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Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes October 20, 2025
No full textCall to Order Approval of Minutes - September 22, 2025 University Business Faculty Senate Business Information EPC Report - October 2, 2025 Report Athletics Council Annual Report Library Advisory Council Annual Report Academic Freedom and Tenure Annual Report Old Business New Business Adjourn: 3:55 p
Faculty Senate Agenda December 1, 2025
No full text3:00 Call to Order Approval of Minutes - November 3, 2025 3:05 University Business 3:20 Faculty Senate Business 3:30 Information EPC Report - November 6, 2025 3:45 Report Honors Program Annual Report USUSA Annual Report Faculty Evaluation Committee Academic Freedom and Tenure 4:10 Old Business 4:15 New Business Faculty Forum Adjourn: 4:30 p
Enhancing the Hydraulic Efficiency of Piano Key Weir (PKW) — Some Research Achievements
No full textAs an effective flood control structure, the piano key weir (PKW) typically features a rectangular planform for its overhangs. However, this design offers room for improvement. To enhance hydraulic efficiency, two modified PKW layouts are proposed. In the first, the floor of each key is lowered with a semicircular cross-section, forming an elliptical planform and crest. In the second, the floor is lowered with an isosceles triangular prism, creating an equilateral triangular overhang. Both modified PKW models, manufactured by 3D printing, were tested in a large-scale experimental setup. Compared to the reference weir, the elliptical-overhang PKW increases the developed crest length by ~36% and enhances discharge by 30–53% across the tested flow range. The triangular-overhang PKW extends the crest length by ~23%, resulting in a 16–20% increase in discharge. The modified inlet key crest, whether elliptical or triangular, extends further downstream, promoting jet break-up, air entrainment at low to medium-high flows, and improved energy dissipation. The elliptical or triangular overhang facade, combined with a lowered inlet key floor, reduces entrance energy loss, improving inflow conditions. The lowered floor also accommodates additional water volume, enhancing flow motion toward the crest. For the outlet key, the lower floor facilitates outflow and mitigates local submergence at high floods. These modifications offer more effective PKW designs, which is particularly beneficial when reservoir water level increases must be controlled during floods or when spillway construction space is limited—contributing to improved dam safety and cost efficiency
An Innovative Association of Fusegate and PK-Weir
No full textThe combination on the same dam of Piano Key weir (PK-Weir) and fusible structures offers a highly effective passive solution for managing flood discharges. This concept first introduced by Hydrocoop in 2015 as « Innovative Associated Spillways » can leverage the strength of each system. More than 30 years after its first application, the returns of experience of the Hydroplus Fusegate® system applications on more than 80 dams in 25 different countries have confirmed their reliability in terms of sequentially overturning on the downstream side for the correct design flood. With their high discharge capacity at low head, PK-Weirs optimize the use of the flood storage volume by decreasing the peak of the downstream flood. As shown in the presented study case, the combination of these two innovative passive dispositions provides robust solutions for ensuring reliable safety during common and extreme, even unpredicted, floods
Single Compost Application Benefits for Organic Dryland Wheat Production
No full textThis research highlights the long-term value of compost in dryland wheat systems, where water scarcity and declining soil fertility limit productivity. A single, high-rate compost application (22 tons per acre) can improve soil moisture content, organic carbon content, aggregate stability, and microbial activity. All these benefits contributed to higher and more stable wheat yields, even more than two decades after application. These changes help to make the compost-treated wheat more resilient during dry years. While composting incurs a high upfront cost, its long-term benefits can significantly reduce the need for repeated fertilizer or soil amendments, offering cost and labor savings over time
Effects of Light Intensity on Algae Biofilms in Rotating Algae Biofilm Reactors (RABR)
Get PDFThere is a growing need for economically and ecologically friendly wastewater treatment processes. Utilizing natural algae biofilms to remediate excess nitrogen and phosphorus from municipal wastewater is a treatment technique of academic interest. Utilizing natural algae in rotating algae biofilm reactors (RABR) is a potential engineering application of algae biofilms for municipal wastewater anaerobic digestor effluent treatment. The ideal reactor operation would use sunlight as the light source for algae growth, however, there is little academic research on algae biofilm growth productivity across natural sunlight light intensity ranges. This research seeks to understand the relationship between rotating algae biofilm reactor algae surface area productivity, nitrogen removal, and phosphorus removal in connection with the amount of photosynthetic light available. The results of this study found that the greater amount of photosynthetically available radiation available to an algae biofilm caused increased biofilm productivity and nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) removal from the wastewater
Leveraging Cobalt Carbene Radical for Sustainable Radical Transformations
No full textRadical chemistry plays a key role in modern science, driving the creation of many new materials, medicines, and industrial products. However, because radicals are so reactive, controlling their behavior—especially in terms of how selectively they form or modify specific molecules—has been a major challenge for chemists. Improved control over radical reactions can lead to cleaner, more sustainable manufacturing processes for everything from medicines to new materials. By reducing waste and making reactions more efficient, the research could lower production costs and environmental impacts. This research explores a novel method for controlling radical reactions using a technique called metalloradical catalysis (MRC). MRC relies on metal complexes (compounds involving metals and other molecules) to direct radical reactions with a high degree of precision. Specifically, this work introduces the use of cobaloxime complexes, which are a type of cobalt-based catalyst, to guide radical reactions. These catalysts offer a promising new way to carry out chemical reactions that are both efficient and selective, making them useful for a variety of applications.
The first part of the research demonstrates how these cobaloxime catalysts can be used to form specific molecular structures that are important in pharmaceuticals. By improving the control over these reactions, we can help develop new medicines more effectively. The second part of the research expands this technique to create other important molecular building blocks, such as cyclopropenes and oxazoles, which are used in drug development and materials science. Finally, the research explores the use of these catalysts for reactions involving silicon-hydrogen bonds, which are relevant to the production of specialty chemicals and advanced materials.
In summary, this work contributes to the growing field of metalloradical catalysis, opening new possibilities for more efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective chemical manufacturing processes that have potential benefits for both industry and society
Fact Sheet: Methamphetamine
Get PDFMethamphetamine, or meth, is a powerful stimulant that speeds up the central nervous system, causing increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and how fast the body uses energy. This fact sheet explains how meth is habit-forming and addictive and what it does to your body. It also explains overamping and responding to such an emergency
Continuous Exposure to an Aversive Mixture: A Means of Maintaining Aversion in Sheep Averted to \u3cem\u3eGeigeria ornativa \u3c/em\u3eO. Hoffm. (Vermeerbos) - An Assessment
Get PDFEstablishing aversion to Geigeria ornativa only lasts for some time, after which the induced aversion disappears and sheep start eating G. ornativa again. This behavior is aggravated by the social influence of non-averted sheep in mixed grazing situations. Exposing sheep continuously to a so-called “aversive mixture”, containing an aversive substance (lithium chloride) and the sensory characteristics of the plant (hexane extract of G. ornativa) mixed with a tasty meal (maize meal), following an initial aversion treatment, resulted in sustained aversion to G. ornativa in the field. This method proved to be applicable to mixed grazing situations with averted and non-averted sheep grazing together on a G. ornativa-infested field during the day but separately housed during the night, with averted sheep being exposed to an aversive mixture. It also proved effective when averted sheep separately grazed a G. ornativa-infested field 24 hours a day, while continuously exposed to an aversive mixture presented in a self-feeder. This methodology potentially might also be used to prevent livestock from consuming other non-aversive poisonous plants on a sustained basis
Influence of Process Parameter and Build Rate Variations on Defect Formation in Laser Powder Bed Fusion SS316L
Get PDFLaser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is an additive manufacturing process that has gained interest for its material fabrication due to multiple advantages, such as the ability to print parts with small feature sizes, good mechanical properties, reduced material waste, etc. However, variations in the key process parameters in LPBF may result in the instantiation of porosity defects and variation in build rate. Particularly, volumetric energy density (VED) is a variable that encapsulates a number of those parameters and represents the amount of energy input from the laser source to the feedstock. VED has been traditionally used to inform the quality of the printed part but different values of VED are presented as optimal values for certain material systems. An optimal VED value can be maintained by changing the key process parameters so that various combinations yield a constant value. In this study, an optimal constant VED value is maintained while printing SS316L with variable key processing parameters. Porosity analysis is performed using optical microscopy, as well as X-ray computed tomography, to reveal the volume density and distribution of those pores. Two primary defect categories are identified, namely lack of fusion and porosity induced by balling defects. The findings indicate that, even at optimal VED, variations in process parameters can significantly influence defect type, underscoring the sensitivity of defect formation to the variation of these parameters. Furthermore, a minor change in the build rate, driven by adjustments in process parameters, was found to influence defect categories. These findings emphasize that fine tuning the process parameters and build rate is essential to minimize defects. Finally, fiducial marks have been identified as a source of unintentional porosity defects. These results enable the refinement of process parameters, ultimately optimizing LPBF to achieve enhanced material density and expedite the printing