Digital Commons Network^™

Synthesis And Investigation Of Amphiphilic Polypeptoids For Environmental And Biological Applications, Tianyi Yu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Polypeptoids are an emerging class of peptidomimetic polymers featuring N-substituted polyglycine backbones. Polypeptoids are cyto-compatible and backbone degradable, making them appealing to many biological applications. When the highly polar polyamide backbone is coupled with non-polar aliphatic side chains, polypeptoids can be considered as facial amphiphiles. Without extensive hydrogen bonding along the backbone, the conformation of polypeptoid is largely controlled by the N-substituent structures. The hydrophobicity-lipophilicity balance of polypeptoids can be readily tuned with the N-substituent structures as well as the molar ratio between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments in their copolymers. In view of these combined attributes, …

Neutrino Interaction Classification With A Convolutional Neural Network In The Dune Far Detector, B. Abi, R. Acciarri, M. A. Acero, G. Adamov, D. Adams, M. Adinolfi, Z. Ahmad, J. Ahmed, T. Alion, S. Alonso Monsalve, C. Alt, J. Anderson, C. Andreopoulos, M. P. Andrews, F. Andrianala, S. Andringa, A. Ankowski, M. Antonova, S. Antusch, A. Aranda-Fernandez, A. Ariga, L. O. Arnold, M. A. Arroyave, J. Asaadi, A. Aurisano, V. Aushev, D. Autiero, F. Azfar

Faculty Publications

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is a next-generation neutrino oscillation experiment that aims to measure CP-violation in the neutrino sector as part of a wider physics program. A deep learning approach based on a convolutional neural network has been developed to provide highly efficient and pure selections of electron neutrino and muon neutrino charged-current interactions. The electron neutrino (antineutrino) selection efficiency peaks at 90% (94%) and exceeds 85% (90%) for reconstructed neutrino energies between 2-5 GeV. The muon neutrino (antineutrino) event selection is found to have a maximum efficiency of 96% (97%) and exceeds 90% (95%) efficiency for reconstructed neutrino …

A Study Of 26al(P, Γ)27si With The Silicon Array For Branching Ratio Experiments (Sabre), Erin Courtney Good

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The observation of the radioisotope ²⁶Al is an indicator of ongoing nucleosynthesis in the Galaxy due to its short lifetime (t_1/2 = 7.2 × 10⁵ yr) on Galactic timescales. It is thought to be synthesized in several different environments in our Galaxy, one of which is in classical novae. Classical novae are stellar explosions that occur on the surface of a white dwarf in a binary system with a main sequence star. The isotopic production resulting from the nucleosynthesis that drives these explosions can be modeled with the input of nuclear reaction rates. In recent years, many …

Quantum Markov Chains Associated With Unitary Quantum Walks, Chul Ki Ko, Hyun Jae Yoo

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Invariant Projections For Covariant Quantum Markov Semigroups, Franco Fagnola, Emanuela Sasso, Veronica Umanità

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Pauli Matrices: A Triple Of Accardi Complementary Observables, Stephen Bruce Sontz

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Preface, Julius Esunge, Brian C. Hall, Ambar N. Sengupta, Aurel Stan

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

A Modelling Study For Smart Pigging Technique For Pipeline Leak Detection, Caitlyn Judith Thiberville

LSU Master's Theses

Although leak incidents continue, a pipeline remains the most reliable mode of transportation within the oil and gas industry. It becomes even more important today because the projection for new pipelines is expected to increase by 1 billion BOE through 2035. In addition, increasing number and length of subsea tiebacks face new challenges in term of data acquisition, monitoring, analysis, and remedial actions. Passive leak-detection methods commonly used in the industry have been successful with some limitations in that they often cannot detect small leaks and seeps. In addition to a thorough review of related topics, this study investigates how …

Microbiological, Physicochemical, And Immunological Analysis Of A Commercial Cashew Nut-Based Yogurt, Christopher P. Mattison, Kayanush Aryana, Kristen Clermont, Eric Prestenburg, Steven W. Lloyd, Casey .. Grimm, Richard L. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

Nut-based milks and yogurts are gaining popularity, but may not offer the same benefits as dairy yogurts to consumers. Cashew nuts often cause severe allergic reactions, and cashew nut allergens are stable to several types of processing. To compare its characteristics to dairy yogurt and characterize the effects of fermentation on the Ana o 1-3 cashew nut allergens, a commercial yogurt made from cashew nuts (Cashewgurt) was evaluated for microbiological, physiochemical, and immunological properties. Average counts for lactobacilli and Streptococcus thermophilus were greater than 10 million colony forming units per milliliter, indicating the capacity to provide a health benefit. Cashewgurt …

A Novel Mutation Of The Narrow Leaf 1 Gene Adversely Affects Plant Architecture In Rice (Oryza Sativa L.), Prasanta K. Subudhi, Richard S. Garcia, Sapphire Coronejo, Teresa B. De Leon

Faculty Publications

Plant architecture is critical for enhancing the adaptability and productivity of crop plants. Mutants with an altered plant architecture allow researchers to elucidate the genetic network and the underlying mechanisms. In this study, we characterized a novel nal1 rice mutant with short height, small panicle, and narrow and thick deep green leaves that was identified from a cross between a rice cultivar and a weedy rice accession. Bulked segregant analysis coupled with genome re-sequencing and cosegregation analysis revealed that the overall mutant phenotype was caused by a 1395-bp deletion spanning over the last two exons including the transcriptional end site …

Ribosomal Rna Synthesis After Induced Nucleolar Stress In Drosophila Melanogaster, Kyle Maher

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Increasing The Bioavailability Of Poorly Soluble Anti-Cancer Prodrugs Through Encapsulation In Platinum Based Nanocages, Salim Cesar Lutfallah

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Demographic Impacts Of Climate-Induced Migration And Environmental Shocks And Stressors In Cameron Parish, Louisiana, John Green Iii

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Coded Aperture Microscope For X-Ray Fluorescence Full-Field Imaging, D. P. Siddons, A. J. Kuczewski, A. K. Rumaiz, R. Tappero, M Idir, K. Nakhoda, J. Khanfri, V. Singh, E. R. Farquhar, M. Sullivan, D. Abel, D. J. Brady, X. Yuan

Faculty Publications

The design and construction of an instrument for full-field imaging of the X-ray fluorescence emitted by a fully illuminated sample are presented. The aim is to produce an X-ray microscope with a few micrometers spatial resolution, which does not need to scan the sample. Since the fluorescence from a spatially inhomogeneous sample may contain many fluorescence lines, the optic which will provide the magnification of the emissions must be achromatic, i.e. its optical properties must be energy-independent. The only optics which fulfill this requirement in the X-ray regime are mirrors and pinholes. The throughput of a simple pinhole is very …

A Solution For Funding The Development Of Technology In Oilwell Drilling, Dalmo S. Amorim, Otto L. A. Santos, Ricardo C. Azevedo, Ana Carolina Chieregati

Faculty Publications

This article proposes a novel methodology to solve an existing gap in benchmark definition by the adoption of statistically defined benchmarks as references to test products or technical procedures. In a win-win partnership, remuneration is made upon realistic bases of comparison being proportional to existing risks. However, establishing values for benchmarks is rarely unanimous if asked to different persons involved in drilling analysis. Conventional benchmarking, which enhances few results and leaves aside poor operational performances, produces references that do not properly represent the geological environment. Nonetheless, when testing new products, it serves as reference to remunerate suppliers. The review of …

Potential Link Between Compromised Air Quality And Transmission Of The Novel Corona Virus (Sars-Cov-2) In Affected Areas, M. G. Manoj, M. K. Satheesh Kumar, K. T. Valsaraj, C. Sivan, Soumya K. Vijayan

Faculty Publications

The emergence of a novel human corona virus disease (COVID-19) has been declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. One of the mechanisms of airborne transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) amid humans is through direct ejection of droplets via sneezing, coughing and vocalizing. Nevertheless, there are ample evidences of the persistence of infectious viruses on inanimate surfaces for several hours to a few days. Through a critical review of the current literature and a preliminary analysis of the link between SARS-CoV-2 transmission and air pollution in the affected regions, we offer a perspective …

Discrete Bethe-Sommerfeld Conjecture For Triangular, Square, And Hexagonal Lattices, Jake Fillman, Rui Han

Faculty Publications

We prove the discrete Bethe-Sommerfeld conjecture on the graphene lattice, on its dual lattice (the triangular lattice), and on the extended Harper lattice. For each of these lattice geometries, we analyze the behavior of small periodic potentials. In particular, we provide sharp bounds on the number of gaps that may perturbatively open, we describe sharp arithmetic criteria on the periods that ensure that no gaps open, and we characterize those energies at which gaps may open in the perturbative regime. In all three cases, we provide examples that open the maximal number of gaps and estimate the scaling behavior of …

P1 Finite Element Methods For An Elliptic State-Constrained Distributed Optimal Control Problem With Neumann Boundary Conditions, S. C. Brenner, M. Oh, L. Y. Sung

Faculty Publications

We investigate two P finite element methods for an elliptic state-constrained distributed optimal control problem with Neumann boundary conditions on general polygonal domains. 1

Deploying A Task-Based Runtime System On Raspberry Pi Clusters, Nikunj Gupta, Steve R. Brandt, Bibek Wagle, Nanmiao Wu, Alireza Kheirkhahan, Patrick Diehl, Felix W. Baumann, Hartmut Kaiser

Faculty Publications

Arm® technology is becoming increasingly important in HPC. Recently, Fugaku, an Arm®-based system, was awarded the number one place in the Top500 list. Raspberry Pis provide an inexpensive platform to become familiar with this architecture. However, Pis can also be useful on their own. Here we describe our efforts to configure and benchmark the use of a Raspberry Pi cluster with the HPX/Phylanx platform (normally intended for use with HPC applications) and document the lessons we learned. First, we highlight the required changes in the configuration of the Pi to gain performance. Second, we explore how limited memory bandwidth limits …

Study Of Control Schemes For Series Hybrid-Electric Powertrain For Unmanned Aerial Systems, Darren A. Dehesa Jr

LSU Master's Theses

Hybrid-Electric aircraft powertrain modeling for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) is a useful tool for predicting powertrain performance of the UAS aircraft. However, for small UAS, potential gains in range and endurance can depend significantly on the aircraft flight profile and powertrain control logic in addition to the subsequent impact on the performance of powertrain components. Small UAS aircraft utilize small-displacement engines with poor thermal efficiency and, therefore, could benefit from a hybridized powertrain by reducing fuel consumption. This study uses a dynamic simulation of a UAS, representative flight profiles, and powertrain control logic approaches to evaluate the performance of a …

Correlation Analysis Of Precipitation And River Flow With The Injection And Discharge Of The Three Gorges Dam And Reservoir, Lirong Yin

LSU Master's Theses

The Yangtze River has been the primary support of the resources and transportation of China. Its basin covers an area of 1.8 million square kilometers. The Three Gorges Dam and Reservoir on the Yangtze River is one of the world's largest dams. After the dam construction in 1997, the reservoir started injecting the reservoir to a size of over 600 km². The influence caused by the dam and reservoir on the river system has been overwhelming and destructive. The possible influence of this vast water body and the operation to maintain this waterbody's size and water level on …

On The Stress Concentration At Sharp V-Notches Under Tension, Trent Mattieu Andrus

LSU Master's Theses

Accurately determining stresses at re-entrant corners using finite element analysis (FEA) is challenging due to the high stresses produced at the corner. Indeed, FEA is unable to obtain quantitatively accurate peak stresses at mathematically sharp re-entrant corners with traditional boundary conditions because these stresses are singular. Imposing a local corner radius by rounding the sharp corner to remove the singular result is an appropriate technique for large radii, but as the corner radius tends to zero and the notch is close to being sharp, we expect there are radii that yield quantitatively inaccurate results with traditional FEA. We seek to …

Modulating Mechanical Properties Of Polymer Composites Via Colloidal Particle Reinforcement, Yusheng Guo

LSU Master's Theses

Additive manufacturing allows the rapid process of complex objects with excellent design flexibility. However, the products often exhibit poor mechanical properties when pure polymer is applied as printable material. In this work, we demonstrate that printability of polymer can be dramatically improved when particle filler is added to form reinforced polymer composites. Furthermore, the interaction between filler and polymer matrix leads to the enhancement in mechanical properties of the printed product. The material reinforcement induced by addition of fillers enables the wide application of polymer composites to print structures with unique features. In the printing of silica-reinforced pNIPAM composite, we …

Experiential Statistics - A Case Study In Favor Of Using Project-Based Learning To Advance Preliminary Statistics Content Knowledge In The Algebra I And Geometry Classroom, Trey Earle

Faculty Publications

Preparing secondary students for college entrance requirements and the expectations of the job market, a market which is actively seeking the employees who are most qualified to take on jobs that require data analysis skills, is becoming increasingly important. Federal, state, and local education administrators and personnel must rewrite many of the general education curricula to incorporate data organization, collection, manipulation, application, and analysis in order to better prepare students for the expectations of college entrance and an ever-changing employment market. From a purely pedagogical standpoint, while traditional educational structure has been commonplace for decades in the United States, projects …

A Phase-Field Approach To Diffusion-Driven Fracture, Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander Dunkel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years applied mathematicians have used modern analysis to develop variational phase-field models of fracture based on Griffith's theory. These variational phase-field models of fracture have gained popularity due to their ability to predict the crack path and handle crack nucleation and branching.

In this work, we are interested in coupled problems where a diffusion process drives the crack propagation. We extend the variational phase-field model of fracture to account for diffusion-driving fracture and study the convergence of minimizers using gamma-convergence. We will introduce Newton's method for the constrained optimization problem and present an algorithm to solve the diffusion-driven …

Spherically Symmetric Loop Quantum Gravity: Analysis Of Improved Dynamics, Rodolfo Gambini, Javier Olmedo, Jorge Pullin

Faculty Publications

We study the 'improved dynamics' for the treatment of spherically symmetric space-times in loop quantum gravity introduced by Chiou et al in analogy with the one that has been constructed by Ashtekar, Pawlowski and Singh for the homogeneous space-times. In this dynamics the polymerization parameter is a well motivated function of the dynamical variables, reflecting the fact that the quantum of area depends on them. Contrary to the homogeneous case, its implementation does not trigger undesirable physical properties. We identify semiclassical physical states in the quantum theory and derive the corresponding effective semiclassical metrics. We then discuss some of their …

Demonstration Of Dynamic Thermal Compensation For Parametric Instability Suppression In Advanced Ligo, T. Hardwick, V. J. Hamedan, C. Blair, A. C. Green, D. Vander-Hyde

Faculty Publications

Advanced LIGO and other ground-based interferometric gravitational-wave detectors use high laser power to minimize shot noise and suspended optics to reduce seismic noise coupling. This can result in an opto-mechanical coupling which can become unstable and saturate the interferometer control systems. The severity of these parametric instabilities scales with circulating laser power and first hindered LIGO operations in 2014. Static thermal tuning and active electrostatic damping have previously been used to control parametric instabilities at lower powers but are insufficient as power is increased. Here we report the first demonstration of dynamic thermal compensation to avoid parametric instability in an …

Parallel And Asynchronous Distributed Optimization For Power Systems Operation, Ali Mohammadi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Distributed optimization approaches are gaining more attention for solving power systems energy management functions, such as optimal power flow (OPF). Preserving information privacy of autonomous control entities and being more scalable than centralized approaches are two primary reasons for developing distributed algorithms. Moreover, distributed/ decentralized algorithms potentially increase power systems reliability against failures of components or communication links.

In this dissertation, we propose multiple distributed optimization algorithms and convergence performance enhancement techniques to solve the OPF problem. We present a multi-level optimization algorithm, based on analytical target cascading, to formulate and solve a collaborative transmission and distribution OPF problem. This …

The Role Of Sediment-Induced Light Attenuation On Primary Production During Hurricane Gustav (2008), Zhengchen Zang, Z. George Xue, Kehui Xu, Samuel J. Bentley, Qin Chen, Eurico J. D'Sa, Le Zhang, Yanda Ou

Faculty Publications

We introduced a sediment-induced light attenuation algorithm into a biogeochemical model of the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling system. A fully coupled ocean-atmospheric-sediment-biogeochemical simulation was carried out to assess the impact of sediment-induced light attenuation on primary production in the northern Gulf of Mexico during the passage of Hurricane Gustav in 2008. When compared with model results without sediment-induced light attenuation, our new model showed a better agreement with satellite data on both the magnitude of nearshore chlorophyll concentration and the spatial distribution of offshore bloom. When Hurricane Gustav approached, resuspended sediment shifted the inner shelf ecosystem from a nutrient-limited …

Adaptive Data Migration In Load-Imbalanced Hpc Applications, Parsa Amini

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Distributed parallel applications need to maximize and maintain computer resource utilization and be portable across different machines. Balanced execution of some applications requires more effort than others because their data distribution changes over time. Data re-distribution at runtime requires elaborate schemes that are expensive and may benefit particular applications.

This dissertation discusses a solution for HPX applications to monitor application execution with APEX and use AGAS migration to adaptively redistribute data and load balance applications at runtime to improve application performance and scaling behavior. This dissertation provides evidence for the practicality of using the Active Global Address Space as is …