Digital Commons Network^™

Targeted Search For The Kinematic Dipole Of The Gravitational-Wave Background, Adrian Ka-Wai Chung, Alexander C. Jenkins, Joseph D. Romano, Mairi Sakellariadou

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

There is growing interest in using current and future gravitational-wave interferometers to search for anisotropies in the gravitational-wave background. One guaranteed anisotropic signal is the kinematic dipole induced by our peculiar motion with respect to the cosmic rest frame, as measured in other full-sky observables such as the cosmic microwave background. Our prior knowledge of the amplitude and direction of this dipole is not explicitly accounted for in existing searches by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA but could provide crucial information to help disentangle the sources which contribute to the gravitational-wave background. Here, we develop a targeted search pipeline which uses this prior knowledge …

Optimal Quantization For Some Triadic Uniform Cantor Distributions With Exact Bounds, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Let {Sj:1≤j≤3} be a set of three contractive similarity mappings such that Sj(x)=rx+j−12(1−r) for all x∈R, and 1≤j≤3, where 0

Let {Sj:1≤j≤3}">{Sj:1≤j≤3}{Sj:1≤j≤3} be a set of three contractive similarity mappings such that Sj(x)=rx+j−12(1−r)">Sj(x)=rx+j−12(1−r)Sj(x)=rx+j−12(1−r) for all x∈R">x∈Rx∈R, and 1≤j≤3">1≤j≤31≤j≤3, where 0Phas support the Cantor set generated by the similarity mappings Sj">SjSj for 1≤j≤3">1≤j≤31≤j≤3. Let r0=0.1622776602">r0=0.1622776602r0=0.1622776602, and r1=0.2317626315">r1=0.2317626315r1=0.2317626315 (which are ten digit rational approximations of two real numbers). In this paper, for 00n-means and the nth quantization errors for the triadic uniform Cantor distribution P for all positive integers n≥2">n≥2n≥2. Previously, Roychowdhury …

Soil Nematode Trophic Group Composition And Influence On Growth Of Amaranthus Palmeri And Parthenium Hysterophorus, Orlando Garcia, Dana Garibaldi, Krissa Jhaveri, Jake Lanoue, Pushpa G. Soti

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Weeds have a significant impact on agricultural systems. They not only cause a loss in crop yield by competing with them for resources, but they can also serve hosts for several pests and parasties such as plant parasitic nematodes casusing additional crop loss. The aim of this study was to analyze plant-nematode feedback in two major weeds, Amaranthus palmeri S Watson and Parthenium hysterophorus L. First, a field survey was conducted to determine the rhizosphere nematode trophic groups associated with these two plants in the summer of 2020 and 2021. Then a 6-week greenhouse study was conducted where the two …

Combined Effects Of Scarification, Phytohormones, Stratification, And Soil Type On The Germination And/Or Seedling Performance Of Three Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest Species, Paula Luera, Christopher A. Gabler

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Tamaulipan thornforests in south Texas and northeast Mexico are a conservation hotspot. Shortages of native seedlings limit regional restoration and are largely driven by knowledge gaps regarding propagation of the 75+ thornforest species planted during restorations. We previously investigated three thornforest species with low or inconsistent germination or seedling survival: Ebenopsis ebano (Fabaceae), Cordia boissieri (Boraginaceae), and Zanthoxylum fagara (Rutaceae), and identified the types and dosages of chemical seed treatments that maximized germination. However, chemical treatments were performed in isolation and combinational treatments may be required to break dormancy or maximize germination. This study builds on prior work by investigating …

The Rider (2022-10-03), Verilu Infante

The Rider Archives

Vol.8 No.6

On Equivariant Flag F-Vectors For Balanced Relative Simplicial Complexes, Jacob A. White

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We study the equivariant flag f-vector and equivariant flag h-vector of a balanced relative simplicial complex with respect to a group action. When the complex satisfies Serre's condition (Sℓ), we show that the equivariant flag h-vector, the equivariant h-vector, and the equivariant f-vector satisfy several inequalities.
We apply these results to the study of P-partitions of double posets, and weak colorings of mixed graphs.

Introducing A Linear Empirical Correlation For Predicting The Mass Heat Capacity Of Biomaterials, Reza Iranmanesh, Afham Pourahmad, Fardad Faress, Sevil Tutunchian, Mohammad Amin Ariana, Hamed Sadeqi, Saleh Hosseini, Falah Alobaid, Babak Aghel

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

This study correlated biomass heat capacity (Cp) with the chemistry (sulfur and ash content), crystallinity index, and temperature of various samples. A five-parameter linear correlation predicted 576 biomass Cp samples from four different origins with the absolute average relative deviation (AARD%) of ~1.1%. The proportional reduction in error (REE) approved that ash and sulfur contents only enlarge the correlation and have little effect on the accuracy. Furthermore, the REE showed that the temperature effect on biomass heat capacity was stronger than on the crystallinity index. Consequently, a new three-parameter correlation utilizing crystallinity index and temperature was developed. This model was …

Diffraction-Free Beam Propagation At The Exceptional Point Of Non-Hermitian Glauber Fock Lattices, Cem Yuce, Hamidreza Ramezani

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We construct localized beams in a non-Hermitian Glauber Fock (NGF) lattice of coupled waveguides and show that they can propagate for a long distance without almost no diffraction. We specifically obtain the diffraction-free beams in a finite NGF lattice at the exceptional point (EP) by using the exact eigenstates of the semi-infinite unidirectional NGF lattice. We provide a numerical approach to finding other lattices that are capable of supporting non-diffracting beams at EPs.

Joint Angle Variability Is Altered In Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease After Six Months Of Exercise Intervention, Farahnaz Fallahtafti, Zahra Salamifar, Mahdi Hassan, Hafizur Rahman, Iraklis Pipinos, Sara A. Myers

School of Podiatric Medicine Publications

Supervised exercise therapy (SET) is a conservative non-operative treatment strategy for improving walking performance in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). Gait variability is altered in patients with PAD, but the effect of SET on gait variability is unknown. Forty-three claudicating patients with PAD underwent gait analysis before and immediately after a 6-month SET program. Nonlinear gait variability was assessed using sample entropy, and the largest Lyapunov exponent of the ankle, knee, and hip joint angle time series. Linear mean and variability of the range of motion time series for these three joint angles were also calculated. Two-factor repeated measure …

A Mesh-Free Method Using Piecewise Deep Neural Network For Elliptic Interface Problems, Cuiyu He, Xiaozhe Hu, Lin Mu

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we propose a novel mesh-free numerical method for solving the elliptic interface problems based on deep learning. We approximate the solution by the neural networks and, since the solution may change dramatically across the interface, we employ different neural networks for each sub-domain. By reformulating the interface problem as a least-squares problem, we discretize the objective function using mean squared error via sampling and solve the proposed deep least-squares method by standard training algorithms such as stochastic gradient descent. The discretized objective function utilizes only the point-wise information on the sampling points and thus no underlying mesh …

System-Level Leaders’ Local Control Of Teacher Supervision And Evaluation Under Every Student Succeeds Act, Douglas Wieczorek, Israel Aguilar, Ian M. Mette

Organization and School Leadership Faculty Publications

This article investigates school system leaders’ influence and control over local teacher supervision and evaluation systems (TSES) guided by the United States’ (U.S.) Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Using qualitative, textual document analysis methods, we analyzed 50 states’ ESSA policies to determine the extent to which local education agencies have flexible TSES authority granted by state and federal guidelines. The study findings indicate that a majority of U.S. state-level policies mandate standardized TSES tools and processes at the local district level. In order to optimally meet students’ and teachers’ needs, we recommend that systems-level leaders prioritize community driven visions for …

Lessons Learned: Effective Reading Practices For The Struggling Reader, Maria M. Salaiz, Marie Simonsson, Velma D. Menchaca

Organization and School Leadership Faculty Publications

This study investigated schools who received Reading First (RF) monies to determine if student reading achievement in kindergarten through second grade was a function of the funding earmarked for implementation of the RF practices. The researchers also examined a seven-year reading progress trend to observe changes in Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) composite means of 37 participating campuses by grade level and by assessment measure from 2006 to 2012. Multiple linear regression and one-way repeated measures outputs were used for evaluating the evidence. A longitudinal progress trend was used over a seven-year period. Both a linear regression and a repeated …

Saturable Absorption Of Free-Electron Laser Radiation By Graphite Near The Carbon K-Edge, Lars Hoffmann, Sasawat Jamnuch, Craig P. Schwartz, Tobias Helk, Sumana L. Raj, Hikaru Mizuno, Riccardo Mincigrucci, Laura Foglia, Emiliano Principi, Shervin Fatehi

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

The interaction of intense light with matter gives rise to competing nonlinear responses that can dynamically change material properties. Prominent examples are saturable absorption (SA) and two-photon absorption (TPA), which dynamically increase and decrease the transmission of a sample depending on pulse intensity, respectively. The availability of intense soft X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers (FELs) has led to observations of SA and TPA in separate experiments, leaving open questions about the possible interplay between and relative strength of the two phenomena. Here, we systematically study both phenomena in one experiment by exposing graphite films to soft X-ray FEL pulses of …

The Rider (2022-09-26), Verilu Infante

The Rider Archives

Vol.8 No.5

On A Novel Approach To The Thermogravimetric Analysis Of Polymers: Polystyrene, Mircea Chipara, Karen Lozano, Dorina M. Chipara, Carlos Delgado, Victoria Padilla

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

A novel equation that describes the temperature dependence of the residual mass fraction (as determined by thermogravimetric analysis) is derived, assuming that the dependence of the residual mass fraction on temperature has a sigmoidal shape. The equation allows the estimation of the sigmoidal activation energy solely from the experimental data at a single heating rate. The consistency with the isoconversional approach and the relationship between the Ozawa and sigmoidal activation energies are reported. The equation was successfully tested by the thermal degradation of atactic polystyrene at various heating rates. Both the thermograms and their derivatives are analyzed in detail.

Using Low-Cost Sensors To Assess Pm2.5 Concentrations At Four South Texan Cities On The U.S.—Mexico Border, Esmeralda Mendez, Owen Temby, Dawid K. Wladyka, Katarzyna Sepielak, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Low-cost sensors have been used considerably to characterize air pollution in the last few years. This study involves the usage of this technology for the first time to assess PM2.5 pollution at four cities on the U.S.–Mexico border. These cities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley Region of South Texas are Brownsville, Edinburg, Weslaco, and Port Isabel. A year-long sampling campaign was undertaken from 1 March 2021 to 31 March 2022. TSI BlueSky™ Air Quality Monitors were deployed concurrently at 11 different locations in these four cities. Twenty-four-hour PM2.5 concentrations from these sensors were then compared with ambient PM2.5 data …

Search For Gravitational Waves From Scorpius X-1 With A Hidden Markov Model In O3 Ligo Data, R. Abbott, H. Abe, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, N. Adhikari, Michael G. Benjamin, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Francisco Llamas, Soma Mukherjee, Gaukhar Nurbek, Volker Quetschke, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Results are presented for a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to allow for spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory data by including the orbital period in the search template grid, and by analyzing data from the latest (third) observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 500 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1 using a HMM to date. For the most sensitive subband, starting at …

Electrospun Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-Co-3-Hydroxyvalerate)/Olive Leaf Extract Fiber Mesh As Prospective Bio-Based Scaffold For Wound Healing, Jose Gustavo De La Ossa, Serena Danti, Jasmine Esposito Salsano, Bahareh Azimi, Veronika Tempesti, Niccoletta Barbani, Maria Digiacomo, Marco Macchia, Mohammed Jasim Uddin, Caterina Cristallini

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of biopolyesters synthesized by various microorganisms. Due to their biocompatibility and biodegradation, PHAs have been proposed for biomedical applications, including tissue engineering scaffolds. Olive leaf extract (OLE) can be obtained from agri-food biowaste and is a source of polyphenols with remarkable antioxidant properties. This study aimed at incorporating OLE inside poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBHV) fibers via electrospinning to obtain bioactive bio-based blends that are useful in wound healing. PHBHV/OLE electrospun fibers with a size of 1.29 ± 0.34 µm were obtained. Fourier transform infrared chemical analysis showed a uniform surface distribution of hydrophilic -OH groups, confirming the …

Metabolic Syndrome Predictors Of Brain Gray Matter Volume In An Age-Stratified Community Sample Of 776 Mexican- American Adults: Results From The Genetics Of Brain Structure Image Archive, Eithan Kotkowski, Larry R. Price, Ralph A. Defronzo, Crystal G. Franklin, Maximino Salazar, Amy S. Garrett, Mary Woolsey, John Blangero, Ravi Duggirala, David C. Glahn, Peter T. Fox

School of Medicine Publications

Introduction: This project aimed to investigate the association between biometric components of metabolic syndrome (MetS) with gray matter volume (GMV) obtained with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from a large cohort of community-based adults (n = 776) subdivided by age and sex and employing brain regions of interest defined previously as the “Neural Signature of MetS” (NS-MetS).

Methods: Lipid profiles, biometrics, and regional brain GMV were obtained from the Genetics of Brain Structure (GOBS) image archive. Participants underwent T1-weighted MR imaging. MetS components (waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, and blood pressure) were defined using the National Cholesterol …

The Rider (2022-09-19), Verilu Infante

The Rider Archives

Vol.8 No.4

Uav-Assisted Sensor Data Dissemination In Mmwave Vehicular Networks Based On Network Coding, Shidong Huang, Chuanhe Huang, Dongfang Wu, Yabo Yin, M. Wasim Abbas Ashraf, Bin Fu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Due to good maneuverability, UAVs and vehicles are often used for environment perception in smart cities. In order to improve the efficiency of sensor data sharing in UAV-assisted mmWave vehicular network (VN), this paper proposes a sensor data sharing method based on blockage effect identification and network coding. The concurrent sending vehicles selection method is proposed based on the availability of mmWave link, the number of target vehicles of sensor data packet, the distance between a sensor data packet and target vehicle, the number of concurrent sending vehicles, and the waiting time of sensor data packet. The construction method of …

Ligand-Based Virtual Screening And Molecular Docking Of Benzimidazoles As Potential Inhibitors Of Triosephosphate Isomerase Identified New Trypanocidal Agents, Lenci K. Vazquez-Jimenez, Alfredo Juarez-Saldivar, Rogelio Gomez-Escobedo, Timoteo Delgado-Maldonado, Domingo Mendez-Alvarez, Isidro Palos, Debasish Bandyopadhyay, Carlos Gaona-Lopez, Eyra Ortiz-Perez, Benjamin Nogueda-Torres, Esther Ramirez-Moreno, Gildardo Rivera

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) is a parasite that affects humans and other mammals. T. cruzi depends on glycolysis as a source of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) supply, and triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) plays a key role in this metabolic pathway. This enzyme is an attractive target for the design of new trypanocidal drugs. In this study, a ligand-based virtual screening (LBVS) from the ZINC15 database using benzimidazole as a scaffold was accomplished. Later, a molecular docking on the interface of T. cruzi TIM (TcTIM) was performed and the compounds were grouped by interaction profiles. Subsequently, a selection of compounds was made based …

Eigen’S Paradox And The Quasispecies Model In A Non-Archimedean Framework, Wilson A. Zuniga-Galindo

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this article we present a new p -adic generalization of the Eigen–Schuster model where the genomes (sequences) are represented by words written in the alphabet { 0 , 1 , … , p − 1 } , where p is a prime number, with a time variable length. The time evolution of the concentration of a given sequence is controlled by a p -adic evolution equation. The long term behavior of the concentration of a sequence depends on a fitness function f , a mutation measure Q , and an initial concentration distribution. The new model provides essentially two …

Norm And Numerical Radius Of Single Operators Through Tools And Techniques From Multivariable Operator Theory, Raul E. Curto, Sang Hoon Lee, Jasang Yoon

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We employ tools and techniques from multivariable operator theory to obtain new proofs and extensions of well known inequalities regarding the norm and the numerical radius of elementary operators defined on the C⁎" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">C⁎C⁎–algebra of all bounded operators on Hilbert space, or on the ⁎–ideal of Hilbert-Schmidt operators. In the process, we provide new insights on the study of Heinz-type inequalities related to the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality, and generalize results of several authors, including R. Bhatia, G. Corach, C. Davis, F. Kittaneh, and M.S. Moslehian. To estimate the norm, our approach …

Coupled Surface Plasmon–Phonon Polariton Nanocavity Arrays For Enhanced Mid-Infrared Absorption, Satya R. Kachiraju, Ivan Nekrashevich, Imtiaz Ahmad, Hira Farooq, Long Chang, Sangsik Kim, Myoung-Hwan Kim

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Resonant optical cavities are essential components in mid-infrared applications. However, typical film-type cavities require multilayer stacks with a micronthick spacer due to mid-infrared wavelengths, and their performance is limited by narrow frequency tunability and angular sensitivity. We propose and experimentally demonstrate the subwavelength-scale (≈��0/150) resonant nanocavity arrays that enhance the absorption spectrum of the device in the mid-infrared (10–12 microns) via excitation of coupled surface plasmon–phonon polaritons. The proposed metal–insulator–polar dielectric (gold–silicon–silicon carbide) structure supports a guided mode of the coupled surface polaritons in the lateral direction while vertically confining the mid-infrared wave

Darboux Transformation And Solitonic Solution To The Coupled Complex Short Pulse Equation, Bao-Feng Feng, Liming Ling

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

The Darboux transformation (DT) for the coupled complex short pulse (CCSP) equation is constructed through the loop group method. The DT is then utilized to construct various exact solutions including bright soliton, dark-soliton, breather and rogue wave solutions to the CCSP equation. In case of vanishing boundary condition (VBC), we perform the inverse scattering analysis to understand the soliton solution better. Breather and rogue wave solutions are constructed in case of non-vanishing boundary condition (NVBC). Moreover, we conduct a modulational instability (MI) analysis based on the method of squared eigenfunctions, whose result confirms the condition for the existence of rogue …

Irrigation Decisions In Response To Groundwater Salinity In Kansas, Juhee Lee, Nathan P. Hendricks

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Understanding the interaction between groundwater salinity and irrigation decision making has important implications for groundwater management. Econometrics models were estimated using observed farmer behavior in response to different groundwater salinity levels in a region of Kansas. Estimation results demonstrate that farmers in the face of groundwater salinity change their irrigation decisions on irrigated acreage (i.e., extensive margin), crop choice (i.e., indirect intensive margin), and water application depth (i.e., direct intensive margin). The empirical results indicate an overall decrease in water use due to higher salinity, primarily through a decrease at the extensive margin.

Production Of Distilled Spirits Using Grain Sorghum Through Liquid Fermentation, Thomas Weiss, Jikai Zhao, Ruijia Hu, Meicen Liu, Yonghui Li, Yi Zheng, Gordon Smith, Donghai Wang

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The objectives of this research were to investigate the fermentation performance of US sorghum varieties for the production of distilled spirits as well as their associated coproducts and to study the formation of volatile compounds that are related to the flavor quality of the spirits. Three US sorghum varieties (red, white, and waxy sorghums) and four yeast strains (DADY, Ethanol Red, GR-2, and 71B) were used for distilled spirit production. Both sorghum variety and type of yeast strains had effects on alcohol concentration and alcohol yield. The alcohol concentration varied from 10.26 to 11.34% (v/v) while alcohol yield varied from …

Elucidating Thermochemical Pretreatment Effectiveness Of Different Particle-Size Switchgrass For Cellulosic Ethanol Production, Jikai Zhao, Yang Yang, Meng Zhang, Charles W. Rice, Donghai Wang

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Effects of switchgrass particle sizes (pretreatments were investigated. As particle size increased, glucan, xylan, and lignin contents in raw switchgrass augmented from 30.32% to 32.02%, 18.44% to 19.03%, and 14.78% to 15.33%, respectively. Glucan and xylan (58.54–60.94% and 18.55–20.01%) contents in NaOH pretreated switchgrass and their recoveries (91.95–94.69% and 47.91–52.31%) increased. The highest glucan content (55.76%) and recovery (79.72%) in H2SO4 pretreated switchgrass were reached by middle particle size. The lowest (59.39% for H2SO4 and 58.99% for NaOH) and highest (65.23% for H2SO4 and 66.15% for NaOH) CrI values were obtained from middle and small particle sizes, respectively. …

Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations During Independence Day Fireworks Display In The Lower Rio Grande Valley Region, South Texas, Usa, Esmeralda Mendez, Owen Temby, Dawid K. Wladyka, Katarzyna Sepielak, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Fireworks are typically discharged as a mark of celebration and joy in many societies spanning various cultures. In the United States of America, 4th July is celebrated as the Independence Day when the nation overthrew the British colonial yoke in 1776. While this day instills a sense of patriotism in every American’s heart, it is also a major PM2.5 air pollution concern. This study is first of its type in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Region of South Texas, USA, that characterizes fine particulate matter pollution. Using a low-cost sensor (TSI BlueSky Air Quality Monitor), real-time PM2.5 measurements were …