ASU Drug Research Group Dismantled

The CIB Working Commission W117, “Performance Measurement in Construction,” is one of the more innovative and productive research-based commissions in CIB. It focuses on the utilization of performance metrics in the delivery of construction services. The home for W117 is the Performance Based Studies Research Group (PBSRG) at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona, where W117 and ASU-PBSRG hold their annual Best Value Conference. From its start in 2009, W117 was led by Prof. Dean Kashiwagi (ASU), and his group of innovators (Dr. Kenneth Sullivan, Sylvia Romero, John Savicky and Dr. Jacob Kashiwagi) and co-coordinator, Professor Charles Egbu, (Glasgow Caledonian University). In 2016, W117 was joined by Co-Coordinator Prof. Sicco Santema, (University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands) the visionary who led to the proliferation of the W117 technology in the Netherlands.
 W117 aims to change construction procurement and stakeholder organizations worldwide through the use of the information-based Best Value Approach (BVA). As such, it differs from most CIB Commissions that are more science driven, while W117 is more concept and impact driven. It has been one of the most successful CIB Commissions in bridging the gap between the construction industry practice and academic research. It has been prolific in publishing and running research tests with industry partners. W117 and PBSRG have published over 300 papers and generated licensed technology (47 licenses from AZTech, the licensing body of ASU for intellectual property rights). It is the most licensed technology from the most innovative university in the U.S. (as rated by U.S. News and World Report (2016).

Environmental crises will overwhelmingly impact Millennials and Generation Z. Most are aware of this reality and enthusiastic about finding and promoting policy solutions. However, many youths also lack the communication and collaboration skills necessary to implement change in their communities. The Green Ambassadors program is a collaboration between Science Voices (a nonprofit focused on improving science education) and a political science course at Arizona State University (ASU). The program provides space for students to practice deliberation and policy-making in an online role-playing game and then implement their own proposal to address an environmental problem in their community. We will report on the results of the pilot program we ran during Summer 2020, which included students from ASU (Phoenix, Arizona, USA) and Khairun University (KU - Ternate, North Maluku, Indonesia). ASU students participated as part of an online political science course. KU students were recruited by Science Voices. Students at both universities were assigned to fictitious nations and addressed analogous real-world environmental and political challenges through diplomacy between nations with various objectives. This summer’s cohort dealt with trade relationships, climate change, and plastic pollution. Students at both universities informally shared personal experiences with these topics and collaborated on related policy options. KU students additionally developed a proposal for addressing a local problem of importance (identified by the students as plastic pollution) and were provided with crowdfunded materials to implement their proposal. We will discuss the experiences of US and Indonesian students, as well as the implementation and results of the KU local project. We will additionally discuss developing this program as a collaborative space for students from the Global North and South to partner and co-mentor each other in developing local solutions to global challenges.

This chapter explores the intersection of an ambitious community-engaged arts and design program at Arizona State University (ASU) with a socio-ecological public health model positioning arts and design as essential components of a healthy and democratic society. ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts is the largest comprehensive arts and design school in the United States, with approximately six thousand students. The chapter reflects on the process of creating a curricular requirement which provides students with a deep experience in community-engaged arts or design along with a curriculum focusing on cultural competency, democratic processes, reflective practice and community cultural development.

In spring 2023, Mimmo Bonanni (he/him) served as an embedded librarian in the “Gendering Peace and Security” Humanities Lab at Arizona State University (ASU). The ASU Humanities Lab1 provide students with hands-on research opportunities to address compelling social challenges. Mimmo participated in the “Gendering Peace & Security Lab,” which examines how intersectional ecofeminist approaches can empower women and promote environmental justice, and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this role, he closely collaborated with faculty members to develop the curriculum and support the class’s research needs, significantly enhancing instruction and student research support.2 Over the course of the lab, a student project created a unique opportunity for Mimmo to reach out beyond his division to collaborate with Corie Cisco (she/her), the project coordinator for open stacks at the ASU Library, to create a unique book display inspired by their topic

When dangerous chemical or biological releases occur in the atmosphere, emergency responders and decision makers must assess exposure rates to the affected population, establish evacuation routes, and allocate medical resources We have been working to improve the scientific basis for making such decisions. We believe that future rapid response teams, from LLNI, and other centers of expertise, will use a variety of atmospheric sensors and atmospheric computer models to predict and characterize the movement of chemical or biological releases in urban environments, and that LLNL is likely to contribute expertise in this area. A key advance will be to merge the information and capabilities of computer models with real-time atmospheric data from sensors. The resulting product will dynamically interpolate and extrapolate the raw sensor data into a coordinated ''picture'' or interpretation of the developing flow scenario. The scientific focus of the project was the exploration and development of algorithms to fuse lidar data (which measure wind speed much as a police radar measures vehicle speed) and a dispersion model into a single system. Our goal was to provide the scientific foundation for a combined lidar/model approach capable of accurately tracking the evolution of atmospheric releases on distance scales of about 20 km. The fundamental idea is to create feedbacks, so that lidar data can be used for wind field inputs into a dispersion model, which would, in turn, guide lidar data acquisition by directing more intensive scanning to regions where more data are key to improving the modeling. We created a database of synthetic lidar data that can be used to test algorithms relating to a combined lidar/dispersion model. We obtained the data, which represent nocturnal atmospheric drainage flows in the Salt Lake City Basin, from calculations on the LLNL ASCI White supercomputer with a computational fluid dynamics model running in large-eddy simulation mode. A simple modification of the resulting air-flow data produced radial velocity wind field data, which may be directly compared with real lidar data and substituted for them. We have produced a short animation (which can be viewed in the CD-ROM version of this article) representing drainage flow from the mountains. The assumed position of the lidar was that of an actual lidar that took data in the Urban Dispersion Project, funded by DOE, in the fall of 2000. We studied the ''Terminal Winds'' project at the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We analyzed algorithms and approaches used by other scientists on related or relevant projects. We evaluated the Gauss-Markov theorem approach and concluded that it will be useful in designing an advanced sensor integration system for incorporating lidar into numerical models, and, in particular, to build a single interpretation of a flow field based on potentially conflicting sensor data We began development of a script-based ''test'' laboratory, which samples the database and provides input to a dispersion model, which was ported and tested on the Frost computer system at LLNL. Our results demonstrate that specially sampled data from numerical models can indeed be a useful surrogate for actual lidar data which can only be gathered currently at great expense. The further development of the algorithms and ideas relating to this project continue at Arizona State University (ASU) where the PI is now an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. LLNL and ASU have recently established a collaboration entitled ''Advanced Sensor Integration into NARAC's Atmospheric Data Assimilation Program'' which we believe will benefit from the groundwork provided by this LDRD.

PAUL ESPINOSA IS AN ACCLAIMED DOCUMENTARY AND NARRATIVE FILMMAKER. He produces, directs, and writes much of his work, which focuses on the cultural and political lives of Latinos in, around, over, under, and through the US-Mexico border. The recipient of one national and seven San Diego Emmys and five CINE Golden Eagle awards, among others, he owns his own production company, Espinosa Productions, served as director of the Office of Latino Affairs for KPBS-W, San Diego, from 1980 to 1990, and later as Executive Director for Public Affairs and Ethnic Issues. One of his first films, The Trail North (1983), tells the story of immigration from the perspective of a family whose journey north to the US extended over many years. He followed this work with several documentaries and narratives expanding on issues of Latino identity, immigration, and human rights, including Ballad of an Unsung Hero (1984), The Lemon Grove Incident (1986), In the Shadow of the Law (1988), and Uneasy Neighbors (1990). His work has also addressed border politics and culture from a historical perspective, including, most prominently, The Hunt for Pancho Villa (1993), The U.S.-Mexican War: 1846-1848 (1998), and The Border (2000). At the same time, Espinosa has used film to engage Latina/o artistic expression, most notably in 1492 Revisited (1992) and Toco Shop Poets (2004), featured in Visiones: Latino Art in the U.S., a six-part documentary series examining the range of Latino art in the US. And he's still going at it. His most recent series, California and the American Dream, includes The Price of Renewal (2006), is an insightful documentary that examines the complex problems involving community development, philanthropy, and civic engagement in a run down San Diego neighborhood called City Heights, often referred to as the Ellis Island of San Diego. Tireless, Espinosa also has several projects in development.1 Espinosa is an intellectual who seeks to reveal the complexity of Latino lives. As his work suggests, a number of facts and facets make Espinosa a compelling filmmaker: his commitment to and knowledge of Latino history and life; his independence, which reveals a persistence and dedication seen in only the most successful filmmakers; and his training. Born and raised in the Southwest, Espinosa received two degrees in anthropology: a BA from Brown University and a PhD from Stanford University. At the same time, he has always been interested in both critiquing and making media. At Stanford, for example, his work analyzed television as a medium capable of both educating and entertaining audiences. As we discuss in this interview, the films he produces and directs today carry on that work. Despite being a productive filmmaker, Espinosa continues to extend his voice, vision, and community activism. After a long and successful career as an independent filmmaker in San Diego, he accepted a faculty position at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, in the Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies. That's where we met. He and I started our faculty positions at ASU in the fall 2004. I came from the Department of Media Arts at the University of Arizona, excited to work in both Chicano and Chicana and film and media at the rival institution up the road. But I was also a bit anxious. I had never worked in an ethnic studies department, having always been in film and media programs. I'm also not Chicano, but Puerto Rican and Italian. How was I going to fit in? My colleagues in both areas welcomed me with enthusiasm. After all, they had recruited and hired me in ways that suggests a profound understanding and distrust of all kinds of borders. Still, I was somewhat anxious until I realized I'd be working side-by-side with an acclaimed filmmaker, especially one who challenges viewers to see things differently, just as I hope my articles and books similarly challenge readers. Our interview took place over several months, mostly through conversations across the hall, through e-mail, before and after faculty meetings, and over lunch. …

To examine the role COVID-19 had on access to dental services among children in Arizona by comparing paid pediatric dental claims made before and during the pandemic. In a retrospective descriptive study, we examined Medicaid paid claims for dental services among pediatric patients from March through December 2019 and during the outbreak in 2020. Using dental claims data obtained from the Centers for Health Information and Research at Arizona State University (ASU), we analyzed Medicaid (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System [AHCCCS]) reimbursed dental services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, paid preventive dental claims for children aged birth to 21 years decreased in 2020 compared to the same time period in 2019. Pediatric patients in Arizona utilized fewer dental services and had less access to credentialed Medicaid dental providers during the pandemic. Further, rural counties had statistically significant fewer preventive, minor restorative, major restorative, and endodontic claims compared to urban counties. Arizona rural counties also had fewer providers who were paid $10,000 or more per year during 2020 than in 2019. COVID-19 has had a detrimental impact on pediatric dental service utilization. While dental services were provided during the COVID-19 pandemic, preventive and restorative dental claims dropped for rural Arizona children aged birth to 21 years. This reveals potential negative impacts on oral health. Further research should examine the direct and indirect impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on dental service utilization and oral health for the general pediatric population.

On October 7, 2008, a 13-foot-long asteroid burst through Earth’s atmosphere and exploded above Sudan’s Nubian Desert. Its arrival created a stir because it was the first time that an asteroid that had been tracked and studied in space had collided with our planet. Even more intriguing, the bulk of the fragments that landed on Earth, collectively referred to as Almahata Sitta—the Arabic name of the train station near their landing site—turned out to be carbon-rich meteorites containing graphite and diamonds. As it descended to Earth, the asteroid known as 2008 TC3 left this contrail, captured by a cellphone camera. The asteroid’s scattered fragments and their composition have been the subject of intense study. Image credit: Mohamed Elhassan Abdelatif Mahir (Noub NGO), Dr. Muawia H. Shaddad (Univ. Khartoum), and Dr. Peter Jenniskens (SETI Institute/NASA Ames). Such meteorites are called ureilites, and they usually contain tiny diamonds about 100 to 1,000 nanometers long. But a few of the Almahata Sitta meteorites had diamonds up to 100 times larger (1). “It was kind of an unusual sample,” says Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe. It was thought that diamonds in ureilites formed when a massive asteroid collided with a planet, with the planet destroyed in the collision. The ensuing high temperatures and pressures would have turned the asteroid’s graphite into diamond. But a new theory suggests that the Almahata Sitta ureilites may have come from material ejected from Mars when it was barely a few million years old. If so, the meteorites and the diamonds in them could be giving us our first glimpse of the interior of another planet besides Earth. The Almahata Sitta diamonds pose many puzzles. First, they are so large that scientists have recently begun to question …

Remote sensing of terrestial and planetary surfaces in the infrared for the purpose of identifying minerals and their distribution is an ongoing activity. The huge amount of spectral data currently available and expected from future space missions presents a challenge to the scientist determine to extract useful scientific information from this data. Automated methods to facilitate this process are clearly needed to complete these investigations in a timely manner. Organizing this data into meaningful chunks is a crucial first step of this analysis that can be be addressed with clustering techniques. We have developed an automated clustering and classification scheme based on Kohonen Self-Organizing maps (SOM). The SOM is a type of unsupervised neural network widely used to cluster data and identify anomalies. A modification of the Davies-Bouldin (DB) cluster validation index which incorporates the measurement uncertainties of the SOM training data is used to determine the optimal number of clusters. This scheme was trained and tested with the mineral spectral libraries prepared at Arizona State University (ASU) and John Hopkins University (JHU) whose samples have been hierarchically labeled with Class, Subclass and Group names. These names are used to measure the spectral purity of the derived clusters and the accuracy of classification. We describe in detail the SOM scheme itself, the performance measures, and testing procedure. The test results demonstrate that the SOM can be a useful component in autonomous systems designed to identify minerals from reflectance or emissivity measurements in the thermal infrared.

For government information professionals in libraries, it is sometimes difficult to say which is more rewarding: engaging with the collection or engaging with people in support of the collection. For library professionals like Shari Laster, there is often ample opportunity to do both. Advocating on behalf of users as well as collections is a natural part of Shari’s work, including in her tenure as Head of Open Stack Collections at Arizona State University (ASU).

Substantial global changes in energy production and use are occurring at present and will continue to occur for decades to come, with widespread ramifications for the distribution of wealth and power and humanity’s social and environmental future. This raises important ethical considerations that should be addressed in the education of engineers, whose research and practice will assuredly involve energy to some degree. The Energy Ethics in Science and Engineering Education Project, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, sought to enhance attention to and projects in energy ethics in graduate research education concerning energy. The partners, the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO) at Arizona State University (ASU) and the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society (CEES) at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), conducted a number of research, educational, and outreach activities to develop a foundational intellectual basis for understanding the ethics of energy transitions, to provide opportunities for students to learn about energy ethics, and to disseminate ideas and materials broadly. Evaluation results indicate the project has been successful in engaging students in various formats; additionally the project has illuminated a number of fundamental ideas about the interrelationships among energy, ethics, and society.

A lthough the general public recognizes nurses as trusted, ethical, and caring professionals, the discipline has not historically been recognized for innovation, entrepreneurship, and futuristic thinking. A change in this perception, however, may be about to take place. This fall 2006, 2 colleges of nursing have launched the first degree programs focusing on innovation, intra/entrepreneurship, and ‘‘outside the box’’ thinking. The programs are built on the premise that healthcare today is undergoing unprecedented change, and this requires practitioners to add value in distinctive and pioneering ways. The purpose of this article is to raise awareness about innovation and entrepreneurship degree granting programs in nursing and healthcare and to discuss how 2 schools are currently implementing such programs. This article focuses on the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) in Innovation and Intra/Entrepreneurship in Advanced Practice Nursing at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pa, and the Master of Healthcare Innovation (MHI) at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Ariz (Table 1). Additional information regarding nondegree granting continuing education opportunities in nursing entrepreneurship and/or innovation is also presented.

In recent times, improvements in imaging technology have made available an incredible array of information in image format. While powerful and sophisticated image processing software tools are available to prepare and analyze the data, these tools are complex and cumbersome, requiring significant expertise to properly operate. Thus, in order to extract (e.g., mine or analyze) useful information from the data, a user (in our case a scientist) often must possess both significant science and image processing expertise. This paper describes the use of artificial intelligence (AI) planning techniques to represent scientific, image processing, and software tool knowledge to automate elements of science data preparation and analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery for planetary geology. In particular, we describe the Automated SAR Image Processing system (ASIP) which is currently in use by the Department of Geology at Arizona State University (ASU) supporting aeolian science analysis of synthetic aperture radar images. ASIP reduces the number of manual inputs in science product generation by 10-fold, decreases the CPU time to produce images by 30%, and allows scientists to directly produce certain science products.

Thermal cracking is a serious type of pavement distress and its prevention is a critical issue for many transportation agencies around the world. The indirect tensile (IDT) creep and strength tests were developed during the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) to characterize the resistance of Hot Mix Asphalt concrete (HMA) to low-temperature cracking. Currently, the IDT creep and strength tests are considered one of the most promising tests for predicting the low-temperature performance of asphalt concrete mixtures. The IDT tests are used as the material characterization tests for thermal fracture in the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) of New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures (also known as the 2002 Design Guide) developed during the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 1–37A. The existing Thermal Cracking Model (TCMODEL) that is currently an integral part of the MEPDG has proved to adequately predict low temperature cracking of asphalt concrete mixtures utilizing conventional binders. Thermal fracture characterization studies conducted at Arizona State University (ASU) concluded that the IDT procedures need certain refinements and revisions. In addition, experience from testing several asphalt rubber mixtures have shown that the existing TCMODEL in the MEPDG falls short in properly characterizing the exceptional thermal cracking resistance of the asphalt rubber mixtures in the field. The objective of this research was to develop a new method for evaluation of the thermal cracking potential in HMA, with focus on asphalt rubber mixtures. Necessary revisions and refinements of the existing IDT test protocol were made, and an IDT test results database was created and used in the development of the fracture energy prediction model. The new development utilizes the fracture energy parameter instead of the tensile strength maximum limit of the material and the slope of the creep compliance—the “m” parameter. The results of the total fracture energy measured during the IDT strength test in the lab were correlated with volumetric properties of the mixtures and a regression model was developed.

A microwave heated fluidized bed reaction system has been under development at Arizona State University (ASU) since 1981. The initial application was the production of semiconductor grade polysilicon in a continuous system. Subsequent applications have included calcination of a catalysts and gasification of biomass materials. In the course of these investigations, various modifications have been implemented to improve the performance and operational reliability of the system. The present configuration consists of an 8" diameter reactor, 0-30 kW (915 MHz) generator and related auxiliary and transmission equipment. The history of the ASU project will be reviewed with the intent of exploring opportunities for the processing concept for other potential applications.