Digital Commons Network^™

Sphincs_Bssn: A General Relativistic Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics Code For Dynamical Spacetimes, S. Rosswog, P. Diener

Faculty Publications

We present a new methodology for simulating self-gravitating general-relativistic fluids. In our approach the fluid is modelled by means of Lagrangian particles in the framework of a general-relativistic (GR) smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) formulation, while the spacetime is evolved on a mesh according to the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura (BSSN) formulation that is also frequently used in Eulerian GR-hydrodynamics. To the best of our knowledge this is the first Lagrangian fully general relativistic hydrodynamics code (all previous SPH approaches used approximations to GR-gravity). A core ingredient of our particle-mesh approach is the coupling between the gas (represented by particles) and the spacetime (represented …

Development Of Parameters Towards Voice Bifurcations, Takeshi Ikuma, Andrew J. Mcwhorter, Lacey Adkins, Melda Kunduk

Faculty Publications

Pathological vocal folds are known to exhibit multiple oscillation patterns, depending on tissue imbalance, subglottal pressure level, and other factors. This includes mid-phonation changes due to bifurcations in the underlying voice source system. Knowledge of when changes in oscillation patterns occur is helpful in the assessments of voice disorders, and the knowledge could be transformed into useful objective measures. Mid-phonation bifurcations can occur in rapid succession; hence, a fast classification of oscillation pattern is critical to minimize the averaging of data across bifurcations. This paper proposes frequency-ratio based short-term measures, named harmonic disturbance factor (HDF) and biphonic index (BI), towards …

Ann-Based Automated Scaffold Builder Activity Recognition Through Wearable Emg And Imu Sensors, Srikanth Sagar Bangaru, Chao Wang, Sri Aditya Busam, Fereydoun Aghazadeh

Faculty Publications

Construction worker activity recognition is essential for worker performance and safety assessment. With the development of wearable sensing technologies, many researchers developed kinematic sensor-based worker activity recognition methods with considerable accuracy. However, the limitations of the previous studies remain at the challenge of using smartphones for practical implementation, fewer classified activities, and limited recognized motions and body parts. This study proposes an ANN-based automated construction worker activity recognition method that can recognize complex construction activities. The proposed methodology discusses data acquisition, data fusion, and artificial neural network (ANN) model development. A case study of scaffold builder activities was investigated to …

The Fram Robotic Telescope For Atmospheric Monitoring At The Pierre Auger Observatory, The Pierre Auger Collaboration, A. Aab, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta, J. M. Albury, I. Allekotte, A. Almela, J. Alvarez-Muniz, R. Alves Batista, G. A. Anastasi, L. Anchordoqui, B. Andrada, S. Andringa, C. Aramo, P. R. Araújo Ferreira, J. C. Arteaga Velázquez, H. Asorey, P. Assis, G. Avila, A. M. Badescu, A. Bakalova, A. Balaceanu, F. Barbato, R. J. Barreira Luz, K. H. Becker, J. A. Bellido, C. Berat, M. E. Bertaina, X. Bertou, P. L. Biermann, T. Bister, J. Biteau, J. Blazek

Faculty Publications

FRAM (F/Photometric Robotic Atmospheric Monitor) is a robotic telescope operated at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina for the purposes of atmospheric monitoring using stellar photometry. As a passive system which does not produce any light that could interfere with the observations of the fluorescence telescopes of the observatory, it complements the active monitoring systems that use lasers. We discuss the applications of stellar photometry for atmospheric monitoring at optical observatories in general and the particular modes of operation employed by the Auger FRAM. We describe in detail the technical aspects of FRAM, the hardware and software requirements for a …

Expanded View Of Electron-Hole Recollisions In Solid-State High-Order Harmonic Generation: Full-Brillouin-Zone Tunneling And Imperfect Recollisions, Lun Yue, Mette B. Gaarde

Faculty Publications

We theoretically investigate electron-hole recollisions in high-harmonic generation (HHG) in band-gap solids irradiated by linearly and elliptically polarized drivers. We find that in many cases, the emitted harmonics do not originate in electron-hole pairs created at the minimum band gap, where the tunneling probability is maximized, but rather in pairs created across an extended region of the Brillouin zone (BZ). In these situations, the analogy to gas-phase HHG in terms of the short- and long-trajectory categorizations is inadequate. Our analysis methodology comprises three complementary levels of theory: the numerical solutions to the semiconductor Bloch equations, an extended semiclassical recollision model, …

Gwtc-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed By Ligo And Virgo During The First Half Of The Third Observing Run, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, A. Adams, C. Adams, R. X. Adhikari, V. B. Adya, C. Affeldt, M. Agathos, K. Agatsuma, N. Aggarwal, O. D. Aguiar, L. Aiello, A. Ain, P. Ajith, S. Akcay, G. Allen, A. Allocca, P. A. Altin, A. Amato, S. Anand, A. Ananyeva, S. B. Anderson, W. G. Anderson, S. V. Angelova, S. Ansoldi, J. M. Antelis, S. Antier, S. Appert, K. Arai, M. C. Araya

Faculty Publications

We report on gravitational-wave discoveries from compact binary coalescences detected by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo in the first half of the third observing run (O3a) between 1 April 2019 15:00 UTC and 1 October 2019 15:00 UTC. By imposing a false-alarm-rate threshold of two per year in each of the four search pipelines that constitute our search, we present 39 candidate gravitational-wave events. At this threshold, we expect a contamination fraction of less than 10%. Of these, 26 candidate events were reported previously in near-real time through gamma-ray coordinates network notices and circulars; 13 are reported here for the …

First T2k Measurement Of Transverse Kinematic Imbalance In The Muon-Neutrino Charged-Current Single- Π+ Production Channel Containing At Least One Proton, K. Abe, N. Akhlaq, R. Akutsu, A. Ali, C. Alt, C. Andreopoulos, M. Antonova, S. Aoki, T. Arihara, Y. Asada, Y. Ashida, E. T. Atkin, Y. Awataguchi, G. J. Barker, G. Barr, D. Barrow, M. Batkiewicz-Kwasniak, A. Beloshapkin, F. Bench, V. Berardi, L. Berns, S. Bhadra, A. Blanchet, A. Blondel, S. Bolognesi, T. Bonus, B. Bourguille, S. B. Boyd, A. Bravar, D. Bravo Berguño, C. Bronner, S. Bron, A. Bubak, M. Buizza Avanzini, S. Cao, S. L. Cartwright, M. G. Catanesi, A. Cervera, J. Chakrani, D. Cherdack, G. Christodoulou, M. Cicerchia, J. Coleman, G. Collazuol, L. Cook, D. Coplowe, A. Cudd, G. De Rosa, T. Dealtry, C. C. Delogu, S. R. Dennis, C. Densham, A. Dergacheva, F. Di Lodovico, S. Dolan, D. Douqa, T. A. Doyle, J. Dumarchez, P. Dunne, A. Eguchi, L. Eklund, S. Emery-Schrenk, A. Ereditato, A. J. Finch, G. Fiorillo, C. Francois, M. Friend, Y. Fujii, R. Fukuda, Y. Fukuda, K. Fusshoeller, C. Giganti, M. Gonin, E. A. G. Goodman, A. Gorin, M. Grassi, M. Guigue, D. R. Hadley, P. Hamacher-Baumann, D. A. Harris, M. Hartz, T. Hasegawa, S. Hassani, N. C. Hastings, Y. Hayato, A. Hiramoto, M. Hogan, J. Holeczek, N. T. Hong Van, T. Honjo, F. Iacob, A. K. Ichikawa, M. Ikeda, T. Ishida, M. Ishitsuka, K. Iwamoto, A. Izmaylov, N. Izumi, M. Jakkapu, B. Jamieson, S. J. Jenkins, C. Jesús-Valls, J. J. Jiang, P. Jonsson, C. K. Jung, P. B. Jurj, M. Kabirnezhad, H. Kakuno, J. Kameda, S. P. Kasetti, Y. Kataoka, Y. Katayama, T. Katori, E. Kearns, M. Khabibullin, A. Khotjantsev, T. Kikawa, H. Kikutani, S. King, J. Kisiel, T. Kobata, T. Kobayashi, L. Koch, A. Konaka, L. L. Kormos, Y. Koshio, A. Kostin, K. Kowalik, Y. Kudenko, S. Kuribayashi, R. Kurjata, T. Kutter, M. Kuze, L. Labarga, J. Lagoda, M. Lamoureux, D. Last, M. Laveder, M. Lawe, S. -K. Lin, R. P. Litchfield, S. L. Liu, A. Longhin, L. Ludovici, X. Lu, T. Lux, L. N. Machado, L. Magaletti, K. Mahn, M. Malek, S. Manly, L. Maret, A. D. Marino, L. Marti-Margo, T. Maruyama, T. Matsubara, K. Matsushita, C. Mauger, A. Maurel, K. Mavrokoridis, E. Mazzucato, N. Mccauley, J. Mcelwee, K. S. Mcfarland, C. Mcgrew, A. Mefodiev, G. D. Megias, L. Mellet, M. Mezzetto, A. Minamino, O. Mineev, S. Mine, M. Miura, L. Molina Bueno, S. Moriyama, Th. A. Mueller, D. Munford, L. Munteanu, Y. Nagai, T. Nakadaira, M. Nakahata, Y. Nakajima, A. Nakamura, H. Nakamura, K. Nakamura, Y. Nakano, S. Nakayama, T. Nakaya, K. Nakayoshi, C. E. R. Naseby, T. V. Ngoc, V. Q. Nguyen, K. Niewczas, Y. Nishimura, K. Nishizaki, E. Noah, T. S. Nonnenmacher, F. Nova, J. Nowak, J. C. Nugent, H. M. O'Keeffe, L. O'Sullivan, T. Odagawa, T. Ogawa, R. Okada, K. Okumura, T. Okusawa, R. A. Owen, Y. Oyama, V. Palladino, V. Paolone, M. Pari, W. C. Parker, J. Parlone, S. Parsa, J. Pasternak, M. Pavin, D. Payne, G. C. Penn, D. Pershey, L. Pickering, C. Pidcott, G. Pintaudi, C. Pistillo, B. Popov, K. Porwit, M. Posiadala-Zezula, B. Quilain, T. Radermacher, E. Radicioni, B. Radics, P. N. Ratoff, M. Reh, C. Riccio, E. Rondio, S. Roth, A. Rubbia, A. C. Ruggeri, C. A. Ruggles, A. Rychter, L. S. M. Lakshmi, K. Sakashita, F. Sanchez, G. Santucci, C. M. Schloesser, K. Scholberg, M. Scott, Y. Seiya, T. Sekiguchi, H. Sekiya, D. Sgalaberna, A. Shaikhiev, A. Shaykina, M. Shiozawa, W. Shorrock, A. Shvartsman, K. Skwarczynski, M. Smy, J. T. Sobczyk, H. Sobel, F. J. P. Soler, Y. Sonoda, R. Spina, S. Suvorov, A. Suzuki, S. Y. Suzuki, Y. Suzuki, A. A. Sztuc, M. Tada, M. Tajima, A. Takeda, Y. Takeuchi, H. K. Tanaka, Y. Tanihara, M. Tani, N. Teshima, N. Thamm, L. F. Thompson, W. Toki, C. Touramanis, T. Towstego, K. M. Tsui, T. Tsukamoto, M. Tzanov, Y. Uchida, M. Vagins, S. Valder, D. Vargas, G. Vasseur, C. Vilela, W. G. S. Vinning, T. Vladisavljevie, T. Wachala, J. Walker, J. G. Walsh, Y. Wang, L. Wan, D. Wark, M. O. Wascko, A. Weber, R. Wendell, M. J. Wilking, C. Wilkinson, J. R. Wilson, K. Wood, C. Wret, J. Xia, Y. -H. Xu, K. Yamamto, C. Yanagisawa, G. Yang, T. Yano, K. Yasutome, N. Yeshov, M. Yokoyama, T. Yoshida, Y. Yoshimoto, M. Yu, R. Zaki, A. Zalewska, J. Zalipska, K. Zaremba, G. Zarnecki, M. Ziembicki, M. Zito, S. Zsoldos

Faculty Publications

This paper reports the first T2K measurement of the transverse kinematic imbalance in the single-π+ production channel of neutrino interactions. We measure the differential cross sections in the muon-neutrino charged-current interaction on hydrocarbon with a single π+ and at least one proton in the final state, at the ND280 off axis near detector of the T2K experiment. The extracted cross sections are compared to the predictions from different neutrino-nucleus interaction event generators. Overall, the results show a preference for models that have a more realistic treatment of nuclear medium effects including the initial nuclear state and final-state interactions.

Improved Constraints On Neutrino Mixing From The T2k Experiment With 3.13×1021 Protons On Target, K. Abe, N. Akhlaq, R. Akutsu, A. Ali, C. Alt, C. Andreopoulos, M. Antonova, S. Aoki, T. Arihara, Y. Asada, Y. Ashida, E. T. Atkin, Y. Awataguchi, G. J. Barker, G. Barr, D. Barrow, M. Batkiewicz-Kwasniak, A. Beloshapkin, F. Bench, V. Berardi, L. Berns, S. Bhadra, A. Blanchet, A. Blondel, S. Bolognesi, T. Bonus, B. Bourguille, S. B. Boyd

Faculty Publications

The T2K experiment reports updated measurements of neutrino and antineutrino oscillations using both appearance and disappearance channels. This result comes from an exposure of 14.9(16.4)×1020 protons on target in neutrino (antineutrino) mode. Significant improvements have been made to the neutrino interaction model and far detector reconstruction. An extensive set of simulated data studies have also been performed to quantify the effect interaction model uncertainties have on the T2K oscillation parameter sensitivity. T2K performs multiple oscillation analyses that present both frequentist and Bayesian intervals for the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata parameters. For fits including a constraint on sin2θ13 from reactor data and assuming normal …

Using Tree-Ring Research To Introduce Students To Geoscience Fieldwork, Clay S. Tucker, Jill C. Trepanier, Pamela B. Blanchard, Ed Bush, James W. Jordan, Mark J. Schafer, John Andrew Nyman

Faculty Publications

Environmental education is key in solving environmental problems and for producing a future workforce capable of solving issues of climate change. Over the last two decades, the Coastal Roots Program at Louisiana State University (LSU) has reached more than 26,676 K-12 students in Louisiana to teach them environmental science and has brought them to restoration sites to plant 194,336 school-grown trees and grasses. The codirectors of Coastal Roots are continually searching for opportunities to enrich the experience of teachers and students in connecting school subjects, Coastal Roots, and stewardship. In school year 2018/19, students in five local schools entered a …

Resistance Of The Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera Frugiperda, To Transgenic Bacillus Thuringiensis Cry1f Corn In The Americas: Lessons And Implications For Bt Corn Irm In China, Fangneng Huang

Faculty Publications

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), is a major target pest of Bt crops (e.g., corn, cotton, and soybean) in North and South America. This pest has recently invaded Africa and Asia including China and the invasion has placed a great threat to the food security in many countries of these two continents. Due to the extensive use of Bt crops, practical resistance of S. frugiperda to Cry1F corn (TC 1507) with field control problems has widely occurred in Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, and the mainland United States. Analyzing data generated from decade-long studies showed that several factors might …

Peridynamics-Based Discrete Element Method (Peridem) Model Of Granular Systems Involving Breakage Of Arbitrarily Shaped Particles, Prashant K. Jha, Prathamesh S. Desai, Debdeep Bhattacharya, Robert Lipton

Faculty Publications

Usage, manipulation, transport, delivery, and mixing of granular or particulate media, comprised of spherical or polyhedral particles, is commonly encountered in industrial sectors of construction (cement and rock fragments), pharmaceutics (tablets), and transportation (ballast). Elucidating particulate media's behavior in concert with particle attrition (i.e., particle wear and subsequent particle fragmentation) is essential for predicting the performance and increasing the efficiency of engineering systems using such media. Discrete element method (DEM) based techniques can describe the interaction between particles but cannot model intra-particle deformation, especially intra-particle fracture. On the other hand, peridynamics provides the means to account for intra-particle deformation and …

Effect Of Informed Conditions On Sensory Expectations And Actual Perceptions: A Case Of Chocolate Brownies Containing Edible-Cricket Protein, Cristhiam Gurdian, Damir Torrico, Bin Li, Georgianna Tuuri, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Deep Learning Enhanced Novel Software Tool For Laryngeal Dynamics Analysis, Andreas M. Kist, Pablo Gómez, Denis Dubrovskiy, Patrick Schlegel, Melda Kunduk, Matthias Echternach, Rita Patel, Marion Semmler, Christopher Bohr, Stephan Dürr, Anne Schützenberger, Michael Döllinger

Faculty Publications

Purpose: High-speed videoendoscopy (HSV) is an emerging, but barely used, endoscopy technique in the clinic to assess and diagnose voice disorders because of the lack of dedicated software to analyze the data. HSV allows to quantify the vocal fold oscillations by segmenting the glottal area. This challenging task has been tackled by various studies; however, the proposed approaches are mostly limited and not suitable for daily clinical routine. Method: We developed a user-friendly software in C# that allows the editing, motion correction, segmentation, and quantitative analysis of HSV data. We further provide pretrained deep neural networks for fully automatic glottis …

Female Mice Are Protected From Metabolic Decline Associated With Lack Of Skeletal Muscle Hur, Allison C. Stone, Robert C. Noland, Randall L. Mynatt, Samuel E. Velasquez, David S. Bayless, Eric Ravussin, Jaycob D. Warfel

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Male mice lacking HuR in skeletal muscle (HuRm−/−) have been shown to have decreased gastrocnemius lipid oxidation and increased adiposity and insulin resistance. The same consequences have not been documented in female HuRm−/− mice. Here we examine this sexually dimorphic phenotype. HuRm−/− mice have an increased fat mass to lean mass ratio (FM/LM) relative to controls where food intake is similar. Increased body weight for male mice correlates with increased blood glucose during glucose tolerance tests (GTT), suggesting increased fat mass in male HuRm−/− mice as a driver of decreased glucose clearance. However, HuRm−/− female mice show decreased blood glucose …

Agrp Neurons Trigger Long-Term Potentiation And Facilitate Food Seeking, Chunmei Wang, Wenjun Zhou, Yang He, Tiffany Yang, Pingwen Xu, Yongjie Yang, Xing Cai, Julia Wang, Hesong Liu, Meng Yu, Chen Liang, Tingting Yang, Hailan Liu, Makoto Fukuda, Qingchun Tong, Qi Wu, Zheng Sun, Yanlin He, Yong Xu

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Sufficient feeding is essential for animals’ survival, which requires a cognitive capability to facilitate food seeking, but the neurobiological processes regulating food seeking are not fully understood. Here we show that stimulation of agouti-related peptide-expressing (AgRP) neurons triggers a long-term depression (LTD) of spontaneous excitatory post-synaptic current (sEPSC) in adjacent pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons and in most of their distant synaptic targets, including neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT). The AgRP-induced sEPCS LTD can be enhanced by fasting but blunted by satiety signals, e.g. leptin and insulin. Mice subjected to food-seeking tasks develop similar neural plasticity in AgRP-innervated …

Hepatic Nfe2l2 Is Not An Essential Mediator Of The Metabolic Phenotype Produced By Dietary Methionine Restriction, Han Fang, Kirsten P. Stone, Sujoy Ghosh, Laura A. Forney, Landon C. Sims, Leighann Vincik, Thomas W. Gettys

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

The principal sensing of dietary methionine restriction (MR) occurs in the liver, where it activates multiple transcriptional programs that mediate various biological components of the response. Hepatic Fgf21 is a key target and essential endocrine mediator of the metabolic phenotype produced by dietary MR. The transcription factor, Nfe2l2, is also activated by MR and functions in tandem with hepatic Atf4 to transactivate multiple, antioxidative components of the integrated stress response. However, it is unclear whether the transcriptional responses linked to Nfe2l2 activation by dietary MR are essential to the biological efficacy of the diet. Using mice with liver-specific deletion of …

Erratum To: Exercise-Induced Increases In Insulin Sensitivity After Bariatric Surgery Are Mediated By Muscle Extracellular Matrix Remodeling (Diabetes 2020;69:1675–1691), Wagner S. Dantas, Hamilton Roschel, Igor H. Murai, Saulo Gil, Gangarao Davuluri, Christopher L. Axelrod, Sujoy Ghosh, Susan S. Newman, Hui Zhang, Samuel K. Shinjo, Willian Das Neves, Carlos Merege-Filho, Walcy R. Teodoro, Vera L. Capelozzi, Rosa Maria Pereira, Fabiana B. Benatti, Ana L. De Sa-Pinto, Roberto De Cleva, Marco A. Santo, John P. Kirwan, Bruno Gualano

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

In Table 2 of the above-cited article, the difference (95% CI) after intervention for VAT (kg) was inadvertently reported as 1.40 ( 2.17 to 4.98). The correct value is 0.140 ( 0.217 to 0.498). In the Supplementary Fig. 1 (study recruitment), it was reported that 230 patients were assessed for eligibility; the correct number of patients was 222. With regard to reasons for lost to follow-up, in the RYGB and RYGB+ET groups, respectively, it was reported that 8 and 8 patients did not undergo surgery and that 2 and 1 patients withdrew after surgery for personal reasons, when in fact …

Human Plasma Proteomic Profiles Indicative Of Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Jeremy M. Robbins, Bennet Peterson, Daniela Schranner, Usman A. Tahir, Theresa Rienmüller, Shuliang Deng, Michelle J. Keyes, Daniel H. Katz, Pierre M.Jean Beltran, Jacob L. Barber, Christian Baumgartner, Steven A. Carr, Sujoy Ghosh, Changyu Shen, Lori L. Jennings, Robert Ross, Mark A. Sarzynski, Claude Bouchard, Robert E. Gerszten

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) is a direct measure of human cardiorespiratory fitness and is associated with health. However, the molecular determinants of interindividual differences in baseline (intrinsic) VO2max, and of increases of VO2max in response to exercise training (ΔVO2max), are largely unknown. Here, we measure ~5,000 plasma proteins using an affinity-based platform in over 650 sedentary adults before and after a 20-week endurance-exercise intervention and identify 147 proteins and 102 proteins whose plasma levels are associated with baseline VO2max and ΔVO2max, respectively. Addition of a protein biomarker score derived from these proteins to a score based on clinical traits improves …

Load Balancing For Distributed Nonlocal Models Within Asynchronous Many-Task Systems, Pranav Gadikar, Patrick Diehl, Prashant K. Jha

Faculty Publications

In this work, we consider the challenges of developing a distributed solver for models based on nonlocal interactions. In nonlocal models, in contrast to the local model, such as the wave and heat partial differential equations, the material interacts with neighboring points on a larger-length scale compared to the mesh discretization. In developing a fully distributed solver, the interaction over a length scale greater than mesh size introduces additional data dependencies among the compute nodes and communication bottleneck. In this work, we carefully look at these challenges in the context of nonlocal models; to keep the presentation specific to the …

Risks Of Macrosomia Associated With Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Genotypes And Genetic-Epigenetic Interactions Among Children With And Without Gestational Diabetes Exposure, Liliana Aguayo, Weiqin Li, Brian T. Joyce, Junhong Leng, Yinan Zheng, Stephanie Shiau, Huikun Liu, Leishen Wang, Ru Gao, Andrea Baccarelli, Gang Hu, Lifang Hou

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a major macrosomia risk factor. Variations in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT; rs4680) genotypes are associated with heightened susceptibility to environmental exposures and nutritional conditions. However, macrosomia risks associated with COMT genetics, epigenetics, and the interaction between genetic and epigenetics among children with and without exposure to GDM are unknown. Methods: Data from women/children pairs (n = 1087) who participated in the Tianjin Gestational Diabetes Birth Cohort were used to examine the odds of being born with macrosomia associated with COMT-genotypes, 55 CpG sites located on the COMT gene, and genetic and epigenetic interactions. Odds of …

The Moderating Role Of The Built Environment In Prenatal Lifestyle Interventions, Suzanne Phelan, Fred Marquez, Leanne M. Redman, Sonia Arteaga, Rebecca Clifton, Brian A. Grice, Debra Haire-Joshu, Corby K. Martin, Candice A. Myers, Jeremy Pomeroy, Eileen Vincent, Linda Van Horn, Alan Peaceman, Maxine Ashby-Thompson, Dympna Gallagher, Xavier Pi-Sunyer, Trisha Boekhoudt, Kimberly Drews, Greg Brown

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

This study examined whether the neighborhood built environment moderated gestational weight gain (GWG) in LIFE-Moms clinical trials. Participants were 790 pregnant women (13.9 weeks’ gestation) with overweight or obesity randomized within four clinical centers to standard care or lifestyle intervention to reduce GWG. Geographic information system (GIS) was used to map the neighborhood built environment. The intervention relative to standard care significantly reduced GWG (coefficient = 0.05; p = 0.005) and this effect remained significant (p < 0.03) after adjusting for built environment variables. An interaction was observed for presence of fast food restaurants (coefficient = −0.007; p = 0.003). Post hoc tests based on a median split showed that the intervention relative to standard care reduced GWG in participants living in neighborhoods with lower fast food density 0.08 [95% CI, 0.03,0.12] kg/week (p = 0.001) but not in those living in areas with higher fast food density (0.02 [−0.04, 0.08] kg/week; p = 0.55). Interaction effects suggested less intervention efficacy among women living in neighborhoods with more grocery/convenience stores (coefficient = −0.005; p = 0.0001), more walkability (coefficient −0.012; p = 0.007) and less crime (coefficient = 0.001; p = 0.007), but post-hoc tests were not significant. No intervention x environment interaction effects were observed for total number of eating establishments or tree canopy. Lifestyle interventions during pregnancy were effective across diverse physical environments. Living in environments with easy access to fast food restaurants may limit efficacy of prenatal lifestyle interventions, but future research is needed to replicate these findings.

Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance And Artificial Intelligence: Frontiers Of Imaging In Pancreatic Cancer, José S. Enriquez, Yan Chu, Shivanand Pudakalakatti, Kang Lin Hsieh, Duncan Salmon, Prasanta Dutta, Niki Zacharias Millward, Eugene Lurie, Steven Millward, Florencia Mcallister, Anirban Maitra, Subrata Sen, Ann Killary, Jian Zhang, Xiaoqian Jiang, Pratip K. Bhattacharya, Shayan Shams

Faculty Publications

Background: There is an unmet need for noninvasive imaging markers that can help identify the aggressive subtype(s) of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) at diagnosis and at an earlier time point, and evaluate the efficacy of therapy prior to tumor reduction. In the past few years, there have been two major developments with potential for a significant impact in establishing imaging biomarkers for PDAC and pancreatic cancer premalignancy: (1) hyperpolarized metabolic (HP)-magnetic resonance (MR), which increases the sensitivity of conventional MR by over 10,000-fold, enabling real-time metabolic measurements; and (2) applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Objective: Our objective of this review …

Evaluating Hazus-Mh Flood Model Consequence Assessments Of Urban And Rural Coastal Landscapes Using Adcirc Generated Flood Data From Hurricanes Isaac And Laura, Katherine Faye Jones

LSU Master's Theses

Emergency managers rely on a variety on models and outputs, such as Hazards United States Multi- Hazard (Hazus-MH) and the Coastal Emergency Risk Assessment (CERA) visualization tool, to make decisions in the days leading up to and following hurricane events. This study focuses on using Hurricane Isaac (2012) and Hurricane Laura (2020).ASGS-CERA geoTIFFs, created from generated ADCIRC Prediction System data, in the Hazus-MH Flood Model to test using these two tools together in urban and rural areas. These ASGS-CERA integrated Hazus-MH studies were compared with Hazus-MH studies using the standard Hazus-MH surge methodology. They were tested for accuracy in both …

Local Calibration Of Pavement Me And Performance Evaluation Of Pavement Rehabilitation And Preservation Asphalt Overlays In Louisiana, Farzana Moon

LSU Master's Theses

Asphalt overlays can be categorized as pavement rehabilitation structural overlays or pavement preservation overlays in terms of the thickness and timing of maintenance activities. Pavement rehabilitation overlay contributes to the structural enhancement of pavements and pavement preservation overlays generally provide functional improvement to an existing pavement. In recent times, the pavement design approach employed by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) has been transitioning from the 1993 AASHTO design procedure to a locally calibrated Pavement ME method. The AASHTOWare Pavement ME (Mechanistic-Empirical) design procedure is considered the modern approach to pavement design. Significant updates have been introduced in …

The Stylistic Development Of Jean Despujols (1886-1965), Kelly M. Ward

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the life and most extant works by Jean Despujols. The French and later naturalized American painter, writer, poet, philosopher, deep-thinker, and mystic was best known for his Neoclassical and academic style. This thesis briefly discusses the artist’s beginnings as a young painter at the School of Fine Arts in Bordeaux and in Paris, his sketches in the trenches of the First World War, his time at the Villa Medicis after winning the distinguished Rome Prize, and his paintings and thoughts as a philosopher and political writer throughout his life. An outstanding …

Disentangling The Effects Of Vapor Pressure Deficit And Soil Water Availability On Canopy Conductance In A Seasonal Tropical Forest During The 2015 El Niño Drought, Yilin Fang, L. Ruby Leung, Brett T. Wolfe, Matteo Detto, Ryan G. Knox, Nate G. Mcdowell, Charlotte Grossiord, Chonggang Xu, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Pierre Gentine, Charles D. Koven, Jeffrey Q. Chambers

Faculty Publications

Water deficit in the atmosphere and soil are two key interactive factors that constrain transpiration and vegetation productivity. It is not clear which of these two factors is more important for the water and carbon flux response to drought stress in ecosystems. In this study, field data and numerical modeling were used to isolate their impact on evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary productivity (GPP) at a tropical forest site in Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, focusing on their response to the drought induced by the El Niño event of 2015–2016. Numerical simulations were performed using a plant hydrodynamic scheme (HYDRO) …

Wildfires: Vegetation Recovery And The Potential For Future Fires, Moses Okonkwo

LSU Master's Theses

Analysis of satellite imagery combined with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), often allows for observing the increasing changes in land cover dynamics. These changes are often on a macro scale buoyed by natural hazards such as wildfires. This study examines the vegetation recovery dynamics by using multispectral data and also gleaned insight in the applications of Hyperspectral satellite imagery in the study of vegetation dynamics. Both Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) (multispectral) and the Earth-Observing One (EO-1) (hyperspectral) data are freely available; however the former has a limited spatial and temporal coverage. The relationship between vegetation recovery, elevation, aspect and …

Characterizing Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge In Minimally Verbal Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Allison Menting

LSU Master's Theses

Background: Delayed or impaired language skills are common characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Currently, there is little research examining the receptive language profile in children with ASD, and even less is known about children with ASD who are minimally verbal. The current study aimed to characterize the receptive vocabulary profile of minimally verbal children with ASD and to examine whether this profile differs from their typically developing peers. Methods: Participants included 31 minimally verbal children with ASD, aged 60-118 months, who were reported to produce between 0-10 words, 124 typical developing toddlers, aged 9-14 months, who were …

Assessment Of Endogenous Biomass Decay As A Source Of Precursors For Microbially-Mediated Toluene And P-Cresol Production, Samuel J. Reynolds

LSU Master's Theses

The research reported in this thesis was conducted to investigate whether protein hydrolysis associated with endogenous decay of biomass produced following the addition of a readily fermentable substrate is a potential source of precursors that can ultimately be transformed to toluene and p-cresol in environments undergoing enhanced bioremediation.

A packed column intended to represent a laboratory-scale section of an aquifer was seeded with groundwater and then supplied with molasses-amended groundwater for a two-day interval. The injected molasses concentration and surface loading rate were selected to be representative of conditions in the vicinity of injection wells at a Superfund Site …

Penguins Past And Present: Trace Elements, Stable Isotopes, And Population Dynamics In Antarctic And Sub-Antarctic Penguins And Seals, Allyson K. Kristan

LSU Master's Theses

Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic are remote regions where the impacts from climate change and anthropogenic activities are increasingly apparent. Previous studies show that the Antarctic is warming and has been affected by anthropogenic contaminants. Marine predators such as penguins and seals are commonly used in these regions as sentinels of ecosystem health as predator tissues can be used as non-invasive proxies of diet, population trends, and contaminant exposure. This thesis includes two separate studies which investigate the influence of climate change and human activity on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic ecosystems. First, Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) eggshell samples were collected …