Digital Commons Network^™

Nonlinear Kernels, Dominance, And Envirotyping Data Increase The Accuracy Of Genome-Based Prediction In Multi-Environment Trials, Germano Costa-Neto, Roberto Fritsche-Neto, José Crossa

Faculty Publications

Modern whole-genome prediction (WGP) frameworks that focus on multi-environment trials (MET) integrate large-scale genomics, phenomics, and envirotyping data. However, the more complex the statistical model, the longer the computational processing times, which do not always result in accuracy gains. We investigated the use of new kernel methods and modeling structures involving genomics and nongenomic sources of variation in two MET maize data sets. Five WGP models were considered, advancing in complexity from a main-effect additive model (A) to more complex structures, including dominance deviations (D), genotype × environment interaction (AE and DE), and the reaction-norm model using environmental covariables (W) …

Active Uplift Of Southern Tibet Revealed, Michael Taylor, Adam Forte, Andrew Laskowski, Lin Ding

Faculty Publications

North of the Himalayas is the Tibetan plateau-the largest physiographic feature on Earth related to intercontinental collision. Here, we study the rugged Gangdese Range along the southern drainage divide of the Tibetan plateau using a synthesis of geologic, thermochronologic, and interseismic geodetic observations that reveal that southern Tibet's Gangdese Range is undergoing active surface uplift at present-day rates rivaling the Himalaya. Uplift has likely been sustained since the early Miocene, and we hypothesize that surface uplift of the Gangdese Mountains led to the development of Tibet's internally drained plateau, as well as potentially reversed the course of the paleo Yarlung …

Louisiana Survey 2021, Lsu Reilly Center For Media & Public Affairs

Reilly Center Louisiana Surveys

The 2021 Louisiana Survey is the nineteenth in an annual series sponsored by the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication.

The mission of the Louisiana Survey is to establish benchmarks as well as to capture change in residents’ assessments of state government services. The survey is further dedicated to tracking public opinion on the contemporary policy issues that face the state. Each iteration of the Louisiana Survey contains core items designed to serve as barometers of public sentiment, including assessments of whether the state is heading in the right direction …

Virtual Reality As A Versatile Tool For Research, Dissemination And Mediation In The Humanities, Paul François, Jeffrey Leichman, Florent Laroche, Françoise Rubellin

Faculty Publications

The VESPACE project aims to revive an evening of theatre at the Foire Saint-Germain in Paris in the 18th century, by recreating spaces, atmospheres and theatrical entertainment in virtual reality. The venues of this fair have disappeared without leaving any archaeological traces, so their digital reconstruction requires fusing many different sources, including the expertise of historians, as well as of historians of theatre and literature. In this article, we present how we have used video game creation tools to enable the use of virtual reality in three key research stages in the human sciences, and particularly, in history or archaeology: …

Content Controlled Spectral Indices For Detection Of Hydrothermal Alteration Minerals Based On Machine Learning And Lasso-Logistic Regression Analysis, Kyuhun Shim, Jaehyung Yu, Lei Wang, Sangin Lee, Sang Mo Koh, Bum Han Lee

Faculty Publications

This article introduced the quantity controlled spectral indices working at mineral contents higher than 5 wt.% for detection of sericite, chlorite, and pyrophyllite, which are the representative alteration minerals of phyllic, propylitic, and advanced argillic hydrothermal alterations. The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the samples are mostly pure with minor content of quartz. The absorption features of target minerals showed systematic decrease in absorption depth with decrease in the mineral content, and the changes varied by mineral types. A total of 1253 target mineral spectra and 605 nontarget mineral spectra were classified by a random forest model, which achieved an …

A Short Text Classification Method Based On Convolutional Neural Network And Semantic Extension, Haitao Wang, Keke Tian, Zhengjiang Wu, Lei Wang

Faculty Publications

In order to solve the problem that traditional short text classification methods do not perform well on short text due to the data sparsity and insufficient semantic features, we propose a short text classification method based on convolutional neural network and semantic extension. Firstly, we propose an improved similarity to improve the coverage of the word vector table in the short text preprocessing process. Secondly, we propose a method for semantic expansion of short texts, which adding an attention mechanism to the neural network model to find related words in the short text, and semantic expansion is performed at the …

Fear Of Zika: Information Seeking As Cause And Consequence, James Price Dillard, Ruobing Li, Chun Yang

Faculty Publications

This study examined the relationship between information seeking and fear during the Zika-induced global health crisis. A longitudinal survey of women in the Southern U.S. (N = 306) was conducted in 2016, beginning just days after the World Health Organization declared Zika a global crisis. The data showed that time 1 fear stimulated information seeking at time 2 and that time 2 information seeking caused fear at time 3. This pattern held regardless of whether participants were pregnant or planning to become pregnant (high personal relevance) versus neither (low personal relevance). The findings are at odds with most theories of …

Clothing Consumption During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Mining Tweets, C A. Liu, S B. Xia, C M. Lang

Faculty Publications

Understanding how consumers have shifted in clothing consumption in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic is critical for fashion clothing brands and businesses to identify what value means to consumers to locate growth opportunities. This exploratory study intends to provide a picture of consumers' clothing consumption evolution while going through the pandemic crisis. We take a viewpoint that integrates the perspectives of life status changes and stress coping to examine consumers' responses to clothing consumption during the COVID-19 global pandemic. A total of 68,511 relevant tweets were collected from January 1, 2020, through September 31, 2020. Sentiment and content …

Attenuated Early Pregnancy Weight Gain By Prenatal Lifestyle Interventions Does Not Prevent Gestational Diabetes In The Life-Moms Consortium, Leanne M. Redman, Kimberly L. Drews, Samuel Klein, Linda Van Horn, Rena R. Wing, Xavier Pi-Sunyer, Mary Evans, Kaumudi Joshipura, S. Sonia Arteaga, Alison G. Cahill, Rebecca G. Clifton, Kimberly A. Couch, Paul W. Franks, Dympna Gallagher, Debra Haire-Joshu, Corby K. Martin, Alan M. Peaceman, Suzanne Phelan, Elizabeth A. Thom, Susan Z. Yanovski, William C. Knowler

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Aims: To examine the effect of lifestyle (diet and physical activity) interventions on the prevalence of GDM, considering the method of GDM ascertainment and its association with early pregnancy characteristics and maternal and neonatal outcomes in the LIFE-Moms consortium. Methods: LIFE-Moms evaluated the effects of lifestyle interventions to optimize gestational weight gain in 1148 pregnant women with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 and without known diabetes at enrollment, compared with standard care. GDM was assessed between 24 and 31-weeks gestation by a 2-hour, 75-gram OGTT or by local clinical practice standards. Results: Lifestyle interventions initiated prior to 16 weeks reduced early …

Identification Of Changes In Sleep Across Pregnancy And The Impact On Cardiometabolic Health And Energy Intake In Women With Obesity, Emily W. Flanagan, Jasper Most, Nicholas T. Broskey, Abby D. Altazan, Robbie A. Beyl, Sarah K. Keadle, Kimberly L. Drews, Prachi Singh, Leanne M. Redman

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

This prospective, observational study investigated changes in sleep and the effect on energy intake, gestational weight gain, and cardiometabolic health across pregnancy in 52 healthy pregnant women with obesity. Habitual sleep was assessed by wrist-worn actigraphy (time spent in bed; TIB, total sleep time; TST, and sleep efficiency) in early (130–156 weeks) and late (350-366) pregnancy. A change to habitual sleep was defined as change of one-half of the standard deviation of TIB and TST across six consecutive nights from early pregnancy. Energy intake and changes in weight, fasting glucose, insulin, and lipids across pregnancy were compared between women who …

The Magnitude And Climate Sensitivity Of Isotopic Fractionation From Ablation Of Antarctic Dry Valley Lakes, A. W. Bellagamba, M. Berkelhammer, L. Winslow, P. T. Doran, K. F. Myers, S. Devlin, I. Hawes

Faculty Publications

There has been extensive research on the effects of evaporation on the isotopic ratio of lacustrine and marine water bodies; however, there are limited data on how ablation or sublimation from lake or sea ice influences the isotopic ratio of the residual water body. This is a challenging problem because there remains uncertainty on the magnitude of fractionation during sublimation and because ablation can involve mixed-phase processes associated with simultaneous sublimation, melting, evaporation, and refreezing. This uncertainty limits the ability to draw quantitative inferences on changing hydrological budgets from stable isotope records in arctic, Antarctic, and alpine lakes. Here, we …

Characterisation Of Nano-Assemblies Inside Mesopores Using Neutron Scattering*, Yingzhen Ma, William T. Heller, Lilin He, William A. Shelton, Gernot Rother, Bhuvnesh Bharti

Faculty Publications

Adsorption of molecular and nanoscale matter in mesoporous materials is important in filtration and chromatography as well as membrane processes. However, the morphology and distribution of self-assembled structures of adsorbate formed within nanoconfined environments is largely unknown. Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) with porous matrix matching the neutron scattering length density of the solvent has the potential to provide detailed information on the self-assemblies formed in pore spaces. However, analysis of such SANS profiles remains a challenge. In this study, we extend the SANS analysis method previously developed by Findenegg and co-workers to include interparticle correlations, providing a qualitative characterisation …

On The Enhanced Sulfur And Coking Tolerance Of Ni-Co-Rare Earth Oxide Catalysts For The Dry Reforming Of Methane, Changyi Jiang, Emily Loisel, David A. Cullen, James A. Dorman, Kerry M. Dooley

Faculty Publications

Sulfur and coking tolerance of Ni-based dry reforming catalysts were examined. Catalysts utilizing both Ce/Zr and Ce/La oxide supports, some with additional Co, were tested. Long-term reaction runs were conducted with and without sulfur in the feed. Catalysts were also characterized by STEM, XPS, XAFS and XANES and CO chemisorption. Only catalysts where Co was also present, and supported on the Ce-Zr oxide, were capable of extended sulfur tolerance at >20 ppm sulfur. This tolerance, along with a greatly reduced coking rate, is linked to Co in intimate contact with Ni, the mixture existing as clusters anchored and influenced electronically …

Effects Of Dilution And Pressure On Combustion Characteristics Within Externally Heated Micro-Tubes, Seyed Navid Roohani Isfahani, Vinicius M. Sauer, Ingmar Schoegl

Faculty Publications

This study investigates the impact of pressure and dilution on combustion behavior of C2H6/air/N2 mixtures within an externally heated micro-tube using both experimental and analytical techniques. Experiments are conducted for pressures up to 10 bar at multiple dilution levels and document three flame regimes, i.e. weak flames, FREI and normal flames. Characteristic temperatures for flame stabilization, as well as ignition and extinction are obtained by applying a novel thin filament pyrometry method (TFP), which uses a thin silicon carbide (SiC) filament that enables temperature measurements for both reacting and non-reacting cases. Results show a decrease of characteristic temperatures with increasing …

Marine Vehicles Localization Using Grid Cells For Path Integration, Ignacio Carlucho, Manuel F. Bailey, Mariano De Paula, Corina Barbalata

Faculty Publications

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are platforms used for research and exploration of marine environments. However, these types of vehicles face many challenges that hinder their widespread use in the industry. One of the main limitations is obtaining accurate position estimation, due to the lack of GPS signal underwater. This estimation is usually done with Kalman filters. However, new developments in the neuroscience field have shed light on the mechanisms by which mammals are able to obtain a reliable estimation of their current position based on external and internal motion cues. A new type of neuron, called Grid cells, has been …

From Market-Ready Rovs To Low-Cost Auvs, Jonatan Scharff Willners, Ignacio Carlucho, Sean Katagiri, Chandler Lemoine, Joshua Roe, Dylan Stephens, Tomasz Luczynski, Shida Xu, Yaniel Carreno, Eric Pairet, Corina Barbalata, Yvan Petillot, Sen Wang

Faculty Publications

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are becoming increasingly important for different types of industrial applications. The generally high cost of AUVs restricts the access to them and therefore advances in research and technological development. However, recent advances have led to lower cost commercially available Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), which present a platform that can be enhanced to enable a high degree of autonomy, similar to that of a high-end AUV. In this article, we present how a low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf ROV can be used as a foundation for developing versatile and affordable AUVs. We introduce the required hardware modifications to obtain a …

Event-Triggered Control For Systems With State Delays Using A Positive Systems Approach, Frederic Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Corina Barbalata, Zhong Ping Jiang

Faculty Publications

We provide a new positive system approach to event-triggered feedback control of linear systems with state delays. We use an interval observer method and linear Lyapunov functions to prove global exponential stability of the closed loop systems. Our two examples illustrate the usefulness of our method for counteracting the effects of potentially destabilizing state delays.

Μralp And Beyond: Micro-Technologies And Systems For Robot-Assisted Endoscopic Laser Microsurgery, Leonardo S. Mattos, Alperen Acemoglu, André Geraldes, Andrea Laborai, Andreas Schoob, Brahim Tamadazte, Brian Davies, Bruno Wacogne, Christian Pieralli, Corina Barbalata, Darwin G. Caldwell, Dennis Kundrat, Diego Pardo, Edward Grant, Francesco Mora, Giacinto Barresi, Giorgio Peretti, Jesùs Ortiz, Kanty Rabenorosoa, Laurent Tavernier, Lionel Pazart, Loris Fichera, Luca Guastini, Lüder A. Kahrs, Micky Rakotondrabe, Nicolas Andreff, Nikhil Deshpande, Olivier Gaiffe, Rupert Renevier, Sara Moccia, Sergio Lescano, Tobias Ortmaier, Veronica Penza

Faculty Publications

Laser microsurgery is the current gold standard surgical technique for the treatment of selected diseases in delicate organs such as the larynx. However, the operations require large surgical expertise and dexterity, and face significant limitations imposed by available technology, such as the requirement for direct line of sight to the surgical field, restricted access, and direct manual control of the surgical instruments. To change this status quo, the European project μRALP pioneered research towards a complete redesign of current laser microsurgery systems, focusing on the development of robotic micro-technologies to enable endoscopic operations. This has fostered awareness and interest in …

Deep Learning-Based Hardness Prediction Of Novel Refractory High-Entropy Alloys With Experimental Validation, Uttam Bhandari, Congyan Zhang, Congyuan Zeng, Shengmin Guo, Aashish Adhikari, Shizhong Yang

Faculty Publications

Hardness is an essential property in the design of refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs). This study shows how a neural network (NN) model can be used to predict the hardness of a RHEA, for the first time. We predicted the hardness of several alloys, including the novel C0.1Cr3Mo11.9Nb20 Re15Ta30W20 using the NN model. The hardness predicted from the NN model was consistent with the available experimental results. The NN model prediction of C0.1Cr3Mo11.9Nb20Re15Ta30W20 was verified by experimentally synthesizing and investigating its microstructure properties and hardness. This model provides an alternative route to determine the Vickers hardness of RHEAs.

Evaluating Grease Degradation Through Contact Angle Approach, Michael M. Khonsari, K. P. Lijesh, Roger A. Miller, Raj Shah

Faculty Publications

Grease is highly susceptible to degradation due to regular usage and the severity of the operating conditions. Degradation can negatively impact the performance of grease-lubricated machinery, demanding frequent maintenance to avoid premature failure of machine elements. Quantification of grease degradation has proven to be a formidable task, for which no accepted standards are currently available. In this paper, we extend the results of a novel approach developed recently for the evaluation of the water-resistant property in grease to quantify degradation. The methodology is based on measurements of the contact angle of a water droplet on the surface of a sample …

Tensor Multivariate Trace Inequalities And Their Applications, Shih Yu Chang, Hsiao Chun Wu

Faculty Publications

In linear algebra, the trace of a square matrix is defined as the sum of elements on the main diagonal. The trace of a matrix is the sum of its eigenvalues (counted with multiplicities), and it is invariant under the change of basis. This charac-terization can be used to define the trace of a tensor in general. Trace inequalities are mathematical relations between different multivariate trace functionals involving linear operators. These relations are straightforward equalities if the involved linear operators commute, however, they can be difficult to prove when the non-commuting linear operators are involved. Given two Hermitian tensors H1 …

Intelligent Spectrum Management And Trajectory Design For Uav-Assisted Cognitive Ambient Backscatter Networks, Jiazhou Liu, Sa Xiao, Huayan Guo, Xiangwei Zhou, Shixin He

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we consider a novel Internet of Things (IoT) system in smart city called unmanned aerial vehicle- (UAV-) assisted cognitive backscatter network, where a UAV is employed as both a relay and a radio frequency source to help the data transmission between ground IoT backscatter devices (BDs) and a remote data center (DC). However, since the IoT applications are usually not assigned dedicated spectrum resource in smart cities, these data transmissions from BDs to the DC should share the licensed spectrum of cellular users (CUs). Therefore, we aim to maximize the minimum uplink throughput among all BDs while …

Octo-Tiger's New Hydro Module And Performance Using Hpx+Cuda On Ornl's Summit, Patrick Diehl, Gregor Daiß, Dominic Marcello, Kevin Huck, Sagiv Shiber, Hartmut Kaiser, Juhan Frank, Geoffrey C. Clayton, Dirk Pfluger

Faculty Publications

Octo-Tiger is a code for modeling three-dimensional self-gravitating astrophysical fluids. It was particularly designed for the study of dynamical mass transfer between interacting binary stars. Octo-Tiger is parallelized for distributed systems using the asynchronous many-task runtime system, the C++ standard library for parallelism and concurrency (HPX) and utilizes CUDA for its gravity solver. Recently, we have remodeled OctoTiger's hydro solver to use a three-dimensional reconstruction scheme. In addition, we have ported the hydro solver to GPU using CUDA kernels. We present scaling results for the new hydro kernels on ORNL's Summit machine using a Sedov-Taylor blast wave problem. We also …

Mass Spectrometric Calibration Procedure For Real-Time Detection Of Lighter Hydrocarbons, M F. Mbaegbu, P L. Adhikari, I Gupta, M Rowe

Faculty Publications

Determining gas compositions from live well fluids on a drilling rig is critical for real time formation evaluation. Development and utilization of a reliable mass spectrometric method to accurately characterize these live well fluids are always challenging due to lack of a robust and effectively selective instrument and procedure. The methods currently utilized need better calibration for the characterization of light hydrocarbons (C-1-C-6) at lower concentrations. The primary goal of this research is to develop and optimize a powerful and reliable analytical method to characterize live well fluid using a quadruple mass spectrometer (MS). The mass spectrometers currently being used …

Viscosity Robust Weak Galerkin Finite Element Methods For Stokes Problems, B Wang, L Mu

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we develop a viscosity robust weak Galerkin finite element scheme for Stokes equations. The major idea for achieving pressure-independent energy-error estimate is to use a divergence preserving velocity reconstruction operator in the discretization of the right hand side body force. The optimal convergence results for velocity and pressure have been established in this paper. Finally, numerical examples are presented for validating the theoretical conclusions.

An Open-Source Code For Fluid Flow Simulations In Unconventional Fractured Reservoirs, B Wang, C Fidelibus

Faculty Publications

In this article, an open-source code for the simulation of fluid flow, including adsorption, transport, and indirect hydromechanical coupling in unconventional fractured reservoirs is described. The code leverages cutting-edge numerical modeling capabilities like automatic differentiation, stochastic fracture modeling, multicontinuum modeling, and discrete fracture models. In the fluid mass balance equation, specific physical mechanisms, unique to organic-rich source rocks, are included, like an adsorption isotherm, a dynamic permeability-correction function, and an Embedded Discrete Fracture Model (EDFM) with fracture-to-well connectivity. The code is validated against an industrial simulator and applied for a study of the performance of the Barnett shale reservoir, where …

The Effects Of Police Officer Ideology On Opinions Of Marijuana Legalization, Decriminalization, And Medical Marijuana, Erin Alpandinar

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Payday Myopia: Effects Of Income Receipt On Risk-Taking And Decision Making, Jacob Breaux

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On College Student Academic Dishonesty, Drake Fromenthal

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Handiwork Of William Morris, Ian Vinet

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.