Digital Commons Network^™

System Nonlinear Performance Of Low-Rise Buildings Under Database-Assisted Hurricane Loads, Jing He

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Light-frame wood buildings account for over 95% of all residential structures in the U.S, of which the majority are designed as low-rise buildings. These low-rise residential buildings in the U.S. have performed unsatisfactorily and are the largest source of the damage and fatality during the past extreme wind events. To deepen the understanding and reduce the vulnerability of the infrastructures, the accurate prediction of the hurricane loss has been an urgent need, and the hurricane catastrophe models are developed in response. However, the current hurricane catastrophe models are focused on the economy loss estimation rather than investigating the root causes …

Biomedical Applications Of Hydrogels And Gumbos, Kelsey Elizabeth Mcneel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sodium deoxycholate (NaDC) is a small bile salt that was used in this dissertation to produce gelation of tris(hydroxymethyl)amino-methane (TRIS) solutions above, below, and near the pKa of NaDC. These solutions respectively yielded a neutral gelator, a charged gelator, and a mixture of each. Impacts of ionic interactions on gel formation were studied in detail and showed that pH can be used to modify many hydrogel properties including sol-gel temperature, crystallinity, and mechanical strength. It was also observed that pH modification of the hydrogels affected nanoparticle formation. Nanoparticles derived from a Group of Uniform Materials Based on Organic Salts (nanoGUMBOS), …

High Bio-Content Polyurethane (Pu) Foam Made From Bio-Polyol And Cellulose Nanocrystals (Cncs) Via Microwave Liquefaction, Xingyan Huang, Cornelis F. De Hoop, Jiulong Xie, Qinglin Wu, Dorin Boldor, Jinqiu Qi

Faculty Publications

In this work, both the bio-polyol and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) used to produce high bio-content polyurethane (PU) foams were prepared from microwave liquefaction of rape straw. As high as 40% petro-based polyol was replaced by bio-polyol and the bio-foams containing 40% bio-polyol (PU40) were further reinforced by incorporating 1 to 6% CNCs. GC–MS, 1H NMR and FTIR observations demonstrated that the bio-polyol is a hydroxyl-rich source consisting of C5, C6 sugars and aromatics. The maximum physico-mechanical performance of bio-foam without CNCs was observed from the bio-foam containing 20% bio-polyol. When further increasing bio-polyol content from 20 to 40%, these properties …

The Effects Of Accelerated Reader On 6th Grade At-Risk African American Males' Motivation As It Relates To Foucault's Power/Knowledge Theory, Theresa Williams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

THE EFFECTS OF ACCELERATED READER ON 6TH GRADE AT-RISK AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES' MOTIVATION RELATED TO FOUCAULT'S POWER/KNOWLEDGE THEORY.

This interpretive qualitative study explored the effectiveness of the computerized reading management software, Accelerated Reader, on a select group of at-risk sixth grade African American male students' motivation to read as it relates to Michele Foucault's power/knowledge theory. The data was collected from 16 Black adolescent male students and their four English language arts teachers. The study was guided by one overreaching research question, and four sub questions probed students' self perception, motivations, teachers' perceptions, and power knowledge relations and practices. …

The Graphs And Matroids Whose Only Odd Circuits Are Small, Kristen Nicole Wetzler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis is motivated by a graph-theoretical result of Maffray, which states that a 2-connected graph with no odd cycles exceeding length 3 is bipartite, is isomorphic to K_4, or is a collection of triangles glued together along a common edge. We first prove that a connected simple binary matroid M has no odd circuits other than triangles if and only if M is affine, M is M(K_4) or F_7, or M is the cycle matroid of a graph consisting of a collection of triangles glued together along a common edge. This result implies that a 2-connected loopless graph G …

Benefit Of Intensity Modulated Bolus Electron Conformal Therapy For Post Mastectomy Chest Wall Irradiation, John Doiron

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The delivery of post-mastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) with bolus electron conformal therapy (BECT) for patients with left-sided breast cancer can reduce second cancer complication probability (SCCP) compared to modern rotational intensity modulated x-ray (IMXT) techniques such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) or Tomotherapy. However, rotational IMXT yields superior levels of dose homogeneity compared to BECT. This study investigates the use of intensity modulated (IM) BECT (IM-BECT) to improve dose homogeneity in the chest wall (CW) region of the PMRT planning target volume (PTV) abutted to parallel opposed IMXT tangents for the remaining PTV for a clinically-representative set of patients, …

Evolution Of The Maximum Upper Level Divergence Field In Gulf-Atlantic Tropical Cyclogenesis, Sara A. Ates

LSU Master's Theses

Upper-level (horizontal) divergence (ULD) is an important variable in tropical weather systems. As part of the circulation within a tropical cyclone (TC), it carries air in the upper troposphere away from the center of circulation (COC). To date, most research assumes the 200 hPa pressure level (approximately 12 km, varying with latitude and time of year) as the height for maximum ULD in a TC, possibly because weather observation at the 200 hPa level by radiosonde have remained mandatory for aviation purposes. The more recent availability of gridded, high-spatial-resolution, global “reanalysis” data at multiple levels, along with improvements in spatial …

Analysis Of Veterinary Drug Residues In Imported And Domestic Crawfish Using Liquid Chromatography—Mass Spectrometry, Emily Kate Wall

LSU Master's Theses

Aquaculture production has greatly increased over the past few decades, and will continue to grow as the world fisheries become overfished and demand for seafood increases. With increased production comes more intense cultivation methods and heavy use of formulated feeds that may contain veterinary drug residues. Currently no antibiotics are allowed in the U.S. for crawfish aquaculture; yet, detectable levels of various antibiotics have been found in imported seafood samples.The FDA is responsible for testing aquaculture products entering the United States, but only has the capabilities to test a minimal amount of those imports. Additionally, for crawfish there is only …

An Estuarine-Tuned Quasi-Analytical Algorithm (Qaa-V): Assessment And Application To Satellite Estimates Of Spm In Galveston Bay Following Hurricane Harvey, I.D. Joshi, E.J. D'Sa

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Modeling The Population Effects Of Hypoxia On Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias Undulatus) In The Northwestern Gulf Of Mexico: Part 2—Realistic Hypoxia And Eutrophication, Kenneth A. Rose, Sean Creekmore, Dubravko Justić, Peter Thomas, J. Kevin Craig, Rachael Miller Neilan, Lixia Wang, Md Saydur Rahman, David Kidwell

Faculty Publications

Quantifying the population-level effects of hypoxia on coastal fish species has been challenging. In the companion paper (part 1), we described an individual-based population model (IBM) for Atlantic croaker in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (NWGOM) designed to quantify the long-term population responses to low dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations during the summer. Here in part 2, we replace the idealized hypoxia conditions with realistic DO concentrations generated from a 3-dimensional water quality model. Three years were used and randomly arranged into a time series based on the historical occurrence of mild, intermediate, and severe hypoxia year types. We also used …

Lsu General Catalog 2018-2019, Louisiana State University And Agricultural And Mechanical College

LSU General Catalog

The LSU General Catalog describes all undergraduate and graduate departments and programs with degree requirements and courses offered for each one. The LSU General Catalog includes information on registration and financial aid as well as academic services offered to all students.

The Story Of The Keystone Xl Pipeline Controversy: How The Battle Against Kxl Became The War Against Climate Change, Leah Sanders

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Fundamental Limits On Quantum Dynamics Based On Entropy Change, Siddhartha Das, Sumeet Khatri, George Siopsis, Mark M. Wilde

Faculty Publications

It is well known in the realm of quantum mechanics and information theory that the entropy is non-decreasing for the class of unital physical processes. However, in general, the entropy does not exhibit monotonic behavior. This has restricted the use of entropy change in characterizing evolution processes. Recently, a lower bound on the entropy change was provided in the work of Buscemi, Das, and Wilde [Phys. Rev. A 93(6), 062314 (2016)]. We explore the limit that this bound places on the physical evolution of a quantum system and discuss how these limits can be used as witnesses to characterize quantum …

First Measurement Of The Νμ Charged-Current Cross Section On A Water Target Without Pions In The Final State, K. Abe, J. Amey, C. Andreopoulos, M. Antonova, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, Y. Ashida, S. Ban, M. Barbi, G. J. Barker, G. Barr, C. Barry, M. Batkiewicz, V. Berardi, S. Berkman, S. Bhadra, S. Bienstock, A. Blondel, S. Bolognesi, S. Bordoni, S. B. Boyd, D. Brailsford, A. Bravar, C. Bronner, M. Buizza Avanzini, R. G. Calland, T. Campbell, S. Cao

Faculty Publications

This paper reports the first differential measurement of the charged-current interaction cross section of νμ on water with no pions in the final state. This flux-averaged measurement has been made using the T2K experiment's off-axis near detector, and is reported in doubly differential bins of muon momentum and angle. The flux-averaged total cross section in a restricted region of phase space was found to be σ=(0.95±0.08(stat)±0.06(det syst)±0.04(model syst)±0.08(flux))×10-38 cm2/n.

A Narrative Analysis Examining Influential Factors Of A Minority Research And Training Program, Gretchen S. Burton, Maria Da Graça H. Vicente

Faculty Publications

© The Author(s) 2018. The implementation of minority research and training programs at the postsecondary level has risen to close the educational achievement gap and generate a highly skilled and diverse science workforce. Numerous studies identify interventions influencing positive outcomes among minority research and training participants achieving graduate degrees. However, many of these studies utilize quantitative methods. To capture student voices and rich descriptive experiences, this study utilized a multiple case study featuring a narrative approach. Cross-case analysis identified four factors influencing matriculation into advanced degree programs: belonging and inclusion, peer mentoring, confidence as a scientist, and family influence. Findings …

Tourmaline Compositions And Textures: Reflections Of The Fluid Phase, Barbara L. Dutrow, Darrell J. Henry

Faculty Publications

© 2018, Czech Geological Survey. All rights reserved. Tourmaline uniquely records evidence of its geologic history in its composition and, if properly decoded, provides insight into the geologic environment of formation. Recent studies suggest that tourmaline not only retains chemical information on the host-rock environment, but also provides signatures on the fluid phase with which it interacted. Such signatures are embedded in its major-and minor-element compositions as well as in its isotopes. Some of these elemental signatures are qualitative, while others provide quantitative evaluation of the evolving fluid-phase compositions. Chemical fingerprints of interacting fluids are found as compositional variations in …

A Spatiotemporal Dna Endoploidy Map Of The Arabidopsis Root Reveals Roles For The Endocycle In Root Development And Stress Adaptation, Rahul Bhosale, Veronique Boudolf, Fabiola Cuevas, Ran Lu, Thomas Eekhout, Zhubing Hu, Gert Van Isterdael, Georgina M. Lambert, Fan Xu, Moritz K. Nowack, Richard S. Smith, Ilse Vercauteren, Riet De Rycke, Veronique Storme, Tom Beeckman, John C. Larkin, Anna Kremer, Herman Höfte, David W. Galbraith, Robert P. Kumpf, Steven Maere, Lieven De Veylder

Faculty Publications

© 2018 ASPB. Somatic polyploidy caused by endoreplication is observed in arthropods, molluscs, and vertebrates but is especially prominent in higher plants, where it has been postulated to be essential for cell growth and fate maintenance. However, a comprehensive understanding of the physiological significance of plant endopolyploidy has remained elusive. Here, we modeled and experimentally verified a high-resolution DNA endoploidy map of the developing Arabidopsis thaliana root, revealing a remarkable spatiotemporal control of DNA endoploidy levels across tissues. Fitting of a simplified model to publicly available data sets profiling root gene expression under various environmental stress conditions suggested that this …

Simulating The Effects Of Co2 Gas Influx On The Thermodynamic Conditions Inside A Marine Riser Filled With Oil Based Mud, Hassan Al Dawood

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Impact Report, 2017-2018, Lsu Libraries

Libraries Impact Reports

No abstract provided.

Large Coupling Asymptotics For The Lyapunov Exponent Of Quasi-Periodic Schrödinger Operators With Analytic Potentials, Rui Han, Chris A. Marx

Faculty Publications

We quantify the coupling asymptotics for the Lyapunov exponent of a one-frequency quasi-periodic Schrödinger operator with analytic potential sampling function. The result refines the well-known lower bound of the Lyapunov exponent by Sorets and Spencer.

Generic Continuous Spectrum For Multi-Dimensional Quasiperiodic Schrödinger Operators With Rough Potentials, Rui Han, Fan Yang

Faculty Publications

We study the multi-dimensional operator .H x u/ n D X u m C f .T n .x//u n ; jmnjD1 where T is the shift of the torus T d . When d D 2, we show the spectrum of H x is almost surely purely continuous for a.e. and generic continuous potentials. When d 3, the same result holds for frequencies under an explicit arithmetic criterion. We also show that general multi-dimensional operators with measurable potentials do not have eigenvalue for generic.

A Stochastic Integral By A Near-Martingale, Shinya Hibino, Hui Hsiung Kuo, Kimiaki Saitô

Faculty Publications

In this paper we discuss the new stochastic integral in [1] in terms of the Itô isometry. We prove the Doob-Meyer decomposition theorem for near-submartingales in the classes (D) and (DL): Moreover, we introduce a stochastic integral by a near-martingale as an application of the decomposition theorem.

Numerical Analysis Of Nonlocal Fracture Models In Hölder Space, Prashant K. Jha, Robert Lipton

Faculty Publications

In this work, we calculate the convergence rate of the finite difference approximation for a class of nonlocal fracture models. We consider two point force interactions characterized by a double well potential. We show the existence of a evolving displacement field in Hölder space with Hölder exponent γ ∈ (0, 1]. The rate of convergence of the finite difference approximation depends on the factor Cshγ /2 where gives the length scale of nonlocal interaction, h is the discretization length, and Cs is the maximum of Hölder norm of the solution and its second derivatives during the evolution. It is shown …

Modular Perverse Sheaves On Flag Varieties Iii: Positivity Conditions, Pramod N. Achar, Simon Riche

Faculty Publications

We further develop the general theory of the “mixed modular derived category” introduced by the authors in a previous paper in this series. We then use it to study positivity and Q-Koszulity phenomena on flag varieties.

Crack Nucleation In Variational Phase-Field Models Of Brittle Fracture, E. Tanné, T. Li, B. Bourdin, J. J. Marigo, C. Maurini

Faculty Publications

Phase-field models, sometimes referred to as gradient damage or smeared crack models, are widely used methods for the numerical simulation of crack propagation in brittle materials. Theoretical results and numerical evidences show that they can predict the propagation of a pre-existing crack according to Griffith’ criterion. For a one-dimensional problem, it has been shown that they can predict nucleation upon a critical stress, provided that the regularization parameter be identified with the material's internal or characteristic length. In this article, we draw on numerical simulations to study crack nucleation in commonly encountered geometries for which closed-form solutions are not available. …

Computing Special L-Values Of Certain Modular Forms With Complex Multiplication, Wen Ching Winnie Li, Ling Long, Fang Ting Tu

Faculty Publications

In this expository paper, we illustrate two explicit methods which lead to special L-values of certain modular forms admitting complex multiplication (CM), motivated in part by properties of L-functions obtained from Calabi–Yau manifolds defined over Q.

Detection Of The Thermal Component In Grb 160107a, Yuta Kawakubo, Takanori Sakamoto, Satoshi Nakahira, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Motoko Serino, Yoichi Asaoka, Michael L. Cherry, Shohei Matsukawa, Masaki Mori, Yujin Nakagawa, Shunsuke Ozawa, Ana V. Penacchioni, Sergio B. Ricciarini, Akira Tezuka, Shoji Torii, Yusuke Yamada, Atsumasa Yoshida

Faculty Publications

We present the detection of a blackbody component in gamma-ray burst GRB 160107A emission by using the combined spectral data of the CALET Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (CGBM) and the MAXI Gas Slit Camera (GSC). MAXI/GSC detected the emission ∼45 s prior to the main burst episode observed by the CGBM. The MAXI/GSC and the CGBM spectrum of this prior emission period is fitted well by a blackbody with temperature 1.0 +0.3-0.2 keV plus a power law with a photon index of -1.6 ± 0.3. We discuss the radius of the photospheric emission and the main burst emission based on the …

Large Deviations For Small Noise Diffusions In A Fast Markovian Environment, Amarjit Budhiraja, Paul Dupuis, Arnab Ganguly

Faculty Publications

A large deviation principle is established for a two-scale stochastic system in which the slow component is a continuous process given by a small noise finite dimensional Itô stochastic differential equation, and the fast component is a finite state pure jump process. Previous works have considered settings where the coupling between the components is weak in a certain sense. In the current work we study a fully coupled system in which the drift and diffusion coefficient of the slow component and the jump intensity function and jump distribution of the fast process depend on the states of both components. In …

Exponential Inequalities For Exit Times For Stochastic Navier-Stokes Equations And A Class Of Evolutions, Po Han Hsu, P. Sundar

Faculty Publications

Exponential estimates for exit from a ball of radius r by time T for solutions of the two-dimensional stochastic Navier-Stokes equations are first derived, and then studied in the context of Freidlin-Wentzell type large deviations principle. The existence of a similar estimate is discussed for a suitable class of stochastic evolution equations with multiplicative noise.

Additive Schwarz Preconditioners For The Obstacle Problem Of Clamped Kirchhoff Plates, Susanne C. Brenner, Christopher B. Davis, Li Yeng Sung

Faculty Publications

When the obstacle problem of clamped Kirchhoff plates is discretized by a partition of unity method, the resulting discrete variational inequalities can be solved by a primal-dual active set algorithm. In this paper we develop and analyze additive Schwarz preconditioners for the systems that appear in each iteration of the primal-dual active set algorithm. Numerical results that corroborate the theoretical estimates are also presented.