Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Problem Of Distracted Drivers On Louisiana Roadways, Xiaoduan Sun

Publications

Due to the escalating usage of cellphone and social networking, distracted driving is and will remain as one of the most serious problems faced by Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and law enforcement agencies. Under the aim of in-depth investigation of distracted driving crashes in Louisiana, the specific objectives of this study are: (1) reviewing the crash reports for the quality of distracted driving crash reporting, (2) analyzing distracted driving-related crashes through regression model and data mining algorithm to link the severity of distracted driving crashes with the contributing factors collected in crash data, (3) investigating the observable characteristics of distracted …

A Comprehensive Reliability-Based Framework For Corrosion Damage Monitoring And Repair Design Of Reinforced Concrete Structures, Homero Castaneda, Aydin Karsilaya, Ayman Okeil, Mahmoud Reda Taha

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 17STLSU03. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"In this work, we developed a comprehensive framework for corrosion management of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. This framework includes critical steps of an effective approach to quantify the damage evolution as well as providing the timeframe for effective maintenance/repair strategies for corrosion assessment in RC structures. The framework included several activities including the use of indirect and direct inspection tools, theoretical development for damage prediction, experimental measurements and theoretical development of repair time based on reliability. The uniqueness of the framework is …

Alternative Polyadenylation Drives Genome-To-Phenome Information Detours In The Ampkα1 And Ampkα2 Knockout Mice, Shuwen Zhang, Yangzi Zhang, Xiang Zhou, Xing Fu, Jennifer J. Michal, Guoli Ji, Min Du, Jon F. Davis, Zhihua Jiang

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Author(s). Currently available mouse knockout (KO) lines remain largely uncharacterized for genome-to-phenome (G2P) information flows. Here we test our hypothesis that altered myogenesis seen in AMPKα1- and AMPKα2-KO mice is caused by use of alternative polyadenylation sites (APSs). AMPKα1 and AMPKα2 are two α subunits of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which serves as a cellular sensor in regulation of many biological events. A total of 56,483 APSs were derived from gastrocnemius muscles. The differentially expressed APSs (DE-APSs) that were down-regulated tended to be distal. The DE-APSs that were related to reduced and increased muscle mass were …

Dopaminergic And Antidopaminergic Effects On Heart Rate In Healthy Horses When Challenged With Brief 2-Minute Exercise Bouts, Nicole Arana-Valencia, Donald L. Thompson, Erin L. Oberhaus

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Bromocriptine is a dopamine receptor agonist known to cause hypotension and bradycardia in several species. Five experiments were conducted to compare possible perturbations on heart rate (HR) in horses after a brief (2 minutes) exercise bout when exposed to either short-term or long-term treatment with bromocriptine, cabergoline, or pergolide (all commonly used dopaminergic agonists in horses) or sulpiride, a dopaminergic antagonist. For all experiments, prolactin was measured as an indicator of drug efficacy. Experiments 1 and 4 were conducted as a replicated Latin square, whereas experiments 2, 3, and 5 were double split plot designs. Experiment 1 tested …

Recovery Of Horse Fly Populations In Louisiana Marshes Following The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Claudia Husseneder, Jong Seok Park, Lane D. Foil

Faculty Publications

© 2018, The Author(s). The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010 had unprecedented impact on the Gulf of Mexico. We established the greenhead horse fly (Tabanus nigrovittatus Macquart) as a bioindicator of marsh health. This species is bound to coastal marshes, since its larvae develop as top invertebrate predators in the marsh soil. Immediately after the oil spill (2010–2011), populations of this horse fly declined in oiled areas of Louisiana marshes with significant impacts on genetic structure. In this follow-up study five years after the catastrophic event (2015–2016), we now report signs of recovery of populations in formerly oiled …

Type I Interferon Potentiates Iga Immunity To Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection During Infancy, Diego R. Hijano, David T. Siefker, Bishwas Shrestha, Sridhar Jaligama, Luan D. Vu, Heather Tillman, David Finkelstein, Jordy Saravia, Dahui You, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

© 2018, The Author(s). Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is the most frequent cause of hospitalization in infants and young children worldwide. Although mucosal RSV vaccines can reduce RSV disease burden, little is known about mucosal immune response capabilities in children. Neonatal or adult mice were infected with RSV; a subset of neonatal mice received interferon alpha (IFN-α) (intranasal) prior to RSV infection. B cells, B cell activating factor (BAFF) and IgA were measured by flow cytometry. RSV specific IgA was measured in nasal washes. Nasal associated lymphoid tissue (NALT) and lungs were stained for BAFF and IgA. Herein, we …

The Use Of A Celebrity In Advertising A Potentially Unhealthy Product: Using Psi And The Effects On Consumers’ Body Image, Oliver Taylor

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Energy-Constrained Private And Quantum Capacities Of Quantum Channels, Mark M. Wilde, Haoyu Qi

Faculty Publications

This paper establishes a general theory of energy-constrained quantum and private capacities of quantum channels. We begin by defining various energy-constrained communication tasks, including quantum communication with a uniform energy constraint, entanglement transmission with an average energy constraint, private communication with a uniform energy constraint, and secret key transmission with an average energy constraint. We develop several code conversions, which allow us to conclude non-trivial relations between the capacities corresponding to the above tasks. We then show how the regularized, energy-constrained coherent information is equal to the capacity for the first two tasks and is an achievable rate for the …

Tests Of Lorentz Invariance At The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, B. Aharmim, S. N. Ahmed, A. E. Anthony, N. Barros, E. W. Beier, A. Bellerive, B. Beltran, M. Bergevin, S. D. Biller, E. Blucher, R. Bonventre, K. Boudjemline, M. G. Boulay, B. Cai, E. J. Callaghan, J. Caravaca, Y. D. Chan, D. Chauhan, M. Chen, B. T. Cleveland, G. A. Cox, X. Dai, H. Deng, F. B. Descamps, J. A. Detwiler, P. J. Doe, G. Doucas, P. L. Drouin

Faculty Publications

Experimental tests of Lorentz symmetry in systems of all types are critical for ensuring that the basic assumptions of physics are well founded. Data from all phases of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a kiloton-scale heavy water Cherenkov detector, are analyzed for possible violations of Lorentz symmetry in the neutrino sector. Such violations would appear as one of eight possible signal types in the detector: six seasonal variations in the solar electron neutrino survival probability differing in energy and time dependence and two shape changes to the oscillated solar neutrino energy spectrum. No evidence for such signals is observed, and limits …

Variational Formulation Of Classical And Quantum Models For Intense Laser Pulse Propagation, S. A. Berman, C. Chandre, J. Dubois, F. Mauger, M. Perin, T. Uzer

Faculty Publications

We consider the theoretical description of intense laser pulses propagating through gases. Starting from a first-principles description of both the electromagnetic field and the electron motion within the gas atoms, we derive a hierarchy of reduced models. We obtain a parallel set of models, where the atomic electrons are treated classically on the one hand, and quantum-mechanically on the other. By working consistently in either a Lagrangian formulation or a Hamiltonian formulation, we ensure that our reduced models preserve the variational structure of the parent models. Taking advantage of the Hamiltonian formulation, we deduce a number of conserved quantities of …

Limitations In Predicting The Space Radiation Health Risk For Exploration Astronauts, Jeffery C. Chancellor, Rebecca S. Blue, Keith A. Cengel, Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, Kathleen H. Rubins, Helmut G. Katzgraber, Ann R. Kennedy

Faculty Publications

Despite years of research, understanding of the space radiation environment and the risk it poses to long-duration astronauts remains limited. There is a disparity between research results and observed empirical effects seen in human astronaut crews, likely due to the numerous factors that limit terrestrial simulation of the complex space environment and extrapolation of human clinical consequences from varied animal models. Given the intended future of human spaceflight, with efforts now to rapidly expand capabilities for human missions to the moon and Mars, there is a pressing need to improve upon the understanding of the space radiation risk, predict likely …

Prospects For Observing And Localizing Gravitational-Wave Transients With Advanced Ligo, Advanced Virgo And Kagra, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, P. Addesso, R. X. Adhikari, V. B. Adya, C. Affeldt, M. Agathos, K. Agatsuma, N. Aggarwal, O. D. Aguiar, L. Aiello, A. Ain, P. Ajith, T. Akutsu, B. Allen, A. Allocca, P. A. Altin, A. Ananyeva, S. B. Anderson, W. G. Anderson, M. Ando, S. Appert, K. Arai, A. Araya, M. C. Araya, J. S. Areeda, N. Arnaud

Faculty Publications

We present possible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron star systems, which are the most promising targets for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources …

Molecular Architecture Of Fungal Cell Walls Revealed By Solid-State Nmr, Xue Kang, Alex Kirui, Artur Muszyński, Malitha C.Dickwella Widanage, Adrian Chen, Parastoo Azadi, Ping Wang, Frederic Mentink-Vigier, Tuo Wang

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Author(s). The high mortality of invasive fungal infections, and the limited number and inefficacy of antifungals necessitate the development of new agents with novel mechanisms and targets. The fungal cell wall is a promising target as it contains polysaccharides absent in humans, however, its molecular structure remains elusive. Here we report the architecture of the cell walls in the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy, assisted by dynamic nuclear polarization and glycosyl linkage analysis, reveals that chitin and α-1,3-glucan build a hydrophobic scaffold that is surrounded by a hydrated matrix of diversely linked β-glucans and capped …

Transient Marine Euxinia At The End Of The Terminal Cryogenian Glaciation, Xianguo Lang, Bing Shen, Yongbo Peng, Shuhai Xiao, Chuanming Zhou, Huiming Bao, Alan Jay Kaufman, Kangjun Huang, Peter W. Crockford, Yonggang Liu, Wenbo Tang, Haoran Ma

Faculty Publications

© 2018, The Author(s). Termination of the terminal Cryogenian Marinoan snowball Earth glaciation (~650–635 Ma) is associated with the worldwide deposition of a cap carbonate. Modeling studies suggest that, during and immediately following deglaciation, the ocean may have experienced a rapid rise in pH and physical stratification followed by oceanic overturn. Testing these predictions requires the establishment of a high-resolution sequence of events within sedimentary records. Here we report the conspicuous occurrence of pyrite concretions in the topmost Nantuo Formation (South China) that was deposited in the Marinoan glacial deposits. Sedimentary facies and sulfur isotope data indicate pyrite precipitation in …

Optimizing Photorespiration For Improved Crop Productivity, Paul F. South, Amanda P. Cavanagh, Patricia E. Lopez-Calcagno, Christine A. Raines, Donald R. Ort

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences In C3 plants, photorespiration is an energy-expensive process, including the oxygenation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) by ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) and the ensuing multi-organellar photorespiratory pathway required to recycle the toxic byproducts and recapture a portion of the fixed carbon. Photorespiration significantly impacts crop productivity through reducing yields in C3 crops by as much as 50% under severe conditions. Thus, reducing the flux through, or improving the efficiency of photorespiration has the potential of large improvements in C3 crop productivity. Here, we review an array of approaches intended to engineer photorespiration in …

Challenges During Diapause And Anhydrobiosis: Mitochondrial Bioenergetics And Desiccation Tolerance, Steven C. Hand, Daniel S. Moore, Yuvraj Patil

Faculty Publications

© 2018 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology In preparation for the onset of environmental challenges like overwintering, food limitation, anoxia, or water stress, many invertebrates and certain killifish enter diapause. Diapause is a developmentally-programed dormancy characterized by suppression of development and metabolism. For embryos of Artemia franciscana (brine shrimp), the metabolic arrest is profound. These gastrula-stage embryos depress oxidative metabolism by ~99% during diapause and survive years of severe desiccation in a state termed anhydrobiosis. Trehalose is the sole fuel source for this developmental stage. Mitochondrial function during diapause is downregulated primarily by restricting substrate supply, as a …

Habitat Suitability Estimated By Niche Models Is Largely Unrelated To Species Abundance, Tad A. Dallas, Alan Hastings

Faculty Publications

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aim: Data on species occurrences are far more common than data on species abundances. However, a central goal of large-scale ecology is to understand the spatial distribution of abundance. It has been proposed that species distribution models trained on species occurrence records may capture variation in species abundance. Here, we gauge support for relationships between species abundance and predicted climatic suitability from species distribution models, and relate the slope of this relationship to species traits, evolutionary relationships and sampling completeness. Location: USA. Time period: 1658–2017. Major taxa studied: Mammal and tree species. Methods, …

Large-Scale Computational Drug Repositioning To Find Treatments For Rare Diseases, Rajiv Gandhi Govindaraj, Misagh Naderi, Manali Singha, Jeffrey Lemoine, Michal Brylinski

Faculty Publications

© 2018, The Author(s). Rare, or orphan, diseases are conditions afflicting a small subset of people in a population. Although these disorders collectively pose significant health care problems, drug companies require government incentives to develop drugs for rare diseases due to extremely limited individual markets. Computer-aided drug repositioning, i.e., finding new indications for existing drugs, is a cheaper and faster alternative to traditional drug discovery offering a promising venue for orphan drug research. Structure-based matching of drug-binding pockets is among the most promising computational techniques to inform drug repositioning. In order to find new targets for known drugs ultimately leading …

Proteome Analysis Of Aspergillus Flavus Isolate-Specific Responses To Oxidative Stress In Relationship To Aflatoxin Production Capability, Jake C. Fountain, Jin Koh, Liming Yang, Manish K. Pandey, Spurthi N. Nayak, Prasad Bajaj, Wei Jian Zhuang, Zhi Yuan Chen, Robert C. Kemerait, R. Dewey Lee, Sixue Chen, Rajeev K. Varshney, Baozhu Guo

Faculty Publications

Aspergillus flavus is an opportunistic pathogen of plants such as maize and peanut under conducive conditions such as drought stress resulting in significant aflatoxin production. Drought-associated oxidative stress also exacerbates aflatoxin production by A. flavus. The objectives of this study were to use proteomics to provide insights into the pathogen responses to H2O2-derived oxidative stress, and to identify potential biomarkers and targets for host resistance breeding. Three isolates, AF13, NRRL3357, and K54A with high, moderate, and no aflatoxin production, were cultured in medium supplemented with varying levels of H2O2, and examined using an iTRAQ (Isobaric Tags for Relative and Absolute …

Variation In Root Architecture Attributes At The Onset Of Storage Root Formation Among Resistant And Susceptible Sweetpotato Cultivars Infected With Meloidogyne Incognita, Arthur Villordon, Christopher Clark

Faculty Publications

In sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas), the successful emergence and development of lateral roots (LRs), the main determinant of root system architecture (RSA), determines the competency of adventitious roots (ARs) to undergo storage root formation. The present study investigated the effect of three levels of root-knot nematode (RKN) inoculum of race 3 of Meloidogyne incognita on LR length, number, area, and volume in ‘Beauregard’, ‘Evangeline’, and ‘Bayou Belle’, sweetpotato cultivars which are highly susceptible, moderately resistant, and highly resistant, respectively, to M. incognita. The three RKN levels were control (untreated), medium (500 eggs/pot), and high (5000 eggs/pot). In general, the number of …

Coefficient Of Variation From Vegetation Index For Sugarcane Population And Stalk Evaluation, Saoli Chanda, Yumiko Kanke, Marilyn Dalen, Jeffrey Hoy, Brenda Tubana

Faculty Publications

Core Ideas: Variety and planting material affect cane population and millable stalk production. Coefficient of variation from sensor readings decreases as cane canopy closes. Cane varieties for sugar and energy production differ greatly in canopy structure. Canopy structure influences sensor-based profiling of cane population and stalk. Coefficient of variation (CV) is a statistical measure of variability in data. This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship of CV computed from Vegetation Indices (VIs) with plant population and millable stalk of different sugarcane (Saccharrum spp.) varieties. Two experiments consisted of six cane varieties and two types of planting material (whole stalks …

Multidimensional Relationships Of Herbicides With Insect-Crop Food Webs, Anamika Sharma, Prashant Jha, Gadi V.P. Reddy

Faculty Publications

Controlling weeds is critical for improving the yield and quality of crops. Herbicides are the most commonly applied pesticides in agro-ecosystems. Herbicides affect insects directly as contact damage and indirectly by influencing food supplies. The innate susceptibility, life stages, and mode of feeding of insects can affect the herbicide–insect interaction. Interaction of herbicides with insect pest and beneficial insects is mainly indirect and absence of weeds either can reduce the insect population or causes switching of host plant and hence can also increase the population. The direct effect of herbicides depends on carrier or surfactant used. Presence of herbicides also …

Stochastic Lagrangian Formulations For Damped Navier-Stokes Equations And Boussinesq System, With Applications, Kazuo Yamazaki

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Generalized Random Fields And Lévy's Continuity Theorem On The Space Of Tempered Distributions, Hermine Biermé, Olivier Durieu, Yizao Wang

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

On A Stochastic 2d Simplified Liquid Crystal Model Driven By Jump Noise, T. Tachim Medjo

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

New Filters For The Calibration Of Regime Switching Beta Dynamics, Robert J. Elliott, Carlton Osakwe

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Non-Continuous Double Barrier Reflected Bsdes With Jumps Under A Stochastic Lipschitz Coefficient, Mohamed Marzougue, Mohamed El Otmani

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Adoption Of Sustainable Agriculture Practices Among Farmers In Kentucky, Usa, Bijesh Mishra, Buddhi R. Gyawali, Krishna P. Paudel, Neelam C. Poudyal, Marion F. Simon, Siddhartha Dasgupta, George Antonious

Faculty Publications

© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Promoting the sustainable agricultural practices at an individual farm level is essential to ensure agricultural sustainability. This study analyzed whether and how various factors related to farm or farmers’ characteristics influence the adoption intensity of sustainable agriculture practices. We used a negative binomial regression model to fit the data collected from a mail survey of farmers in Kentucky, USA. Our results showed that the adoption intensity of sustainable agriculture practices varied significantly among agricultural districts in Kentucky. Farmers who grew row crops, had irrigation facilities, and were in favor of …

Estimating Sectoral Demands For Electricity Using The Pooled Mean Group Method, Tej K. Gautam, Krishna P. Paudel

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd This paper examines the demand for electricity in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the Northeastern United States using state-level panel data over the period from 1997 to 2011. It applies panel unit root and cointegration tests and then estimates the parameters using the pooled mean group method. The panel unit root and cointegration tests show that the series are integrated of order one and cointegrated. The electricity demand for the residential sector is responsive to its own price in the long run, with own price elasticity being −0.11, but irresponsive to own price in …

The Restriction Principle And Commuting Families Of Toeplitz Operators On The Unit Ball, Matthew Dawson, Gestur Ólafsson, Raúl Quiroga-Barranco

Faculty Publications

On the unit ball Bn we consider the weighted Bergman spaces HΛ2(Bn) and their Toeplitz operators with bounded symbols. It is known from our previous work that if a closed subgroup H of SU (n, 1) ~ has a multiplicity-free restriction for the holomorphic discrete series of SU (n, 1) ~ , then the family of Toeplitz operators with H-invariant symbols pairwise commute. In this work we consider the case of maximal abelian subgroups of SU (n, 1) ~ and provide a detailed proof of the pairwise commutativity of the corresponding Toeplitz operators. To achieve this we explicitly develop the …