving the structure of MoS2. Additionally, a novel reproducer for optimizing fast Fourier transform (FFT) calculations was created and resulted in significant speed up. The knowledge revealed here will guide and accelerate future computational studies of two-dimensional nanomaterial-based electronic devices and tribological systems while fostering a potential synergy between research in 2D nanomaterials, mechanochemistry and high-performance computing hardware
Economic Indicators of the College Station-Bryan MSA, August 2023
No full textThe Business-Cycle Index increased from 226 in May 2023 to 228 in June 2023. The local unemployment rate decreased from 3.4% in May 2023 to 3.3% in June 2023. Local nonfarm employment increased by 0.3% from May to June. June��������s inflation-adjusted taxable sales were down by 1.2% from May. By using a modified poverty measure that adjusts for college students, the poverty rate in Brazos County drops from 25% to 18%
Fusing Environmental Technologies with Attached Housing in Rural Vietnam: A Synergistic Approach
Get PDFThis paper presents the design, development, and performance evaluation of a Net-Zero attached housing project in the hot and humid climate of Northern Vietnam. Integrating bioclimatic design principles, contemporary environmental technologies, and local building materials. The project aimed to minimize energy consumption while improving the quality of life for the local Tay ethnic group with respect to their traditional lifestyles. A careful examination and adaptation of the traditional local house layouts enabled the integration of efficient passive design strategies such as natural cross-ventilation, shading, solar heating, thermal mass, and daylighting. The use of indigenous building materials and renewable energy sources, including solar panels, was crucial in achieving optimal thermal and lighting performance, resulting in net-zero energy consumption. The successful outcome of this project demonstrates the potential of environmentally friendly, economically viable, and culturally sensitive building practices in achieving sustainable development in the region
Fabrication and Prevascularization of Extracellular Matrix Derived Scaffold for Cardiac Healing
Get PDFCardiovascular disease is a grievous and growing problem across the globe with limited therapeutic interventions available. This is due to the inability to replace fibrotic scar tissue which tends to accumulate and impair cardiac function. While stem cell-based regenerative therapies are promising, they are hindered by low survival and engraftment rates. These obstacles can be overcome by fabricating a complementary biomimetic scaffold that can support the development of an organized microvasculature and the growth of induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) to promote positive cardiac remodeling after myocardial infarction. The effectiveness of a cardiac scaffold relies on its ability to mimic the native myocardium by facilitating a multitude of cell-cell interactions and promoting the integration of implanted stem cells with the native myocardium. This has garnered attention on extracellular matrix cell sheets because they can form a completely biological, highly customizable, and tissue-specific scaffold. One of the cornerstones of designing a self-sustaining cardiac patch construct is supporting the development of a dense and highly organized microvasculature to meet the daily metabolic needs of implanted iPSC-CMs. The aim of this project was to test the potential of iPSC-ECs to form such a robust and dense microvasculature on decellularized ECM cell sheets in comparison to the previously studied HUVECs. This was achieved by co-culturing bone marrow derived human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) with iPSC-ECs or HUVECs on decellularized ECM cell sheets over ten days. The results of the ECM cell sheet fabrication demonstrated that human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) can be used to produce a highly aligned ECM which retains its structural components after decellularization. Next, the prevascularization comparison between the hMSC/iPSC-EC and the hMSC/HUVEC revealed that iPSC-ECs could form a highly aligned microvasculature like the HUVECs. In fact, the average vessel length, diameter, and intercapillary distance in the hMSC/iPSC samples was more representative of the native myocardium than the hMSC/HUVEC control. Therefore, it can be concluded that co-culturing hMSCs and iPSC-ECs encompasses great promise for replicating the cardiac microvasculature and creating a perusable network of vessels that can support stem cell growth and maturation in cardiac patch constructs. This can propel regenerative medicine a step further by providing the biomimetic ECM scaffold the self-sustaining and robust microvasculature it needs to promote lasting cardiac repair healing for the growing number of patients in cardiovascular distress
Teleoperated Positioning and Microscopy System for Diagnostic Single-event Effects Testing of Integrated Circuits
Get PDFThe semiconductor industry is engaged in a process of innovation for space applications.
Trends in space exploration and satellite technology are driving requirements for processing
power higher and constraints for integrated circuit (IC) size lower. The processes for
characterization and testing for radiation hardness of semiconductor devices, governed by the
United States Department of Defense, remains focused on single-event effects and total ionizing
dose at the level of an entire IC. Though these standards effectively give consumers the
information and quality they need, simply testing to these standards does not enable effective
innovation for designers of the devices. In the process of characterizing the radiation hardness of
ICs, it is useful to isolate radiation exposure to individual functional blocks within a circuit. This
radiation isolation testing can lead to discoveries of varying vulnerabilities in functional blocks
of an IC. Radiation isolation testing is time consuming and costly because of the tedious process
and repetitive actions required. This project combines mechanization of the existing process with
remote operation capabilities to reduce repetitive actions and expand the capabilities of radiation
isolation testing. This document covers the requirements of the system and its successful
implementation