Faculty Research & Creative Scholarship 2020: M-N

Journal Title: IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems
Abstract: Peer-to-peer (P2P) services such as mobile P2P transmissions and resource sharing, provide efficient methods to deliver data without the deployment of any central server. Nevertheless, the free-riding phenomenon inherit in such services presses a need for incentive mechanisms to stimulate contributions of data transmissions or sharing. As a result, it is imperative to answer the following questions: whether, and if so to what extent, an incentive mechanism can invoke such contributions? To answerthese questions, we employ an n-player continuous quantum game model to analyze the general extrinsic incentive mechanisms as well as the reputation-based incentive mechanisms, a typical class of extrinsic incentive mechanisms. We focus on studying the extrinsic incentive mechanisms in this paper due to their wide scope of applications stemming from the fact that they promote cooperative behaviors by offering rewards rather than depending on the internal bounds (e.g., social ties) among peers, which may not always exist between any pair of peers. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to analyze the extrinsic incentive mechanisms for P2P services from a quantum game perspective. Such a perspective is adopted because the extended strategy space in the quantum game broadens the range for searching optimal strategies and the introduction of entanglement makes the proposed analytical frameworks more practical due to the consideration of the peers' relationships imposed by the rewards in extrinsic incentive mechanisms. Our quantum game-based analytical framework is generic because it is compatible with classic game-based schemes. The analytical results can provide a straightforward insight on evaluating the potential of the extrinsic incentive mechanisms and can serve as important references for designing new extrinsic incentive mechanisms.
Author: Liran Ma, Associate Professor, Computer Science

Journal Title: IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Abstract: Cooperative jamming is deemed as a promising physical layer-based approach to secure wireless transmissions in the presence of eavesdroppers. In this paper, we investigate cooperative jamming in a two-tier 5G heterogeneous network (HetNet), where the macrobase stations (MBSs) at the macrocell tier are equipped with large-scale antenna arrays to provide space diversity and the local base stations (LBSs) at the local cell tier adopt non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) to accommodate dense local users (LUs). In the presence of imperfect channel state information, we propose three robust secrecy transmission algorithms that can be applied to various scenarios with different security requirements. The first algorithm employs robust beamforming (RBA) that aims to optimize the secrecy rate of a marcouser (MU) in a macrocell. The second algorithm provides robust power allocation (RPA) that can optimize the secrecy rate of an LU in a local cell. The third algorithm tackles a robust joint optimization (RJO) problem across tiers that seek the maximum secrecy sum rate of a target MU and a target LU robustly. We employ convex optimization techniques to find feasible solutions to these highly non-convex problems. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms are highly effective in improving the secrecy performance of a two-tier HetNet.
Author: Liran Ma, Associate Professor, Computer Science

Series Description: Asta and Yuno were abandoned together at the same church and have been inseparable since. As children, they promised that they would compete against each other to see who would become the next Emperor Magus.
Voice of Vanessa: Lydia Mackay, Assistant Professor, Theatre

Co-Production between Second Thought Theatre (Dallas) & Circle Theatre (Fort Worth)
Summary: Set in East Texas over a span of 20 years, What We Were traces the lives of three sisters, Nell, Tessa, and Carlin, whose adult lives have all been impacted by a childhood of abuse. After disappearing 17 years ago, Tessa, the youngest sister, resurfaces. It seems she has spent her adult life on the run, moving from state to state and foster family to foster family, pretending to be a teenage girl. When Nell gets word that Tessa, now 35, has finally been found out, Nell must decide how much of her past she’s willing to face in order to save her sister. Weaving scenes from the past and present, What We Were is a meditation on responsibility, on what we do to cope, and on the very difficult work of healing.
Actress: Lydia Mackay, Assistant Professor, Theatre

Summary: Three women arduously traverse an expanse of white paper with only black charcoal and their bodies which leave a tracing of the passing dance. Drawn from a set of corporeal kinetic investigations, by Nina Martin and the Lower Left Performance Collective, which refer to performance as “that which disappears” and art as “the residual document of its creation,” Secondary Surfaces Retraced reconfigures those investigations in a screen dance by exploiting video mediation to further blur the boundaries between dance and visual art. Created by video artist Roma Flowers and choreographer Nina Martin and informed by Far West Texas landscapes, geological time and human kinetic processes, Secondary Surfaces Retraced presents meditations on durational concepts of time and the human relationship to labor, endurance and survival.
Choreographer: Nina Martin, Associate Professor, Classical & Contemporary Dance

Description: Seeking to build upon recent scholarship based on Biblical women, Joseph McDonald uses a character-centered literary approach to read the story of Sarah as it was told and retold in the Second Temple period. McDonald offers an alternative to the usual approaches to "rewritten Bible" narratives, which often emphasize near-context, synoptic comparison of retold stories and their scriptural precursors, arguing that examination of retold narratives as narratives reveals important aspects of their internal literary effects, that may otherwise go unnoticed. Taken together, McDonald suggests that such readings reveal one of Sarah's trans-narrative or "deep traits," as a curious, multi-faceted resemblance to the character of Abraham. The richness of her images, however, shows that this resemblance is not the ultimate distillation of Sarah, but a symptom of the kind of restriction that she consistently faces in this literature. McDonald concludes that creative readings of the narratives featuring Sarah in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus illuminate Sarah as a complex and sometimes contradictory figure, whose individuality and agency often struggle to escape limitations placed upon her - both by other characters, such as Abraham and God, and by the narrators of her tales.
Author: Joseph McDonald, Adjunct faculty at Brite Divinity School and Texas Christian University

Book Description:This book discusses teacher evaluation and how it can provide the foundations for professional development. The editors and contributors illustrate how teachers with varying levels of expertise, experience and learning needs can benefit from differentiated evaluation and professional development designed to help them reach their full potential. The book examines various aspects of differentiation including levels of experience from pre-service to veteran, practices of school principals as they supervise and evaluate staff, and wider education policies that can support or hinder differentiation. Providing fascinating insights into how teacher evaluation policies can support practice in a variety of contexts, this timely collection will be of interest and value to students and scholars of teacher evaluation and professional development.
Author: Marla W. McGhee, Professor, Education, Director of the Center for Public Education

Book Description: Co-published with University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), this textbook prepares aspiring educational leaders for the important and challenging task of supporting instruction in their schools. Instructional Leadership in the Content Areas equips leaders―who might not have content backgrounds that align with those of the teachers they supervise―with research-based practices and knowledge specific to a range of subject areas. Presenting over 20 problems-based cases at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and across seven areas of content, this book deepens knowledge of exemplary instruction, improves feedback dialogues, and helps leaders work effectively alongside teachers and instructional specialists. Rich with activities, resources, and discussion questions, this casebook provides a broad overview of instructional leadership and the tools for school leaders to improve and support classroom practices across all content areas in intentional ways that support career-long professional growth.
Author: Marla W. McGhee, Professor, Education, Director of the Center for Public Education

Journal Title: Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
Introductory Paragraph: Understanding bacterial virulence provides insight into the molecular basis behind infection and could identify new drug targets. However, assessing potential virulence determinants relies on testing in an animal model. The mouse is a well-validated model but it is constrained by the ethical and logistical challenges of using vertebrate animals. Recently the larva of the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella has been explored as a possible infection model for a number of pathogens. In this study, we developed G. mellonella as an infection model for Bacillus anthracis Sterne. We first validated two different infection assays, a survival assay and a competition assay, using mutants containing disruptions in known B. anthracis virulence genes. We next tested the utility of G. mellonella to assess the virulence of transposon mutants with unknown mutations that had increased susceptibility to hydrogen peroxide in in vitro assays. One of these transposon mutants also displayed significantly decreased virulence in G. mellonella. Further investigation revealed that this mutant had a disruption in the petrobactin biosynthesis operon (asbABCDEF), which has been previously implicated in both virulence and defense against oxidative stress. We conclude that G. mellonella can detect attenuated virulence of B. anthracis Sterne in a manner consistent with that of mammalian infection models. Therefore, G. mellonella could serve as a useful alternative to vertebrate testing, especially for early assessments of potential virulence genes when use of a mammalian model may not be ethical or practical.
Author: Shauna M. McGillivray, Associate Professor, Biology

Journal Title: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Abstract: Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of infection in the United States, and due to the rapid development of resistance, new antibiotics are constantly needed. trans-Translation is a particularly promising antibiotic target because it is conserved in many bacterial species, is critical for bacterial survival, and is unique among prokaryotes. We have investigated the potential of KKL-40, a small-molecule inhibitor of trans-translation, and find that it inhibits both methicillin-susceptible and methicillin-resistant strains of S. aureus. KKL-40 is also effective against Gram-positive pathogens, including a vancomycin-resistant strain of Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, and Streptococcus pyogenes, although its performance with Gram-negative pathogens is mixed. KKL-40 synergistically interacts with the human antimicrobial peptide LL-37, a member of the cathelicidin family, to inhibit S. aureus but not other antibiotics tested, including daptomycin, kanamycin, or erythromycin. KKL-40 is not cytotoxic to HeLa cells at concentrations that are 100-fold higher than the effective MIC. We also find that S. aureus develops minimal resistance to KKL-40 even after multiday passage at sublethal concentrations. Therefore, trans-translation inhibitors could be a particularly promising drug target against S. aureus, not only because of their ability to inhibit bacterial growth but also because of their potential to simultaneously render S. aureus more susceptible to host antimicrobial peptides.
Author: Shauna M. McGillivray, Associate Professor, Biology

Description: Dr. McKinney’s “Service-Learning in the Latino Community” class has performed hundreds of hours of community service outreach, while working to practice their own Spanish language skills. These photobooks document the amazing experiences shared in this class.
Author: Mary McKinney, Senior Instructor, Spanish and Hispanic Studies

Composed for String Quartet
Composer: Till MacIvor Meyn, Professor of Music Theory and Composition, Music

Performed by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya
Composer: Till MacIvor Meyn, Professor of Music Theory and Composition, Music

Journal Title: Energy
Abstract: The extensive substitution of fossil fuels with renewables creates the U-shaped demand curve (duck curve) problem which is exacerbated in the summer months with the extensive use of air-conditioning. This study examines the hourly, daily, and yearly operation of a cluster of one hundred grid-independent buildings that completely rely on photovoltaics for electricity generation, including their air-conditioning needs. The cluster stores energy in hydrogen as the seasonal storage medium and chilled water for cooling as the daily storage medium. Thermal storage of chilled water and the use of efficient air-conditioning (refrigeration) equipment significantly reduces the needs for the generated electric energy and stored energy: The utilization of thermal storage in addition to chemical storage has three beneficial results: a) it reduces by about 40% the needed solar power installation; b) it reduces by a factor of three the losses associated with energy storage; and c) it reduces by factor of four the necessary hydrogen storage capacity. The improved performance of the system is expected to significantly reduce the overall cost associated with grid independent buildings.
Author: Efstathios E. Michaelides, W.A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr. Founding Chair of Engineering

Journal Title: Energy Conversion and Management
Abstract: The global number of electric vehicles is exponentially rising, due to strong marketing efforts and governmental incentives that significantly lower the price of new vehicles. This shift of consumers from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles is actually a shift from petroleum to the primary sources that generate electricity. The motivation for this paper is the holistic analysis of electric vehicles and the determination of their benefits and detriments. Starting with an exergetic assessment for all road vehicles, this paper determines the electricity needed for the propulsion of electric vehicles. When the heating and cooling requirements of the vehicle’s cabin are included, the range of the vehicles decreases significantly. The electricity requirements of the vehicles are abridged to primary energy sources using the concept of well-to-wheels efficiency. Based on the regional mix of electricity generation, the effect of the shift to electric vehicles on greenhouse gas emissions is determined. Because the charging of the batteries of electric vehicles requires significant power, it was concluded that the simultaneously charging of a number of vehicles will strain the capacity of the electricity grid. The paper also examines the effects of electric vehicles on the further utilization of renewable energy sources.
Author: Efstathios E. Michaelides, W.A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr. Founding Chair of Engineering

Journal Title: Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies
Opening Paragraph: If art is the engine that powers religion’s vehicle, then reggae music is the 740hp V12 underneath the hood of the Rastafari. Not all reggae music advances this movement’s message, which may best be seen as an anticolonial theo-psychology of black somebodiness, but much reggae does, and this is because the Honorable Robert Nesta Marley OM, aka Tuff Gong, took the message as well as the medium and left the Rastafari’s track marks throughout the world. Scholars have been analyzing such impressions for years, certainly since the melanoma-ravaged Marley transitioned on May 11, 1981 at age 36. Marley was gone too soon. And although “such a man cannot be erased from the mind,” as Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga said at Marley’s funeral, less sanguine critics left others thinking that Marley’s demise caused reggae music’s engine to cough, splutter, and then die.
Author: Darren J. N. Middleton, John F. Weatherly Professor of Religion and Director of the MLA Program

Journal Title: Intégrité
Guest Editor & Author: Darren J. N. Middleton, John F. Weatherly Professor of Religion and Director of the MLA Program

Book Description: What are the roles of doubt and scepticism in the religious landscape of the ancient Mediterranean? How is doubt expressed within a specific religious community, and what reactions does it provoke? How does "insider doubt" differ from the sceptical attitude of outsiders? Exploring these questions with respect to a wide range of religious contexts and topics (including early Christianity, Greco-Roman religions, Egyptian religions, astrology, and magic), the essays in this volume confirm the thesis that doubting one's own religious tradition is not simply a "Western" post-Enlightenment phenomenon. On the contrary, ancient religions offered opportunities and contexts wherein aspects of doubt are not just tolerated but accepted; moreover, doubt and scepticism concerning certain religious ideas or aspects of belief also motivated creative reinterpretation of those ideas.
Author: David P. Moessner, A. A. Bradford Chair and Professor of Religion

Book Summary: In The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries, Chris L. Keith, Helen K. Bond, Christine Jacobi and Jens Schröter, together with an international cast of more than 70 contributors, provide a methodologically sophisticated resource, showing the reception history of Jesus and the Jesus tradition in early Christianity. The three volumes focus upon the diversity of receptions of the Jesus tradition in this time period, with memory theory providing the framework for approaching the complex interactions between the past of the tradition and the present of its receptions. Rather than addressing texts specifically as canonical or non-canonical, the volumes show the more complex reality of the reception of the Jesus tradition in early Christianity. Core literary texts such as Gospels and other early Christian writings are discussed in detail, as well as non-literary contexts outside the gospel genre; including the Apostolic Fathers, patristic writers, traditions such as the Abgar Legend, and modifications to the gospel genre such as the Diatesseron. Evidence from material culture, such as pictographic representations of Jesus in iconography and graffiti (e.g. the staurogram and Alexamenos Graffito), as well as representations of Jesus tradition in sarcophagi and in liturgy are also included, in order to fully reflect the transmission and reception of the Jesus tradition. Volume 1 provides an extensive introduction and, in 18 chapters, covers literary representations of Jesus in the first century, featuring gospel literature and other early Christian writings. Volume 2 examines all the literary texts from the second and third centuries, across 40 chapters, examining both gospel writing and other texts. Volume 3 examines visual, liturgical and non-Christian receptions of Jesus in the second and third centuries, across 24 chapters. --From publisher’s description.
Author: David P. Moessner, A. A. Bradford Chair and Professor of Religion

Journal Title: The Journal of Organic Chemistry
Abstract: The free-radical arylation of H-phosphinates and related compounds was examined. A practical catalytic process with the air as the oxidant could not be found. However, an inexpensive and robust methodology was developed, using catalytic Mn(II) as the radical initiator and excess Mn(IV) as the stoichiometric oxidant. Using these conditions, the inter- and intramolecular arylation of phosphinylidene compounds has a broad scope, including application to the synthesis of P-heterocycles. A full account of this methodology is presented including a discussion of its limitations.
Author: Jean-Luc Montchamp, Professor, Organic and Bio-Organic Chemistry

Journal Title: Organic Chemistry Frontiers
Abstract: The cost of reagents and catalysts employed in synthetic methodologies developed in academia is very rarely discussed. Yet these costs are very real as they represent a significant portion of any grant proposal budget. Herein, we wish to introduce the concept of Cost of Academic Methodologies (CAM) as an aspect, which should be considered when evaluating synthetic methodologies. We also introduce an associated concept: the Aggregate Molecular Weight (AMW). In order to illustrate these concepts, examples from various laboratories, including our own, are evaluated through the CAM/AMW lens.
Author: Jean-Luc Montchamp, Professor, Organic and Bio-Organic Chemistry

Description: Poems focused on the beloved.
Author: Joddy Murray, Associate Professor, Rhetoric & Composition, New Media & Digital Humanities, Creative Writing, Film & Visual Culture

Description: Kinematic Rhetoric puts forward a theory of rhetoric that adds the elements of movement, sound, image, affect and duration to traditional accounts of digital, visual and multimodal rhetorics. His concept of "time-affect" images provides a complex and nuanced theory for composing that builds upon his earlier concept of "nondiscursive texts." By turning to Deleuze's work on cinema, Murray presents the "time-affect image," which "generates" and amplifies affectivity through duration and motion, and is the key concept in this rhetorical theory. Motion, he argues, creates meaning that is independent of the content and, like all images, carries with it the potential for persuasion through the affective domain.
Author: Joddy Murray, Associate Professor, Rhetoric & Composition, New Media & Digital Humanities, Creative Writing, Film & Visual Culture

Description: Oil on Canvas, 36 x 48 in
Artist: Mary Mbongo Nangah, Instructor, Art

Journal Title: ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering
Abstract: Despite significant advances of nanomedicine, the issues of biocompatibility, accumulation-derived toxicity, and the lack of sensing and in vivo imaging capabilities hamper the translation of most nanocarriers into clinic. To address this, we utilize nitrogen, boron/nitrogen, and sulfur-doped graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as fully biocompatible multifunctional platforms allowing for multicolor visible/near-IR imaging and cancer-sensing. These GQDs are scalably produced in one-step synthesis from a single biocompatible glucosamine precursor, are water-soluble, show no cytotoxicity at high concentrations of 1 mg/mL, and demonstrate substantial degradation at 36 h in biological environments as verified by TEM imaging. Because of their small sizes, GQDs exhibit efficient internalization maximized at 12 h followed by further degradation/excretion. Their high-yield intrinsic fluorescence in blue/green and near-infrared allows for multicolor in vitro imaging on its own or in combination with other fluorophores, and offers the capabilities for in vivo near-IR fluorescence tracking. Additionally, nitrogen- and sulfur-doped GQDs exhibit pH-dependent fluorescence response that is successfully utilized as a sensing mechanism for acidic extracellular environments of cancer cells. It allows for the deterministic, ratiometric spectral discrimination between cancerous (HeLa and MCF-7 cell) versus healthy (HEK-293 cell) environments with substantial intensity ratios of 1.6 to 8. These results suggest fully biocompatible GQDs developed in this work as multifunctional candidates for in vitro delivery of active agents, multicolor visible/near-IR fluorescence imaging, and pH-sensing of cancerous environments.
Author: Anton V. Naumov, Assistant Professor, Physics & Astronomy

Journal Title: Nano Research
Abstract: In this work, we utilize a bottom-up approach to synthesize nitrogen self-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) from a single glucosamine precursor via an eco-friendly microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. Structural and optical properties of as-produced NGQDs are further modified using controlled ozone treatment. Ozone-treated NGQDs (Oz-NGQDs) are reduced in size to 5.5 nm with clear changes in the lattice structure and ID/IG Raman ratios due to the introduction/alteration of oxygen-containing functional groups detected by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer and further verified by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) showing increased atomic/weight percentage of oxygen atoms. Along with structural modifications, GQDs experience decrease in ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) absorption coupled with progressive enhancement of visible (up to 16 min treatment) and near-infrared (NIR) (up to 45 min treatment) fluorescence. This allows fine-tuning optical properties of NGQDs for solar cell applications yielding controlled emission increase, while controlled emission quenching was achieved by either blue laser or thermal treatment. Optimized Oz-NGQDs were further used to form a photoactive layer of solar cells with a maximum efficiency of 2.64% providing a 6-fold enhancement over untreated NGQD devices and a 3-fold increase in fill factor/current density. This study suggests simple routes to alter and optimize optical properties of scalably produced NGQDs to boost the photovoltaic performance of solar cells.
Author: Anton Naumov, Assistant Professor, Physics & Astronomy

Overview: We wrote this book to satisfy the needs of students taking their first financial accounting course by providing a high quality, contemporary, and engaging textbook at an affordable price. Financial Accounting for Undergraduates is written for students who want to understand how financial statements are prepared and how the information in published financial reports is used. The Fourth Edition has benefited from extensive feedback from adopters of the first three editions and suggestions from focus groups, market surveys, manuscript reviews, and interviews with faculty from across the country.
Author: Karen Nelson, Professor, Accounting

Summary: This text is uniquely designed within a system of interactive resources that are tailored to the needs of today's students. As the learning styles of students have evolved, we do not feel that the market has fully embraced the study habits of today’s students and the power of technology in the learning process. The emphasis in our approach is to provide students with a demo and a review problem on each deliberately selected, key learning objective. In this way, students practice each learning objective with the added opportunity to practice the exact demos electronically in myBusinessCourse, our online homework platform. Our approach steers away from dense text (which the average student is not reading) and moves to an active-learning approach where content is delivered in short bursts followed by immediate practice. Because each learning outcome for every chapter is self-contained, faculty have the option to pick and choose learning objectives allowing complete flexibility. Integral to this active-learning approach are the resources provided to students allowing them to be successful in mastering the demo problems. We noted the need in the market for a direct incorporation of authoritative support. Although some references may be included in a footnote to a chapter in the current market, direct citations are rarely seen. In our approach, we provide succinct yet thorough, to-the-point explanations in each self-contained learning objective along with direct citations of the most relevant references from the Codification. We feel this best prepares the typical intermediate accounting student who will often reference and cite the authoritative standards in practice. This novel approach of combining an active-learning approach supplemented with real life authoritative guidance reflects our combined experiences in preparing intermediate accounting students for life in practice.
Author: Karen Nelson, Professor, Accounting

Journal Title: Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research
Abstract: Reentry research has primarily focused on systemic and structural issues, with relatively little attention paid to the individual differences among ex-offender participation in community-based reentry services. Researchers often assume that the limiting factor for utilization of reentry services is the capacity for these services, without taking into account individual agency. This study examines factors that contribute to whether individuals participate or forego services, using data from a North Texas nonprofit client support organization, Texas ReEntry Services. Utilizing descriptive statistics and logistic regression, the researchers examine individuals who participate in the Job Readiness Program and compare them to individuals who do not utilize this service. Initial findings suggest that only a small percentage of unemployed ex-offenders take advantage of employment training and other free services.
Author: Johnny Nhan, Associate Professor and Criminal Justice Graduate Director

Journal Title: Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
Author: Scott Nollet, Professor, Mathematics

Journal Title: Journal of Algebra
Abstract: Let L be a tensor product of two very ample line bundles on the smooth projective complex threefold X. Under the hypothesis that we show that the restriction map is an isomorphism for very general Y in the linear system . For such L this result recovers the Noether-Lefschetz theorem of Moishezon, who extended the original topological and Hodge-theoretic arguments of Lefschetz. We give a degeneration argument which is almost completely algebraic in nature.
Author: Scott Nollet, Professor, Mathematics