Digital Commons Network^™

Identifying A Culturally Appropriate Stimulus For The Bangla Picture Description Task, Barnali Mazumdar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The absence of culture- and language-specific aphasia assessment in Bangla underscores a critical problem in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Aphasia occurs in ~41% of stroke survivors. Over 40 years, stroke incidence has doubled in the low- and middle-income countries, such as Bangladesh and India, where there are ~250 million native Bangla speakers.

This study aimed to identify an appropriate picture stimulus for the Bangla Picture Description Task (PDT) intended for inclusion in a Bangla aphasia assessment. Researchers have reported the importance of cultural relevance and three visuographic variables of a picture, i.e., high-context, color, and photograph vs. black and white …

Eloquence In Talke And Vertue In Deedes: Education And Discontent In Early Modern England, Mary Alison Webb

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The title for the project, Eloquence in Talke and Vertue in Deedes, comes from educational theorist William Kempe’s claim that the early modern humanist educational system was guaranteed to produce eloquence and virtue. It is, however, my argument that the educational failed in its promises. This project seeks to dissect the educational practices of the early modern period and reanimate the pieces to show how these practices were regularly critiqued on the early modern stage. More than showing the influence of the educational system in the production of drama, I point out that these practices are re-represented as rebuttals of …

Investigation On The Structure And Dynamics Of Lithium Ion Solvation Shell By Linear And Non-Linear Infrared Spectroscopy, Xiaobing Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Lithium ion battery (LIB) is a lightweight, rechargeable and powerful battery that is used widely from mobile phones to laptops to electric cars. It has many exceptional advantages such as high energy density, high output power, relatively low self-discharge, etc. However, it has some disadvantages such as safety issues, capacity loss, and expensive manufacture. LIB is composed of three main components: electrolytes, positive and negative electrodes. Researchers have been working on improving the performance of LIB for the past decade, but only a few have focused on investigating the electrolytes at the molecular level. In addition, the molecular mechanisms behind …

Non-Destructive Trace Element Analysis Of Burials From Moho Cay, Belize, April Alyce Walton

LSU Master's Theses

The study of skeletal material macroscopically and microscopically can yield a plethora of information about interments’ lives. Studying bones at an elemental level can provide further details regarding dietary habits, residency, and migration patterns, which are important areas of research for Maya archaeology. Currently, research on bone composition is conducted through destructive methods, especially for archaeological bone. The use of non-destructive methods for testing bone composition such as with a portable x-ray fluorescence machine can also be suitable for the study of archaeological bone. This study has two main goals: to understand the interments' lives through strontium trace element and …

Nets Of Standard Subspaces On Lie Groups, Karl Hermann Neeb, Gestur Ólafsson

Faculty Publications

Let G be a Lie group with Lie algebra g, h∈g an element for which the derivation ad h defines a 3-grading of g and τG an involutive automorphism of G inducing on g the involution eπiadh. We consider antiunitary representations (U,H) of the Lie group Gτ=G⋊{idG,τG} for which the positive cone CU={x∈g:−i∂U(x)≥0} and h span g. To a real subspace E⊆H−∞ of distribution vectors invariant under exp⁡(Rh) and an open subset O⊆G, we associate the real subspace HE(O)⊆H, generated by the subspaces U−∞(φ)E, where φ∈Cc∞(O,R) is a real-valued test function on O. Then HE(O) generates the complex Hilbert space …

Atmospheric Ducting Effect In Wireless Communications: Challenges And Opportunities, Fangfang Liu, Jiaxi Pan, Xiangwei Zhou, Geoffrey Ye Li

Faculty Publications

—Atmospheric ducting has a significant im-pact on electromagnetic wave propagation. Radio signals that are trapped and guided by the atmospheric duct can travel a much longer distance over the horizon with lower attenuation since the signal power does not spread isotropically through the atmosphere. Atmospheric ducting brings both challenges and opportunities to wireless communications. On one hand, the signals propagating in the atmospheric duct may interfere with a receiver far away as remote co-channel interference. On the other hand, a point-to-point link can be established directly through the atmospheric duct to enable beyond line-of-sight communications. In this article, the for-mation …

Berry-Esseen Bounds For Approximate Maximum Likelihood Estimators In The Α-Brownian Bridge, Khalifa Es-Sebaiy, Jabrane Moustaaid, Idir Ouassou

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

The Young Age And Plant-Based Diet Hypothesis For Low Sars-Cov-2 Infection And Covid-19 Pandemic In Sub-Saharan Africa, J N. Losso, M N. Losso, M Toc, J N. Inungu, J N. Losso

Faculty Publications

Since the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that caused the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), in December 2019, the infection has spread around the globe. Some of the risk factors include social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing with soap, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and dysbiosis. Evidence has shown the incidence of total infection and death rates to be lower in sub-Saharan Africa when compared with North Africa, Europe and North America and many other parts of the world. The higher the metabolic syndrome rate, the higher the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Africa has a lower …

Atomistic Thermo-Mechanical Description Of The Deformation Behavior, Scaling Laws, And Constitutive Modeling Of Nanoporous Gold, Mohammed Hassan Yousef Saffarini

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Metallic foams, or nanoporous (NP) metals as it is widely referred to in literature, with ligament sizes up to a few tens of nm show exceptional mechanical properties such as high strength and stiffness per weight ratio under different loading scenarios due to their high surface area to solid volume ratio. Therefore, they can be utilized in a wide range of applications making them of great interest to researchers. While their elasticity and yield strength have been the subject of several studies, very limited attention was given to the effect of size, strain rate, and temperature on the material plastic …

Mechanical Failure Of Metal/Ceramic Interfacial Regions Under Shear And Tensile Loading, Xiaoman Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Quantitative assessment of the adhesion strength of ceramic hard coatings on substrates is a subject of great technological importance as well as current scientific relevance. Achievement of reliable and quantitative measurements of interfacial strength has proven difficult over the past two decades. In this dissertation, how the deformation and fracture behavior of ceramic/metal/substrate interfacial regions under shear and tensile loading is influenced by the structure and chemical composition of the interfacial region were observed and discussed. Interfacial shear failure experiments were carried out on focused ion beam fabricated micro pillars containing interfacial regions of ceramic/metal/substrate systems. Detailed characterization was carried …

Shape Memory Polymer Proppants, Methods Of Making Shape Memory Polymer Proppants For Application In Hydraulic Fracturing Treatments, Arash Dahi Taleghani, Amir Shojaei, Guoqiang Li

College of Engineering Patents

The present disclosure provides for shape memory proppants, methods for making shape memory proppants, and methods of using shape memory proppants, and the like. The strong expandable proppants of the present disclosure may be used in maintaining fracture openings.

Constraints On Cosmic Strings Using Data From The Third Advanced Ligo-Virgo Observing Run, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, A. Adams, C. Adams, R. X. Adhikari, V. B. Adya, C. Affeldt, D. Agarwal, M. Agathos, K. Agatsuma, N. Aggarwal, O. D. Aguiar, L. Aiello, A. Ain, P. Ajith, T. Akutsu, K. M. Aleman, G. Allen, A. Allocca, P. A. Altin, A. Amato, S. Anand, A. Ananyeva, S. B. Anderson, W. G. Anderson, M. Ando, S. V. Angelova, S. Ansoldi, J. M. Antelis, S. Antier

Faculty Publications

We search for gravitational-wave signals produced by cosmic strings in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo full O3 dataset. Search results are presented for gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loop features such as cusps, kinks, and, for the first time, kink-kink collisions. A template-based search for short-duration transient signals does not yield a detection. We also use the stochastic gravitational-wave background energy density upper limits derived from the O3 data to constrain the cosmic string tension Gμ as a function of the number of kinks, or the number of cusps, for two cosmic string loop distribution models. Additionally, we develop …

Measurement Of The Iron Spectrum In Cosmic Rays From 10 Gev/N To 2.0 Tev/N With The Calorimetric Electron Telescope On The International Space Station, O. Adriani, Y. Akaike, K. Asano, Y. Asaoka, E. Berti, G. Bigongiari, W. R. Binns, M. Bongi, P. Brogi, A. Bruno, J. H. Buckley, N. Cannady, G. Castellini, C. Checchia, M. L. Cherry, G. Collazuol, K. Ebisawa, H. Fuke, S. Gonzi, T. G. Guzik, T. Hams, K. Hibino, M. Ichimura, K. Ioka, W. Ishizaki, M. H. Israel, K. Kasahara, J. Kataoka, R. Kataoka, Y. Katayose, C. Kato, N. Kawanaka, Y. Kawakubo, K. Kobayashi, K. Kohri, H. S. Krawczynski, J. F. Krizmanic, J. Link, P. Maestro, P. S. Marrocchesi, A. M. Messineo, J. W. Mitchell, S. Miyake, A. A. Moiseev, M. Mori, N. Mori, H. M. Motz, K. Munakata, S. Nakahira, J. Nishimura, G. A. De Nolfo, S. Okuno, J. F. Ormes, N. Ospina, S. Ozawa, L. Pacini, P. Papini, B. F. Rauch, S. B. Ricciarini, K. Sakai, T. Sakamoto, M. Sasaki, Y. Shimizu, A. Shiomi, P. Spillantini, F. Stolzi, S. Sugita, A. Sulaj, M. Takita, T. Tamura, T. Terasawa, S. Torii, Y. Tsunesada, Y. Uchihori, E. Vannuccini, J. P. Wefel, K. Yamaoka, S. Yanagita, A. Yoshida, K. Yoshida

Faculty Publications

The Calorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET), in operation on the International Space Station since 2015, collected a large sample of cosmic-ray iron over a wide energy interval. In this Letter a measurement of the iron spectrum is presented in the range of kinetic energy per nucleon from 10 GeV/n to 2.0 TeV/n allowing the inclusion of iron in the list of elements studied with unprecedented precision by space-borne instruments. The measurement is based on observations carried out from January 2016 to May 2020. The CALET instrument can identify individual nuclear species via a measurement of their electric charge with a dynamic …

Approaching The Motional Ground State Of A 10-Kg Object, Chris Whittle, Evan D. Hall, Sheila Dwyer, Nergis Mavalvala, Vivishek Sudhir, R. Abbott, A. Ananyeva, C. Austin, L. Barsotti, J. Betzwieser, C. D. Blair, A. F. Brooks, D. D. Brown, A. Buikema, C. Cahillane, J. C. Driggers, A. Effler, A. Fernandez-Galiana, P. Fritschel, V. V. Frolov, T. Hardwick, M. Kasprzack, K. Kawabe, N. Kijbunchoo, J. S. Kissel, G. L. Mansell, F. Matichard, L. Mcculler, T. Mcrae, A. Mullavey, A. Pele, R. M.S. Schofield, D. Sigg

Faculty Publications

The motion of a mechanical object, even a human-sized object, should be governed by the rules of quantum mechanics. Coaxing them into a quantum state is, however, difficult because the thermal environment masks any quantum signature of the object's motion. The thermal environment also masks the effects of proposed modifications of quantum mechanics at large mass scales. We prepared the center-of-mass motion of a 10-kilogram mechanical oscillator in a state with an average phonon occupation of 10.8. The reduction in temperature, from room temperature to 77 nanokelvin, is commensurate with an 11 orders-of-magnitude suppression of quantum back-action by feedback and …

Characterizing And Optimizing Asynchronous Event-Driven Architecture For Modern Cloud Systems, Shungeng Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Achieving good performance and high efficiency simultaneously is an essential requirement for emerging modern cloud systems such as e-commerce due to their business impact. For example, Akamai reported that every 100ms delay in website load time could lead to a 6% drop in sales. Unfortunately, achieving good performance (e.g., low latency) for modern cloud systems at high resource utilization is significantly challenging. Despite continuing efforts by cloud professionals, however, they have consistently experienced performance degradation problems (e.g., the long-tail latency problem) due to the bursty workload in the cloud. To resolve the performance degradation problems, many previous research efforts have …

The Cryptid Tourist Gaze: Cryptid Tourism And The Performance Of Monster-Hunting, Sara Brooke Christian

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Cryptid Tourist Gaze: Cryptid Tourism and the Performance of Monster-Hunting examines different modes of monster-hunting and argues that the ways of hunting for monsters has evolved from major expeditions to cryptid tourism. I devised an original term called the Cryptid Tourist Gaze in order to analyze these different monster-hunting modes. The Cryptid Tourist Gaze is an individual's perspective of and experience with a cryptid monster and reflects how an individual perceives and presents cryptid monsters and cryptid monster experiences.

I suggest that individuals now perform monster-hunting through documentary media consumption, festival attendance, and museum curation and visitation, which are …

Numeric And Dynamic B-Stability, Exact-Monotone And Asymptotic Two-Point Behavior Of Theta Methods For Stochastic Differential Equations, Henri Schurz

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Topology Of Parametrized Motion Planning Algorithms, Daniel C. Cohen, Michael Farber, Shmuel Weinberger

Faculty Publications

We introduce and study a new concept of parametrized topological complexity: A topological invariant motivated by the motion planning problem of robotics. In the parametrized setting, a motion planning algorithm has a high degree of universality and flexibility and can function under a variety of external conditions (such as positions of obstacles). We explicitly compute the parametrized topological complexity of obstacle-avoiding collision-free motion of many particles (robots) in 3-dimensional space. Our results show that the parametrized topological complexity can be significantly higher than the standard (nonparametrized) invariant.

A Generalized, Modular Approach To Treating Moving Tumors With Ion Beams, Michelle Jennifer Lis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite advancements in cancer therapy, certain indications continue to have a poor prognosis, including cancers of the thorax. Existing methods for treating moving tumors with carbon ions have shown promise, but require technologically complex facilities and still have inherent limitations to mitigating tumor motion. The goal of this dissertation was to develop and test a safe, portable, and modular motion-synchronized dose delivery system (M-DDS) and its peripheral components as a framework for studying motion mitigation with ion beams.

We designed and integrated a motion-synchronized radiotherapy approach, called multi-phase 4D delivery (MP4D), as modular units of a clinical dose delivery system. …

Microglial Implications In Sars-Cov-2 Infection And Covid-19: Lessons From Viral Rna Neurotropism And Possible Relevance To Parkinson's Disease, Ifeoluwa O. Awogbindin, Benneth Ben-Azu, Babatunde A. Olusola, Elizabeth T. Akinluyi, Philip A. Adeniyi, T. Di Paolo, Marie-Eve Tremblay

Faculty Publications

Since December 2019, humankind has been experiencing a ravaging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak, the second coronavirus pandemic in a decade after the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) disease in 2012. Infection with SARS-CoV-2 results in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is responsible for over 3.1 million deaths worldwide. With the emergence of a second and a third wave of infection across the globe, and the rising record of multiple reinfections and relapses, SARS-CoV-2 infection shows no sign of abating. In addition, it is now evident that SARS-CoV-2 infection presents with neurological symptoms that include early …

Tests Of General Relativity With Binary Black Holes From The Second Ligo-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, A. Adams, 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, S. Akcay, G. Allen, A. Allocca, P. A. Altin, A. Amato, S. Anand, A. Ananyeva, S. B. Anderson, W. G. Anderson, S. V. Angelova, S. Ansoldi, J. M. Antelis, S. Antier, S. Appert, K. Arai, M. C. Araya

Faculty Publications

Gravitational waves enable tests of general relativity in the highly dynamical and strong-field regime. Using events detected by LIGO-Virgo up to 1 October 2019, we evaluate the consistency of the data with predictions from the theory. We first establish that residuals from the best-fit waveform are consistent with detector noise, and that the low- and high-frequency parts of the signals are in agreement. We then consider parametrized modifications to the waveform by varying post-Newtonian and phenomenological coefficients, improving past constraints by factors of ∼2; we also find consistency with Kerr black holes when we specifically target signatures of the spin-induced …

The Mini-Captain Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber, C. E. Taylor, B. Bhandari, J. Bian, K. Bilton, C. Callahan, J. Chaves, H. Chen, D. Cline, R. L. Cooper, D. L. Danielson, J. Danielson, N. Dokania, S. Elliot, S. Fernandes, S. Gardiner, G. Garvey, V. Gehman, F. Giuliani, S. Glavin, M. Gold, C. Grant, E. Guardincerri, T. Haines, A. Higuera, J. Y. Ji, R. Kadel, N. Kamp, A. Karlin, W. Ketchum, L. W. Koerner, D. Lee, K. Lee, Q. Liu, S. Locke, W. C. Louis, P. Madigan, A. Manalaysay, J. Maricic, E. Martin, M. J. Martinez, S. Martunenko, C. Mauger, C. Mcgrew, J. Medina, P. J. Medina, G. Mills, J. Mirabal-Martinez, A. Olivier, E. Pantic, B. Philipbar, C. Pitcher, V. Radeka, J. Ramsey, K. Rielage, M. Rosen, A. R. Sanchez, J. Shin, G. Sinnis, M. Smy, W. Sondeim, I. Stancu, C. Sterbenz, Y. Sun, R. Svoboda, A. Teymourian, C. Thorn, C. E. Tull, M. Tzanov, R. Van De Water, N. Walsh, H. Wang, Y. Wang, C. Yanagisawa, A. Yarritu, J. Yoo

Faculty Publications

This manuscript describes the commissioning of the Mini-CAPTAIN liquid argon detector in a neutron beam at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), which led to a first measurement of high-energy neutron interactions in argon. The Mini-CAPTAIN detector consists of a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) with an accompanying photomultiplier tube (PMT) array sealed inside a liquid-argon-filled cryostat. The liquid argon is constantly purified and recirculated in a closed-loop cycle during operation. The specifications and assembly of the detector subsystems and an overview of their performance in a neutron beam are reported.

Loop Quantum Black Hole Extensions Within The Improved Dynamics, Rodolfo Gambini, Javier Olmedo, Jorge Pullin

Faculty Publications

We continue our investigation of an improved quantization scheme for spherically symmetric loop quantum gravity. We find that in the region where the black hole singularity appears in the classical theory, the quantum theory contains semi-classical states that approximate general relativity coupled to an effective anisotropic fluid. The singularity is eliminated and the space-time can be continued into a white hole space-time. This is similar to previously considered scenarios based on a loop quantum gravity quantization.

Constraints Of Weight Loss As A Marker Of Bariatric Surgery Success: An Exploratory Study, Saulo Gil, Karla Goessler, Wagner S. Dantas, Igor Hisashi Murai, Carlos Alberto Abujabra Merege-Filho, Rosa Maria R. Pereira, Roberto De Cleva, Marco Aurélio Santo, John P. Kirwan, Hamilton Roschel, Bruno Gualano

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Purpose: The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate whether the degree of weight loss properly reflects improvements in cardiometabolic health among patients who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Methods: In this ancillary analysis from a clinical trial, patients were clustered into tertiles according to the magnitude of the percentage weight loss (1st tertile: “higher weight loss”: −37.1 ± 5.8%; 2nd tertile: “moderate weight loss”: −29.7 ± 1.4%; 3rd tertile: “lower weight loss”: −24.2 ± 2.3%). Delta changes (9 months after surgery-baseline) in clustered cardiometabolic risk (i.e., blood pressure index, fasting glucose, high-density lipoprotein [HDL] and triglycerides [TG]), glycated hemoglobin …

Ancient Pottery Making At Cerro San Isidro, Nepeña Valley, Peru, Kaitlyn M. Lowrance

LSU Master's Theses

Located in the Nepeña Valley of north-central Peru, Cerro San Isidro was first documented in the 1930s when the valley was initially surveyed. While numerous sites along the valley, particularly those located in the lower valley, have been extensively researched since this initial survey, members of the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Cerro San Isidro (PIACSI) conducted the first formal excavations in 2019. My thesis project analyzes the ceramic artifacts – in particular pottery fragments – from that field season in order to evaluate continuity and change in morphological and technical styles from the Early Horizon through the Late Intermediate Periods …

Mapping Plastic Pollution In The Amite Watershed, Louisiana, Gourav Divan

LSU Master's Theses

Microplastics have quickly emerged as a concerning pollutant in both freshwater and marine environments. Their recent discovery means that their impacts are still being studied, however, it is important to continuously monitor their concentrations. An important conduit of plastic pollution to marine environments are rivers and streams. Previous models have estimated the transport of plastics from land to sea in many parts of the world. Most of these models, however, have been conducted at coarse spatial resolutions that make it difficult to establish tractable management programs to minimize this impact. Here, a previously existing model was applied to model for …

Educational Theory-Integrated Construction Industry Training: State-Of-The-Art Review, Hazem Jadallah, Carol J. Friedland, Isabelina Nahmens, Charles Pecquet, Charles Berryman, Yimin Zhu

Faculty Publications

Workforce training is needed throughout the construction industry to create and maintain competent workers; unfortunately, most construction training and education research focuses on university student education. Integrating education science theory into construction training has the potential to improve industry training, but the status of this integration has not been well articulated. To address this gap, this article undertakes a state-of-the-art review of education theory–integrated construction training for current industry professionals. To measure the extent of educational theory integration, this article identifies and summarizes studies that meet inclusion criteria, identifies the frequency of occurrence of Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs as a measure …

An Equivalence Between Contact Gluing Maps In Sutured Floer Homology: A Conjecture Of Zarev, Charles Ryan Leigon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We show that the contact gluing map of Honda, Kazez, and Matic has a natural algebraic description in bordered sutured Floer homology. In particular, we establish Zarev's conjecture that his gluing map on sutured Floer homology is equivalent, in the appropriate sense, to the contact gluing map. This further solidifies the relationship between bordered Floer theory and contact geometry.

Using Distributed Techology To Make Music In The Time Of The Attention Economy, Tate Carson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sounds Aware is a mobile web app that allows users to record soundwalks and share them so that other people can experience them. The creator of the soundwalk records their perceptions of the restorativeness of a specific place on the walk, these answers are then sonified for whoever experiences the walk later to hear. Sounds Aware aims to be a social app that is restorative to our attention. It does this by encouraging experience of nature and by using decentralized technology that exists outside of the attention economy.

The attention economy is discussed as a force that exists within much …

Temperature Dependence Of Freshwater Phytoplankton Growth Rates And Zooplankton Grazing Rates, Jennifer Pulsifer, Edward Laws

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.