Digital Commons Network^™

Difficulties Using Standardized Tests To Identify The Receptive Expressive Gap In Bilingual Children's Vocabularies, Todd A. Gibson, Linda Jarmulowicz, D. Kimbrough Oller

Faculty Publications

Receptive standardized vocabulary scores have been found to be much higher than expressive standardized vocabulary scores in children with Spanish as L1, learning L2 (English) in school (Gibson et al., 2012). Here we present evidence suggesting the receptive-expressive gap may be harder to evaluate than previously thought. We compared the performance of 116 six-year-old Spanish-English bilingual children in the US to 30 monolingual Spanish-speaking peers in Mexico across two Spanish-language standardized picture naming tests and one standardized picture pointing test. The performance of 134 monolingual English-speaking peers was compared using similar English-language tests. Results revealed the presence and magnitude of …

Forest Valuation Under The Generalized Faustmann Formula With Taxation, Sun Joseph Chang

Faculty Publications

This article presents the second part of a two-part series on forest taxation and valuation. In this second part, I derive the forest valuation formulas under the generalized Faustmann formula with five types of forest property tax. They are the unmodified property tax, the site value tax, the flat property tax, as well as the gross and net forest productivity taxes. Under the assumption of backward tax shifting, all of the taxes result in lower land expectation values. If the tax does not affect the optimal harvest age empirically, then the value of the standing timber remains the same with …

Forest Property Taxation Under The Generalized Faustmann Formula, Sun Joseph Chang

Faculty Publications

This article represents the first part of a two-part series on forest taxation and valuation. In this first part, I derive the formulas for five types of forest property taxation under the generalized Faustmann formula. They are the unmodified property tax, the site value tax, the flat property tax, as well as the gross and net forest revenue productivity taxes. The impacts of these taxes in terms of fiscal neutrality and tax burden are then examined. Fiscal neutrality examines whether the imposition of a tax will affect management decisions. Tax burden measures the magnitude of the reduction in the value …

Work Engagement In Nonprofit Organizations: A Conceptual Model, Sunyoung Park, Junghwan Kim, Jiwon Park, Doo Hun Lim

Faculty Publications

Using the revised job demands–resources (JD-R) model as a theoretical framework, our article aims to develop a conceptual model of the work engagement of paid workers in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) by identifying its antecedents and outcomes discussed in the literature. We found that job resources are prevalent antecedents for work engagement, while three categories of the JD-R model are all significant with work engagement. Although some findings are similar with existing studies for for-profit organizations, others implied that we need a different approach to work engagement of NPO workers. We finally offer a proposed JD-R model of work engagement in …

Scriabin's Atonal Problem, Inessa Bazayev

Faculty Publications

An integral feature in many of Scriabin's late musical narratives is the presence of an atonal problem-a musical event that threatens a harmony which the piece is based on. I offer a new interpretation of Scriabin's late music, in which the idea of an atonal problem becomes a defining feature of his style (after op. 58). This atonal problem is defined as a non-chord tone, which disrupts the balance of the collection (octatonic, whole-tone, or Mystic) which the work is based on. Drawing from Schoenberg's concept of a tonal problem and from Straus's expansion of this concept in Disability Studies …

Short Communication: Lactose Enhances Bile Tolerance Of Yogurt Culture Bacteria, Behannis Mena, Kayanush Aryana

Faculty Publications

Lactose is an energy source for culture bacteria. Bile tolerance is an important probiotic property. Our aim was to elucidate the effect of lactose on bile tolerance of yogurt starter culture Lactobacillus bulgaricus LB-12 and Streptococcus thermophilus ST-M5. Bile tolerance of pure cultures was determined using 0.3% oxgall in MRS THIO broth (Difco, Becton Dickinson, Sparks, MD) for L. bulgaricus and 0.3% oxgall in M17 broth (Oxoid, Basingstoke, UK) for Strep. thermophilus. Lactose was added to both broths at 0 (control), 1, 3, and 5% (wt/vol) broth. Dilutions were plated hourly for 12 h. Experiments were replicated 3 times. At …

Detection Of Antibiotic Resistance Toxigenic Clostridium Difficile In Processed Retail Lettuce, Yi Han, Joan King, Marlene E. Janes

Faculty Publications

Objectives: Clostridium difficile is the major cause of infectious diarrhoea in humans after antimicrobial treatment. Clostridium difficile has been isolated from food animals and meat. The main purpose of this study was to characterize C. difficile isolated from retail lettuce and determine the antibiotic resistance using five common clinical-selected antibiotics (metronidazole, vancomycin, clindamycin, erythromycin, and cefotaxime). Materials and Methods: Lettuce samples (grown in California, Arkansas, and Louisiana) were purchased from retail stores. Results: Toxigenic C. difficile was isolated from 13.8 per cent (41/297) of the lettuce samples. Among the toxigenic isolates, only 82.9 per cent (34/41) produced toxin B, 17.1 …

Pilot Study Of The Tart Cherry Juice For The Treatment Of Insomnia And Investigation Of Mechanisms, Jack N. Losso, John W. Finley, Namrata Karki, Ann G. Liu, Alfredo Prudente, Russell Tipton, Ying Yu, Frank L. Greenway

Faculty Publications

Background: Insomnia is common in the elderly and is associated with chronic disease, but use of hypnotics increases the incidence of falls. Montmorency tart cherry juice has improved insomnia by self-report questionnaire. Study Question: Is insomnia confirmed by polysomnography and is tryptophan availability a potential mechanism for treating insomnia? Study Design: A placebo-controlled balanced crossover study with subjects older than 50 years and insomnia were randomized to placebo (2 weeks) or cherry juice (2 weeks) (240 mL 2 times/d) separated by a 2-week washout. Measures and Outcomes: Sleep was evaluated by polysomnography and 5 validated questionnaires. Serum indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), …

Effect Of Untampered Plasma Coating And Surface Texturing On Friction And Running-In Behavior Of Piston Rings, Amirabbas Akbarzadeh, M. M. Khonsari

Faculty Publications

The running-in behavior and the associated transient friction characteristics of a piston ring with different surface treatments are experimentally evaluated using a custom-made engine testing apparatus. Results are reported for a series of running-in and steady-state experiments on piston rings with different combinations of coated and textured surfaces. Comparisons are provided between five different types of piston rings: (1) with no textures; (2) with textures only; (3) with coating only; (4) first textured and then coated; and (5) first coated and then textured. A combination of the texturing and coating showed 12.5% improvement in the frictional behavior and up to …

A Multi-Modality Deep Network For Cold-Start Recommendation, Mingxuan Sun, Fei Li, Jian Zhang

Faculty Publications

Collaborative filtering (CF) approaches, which provide recommendations based on ratings or purchase history, perform well for users and items with sufficient interactions. However, CF approaches suffer from the cold-start problem for users and items with few ratings. Hybrid recommender systems that combine collaborative filtering and content-based approaches have been proved as an effective way to alleviate the cold-start issue. Integrating contents from multiple heterogeneous data sources such as reviews and product images is challenging for two reasons. Firstly, mapping contents in different modalities from the original feature space to a joint lower-dimensional space is difficult since they have intrinsically different …

The Tensile Root Strength Of Emergent Coastal Macrophytes, Lauris Olivia Hollis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Spartina patens is a dominant emergent macrophyte in fresh, intermediate, and brackish marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of United States where its biomechanical properties are a key component of wetland health and resilience. Its root biomass and tensile root strength are essential for anchorage, erosion protection, and are important determinants of soil strength. Nutrients and the herbicide atrazine are suspected of negatively impacting this wetland plant and others. The objectives of this study were to: 1) ascertain the tensile root strength of five emergent coastal macrophytes in coastal estuaries, and 2) test the effects of nutrient addition, atrazine …

Unintended Consequences For Tanf: An Incubator For Domestic Violence?, Kathryn Rose Deleo

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Gw170817: Implications For The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Compact Binary Coalescences, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, P. Addesso, R. X. Adhikari, V. B. Adya, C. Affeldt, M. Afrough, B. Agarwal, M. Agathos, K. Agatsuma, N. Aggarwal, O. D. Aguiar, L. Aiello, A. Ain, P. Ajith, B. Allen, G. Allen, A. Allocca, 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

Faculty Publications

The LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations have announced the event GW170817, the first detection of gravitational waves from the coalescence of two neutron stars. The merger rate of binary neutron stars estimated from this event suggests that distant, unresolvable binary neutron stars create a significant astrophysical stochastic gravitational-wave background. The binary neutron star component will add to the contribution from binary black holes, increasing the amplitude of the total astrophysical background relative to previous expectations. In the Advanced LIGO-Virgo frequency band most sensitive to stochastic backgrounds (near 25 Hz), we predict a total astrophysical background with amplitude ΩGW(f=25 Hz)=1.8-1.3+2.7×10-9 with …

Identifying Apparent Local Stable Isotope Equilibrium In A Complex Non-Equilibrium System, Yuyang He, Xiaobin Cao, Jianwei Wang, Huiming Bao

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Rationale: Although being out of equilibrium, biomolecules in organisms have the potential to approach isotope equilibrium locally because enzymatic reactions are intrinsically reversible. A rigorous approach that can describe isotope distribution among biomolecules and their apparent deviation from equilibrium state is lacking, however. Methods: Applying the concept of distance matrix in graph theory, we propose that apparent local isotope equilibrium among a subset of biomolecules can be assessed using an apparent fractionation difference (|Δα|) matrix, in which the differences between the observed isotope composition (δ') and the calculated equilibrium fractionation factor (1000lnβ) …

Identifying Apparent Local Stable Isotope Equilibrium In A Complex Non-Equilibrium System, Yuyang He, Xiaobin Cao, Jianwei Wang, Huiming Bao

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Rationale: Although being out of equilibrium, biomolecules in organisms have the potential to approach isotope equilibrium locally because enzymatic reactions are intrinsically reversible. A rigorous approach that can describe isotope distribution among biomolecules and their apparent deviation from equilibrium state is lacking, however. Methods: Applying the concept of distance matrix in graph theory, we propose that apparent local isotope equilibrium among a subset of biomolecules can be assessed using an apparent fractionation difference (|Δα|) matrix, in which the differences between the observed isotope composition (δ') and the calculated equilibrium fractionation factor (1000lnβ) …

Copper Complex For Capturing Carbon Dioxide, Andrew W. Maverick, Uttam R. Pokharel, Frank R. Fronczek

College of Science Patents

A composition and method are disclosed for capturing CO₂. A pollutant/greenhouse gas can be converted into a valuable organic compound using a nontoxic reducing agent. CO₂ may be economically captured from the atmosphere, from products of combustion, or from byproducts of various chemical processes. The method reduces CO₂ in a three-step reaction cycle, in which a binuclear metal-organic compound converts CO₂ to oxalate in a redox cycle under mild conditions.

Pol I Dna Polymerases Stimulate Dna End-Joining By Escherichia Coli Dna Ligase, Yanling Yang, Vince J. Licata

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Klenow and Klentaq are the large fragment domains of the Pol I DNA polymerases from Escherichia coli and Thermus aquaticus, respectively. Herein, we show that both polymerases can significantly stimulate complementary intermolecular end-joining ligations by E.coli DNA ligase when the polymerases are present at concentrations lower than that of the DNA substrates. In contrast, high polymerase concentrations relative to the DNA substrates inhibit the intermolecular ligation activity of DNA ligase. Neither polymerase was able to stimulate the DNA ligase from T4 bacteriophage. Additionally, nick-closure by E. coli DNA ligase (but not T4 ligase) is slightly stimulated by both …

Assessing Changes In Self-Reported Driving Ability After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, John Philip Kelly Bernstein

LSU Master's Theses

The ability to safely drive a car requires intact cognitive functioning across a variety of domains, many of which are adversely affected following a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) impacts similar cognitive facets, albeit to a less severe extent, and preliminary evidence suggests that mTBI may also have a deleterious effect on driving abilities immediately following injury. However, changes in driving ability over the course of recovery from mTBI have not been adequately examined. The present study addressed this dearth in the literature through examination of self-reported driving ability in 18 participants with a recent …

Generic Absence Of Strong Singularities In Loop Quantum Bianchi-Ix Spacetimes, Sahil Saini, Parampreet Singh

Faculty Publications

We study the generic resolution of strong singularities in loop quantized effective Bianchi-IX spacetime in two different quantizations - the connection operator based 'A' quantization and the extrinsic curvature based 'K' quantization. We show that in the effective spacetime description with arbitrary matter content, it is necessary to include inverse triad corrections to resolve all the strong singularities in the 'A' quantization. Whereas in the 'K' quantization these results can be obtained without including inverse triad corrections. Under these conditions, the energy density, expansion and shear scalars for both of the quantization prescriptions are bounded. Notably, both the quantizations can …

Ab Initio Translationally Invariant Nonlocal One-Body Densities From No-Core Shell-Model Theory, M. Burrows, Ch Elster, G. Popa, K. D. Launey, A. Nogga, P. Maris

Faculty Publications

Background: It is well known that effective nuclear interactions are in general nonlocal. Thus if nuclear densities obtained from ab initio no-core shell-model (NCSM) calculations are to be used in reaction calculations, translationally invariant nonlocal densities must be available. Purpose: Though it is standard to extract translationally invariant one-body local densities from NCSM calculations to calculate local nuclear observables like radii and transition amplitudes, the corresponding nonlocal one-body densities have not been considered so far. A major reason for this is that the procedure for removing the center-of-mass component from NCSM wave functions up to now has only been developed …

Approximate Reversal Of Quantum Gaussian Dynamics, Ludovico Lami, Siddhartha Das, Mark M. Wilde

Faculty Publications

Recently, there has been focus on determining the conditions under which the data processing inequality for quantum relative entropy is satisfied with approximate equality. The solution of the exact equality case is due to Petz, who showed that the quantum relative entropy between two quantum states stays the same after the action of a quantum channel if and only if there is a reversal channel that recovers the original states after the channel acts. Furthermore, this reversal channel can be constructed explicitly and is now called the Petz recovery map. Recent developments have shown that a variation of the Petz …

Continuum Reverberation Mapping Of The Accretion Disks In Two Seyfert 1 Galaxies, M. M. Fausnaugh, D. A. Starkey, Keith Horne, C. S. Kochanek, B. M. Peterson, M. C. Bentz, K. D. Denney, C. J. Grier, D. Grupe, R. W. Pogge, G. De Rosa, S. M. Adams, A. J. Barth, Thomas G. Beatty, A. Bhattacharjee, G. A. Borman, T. A. Boroson, M. C. Bottorff, Jacob E. Brown, Jonathan S. Brown, M. S. Brotherton, C. T. Coker, S. M. Crawford, K. V. Croxall, Sarah Eftekharzadeh, Michael Eracleous, M. D. Joner, C. B. Henderson, T. W.S. Holoien, T. Hutchison, Shai Kaspi, S. Kim, Anthea L. King

Faculty Publications

We present optical continuum lags for two Seyfert 1 galaxies, MCG+08-11-011 and NGC 2617, using monitoring data from a reverberation mapping campaign carried out in 2014. Our light curves span the ugriz filters over four months, with median cadences of 1.0 and 0.6 days for MCG+08-11-011 and NGC 2617, respectively, combined with roughly daily X-ray and near-UV data from Swift for NGC 2617. We find lags consistent with geometrically thin accretion-disk models that predict a lag-wavelength relation of τ ∝ λ 4/3. However, the observed lags are larger than predictions based on standard thin-disk theory by factors of 3.3 for …

Effects Of Cardiorespiratory Fitness And Weight Status On Knowledge Of Physical Activity And Fitness, Attitude Toward Physical Education, And Physical Activity, Senlin Chen, Xiangli Gu

Faculty Publications

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of cardiorespiratory fitness and weight status on knowledge of physical activity and fitness (PAF knowledge), attitude toward physical education (PE), and physical activity. Methods: A total of 343 middle school students participated in the study (Age: M/SD = 12.76/.94, ranging from 11 to 14 years old). PE Metrics™ was used to measure PAF knowledge, and Attitude toward Physical Education Questionnaire and Youth Activity Profile were used to measure attitude, physical activity and sedentary behavior. Fitness and weight status were assessed using FitnessGram and converted to in Healthy Fitness Zone …

Influence Of Cooling Medium On Low Temperature Strength Of Asphalt Binders, Mihai Marasteanu, Augusto Cannone Falchetto, Sreelatha Balamurugan, Ioan I. Negulescu

Faculty Publications

The effect of three different cooling media, ethanol, potassium acetate (PA) and air, on the strength of asphalt binder at low temperature is investigated with a modified Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) and the Direct Tension Tester (DTT). Similar strength values are obtained in air and PA and significantly lower values are obtained in ethanol. The use of fluorescing markers demonstrates that ethanol diffuses in the asphalt binder, while diffusion does not occur when PA is used. Using size effect theory, BBR strengths in PA and in air are found to be equivalent to DTT strength in PA.

Numerical Simulation Of Uncoiling And Roller Leveling Processes From Steel Coils, Yufei Xiong

LSU Master's Theses

Uncoiling and roller leveling play an important role in pipe forming because it is prerequisite to make products with good quality. Uncoiling and roller leveling are used to reduce undesired characteristics such as imperfections in sheet flatness and residual stress. Considering residual stress in steel coil which has been ignored to date, a simplified coiling process is combined with uncoiling and leveling processes to investigate their effects on residual stress and curvature. The objective of this thesis research focuses particularly on studying the influence of coil diameter, uncoiling direction and leveling settings on residual stress and residual strip curvature after …

Microfluidic Technology And Application In Urinal Analysis, Jiwen Xiang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Microfluidic technology offers numerous advantages in minimizing and integrating the traditional assays. However, the lack of efficient control components of the microfluidic systems has been hindering the widely commercialization of the technology. The research work in this dissertation focused on the development of effective control components for microfluidic applications.

A linear peristaltic pump was firstly designed, fabricated, and tested for conventional microfluidics by synchronously compressing the microfluidic channel with a miniature cam-follower system in Chapter 2. The miniature cam-follower system and microfluidic chip was prototyped using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology and soft lithography technology. Results from experimental test showed that …

Topological Phases Of Topological-Insulator Thin Films, Mahmoud M. Asmar, Daniel E. Sheehy, Ilya Vekhter

Faculty Publications

We study the properties of a thin film of topological insulator material. We treat the coupling between helical states at opposite surfaces of the film in the properly-adapted tunneling approximation, and show that the tunneling matrix element oscillates as a function of both the film thickness and the momentum in the plane of the film for Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3. As a result, while the magnitude of the matrix element at the center of the surface Brillouin zone gives the gap in the energy spectrum, the sign of the matrix element uniquely determines the topological properties of the film, as demonstrated …

Neutron Interferometry Detection Of Early Crack Formation Caused By Bending Fatigue In Additively Manufactured Ss316 Dogbones, Adam J. Brooks, Daniel S. Hussey, Hong Yao, Ali Haghshenas, Jumao Yuan, Jacob M. Lamanna, David L. Jacobson, Caroline G. Lowery, Nikolay Kardjilov, Shengmin Guo, Michael M. Khonsari, Leslie G. Butler

Faculty Publications

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. Fatigue in selective laser melted (SLM) and conventionally manufactured stainless steel (SS) 316 dogbones was studied with neutron imaging methods for attenuation, diffraction, and scattering. Neutron attenuation tomography and Bragg edge imaging did not reveal crack formation. Conversely, to efficiently detect the microcrack evolution, two methods of grating-based neutron interferometry, Talbot-Lau and far-field, were employed. Both interferometry methods detect early crack formation via the dark-field (scattering) images, especially for porous microstructures in the range of 0.6 μm to 2 μm. The dark-field image combines sensitivity to micrometer-sized scattering centers at crack formation with sub-millimeter imaging resolution. …

Identification And Optimization Of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitors With Dual Potency Towards Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase, Sean D. Kodani, Saavan Bhakta, Sung Hee Hwang, Svetlana Pakhomova, Marcia E. Newcomer, Christophe Morisseau, Bruce D. Hammock

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Multi-target inhibitors have become increasing popular as a means to leverage the advantages of poly-pharmacology while simplifying drug delivery. Here, we describe dual inhibitors for soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) and fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), two targets known to synergize when treating inflammatory and neuropathic pain. The structure activity relationship (SAR) study described herein initially started with t-TUCB (trans-4-[4-(3-trifluoromethoxyphenyl-l-ureido)-cyclohexyloxy]-benzoic acid), a potent sEH inhibitor that was previously shown to weakly inhibit FAAH. Inhibitors with a 6-fold increase of FAAH potency while maintaining high sEH potency were developed by optimization. Interestingly, compared to most FAAH inhibitors that …

Barycentric Maps For Compactly Supported Measures, Sejong Kim, Jimmie Lawson, Yongdo Lim

Faculty Publications

After outlining the way in which an intrinsic mean G={Gn} on a complete metric space gives rise to a contractive barycentric map on some class of Borel probability measures and some basic examples of this process, we show how the resulting barycentric map gives rise to a general theory of integration of measurable functions into the space. We apply this machinery to the cone of positive invertible elements of a C⁎-algebra equipped with the Thompson metric to derive barycentric maps and their basic properties arising from the power means. Finally we derive basic results for the Karcher barycenter including its …