Potential Gravitational Wave Signatures Of Quantum Gravity, Ivan Agullo, Vitor Cardoso, Adrián Del Rio, Michele Maggiore, Jorge Pullin

Faculty Publications

We show that gravitational wave astronomy has the potential to inform us on quantum aspects of black holes. Based on Bekenstein's quantization, we find that black hole area discretization could impart observable imprints to the gravitational wave signal from a pair of merging black holes, affecting their absorption properties during inspiral and their late-time relaxation after merger. In contrast with previous results, we find that black hole rotation, ubiquitous in astrophysics, improves our ability to probe quantum effects. Our analysis shows that gravitational wave echoes and suppressed tidal heating are signs of new physics from which the fundamental quantum of …

Aircraft-Based Inversions Quantify The Importance Of Wetlands And Livestock For Upper Midwest Methane Emissions, Xueying Yu, Dylan B. Millet, Kelley C. Wells, Daven K. Henze, Hansen Cao, Timothy J. Griffis, Eric A. Kort, Genevieve Plant, Malte J. Deventer, Randall K. Kolka, D. Tyler Roman, Kenneth J. Davis, Ankur R. Desai, Bianca C. Baier, Kathryn Mckain, Alan C. Czarnetzki, A. Anthony Bloom

Faculty Publications

We apply airborne measurements across three seasons (summer, winter and spring 2017-2018) in a multi-inversion framework to quantify methane emissions from the US Corn Belt and Upper Midwest, a key agricultural and wetland source region. Combing our seasonal results with prior fall values we find that wetlands are the largest regional methane source (32 %, 20 [16-23] Gg/d), while livestock (enteric/manure; 25 %, 15 [14-17] Gg/d) are the largest anthropogenic source. Natural gas/petroleum, waste/landfills, and coal mines collectively make up the remainder. Optimized fluxes improve model agreement with independent datasets within and beyond the study timeframe. Inversions reveal coherent and …

Covariance Of The Extended Holonomy, Rodolfo Gambini, Jorge Pullin, Aureliano Skirzewski

Faculty Publications

It has been pointed out that the holonomy of generic extended loops is not gauge covariant. We show how to define a family of extended loops for which previous criticism does not apply. We also give sufficient conditions that extended loops must satisfy in order to yield covariant holonomies. This makes a quantum representation for Yang-Mills theories and gravity based on extended loops viable.

Patterns Of Relative And Quantitative Abundances Of Marine Bacteria In Surface Waters Of The Subtropical Northwest Pacific Ocean Estimated With High-Throughput Quantification Sequencing, Jie Kong, Xin Liu, Lei Wang, Hao Huang, Danyun Ou, Jiayu Guo, Edward A. Laws, Bangqin Huang

Faculty Publications

Bacteria play a pivotal role in shaping ecosystems and contributing to elemental cycling and energy flow in the oceans. However, few studies have focused on bacteria at a trans-basin scale, and studies across the subtropical Northwest Pacific Ocean (NWPO), one of the largest biomes on Earth, have been especially lacking. Although the recently developed high-throughput quantitative sequencing methodology can simultaneously provide information on relative abundance, quantitative abundance, and taxonomic affiliations, it has not been thoroughly evaluated. We collected surface seawater samples for high-throughput, quantitative sequencing of 16S rRNA genes on a transect across the subtropical NWPO to elucidate the distribution …

Supporting The Inclusion Of Socially Vulnerable Early Adolescents: Theory And Illustrations Of The Base Model, Thomas W. Farmer, Brittany I. Sterrett, Kate E. Norwalk, Chen-Chih Chen, Molly Dawes Ph.D., Jill V. Hamm, David L. Lee, Adaline G. Farmer

Faculty Publications

We focus on the inclusion of socially vulnerable early adolescents including students with special education needs (SEN). Building from multiple intervention and randomized control trials of a professional development model aimed at supporting teachers' management of the classroom social context, we provide an overview of the Behavioral, Academic, and Social Engagement (BASE) Model as a framework to foster social inclusion. We briefly review the conceptual foundations of this model and we present the delivery (i.e., directed consultation, the scouting report process) and content (i.e., Academic Engagement Enhancement, Competence Enhancement Behavior Management, Social Dynamics Management) components of BASE. We then briefly …

Development Of A Modular Mixed-Radiation Directional Rotating Scatter Mask Detection System, Bryan V. Egner, Darren E. Holland, Larry W. Burggraf, James E. Bevins

Faculty Publications

The ability to simultaneously identify the direction of both fast neutrons, above 1 MeV, and gamma rays using a light-weight system consisting of a single 1” EJ-309 organic liquid scintillator and a plastic Spartan rotating scatter mask (RSM) is demonstrated computationally through Monte Carlo simulations and validated with experimental measurements. Two sets of directional measurements were performed with an americium–beryllium source, emitting both neutrons and gamma rays. The RSM identified the direction of the source within one 10° rotational increment in the azimuthal and polar directions based on both the neutron and gamma-ray induced signals discriminated by charge integration pulse-shape …

Effects Of Spatial Variability On The Exposure Of Fish To Hypoxia: A Modeling Analysis For The Gulf Of Mexico, Elizabeth D. Labone, Kenneth A. Rose, Dubravko Justic, Haosheng Huang, Lixia Wang

Faculty Publications

The hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico varies spatially (area, location) and temporally (onset, duration) on multiple scales. Exposure of fish to hypoxic dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations (

Trends In Growth Modeling In Fisheries Science, Shane A. Flinn, Stephen R. Midway

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Accuracy Assessment Of Global Internal-Tide Models Using Satellite Altimetry, Loren Carrere, Brian K. Arbic, Brian Dushaw, Gary Egbert, Svetlana Erofeeva, Florent Lyard, Richard D. Ray, Clement Ubelmann, Edward Zaron, Zhongxiang Zhao, Jay F. Shriver, Maarten Cornelis Buijsman, Nicolas Picot

Faculty Publications

Altimeter measurements are corrected for several geophysical parameters in order to access ocean signals of interest, like mesoscale or sub-mesoscale variability. The ocean tide is one of the most critical corrections due to the amplitude of the tidal elevations and to the aliasing phenomena of high-frequency signals into the lower-frequency band, but the internal-tide signatures at the ocean surface are not yet corrected globally.

Internal tides can have a signature of several centimeters at the surface with wavelengths of about 50–250 km for the first mode and even smaller scales for higher-order modes. The goals of the upcoming Surface Water …

Topsentinol L Trisulfate, A Marine Natural Product That Targets Basal-Like And Claudin-Low Breast Cancers, Nader N. El-Chaar, Thomas E. Smith, Gajendra Shrestha, Stephen R. Piccolo, Mary Kay Harper, Ryan M. Van Wagoner, Zhenyu Lu, Ashlee R. Venancio, Chris M. Ireland, Andrea H. Bild, Philip J. Moos

Faculty Publications

Patients diagnosed with basal-like breast cancer suffer from poor prognosis and limited treatment options. There is an urgent need to identify new targets that can benefit patients with basal-like and claudin-low (BL-CL) breast cancers. We screened fractions from our Marine Invertebrate Compound Library (MICL) to identify compounds that specifically target BL-CL breast cancers. We identified a previously unreported trisulfated sterol, i.e., topsentinol L trisulfate (TLT), which exhibited increased efficacy against BL-CL breast cancers relative to luminal/HER2+ breast cancer. Biochemical investigation of the effects of TLT on BL-CL cell lines revealed its ability to inhibit activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) …

Asymptotic Security Of Discrete-Modulation Protocols For Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution, Eneet Kaur, Saikat Guha, Mark M. Wilde

Faculty Publications

We consider discrete-modulation protocols for continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) that employ a modulation constellation consisting of a finite number of coherent states and that use a homodyne- or a heterodyne-detection receiver. We establish a security proof for collective attacks in the asymptotic regime, and we provide a formula for an achievable secret-key rate. Previous works established security proofs for discrete-modulation CV-QKD protocols that use two or three coherent states. The main constituents of our approach include approximating a complex, isotropic Gaussian probability distribution by a finite-size Gauss-Hermite constellation, applying entropic continuity bounds, and leveraging previous security proofs for Gaussian-modulation …

The Barley Hvwrky6 Transcription Factor Is Required For Resistance Against Pyrenophora Teres F. Teres, Prabin Tamang, Jonathan K. Richards, Shyam Solanki, Gazala Ameen, Roshan Sharma Poudel, Priyanka Deka, Karl Effertz, Shaun J. Clare, Justin Hegstad, Achintya Bezbaruah, Xuehui Li, Richard D. Horsley, Timothy L. Friesen, Robert S. Brueggeman

Faculty Publications

Barley is an important cereal crop worldwide because of its use in the brewing and distilling industry. However, adequate supplies of quality malting barley are threatened by global climate change due to drought in some regions and excess precipitation in others, which facilitates epidemics caused by fungal pathogens. The disease net form net blotch caused by the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Pyrenophora teres f. teres (Ptt) has emerged as a global threat to barley production and diverse populations of Ptt have shown a capacity to overcome deployed genetic resistances. The barley line CI5791 exhibits remarkably effective resistance to diverse Ptt isolates …

Identify Rna-Associated Subcellular Localizations Based On Multi-Label Learning Using Chou’S 5-Steps Rule, Hao Wang, Yijie Ding, Jijun Tang Ph.D., Quan Zou, Fei Guo

Faculty Publications

Background: Biological functions of biomolecules rely on the cellular compartments where they are located in cells. Importantly, RNAs are assigned in specific locations of a cell, enabling the cell to implement diverse biochemical processes in the way of concurrency. However, lots of existing RNA subcellular localization classifiers only solve the problem of single-label classification. It is of great practical significance to expand RNA subcellular localization into multi-label classification problem.

Results: In this study, we extract multi-label classification datasets about RNA-associated subcellular localizations on various types of RNAs, and then construct subcellular localization datasets on four RNA categories. In order to …

Rapid Spectral Variability Of A Giant Flare From A Magnetar In Ngc 253, O. J. Roberts, P. Veres, M. G. Baring, M. S. Briggs, C. Kouveliotou, E. Bissaldi, G. Younes, S. I. Chastain, J. J. Delaunay, D. Huppenkothen, A. Tohuvavohu, P. N. Bhat, E. Göğüş, A. J. Van Der Horst, J. A. Kennea, D. Kocevski, J. D. Linford, S. Guiriec, R. Hamburg, C. A. Wilson-Hodge, E. Burns

Faculty Publications

Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields (1013 to 1015 gauss)1,2, which episodically emit X-ray bursts approximately 100 milliseconds long and with energies of 1040 to 1041 erg. Occasionally, they also produce extremely bright and energetic giant flares, which begin with a short (roughly 0.2 seconds), intense flash, followed by fainter, longer-lasting emission that is modulated by the spin period of the magnetar3,4 (typically 2 to 12 seconds). Over the past 40 years, only three such flares have been observed in our local group of galaxies3–6, and in all cases the extreme intensity of the flares caused the …

A Burkholderia Thailandensis Deda Family Membrane Protein Is Required For Proton Motive Force Dependent Lipid A Modification, Pradip R. Panta, William T. Doerrler

Faculty Publications

The DedA family is a conserved membrane protein family found in most organisms. A Burkholderia thailandensis DedA family protein, named DbcA, is required for high-level colistin (polymyxin E) resistance, but the mechanism awaits elucidation. Modification of lipopolysaccharide lipid A with the cationic sugar aminoarabinose (Ara4N) is required for colistin resistance and is dependent upon protonmotive force (PMF) dependent transporters. B. thailandensis ΔdbcA lipid A contains only small amounts of Ara4N, likely leading to colistin sensitivity. Two B. thailandensis operons are required for lipid A modification with Ara4N, one needed for biosynthesis of undecaprenyl-P-Ara4N and one for transport of the lipid …

Journal Of Water Sanitation And Hygiene For Development Use Of Single Particle Icp-Ms To Estimate Silver Nanoparticle Penetration Through Baby Porcine Mucosa, Ilaria Zanoni, Matteo Crosera, Elena Pavoni, Gianpiero Adami, Marcella Mauro, Anna Luisa Costa, Jamie Lead, Francesca Larese

Faculty Publications

Children are potentially exposed to products that contain nanoparticles (NPs). In particular, silver NPs are commonly present both in products used by and around children, primarily due to their antibacterial properties. However, very few data are available regarding the ability of silver NPs to penetrate through the oral mucosa in children. In the present work, we used baby porcine buccal mucosa mounted on vertical Franz diffusion cells, as an in vitro model to investigate penetration of silver NPs (19 ± 5 nm). Permeability experiments were performed using pristine physiologically-relevant saline solution in the receiver chamber and known concentrations of NPs …

Use Of Single Particle Icp-Ms To Estimate Silver Nanoparticle Penetration Through Baby Porcine Mucosa, Ilaria Zanoni, Matteo Crosera, Elena Pavoni, Gianpiero Adami, Marcella Mauro, Anna Luisa Costa, Jamie Lead, Francesca Larese Filon

Faculty Publications

Children are potentially exposed to products that contain nanoparticles (NPs). In particular, silver NPs are commonly present both in products used by and around children, primarily due to their antibacterial properties. However, very few data are available regarding the ability of silver NPs to penetrate through the oral mucosa in children. In the present work, we used baby porcine buccal mucosa mounted on vertical Franz diffusion cells, as an in vitro model to investigate penetration of silver NPs (19 ± 5 nm). Permeability experiments were performed using pristine physiologically-relevant saline solution in the receiver chamber and known concentrations of NPs …

Search For Slow Magnetic Monopoles With The Nova Detector On The Surface, M. A. Acero, P. Adamson, L. Aliaga, T. Alion, V. Allakhverdian, N. Anfimov, A. Antoshkin, E. Arrieta-Diaz, L. Asquith, A. Aurisano, A. Back, C. Backhouse, M. Biard, N. Balashov, P. Baldi, B. A. Bambah, S. Bashar, K. Bays, S. Bending, R. Bernstein, Roberto Petti, Sanjib R. Mishra Ph.D., Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

We report a search for a magnetic monopole component of the cosmic-ray flux in a 95-day exposure of the NOvA experiment’s Far Detector, a 14 kt segmented liquid scintillator detector designed primarily to observe GeV-scale electron neutrinos. No events consistent with monopoles were observed, setting an upper limit on the flux of 2 × 10⁻¹⁴ cm⁻² s⁻¹ sr⁻¹ at 90% C.L. for monopole speed 6 × 10⁻⁴ < β < 5 × 10⁻³ and mass greater than 5 × 10⁸ GeV. Because of NOvA’s small overburden of 3 meters-water equivalent, this constraint covers a previously unexplored low-mass region.

Label-Free Lipidome Study Of Paraventricular Thalamic Nucleus (Pvt) Of Rat Brain With Post-Traumatic Stress Injury By Raman Imaging, Ardalan Chaichi, Syed Mohammad Abid Hasan, Nishir Mehta, Fabrizio Donnarumma, Philip Ebenezer, Kermit K. Murray, Joseph Francis, Manas Ranjan Gartia

Faculty Publications

© 2021 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a widespread psychiatric injury that develops serious life-threatening symptoms like substance abuse, severe depression, cognitive impairments, and persistent anxiety. However, the mechanisms of post-traumatic stress injury in brain are poorly understood due to the lack of practical methods to reveal biochemical alterations in various brain regions affected by this type of injury. Here, we introduce a novel method that provides quantitative results from Raman maps in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) region. By means of this approach, we have shown a lipidome comparison in PVT regions …

Impact Of Adverse Childhood Events On The Psychosocial Functioning Of Children Affected By Parental Hiv In Rural China, Jordan Ezell, Sayward E. Harrison, Yanping Jiang, Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Children affected by parental HIV are more likely than unaffected peers to experience trauma and are at-risk for negative psychological and social outcomes. This study aimed to examine the relationship between adverse childhood events and psychosocial functioning among children affected by parental HIV.

Methods: A total of 790 children ages 6–17 from Henan, China were enrolled in a longitudinal, randomized controlled trial of a resilience-based psychosocial intervention. At baseline, children reported on numerous psychosocial factors, including trauma exposure, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and peer social functioning. We used linear regression analysis to test the direct effect of trauma …

The Effects Of Spiritual Experience And Church Commitment Among South Korean Young Adult Immigrants In The United States: A Mixed-Methods Study, Chulwoo Park, Mark Edberg

Faculty Publications

Background

Korean American immigrants have become one of the largest Asian American ethnic group in the United States, and Christianity have been preserving their ethnic identities. However, little is known if church commitment is associated with developing emotional well-being and work capacity. The study aims to understand the attachment to church and its effect on level of emotional well-being and work (or school) performance among South Korean young adult immigrants who have a strong faith in Christianity.

Methods

A sequential, mixed-methods study examined two dimensions of church attachment, level of religious belief and involvement in church activities. A total of …

The Tensile Root Strength Of Spartina Patens Declines With Exposure To Multiple Stressors, R. Eugene Turner, Lauris O. Hollis

Faculty Publications

Coastal wetlands may be subjected to numerous biotic and abiotic stressors from natural and anthropogenic forces in the landscape. The influx of nutrients, inorganic compounds and xenobiotics are suspected of degrading the belowground biomass of coastal macrophytes. Spartina patens acts as an ecosystem engineer for lower salinity coastal marshes and its biomechanical properties are vital to the stability and resilience of coastal wetlands. S.patens was exposed to one natural (flooding) and two anthropogenic stressors (atrazine and nutrient addition) in a greenhouse experiment to test the hypothesis that these three stressors reduce the tensile root strength of S. patens. A one-way …

Contact Stress In Helical Bevel Gears, Edward E. Osakue, Lucky Anetor, Kendall Harris

Faculty Publications

Helical bevel gears have inclined or twisted teeth on a conical surface and the common types are skew, spiral, zerol, and hypoid bevel gears. However, this study does not include hypoid bevel gears. Due to the geometric complexities of bevel gears, commonly used methods in their design are based on the concept of equivalent or virtual spur gear. The approach in this paper is based on the following assumptions, a) the helix angle of helical bevel gears is equal to mean spiral angle, b) the pitch diameter at the backend is defined as that of a helical gear, and c) …

Neuroprotective Effects Of Asparagus Officinalis Stem Extract In Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Amyloid Precursor Protein, Zhanglong Peng, Supinder Bedi, Vivek Mann, Alamelu Sundaresan, Kohei Homma, Gregory Gaskey, Minoru Kowada, Shahid Umar, Anil D. Kulkarni, Holger K. Eltzschig, Marie Francoise Doursout

Faculty Publications

To mimic Alzheimer's disease, transgenic mice overexpressing the amyloid precursor protein (APP) were used in this study. We hypothesize that the neuroprotective effects of ETAS®50, a standardized extract of Asparagus officinalis stem produced by Amino Up Co., Ltd. (Sapporo, Japan), are linked to the inhibition of the apoptosis cascade through an enhancement of the stress-response proteins: heat shock proteins (HSPs). APP-overexpressing mice (double-transgenic APP and PS1 mouse strains with a 129s6 background), ages 6-8 weeks old, and weighing 20-24 grams were successfully bred in our laboratory. The animals were divided into 5 groups. APP-overexpressing mice and wild-type (WT) mice were …

Pitting Strength Estimate For Cast Iron And Copper Alloy Materials, Edward E. Osakue, Lucky Anetor, Kendall Harris

Faculty Publications

An attempt is made to predict the pitting strength of cast iron and copper alloy materials from their compressive yield or compressive proof strength for a reliability of 99% at 107load cycles. The compressive yield or compressive proof strength is related to the tensile strength of ductile cast iron and copper alloy materials by a proportionality factor. Two proportionality factors are used for brittle cast iron materials. The pitting strength formulation incorporates a nominal design factor at 99% reliability which is estimated from a probabilistic model based on the lognormal probability density function. Pitting strength estimates from the predictions are …

Pittsburgh, The Realest City: Shit Talk’N, Storytell’N, Social Liv’N, Jacqueline Roebuck Sakho

Faculty Publications

This article documents my lived experience as a participant observer in a writing/performance course that brought together returning citizens, police officers, community activists, university students and faculty. I am utilizing Hoffman’s (2004) “Living Stories” framework and Cutts’ (2016) expansion of Poetic Inquiry to present “Ars Spirituality” as the lens to frame the discussion of my storytelling and storiography experience. Curated by Duquesne University sociologist Norman Conti, with theoretical justification from C. Wright Mills and Erving Goffman, the course was co-facilitated by award-winning actor/writer Roger Guenveur Smith and world-renowned writing coach and performer Susan Stein over Zoom video conferencing …

Creating Space For Community Representation In Police Reform, Ayesha Bell Hardaway

Faculty Publications

Input from affected communities is an essential component of the reform process aimed at remedying unconstitutional police practices. Yet, no court in DOJ-initiated police reform consent decree cases has ever granted a community organization’s motion to intervene as a matter of right. Judicial opinions in those cases have largely truncated the Federal Civil Rule 24 analysis when evaluating the interests of impacted communities. Thus, the most success achieved by a small few has been permissive intervention or amici status. The models used by the Department of Justice to elicit the community perspective have largely been frustrating and have failed to …

Signs And Christology In John 6:1-21 In Light Of Jewish And Greco-Roman Frames Of Reference: Prophet, King, And Revealer Of God, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hurricane Irma Induces Divergent Behavioral And Hormonal Impacts On An Urban And Forest Population Of Invasive Anolis Lizards: Evidence For An Urban Resilience Hypothesis, Haralambos Fokidis, Taylor Brock

Faculty Publications

Hurricanes can have both profound short-term effects on animal populations and serve as long-term drivers of evolutionary change. Animals inhabiting varying habitats may differ in their response to hurricane impacts. Increasing evidence sug- gests that animals from urban areas exhibit different behavioral and physiological traits compared to rural counterparts, in- cluding attenuated hormonal stress responses and a lowered propensity for flight behavior. A unique opportunity was pre- sented when Hurricane Irma hit Florida on 10 September 2017 and interrupted a study of invasive brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) at an urban and a forest. Using data collected before and after Hurricane …

Buddhas And Body Language: The Literary Trope Of The Buddha's Smile, David Fiordalis

Faculty Publications

This essay explores how classical Buddhist literature, across a variety of traditional genres, portrays the wondrous smile of the Buddha. Despite its literary register, the Buddha’s smile is first and foremost a nonverbal gesture, and if we are to understand its significance, then we must employ a theoretical approach that treats it as such. Multimodality provides such an approach. While an emergent body of psychological research has argued that the smile is a universal human gesture connected to a rather limited set of emotional states like happiness, the recognition that smiles can be voluntary acts highlights the importance of situational …