The impact of undergraduate research experiences on students' academic development and retention in STEM fields is significant. Students' success in STEM fields is based on developing strong research and critical thinking skills that make it essential for students to engage in research activities throughout their academic programs. This work evaluates the effectiveness of undergraduate research experiences with respect to its influence on student retention and academic development. The cases presented are based on years of experience implementing undergraduate research programs in various STEM fields at Colorado State University Pueblo (CSU Pueblo) funded by HSI STEM Grants. The study seeks to establish a correlation between students' reten
... Show More: The Aluminium (Al) material emerged as a plasmonic material in the wavelength ranges from the ultraviolet to the visible bands in different on-chip plasmonic applications. In this paper, we demonstrate the effect of using Al on the electromagnetic (EM) field distribution of a compact hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPW) acting as a polarization rotator. We compare the performance of Al with other familiar metals that are widely used as plasmonic materials, which are Silver (Ag) and Gold (Au). Furthermore, we study the effect of reducing the geometrical dimensions of the used materials on the EM field distributions inside the HPW and, consequently, on the efficiency of the polarization rotation. We perform the study based o
... Show MoreIncremental Sheet Metal Forming (ISMF) is a modern sheet metal forming technology which offers the possibility of manufacturing 3D complex parts of thin sheet metals using the CNC milling machine. The surface quality is a very important aspect in any manufacturing process. Therefore, this study focuses on the resultant residual stresses by forming parameters, namely; (tool shape, step over, feed rate, and slope angle) using Taguchi method for the products formed by single point incremental forming process (SPIF). For evaluating the surface quality, practical experiments to produce pyramid like shape have been implemented on aluminum sheets (AA1050) for thickness (0.9) mm. Three types of tool shape used in this work, the spherical tool ga
... Show MoreThe improvement of the mechanical soil characteristics of jet grouting technique is very attractive. The jet grouted soil cement columns in soft is a complicated issue because it depends on a number of factors such as, soil nature, mixture, influence among soil and grouting materials, jetting force of nozzle, jet grouting and water flow rate, rotation and lifting speed. This paper discusses the estimation of shear strength parameters of soil-cement column (soilcrete) in soft clayey soil based on the relationships between the unconfined compressive and split tensile strength for the soilcrete and the effect of the jet grouting and water pressure in the values of cohesion and internal f
This work investigates the impacts of eccentric-inclined load on ring footing performance resting on treated and untreated weak sandy soil, and due to the reduction in the footing carrying capacity due to the combinations of eccentrically-inclined load, the geogrid was used as reinforcement material. Ring radius ratio and reinforcement depth ratio parameters were investigated. Test outcomes showed that the carrying capacity of the footing decreases with the increment in the eccentric-inclined load and footing radius ratio. Furthermore, footing tilt and horizontal displacement increase with increasing the eccentricity and inclination angle, respectively. At the same time, the increment in the horizontal displacement due t
... Show MoreBackground: Most prevalent chronic liver disease in developed and developing nations is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. From fatty liver, which often has benign, non-progressive clinical history, to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a more serious variant of fatty liver that can lead to cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease encompasses broad spectrum of diseases. The gold standard for determining extent of hepatic fibrosis is still liver biopsy; however, number of noninvasive tests have been established to make diagnosis and assess effectiveness of treatment.
Objective: Aim of study was to assess effectiveness of the combination of fibroscan and
... Show MoreThis study aimed to develop an oral drug delivery system for gastro-retentive sustained drug release of baclofen by using a 3D printed capsular device since baclofen has a short half-life of 2.5 to 4 hours and has a narrow absorption window. Firstly sustained-release tablets of baclofen were formulated through the hot-melt extrusion of various thermoplastic polymers and direct compression of the extrudate, then a capsular device was designed and 3D printed to contain two air pockets to enable floating of the device and has four windows for drug release.
3D printing of the capsular device was done by an FDM printer using biodegradable PLA filament, and the sustained release tablets were inserted into the device to allow the medici
... Show MoreHypertension is a major health problem throughout the world because of its high prevalence and its association with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. It is defined as systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy, safety and cardiovascular disease risk lowering ability, of three antihypertensive drug regimens.
A retrospective study was carried out on 66 hypertensive patients, divided in to three groups based on their antihypertensive drug regimens (ACE inhibitors, β-blockers treated and combination antihypertensive therapy, the combination therapy consist of two or more of the following antihypertensive drugs ACE inhibitor di
... Show MoreThe present work is qualitative descriptive. It aims to examine the idiosyncratic schema when deciphering the selected violence-based panel from Nasser Ibrahim’s caricatures. The researchers accordingly adopted part of Sharifian’s (2011) Cultural Schema model, particularly that part that is concerned with the examining the micro/idiosyncratic level of understanding. The study has revealed that the participants have not only differed among themselves regarding the way a figure is being denotatively conceptualized, they also highlighted different exact conceptualizations for the same figure, such as: using various adjectives that reflect various levels of intensity, emphasizing the behavioral aspect or the appearance of the figure, ado
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