Digital Commons Network^™

Industry Versus Government Regulation Of Food Date Labels: Observed Adherence To Industry-Endorsed Phrases, Brian E. Roe, Danyi Qi, Kathryn E. Bender, Julia Hilty

Faculty Publications

© 2019 by the authors. A leading factor in the creation of avoidable household food waste is confusion about food date labels. In the United States, date labels are largely unregulated, resulting in a plethora of date label phrases used in commerce. Federal regulation has been proposed but never passed, while both industry and government have provided voluntary guidance on preferred label phrases. We study food producer adherence to the label phrases endorsed by the Trading Partner Alliance (TPA, an industry group), which includes "Use By" for perishable products subject to a material degradation of critical performance or potential food …

Anti-Viral Immunity In The Tumor Microenvironment: Implications For The Rational Design Of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Oncolytic Virotherapy, Paul J.F. Rider, Ifeanyi K. Uche, Larissa Sweeny, Konstantin G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

© 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Purpose of Review: The design of novel herpes simplex type I (HSV-1)–derived oncolytic virotherapies is a balancing act between safety, immunogenicity, and replicative potential. We have undertaken this review to better understand how these considerations can be incorporated into rational approaches to the design of novel herpesvirus oncolytic virotherapies. Recent Findings: Several recent papers have demonstrated that enhancing the potential of HSV-1 oncolytic viruses to combat anti-viral mechanisms present in the tumor microenvironment leads to greater efficacy than their parental viruses. Summary: It is not entirely clear how the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment affects oncolytic …

Elevated Levels Of Type 2 Respiratory Innate Lymphoid Cells In Human Infants With Severe Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis, Luan D. Vu, David Siefker, Tamekia L. Jones, Dahui You, Ryleigh Taylor, John Devincenzo, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

© 2019 by the American Thoracic Society. Rationale: Studies of the immune responses at the site of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection are sparse despite nearly five decades of research into understanding RSV disease. Objectives: To investigate the role of mucosal innate immune responses to RSV and respiratory viral load in infants hospitalized with the natural disease. Methods: Cytokines, viral load, and type 2 innate lymphoid cell (ILC2) levels in nasal aspirates, collected within 24 hours of enrollment, from infants hospitalized with RSV infection were quantified. Measurements and Main Results: RSV severity in infants was categorized based on admission to …

Rapid Quantification Of Lignite Sulfur Content: Combining Optical And X-Ray Approaches, Julia Kagiliery, Somsubhra Chakraborty, Autumn Acree, David C. Weindorf, Eric C. Brevik, Nicolas A. Jelinski, Bin Li, Cynthia Jordan

Faculty Publications

Coal is an important natural resource for global energy production. However, certain types of coal (e.g., lignite) often contain abundant sulfur (S) which can lead to gaseous sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions when burned. Such emissions subsequently create sulfuric acid (H2SO4), thus causing highly acidic rain which can alter the pH of soil and surface waters. Traditional laboratory analysis (e.g., dry combustion) is commonly used to characterize the S content of lignite, but such approaches are laborious and expensive. By comparison, proximal sensing techniques such as portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) spectrometry, visible near infrared (VisNIR) spectroscopy, and optical sensors (e.g., NixPro) …

Adjective Learning In Young Typically Developing Children And Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Retrieval-Based Approach, Laurence B. Leonard, Patricia Deevy, Jeffrey D. Karpicke, Sharon Christ, Christine Weber, Justin B. Kueser, Eileen Haebig

Faculty Publications

Purpose: There are strong retention benefits when learners frequently test themselves during the learning period. This practice of repeated retrieval has recently been applied successfully to children’s word learning. In this study, we apply a repeated retrieval procedure to the learning of novel adjectives by preschool-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and their typically developing (TD) peers. We ask whether the benefits of retrieval extend to children’s ability to apply the novel adjectives to newly introduced objects sharing the same characteristics as the objects used during the learning period. Method: Fourteen children with DLD (Mage = 62.64 months) and …

From The Arctic To The Tropics: Multibiome Prediction Of Leaf Mass Per Area Using Leaf Reflectance, Shawn P. Serbin, Jin Wu, Kim S. Ely, Eric L. Kruger, Philip A. Townsend, Ran Meng, Brett T. Wolfe, Adam Chlus, Zhihui Wang, Alistair Rogers

Faculty Publications

Leaf mass per area (LMA) is a key plant trait, reflecting tradeoffs between leaf photosynthetic function, longevity, and structural investment. Capturing spatial and temporal variability in LMA has been a long-standing goal of ecological research and is an essential component for advancing Earth system models. Despite the substantial variation in LMA within and across Earth's biomes, an efficient, globally generalizable approach to predict LMA is still lacking. We explored the capacity to predict LMA from leaf spectra across much of the global LMA trait space, with values ranging from 17 to 393 g m−2. Our dataset contained leaves from a …

Development Of Milk Powder Containing Lactobacillus Plantarum Ncimb 8826 Immobilized With Prebiotic Hi-Maize Starch And Survival Under Simulated Gastric And Intestinal Conditions, Ronamae Bradford, Vondel Reyes, Franklin Bonilla, Federico Bueno, Bennett Dzandu, Chen Liu, Alexander Chouljenko, Subramaniam Sathivel

Faculty Publications

Abstract: The objectives of this study were to develop a probiotic milk powder containing Lactobacillus plantarum NCIMB 8826 immobilized with prebiotic Hi-maize starch and to analyze cell viability after spray drying and exposure to simulated gastric and intestinal conditions. Milk powders containing free L. plantarum and cells immobilized with Hi-maize starch were assessed. Powders were evaluated during storage at 4 °C for 15 days. After spray drying, at 0 and 15 days of storage both treatments had over 8 log CFU/g of viable cells and there were higher viable counts found for immobilized cells compared to free cells after 120 …

Fertilizer Source And Irrigation Depth A¡Ect Nutrient Leaching During Coleus Container Production, Kayla R. Sanders, Jeffrey S. Beasley, Edward W. Bush, Stacia L. Conger

Faculty Publications

Nutrient leaching during nursery container production can have negative effects on plant growth and the environment. The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of fertilizer source at two irrigation depths on nutrient leaching during coleus [Plectranthus scutellarioides (L.) Codd] ‘Solar Sunrise’ container production to develop best management practices. Coleus received no fertilizer, a controlled-release fertilizer (CRF), or a water-soluble fertilizer (WSF) applied at 0.30 kg N and P per m3 (0.02 lb per ft3) and were irrigated at 1.9 or 3.8 cm.day1 (0.7 or 1.5 in.day1) for 56 days after planting (DAP). Leachate was analyzed every 7 DAP …

Results From A 14-Year Intervention Program Designed To Impact Pursuit Of A Phd In Research Among Underrepresented Students In Stem Disciplines, Gretchen Schneider Burton, Eugene Kennedy, Maria Da Graça H. Vicente

Faculty Publications

Minority research and training (MRT) programs have been used across U.S. colleges and universities as a method to close the educational achievement gap and generate a highly skilled and diverse workforce. Previous studies have improved our understanding of the need to diversify the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and the various interventions that have been developed to support these efforts. However, there is still little evidence about what strategies are most effective in promoting interest, continuation, and matriculation into STEM graduate programs among underrepresented groups. The study herein utilized a case study design with a mixed methods approach …

Predicting Louisiana Public High School Dropout Through Imbalanced Learning Techniques, Marmar Orooji, Jianhua Chen

Faculty Publications

This study is motivated by the magnitude of the problem of Louisiana high school dropout and its negative impacts on individual and public well-being. Our goal is to predict students who are at risk of high school dropout, by examining Louisiana administrative dataset. Due to the imbalanced nature of the dataset, imbalanced learning techniques including resampling, case weighting, and cost-sensitive learning have been applied to enhance the prediction performance on the rare class. Performance metrics used in this study are F-measure, recall and precision of the rare class. We compare the performance of several machine learning algorithms such as neural …

Measurement Of The Energy Spectra And Of The Angular Distribution Of The Transition Radiation With A Silicon Strip Detector, F. Loparco, J. Alozy, N. Belyaev, M. Campbell, M. Cherry, F. Dachs, S. Doronin, K. Filippov, P. Fusco, F. Gargano, E. Heijne, S. Konovalov, D. Krasnopevtsev, X. Llopart, V. Mascagna, M. N. Mazziotta, H. Pernegger, D. Ponomarenko, M. Prest, D. Pyatiizbyantseva, R. Radomskii, C. Rembser, A. Romaniouk, A. A. Savchenko, D. Schaefer, E. J. Schioppa, D. Shchukin, D. Yu Sergeeva, E. Shulga, S. Smirnov, Y. Smirnov, M. Soldani, P. Spinelli

Faculty Publications

We plan to develop an advanced Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) for hadron identification in the TeV momentum range, based on the simultaneous measurement of the energies and of the emission angles of the Transition Radiation (TR) X-rays with respect to the radiating particles. To study the feasibility of this project, we have carried out a beam test campaign at the CERN SPS facility with 20 GeV/c electrons and muons up to 300 GeV/c. To detect the TR X-rays and the radiating particles, we used a 300 μm thick double-sided silicon strip detector, with a strip readout pitch of 50 μm. …

Alu Insertion Polymorphisms Shared By Papio Baboons And Theropithecus Gelada Reveal An Intertwined Common Ancestry, Jerilyn A. Walker, Vallmer E. Jordan, Jessica M. Storer, Cody J. Steely, Paulina Gonzalez-Quiroga, Thomas O. Beckstrom, Lydia C. Rewerts, Corey P. St. Romain, Catherine E. Rockwell, Jeffrey Rogers, Clifford J. Jolly, Miriam K. Konkel, Mark A. Batzer, R. Alan Harris, Muthuswamy Raveendran, Yue Liu, Shwetha Murali, Tauras P. Vilgalys, Gregg W.C. Thomas, Kymberleigh A. Pagel, Vikas Pejaver, Claudia R. Catacchio, Nicoletta Archidiacono, Mario Ventura, Alessia Marra-Campanale, Antonio Palazzo, Oronzo Capozzi, Archana Raja, John Huddleston, Veronica Searles Quick, Anis Karimpour-Fard, Dominik Schrempf, Marc De Manuel Montero, Konstantinos Billis

Faculty Publications

© 2019 The Author(s). Background: Baboons (genus Papio) and geladas (Theropithecus gelada) are now generally recognized as close phylogenetic relatives, though morphologically quite distinct and generally classified in separate genera. Primate specific Alu retrotransposons are well-established genomic markers for the study of phylogenetic and population genetic relationships. We previously reported a computational reconstruction of Papio phylogeny using large-scale whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis of Alu insertion polymorphisms. Recently, high coverage WGS was generated for Theropithecus gelada. The objective of this study was to apply the high-Throughput "poly-Detect" method to computationally determine the number of Alu insertion polymorphisms shared by T. …

Content Release And Fusion Of Quinone-Based Liposomes: Lipid Distribution And Cleavage Symmetry Of The Quinone Headgroup At The Bilayer, Huy Huu Nguyen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Delivery of most conventional nanomedicines for tumor treatment is through exploiting the enhanced permeability and retention effect with limited targeting potency. Furthermore, the inability of some nanocarriers to enter the cells via endocytosis, or their limited endocytic escape restrict their applications for intracellular delivery. Liposomal carrier systems offer a solution as they are capable of precisely spatiotemporal releasing the payloads upon sensing specifically targeted environments.

In 2008, the McCarley group demonstrated an example of redox-responsive triggered release of the liposomes, named Q₃DOPE, which can potentially take advantage of elevated quinone reductase activities of hNOQ₁ in several cancers. …

Angle-Dependent Strong-Field Ionization Of Halomethanes, Péter Sándor, Adonay Sissay, François Mauger, Mark W. Gordon, T. T. Gorman, T. D. Scarborough, Mette B. Gaarde, Kenneth Lopata, K. J. Schafer, R. R. Jones

Faculty Publications

We study, experimentally and theoretically, the ionization probability of singly halogenated methane molecules, CH3Cl and CH3Br, in intense linearly polarized 800 nm laser pulses as a function of the angle between the molecular axis and the laser polarization. Experimentally, the molecules are exposed to two laser pulses with a relative time delay. The first, weaker pulse induces a nuclear rotational wave packet within the molecules, which are then ionized by the second, stronger pulse. The angle-dependent ionization yields are extracted from fits of the measured delay-dependent ionization signal to a superposition of moments of the rotational wave packet's angular distribution. …

Angle-Dependent Strong-Field Ionization Of Halomethanes, Péter Sándor, Adonay Sissay, François Mauger, Mark W. Gordon, T. T. Gorman, T. D. Scarborough, Mette B. Gaarde, Kenneth Lopata, K. J. Schafer, R. R. Jones

Faculty Publications

© 2019 Author(s). We study, experimentally and theoretically, the ionization probability of singly halogenated methane molecules, CH3Cl and CH3Br, in intense linearly polarized 800 nm laser pulses as a function of the angle between the molecular axis and the laser polarization. Experimentally, the molecules are exposed to two laser pulses with a relative time delay. The first, weaker pulse induces a nuclear rotational wave packet within the molecules, which are then ionized by the second, stronger pulse. The angle-dependent ionization yields are extracted from fits of the measured delay-dependent ionization signal to a superposition of moments of the rotational wave …

The Societal Collapse Of The Southern Lowland Maya Civilization: Don’T Miss The Forest For The Trees, Dwayne Hinton

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Tests Of General Relativity With The Binary Black Hole Signals From The Ligo-Virgo Catalog Gwtc-1, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, 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, G. Allen, A. Allocca, M. A. Aloy, P. A. Altin, A. Amato, A. Ananyeva, S. B. Anderson, W. G. Anderson, S. V. Angelova, S. Antier, S. Appert, K. Arai, M. C. Araya, J. S. Areeda, M. Arène, N. Arnaud

Faculty Publications

The detection of gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo provides an opportunity to test general relativity in a regime that is inaccessible to traditional astronomical observations and laboratory tests. We present four tests of the consistency of the data with binary black hole gravitational waveforms predicted by general relativity. One test subtracts the best-fit waveform from the data and checks the consistency of the residual with detector noise. The second test checks the consistency of the low- and high-frequency parts of the observed signals. The third test checks that phenomenological deviations introduced in the waveform model (including in …

Modeling And Simulations Of Peptoids, Pu Du

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Polypeptoids, or poly-N-substituted glycines, are a class of sequence defined polymers that are structural mimics of polypeptides. Polypeptoids currently have received a growing interest due to their improved thermal stability, larger chemical diversity, and easier synthetic pathways as compared to peptides. Their lack of backbone hydrogen bonding and stereochemistry coupled with their easily tunability make them an ideal prototypical model system to study the effect of secondary/non-covalent interactions on self-assembly in solution. In order to develop a molecular level understanding of the effect of secondary interactions on polypeptoid self-assembly, systematic studies were carried out using molecular dynamics simulations on several …

Breaking Coastal Hypoxia: Destratification Of Gulf Of Mexico Deadzone To Encourage Oxygen Transport Downwards To Maintain Marine Fauna, Veda Thipparthi

LSU Master's Theses

As a consequence of seasonal eutrophication and human input, a vast hypoxic area termed The Dead Zone develops every year in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) during summer along the Louisiana coastline characterized by vertical seawater density-stratification with oxygen concentrations less than 2 mg.l^-1 at the seafloor. It poses a threat to bottom-dwelling faunae and their environment which has negative ecological and economic consequences. This project aims to mitigate hypoxia by employing mechanical impellers placed at strategic water depths and locations in the Gulf. Enhanced transport of oxygen results by mixing oxygen-enriched seawater at the surface, downward into the …

Supporting The Algebra I Curriculum With An Introduction To Computational Thinking Course, Michelle M. Laskowski

LSU Master's Theses

The Louisiana Workforce Commission predicts a 33.6% increase in computer science and mathematical occupations by 2022 and the Bureau of Labor Statistics foresees a 16% increase in computer scientists from 2018-2028. Despite these opportunities for job and financial security, the number of Louisiana students enrolled in a nationally accredited computing course is less than 1%, compared to national leaders California and Texas which have 3% and 3.8% of students respectively. Furthermore, the international assessments of mathematical literacy, PISA and TIMMS, both report American students continue to fall further behind their international peers in mathematics achievement.

This thesis rejects these statistics …

Indocyanine-Green-Assisted Near-Infrared Dental Fluorescence Imaging To Detect Common Dental Diseases, As Compared With Dental X-Ray, Yoshita Viraj Holamoge

LSU Master's Theses

Oral health is indicative of a person’s overall health. Even with advances in medical science, dental diseases are very much prevalent in our society. Dental imaging techniques help in the early detection of these dental diseases and eventually avoids the risk of poor oral health as well as medical expenses. Current dental imaging techniques rely mostly on X-ray imaging whose ionizing property is a concern amongst the population. Near-infrared spectrum is known to have tissue penetration property and they belong to the non-ionizing part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This study utilized a contrast agent assisted near-infrared imaging for common dental …

The Effects Of Forced Migration On The Houma Of Louisiana, Jessica R. Parfait

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the effects of multiple forced migrations on the Indigenous Houma of southern Louisiana. The causes of these migrations have taken many forms such as the dispossession of land and relocating for access to resources. Through ethnographic interviews and historic research, I seek to critically engage the past to understand how it has molded the present and the lives of tribal citizens. I evaluate the power dynamics enacted upon the Houma who have recorded contact with Europeans dating to 1686 but have never been recognized as a sovereign entity by the United States.

Safety Assessment Of Road Vehicle In Crosswind Considering Driver Behavior, Jiexuan Hu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With expansion of the economy, more and more highway networks extend to coastal areas and mountain valley areas. Vehicles will be exposed to strong crosswinds when driven on these highway roads, especially in hurricane season and in winter in these two different topographic areas. Strong crosswinds threaten the safety of transportation infrastructure and passing vehicles in forms of vehicle accidents that usually result in traffic blockage and driver injury, posing negative effects on economic growth. This dissertation aimed to evaluate the vehicle safety when running through crosswinds in consideration of driver behaviors.

Firstly, the aerodynamic characteristics of road vehicles were …

Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Interaction Of Dna Nucleotides And Lignin Oligomers With Small Molecules And Interfaces, Xinjie Tong

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of interaction of DNA nucleotides with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) provide valuable information that is critical to the development of a new DNA sequencing technique. We investigated the interactions and transport characteristics of mononucleotides moving through nanoslits with SAMs-covered surfaces. Our simulations focused on nanoslits in which the walls were composed of three different types of SAMs: methylformyl terminated, methyl terminated, and phenoxy terminated. The results demonstrated that the phenoxy terminated surfaces have the shortest required nanoslits length for nucleotides separation.

Using MD simulations, we also investigated the interaction of mono-lignin and oligo-lignols with lipid bilayers and …

From Piz Daint To The Stars: Simulation Of Stellar Mergers Using High-Level Abstractions, Gregor Dai, Parsa Amini, John Biddiscombe, Patrick Diehl, Juhan Frank, Kevin Huck, Hartmut Kaiser, Dominic Marcello, David Pfander, Dirk Pfüger

Faculty Publications

We study the simulation of stellar mergers, which requires complex simulations with high computational demands. We have developed Octo-Tiger, a finite volume grid-based hydrodynamics simulation code with Adaptive Mesh Refinement which is unique in conserving both linear and angular momentum to machine precision. To face the challenge of increasingly complex, diverse, and heterogeneous HPC systems, Octo-Tiger relies on high-level programming abstractions. We use HPX with its futurization capabilities to ensure scalability both between nodes and within, and present first results replacing MPI with libfabric achieving up to a 2.8x speedup. We extend Octo-Tiger to heterogeneous GPU-accelerated supercomputers, demonstrating node-level performance …

Examining Spatial Patterns Of Dominant Bunchgrass Species In Pine Savanna Groundcover Plant Communities, Katherine Anne Hovanes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Non-random spatial patterns within species are commonly observed in nature. Identifying spatial patterns of individuals within populations can give insight into processes regulating those populations and may indicate processes operating at community and ecosystem levels. Non-random spatial patterns of sessile organisms and dominant species are especially important for determining ecological processes structuring those populations. C₄ tussock-forming grasses (bunchgrasses) are dominant competitors and foundation species in pine savanna groundcover plant communities. Characterizing the spatial patterning of dominant bunchgrasses informs our understanding of processes regulating bunchgrass populations and indicates how bunchgrass populations may influence community assembly and ecosystem function in pine …

Managing Overheads In Asynchronous Many-Task Runtime Systems, Bibek Wagle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Asynchronous Many-Task (AMT) runtime systems are based on the idea of dividing an algorithm into small units of work, known as tasks. The runtime system is then responsible for scheduling and executing these tasks in an efficient manner by taking into account the resources provided to it and the associated data dependencies between the tasks. One of the primary challenges faced by AMTs is managing such fine-grained parallelism and the overheads associated with creating, scheduling and executing tasks. This work develops methodologies for assessing and managing overheads associated with fine-grained task execution in HPX, our exemplar Asynchronous Many-Task runtime system. …

Distributed Transactional Memory For Gpu Clusters, Samuel Oridge Irving

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, we explore multiple designs for a Distributed Transactional Memory framework for GPU clusters. Using Transactional Memory, we relieve the programmer of many concerns including 1) how to move data between many discrete memory spaces; 2) how to ensure data correctness when shared objects may be accessed by multiple devices; 3) how to prevent catastrophic warp divergence caused by atomic operations; 4) how to prevent catastrophic warp divergence caused by long-latency off-device communications; and 5) how to ensure Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability for programs with irregular memory accesses. Each of these concerns individually can be daunting to programmers …

Evaluation Of Soil Type And Seeding Rate On Winter Cover Crop Species In A Soybean Production System, Donna S. Morgan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The integration of winter annual cover crops into a cropping system can potentially improve soil health and crop production, however, the impact of variables such as seeding rates, across two very different soil types, has not been well documented. A two-year study was conducted at the Dean Lee Research Station and Extension Center in Alexandria, Louisiana to evaluate the effects of cover crop seeding rate and soil type on cover crop biomass, weed suppression, soil fertility, and soybean (Glycine max L) growth and yield. Analysis of potential economic impacts was also performed to estimate financial net returns for three …

Social Justice Through Social Media: The Use Of Twitter As A Tool For Activism In The #Metoo #Blacklivesmatter Era, Laura L. Coleman

LSU Master's Theses

This study focuses on social justice and how people on Twitter chose to talk about it. The rise of social media has allowed Twitter users to speak more freely in more spaces than one. The study compared two different sexual assault cases between Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Professor Christine Blasey; and Virginia’s Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax and Vanessa Tyson. Applying the social responsibility theory, which allows free press without any censorship, I then can see the tone of which Black Twitter users have when talking about two separate sexual assault cases. This study compares the use of the #BlackTwitter hashtag …