Digital Commons Network^™

Patient Perceptions Of Their Own Data In Mhealth Technology–Enabled N-Of-1 Trials For Chronic Pain: Qualitative Study, Robin Whitney, Deborah Ward, Maria Marois, Christopher Schmid, Ida Sim, Richard Kravitz

Faculty Publications

Background: N-of-1 (individual comparison) trials are a promising approach for comparing the effectiveness of 2 or more treatments for individual patients; yet, few studies have qualitatively examined how patients use and make sense of their own patient-generated health data (PGHD) in the context of N-of-1 trials. Objective: The objective of our study was to explore chronic pain patients’ perceptions about the PGHD they compiled while comparing 2 chronic pain treatments and tracking their symptoms using a smartphone N-of-1 app in collaboration with their clinicians. Methods: Semistructured interviews were recorded with 33 patients, a consecutive subset of the intervention group in …

Toward Building Resilient, Sustainable, And Smart Infrastructure In The 21st Century, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

In recent years, as a result of significant climate change, stringent windstorms are becoming more frequent than before. Given the threat that windstorms bring to people and property, wind/structural engineering research is imperative to improve the resilience of existing and new infrastructure, for community safety and assets protection. The Windstorm Impact, Science and Engineering (WISE) research program at Louisiana State University (LSU) focuses on creating new knowledge applicable to the mitigation of existing and new infrastructure, to survive and perform optimally under natural hazards. To achieve our research goals, we address two imperious challenges: (i) characterization of realistic wind forces …

Finite Time Estimation Through A Continuous-Discrete Observer, Frédéric Mazenc, Saeed Ahmed, Michael Malisoff

Faculty Publications

We study two broad classes of nonlinear time-varying continuous-time systems with outputs. For the first class, we build an observer in the case where a state dependent disturbance affects the linear approximation. When the disturbances are the zero functions, our observer provides exact values of the state at all times larger than a suitable finite time, and it provides an approximate estimate when there are nonzero disturbances, so our observers are called finite time observers. We use this construction, which is of interest for its own sake, to design a globally exponentially stabilizing dynamic output feedback for a family of …

Origin Of Localization In Ti-Doped Si, Yi Zhang, R. Nelson, K. M. Tam, W. Ku, U. Yu, N. S. Vidhyadhiraja, H. Terletska, J. Moreno, M. Jarrell, T. Berlijn

Faculty Publications

Intermediate band semiconductors hold the promise to significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells but only if the intermediate impurity band is metallic. We apply a recently developed first principles method to investigate the origin of electron localization in Ti doped Si, a promising candidate for intermediate band solar cells. We compute the critical Ti concentration and compare it against the available experimental data. Although Anderson localization is often overlooked in the context of intermediate band solar cells, our results show that in Ti doped Si it plays a more important role in the metal insulator transition than Mott localization. …

Identifying Structural Changes With Unsupervised Machine Learning Methods, Nicholas Walker, Ka Ming Tam, Brian Novak, M. Jarrell

Faculty Publications

Unsupervised machine learning methods are used to identify structural changes using the melting point transition in classical molecular dynamics simulations as an example application of the approach. Dimensionality reduction and clustering methods are applied to instantaneous radial distributions of atomic configurations from classical molecular dynamics simulations of metallic systems over a large temperature range. Principal component analysis is used to dramatically reduce the dimensionality of the feature space across the samples using an orthogonal linear transformation that preserves the statistical variance of the data under the condition that the new feature space is linearly independent. From there, k-means clustering is …

The Shape Of The Orbit In Flrw Spacetimes, David Garfinkle, Lawrence R. Mead, H.I. Ringermacher

Faculty Publications

The shape of the orbit of a free particle is examined in Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmologies. The spatial projection of the orbit is time-independent and has a simple geometric description. We relate this description to the expression in terms of standard FLRW coordinates.

Departmental Action Teams: A Five-Year Update On A Model For Sustainable Change, Daniel Reinholz, Mary Pilgrim, Karen Falkenberg, Courtney Ngai, Gina Quan, Sarah Wise, Chris Geanious, Joel Corbo, Noah Finkelstein

Faculty Publications

Fostering sustainable improvements in undergraduate education remains a formidable challenge. To address this challenge, our team has developed the Departmental Action Team (DAT) model. DATs are small working groups of faculty, students, and staff, that work collaboratively to envision, plan, develop, and build sustainable structures in their department. To support the uptake of such structures, DATs collect and analyze data to reflect on the root causes of an issue, which they use to shift beliefs, values, and practices within their context. This paper provides a five-year status report on the DAT project. We describe the history of the model, its …

Stress Fluctuation, Crack Renucleation And Toughening In Layered Materials, C. J. Hsueh, L. Avellar, B. Bourdin, G. Ravichandran, K. Bhattacharya

Faculty Publications

It has been established that contrast in the elastic properties can lead to enhancement of fracture toughness in heterogeneous materials. Focussing on layered materials as a model system, we show that this enhancement is a result of two distinct phenomena – first, fluctuations in stress leading to regions where the stress intensity at the crack is considerably smaller than that of the macroscopically applied value; and second, the lack of stress intensity when a crack is at a compliant to stiff interface thereby requiring renucleation. Using theoretical, computational and experimental methods, we study two geometries – a layered material and …

A Robust Solver For A Mixed Finite Element Method For The Cahn–Hilliard Equation, Susanne C. Brenner, Amanda E. Diegel, Li Yeng Sung

Faculty Publications

We develop a robust solver for a mixed finite element convex splitting scheme for the Cahn–Hilliard equation. The key ingredient of the solver is a preconditioned minimal residual algorithm (with a multigrid preconditioner) whose performance is independent of the spacial mesh size and the time step size for a given interfacial width parameter. The dependence on the interfacial width parameter is also mild.

Information-Driven Inverse Approach To Disordered Solids: Applications To Amorphous Silicon, Dil K. Limbu, Raymond Atta-Fynn, David A. Drabold, Stephen R. Elliott, Parthapratim Biswas

Faculty Publications

© Physical Review Materials

Publisher's Version

Pva/Chitosan/Silver Nanoparticles Electrospun Nanocomposites: Molecular Relaxations Investigated By Modern Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy, Mohammad K. Hassan, Ahmed Abukmail, Alaa J. Hassiba, Kenneth A. Mauritz, Ahmed A. Elzatahry

Faculty Publications

In this study, we used broadband dielectric spectroscopy to analyze polymer nanofibers of poly(vinyl alcohol)/chitosan/silver nanoparticles. We also studied the effect of incorporating silver nanoparticles in the polymeric mat, on the chain motion dynamics and their interactions with chitosan nanofibers, and we calculated the activation energies of the sub-T_g relaxation processes. Results revealed the existence of two sub-T_g relaxations, the first gets activated at very low temperature (−90 °C) and accounts for motions of the side groups within the repeating unit such as –NH₂, –OH, and –CH₂OH in chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol). The second …

A Statistical Analysis Of Steve, Bea Gallardo‐Lacourt, Y. Nishimura, E. Donovan, G. W. Gillies, W. E. Archer, Omar A. Nava, E. L. Spanswick

Faculty Publications

There has been an exciting recent development in auroral research associated with the discovery of a new subauroral phenomenon called STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement). Although STEVE has been documented by amateur night sky watchers for decades, it is as yet an unidentified upper atmosphere phenomenon. Observed first by amateur auroral photographers, STEVE appears as a narrow luminous structure across the night sky over thousands of kilometers in the east‐west direction. In this paper, we present the first statistical analysis of the properties of 28 STEVE events identified using Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) …

Current Caco3 Dissolution At The Seafloor Caused By Anthropogenic Co2, David Trossman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of Engineering Design Cognition And Achievement In Primary School, Greg J. Strimel, Scott R. Bartholomew, Eunhye Kim, Liwei Zhang

Faculty Publications

This study examined the design cognition and achievement results of both kindergarten and fourth grade students engaged in engineering design-based instructional activities. Relationships between design cognition and student grade level, as well as quality of student work, were investigated. 30 concurrent think-aloud protocols were collected from individual primary students as they worked in groups to design and make a solution to a design task. The concurrent think-aloud protocols were examined and coded to determine the duration of time the participants devoted to a pre-established set of mental processes for technological problem solving. Significant differences between kindergarten and fourth grade participants …

Characterization Of Embyronic Stem Cell-Differentiated Fibroblasts As Mesenchymal Stem Cells With Robust Expansion Capacity And Attenuated Innate Immunity, William D'Angelo, Bohan Chen, Chandan Gurung, Yan-Lin Guo

Faculty Publications

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from adult tissues (Ad-MSCs) have shown great promise for use in regenerative medicine. However, their poor in vitro expansion capacity and tissue scarcity have been major limitations. In this study, we demonstrate that mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) can differentiate into cells with MSC properties.

Methods: Using previously established methods that characterize Ad-MSCs, we analyzed mESC-differentiated fibroblasts (mESC-FBs), including plastic adherence, clonogenic growth, MSC marker expression, tri-lineage differentiation potential, and the capacity to express immunomodulators.

Results: Although previously characterized as mESC-differentiated fibroblasts (mESC-FBs), these cells exhibit major properties of Ad-MSCs. However, …

Modification Of Asphalt Rubber With Nanoclay Towards Enhanced Storage Stability, Song-Yi Park, Minji Kang, Lynne Wilkens, Yurii Shvetsov, Brook Harmon, Nitin Shivappa, Michael Wirth, James R. Hébert, Christopher Haiman, Loïc Le Marchand, Carol Boushey

Faculty Publications

Asphalt rubber (AR), which is prepared by blending crumb rubber and bitumen, provides various advantages, including superior rutting resistance, lower road-tire noise and longer service life. However, contractors have expressed concerns regarding its poor storage stability, which in turn limits its wider application. This study aims to address the storage stability concern by incorporating nano-montmorillonite (nanoclay). Three types of nanoclay were dispersed into hot AR binder by high shear blending. The rheological properties of nanoclay-crumb rubber modifier (CRM)-modified bitumen were evaluated through Superpave performance grade (PG) tests and the storage stability was characterized by measuring the difference in softening points …

Search For Cp Violation In Neutrino And Antineutrino Oscillations By The T2k Experiment With 2.2×1021 Protons On Target, K. Abe, R. Akutsu, A. Ali, J. Amey, C. Andreopoulos, L. Anthony, M. Antonova, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, Y. Ashida, Y. Azuma, S. Ban, M. Barbi, G. J. Barker, G. Barr, C. Barry, M. Batkiewicz, F. Bench, V. Berardi, S. Berkman, R. M. Berner, L. Berns, S. Bhadra, S. Bienstock, A. Blondel, S. Bolognesi, B. Bourguille, S. B. Boyd

Faculty Publications

The T2K experiment measures muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance in accelerator-produced neutrino and antineutrino beams. With an exposure of 14.7(7.6)×1020 protons on target in the neutrino (antineutrino) mode, 89 νe candidates and seven anti-νe candidates are observed, while 67.5 and 9.0 are expected for δCP=0 and normal mass ordering. The obtained 2σ confidence interval for the CP-violating phase, δCP, does not include the CP-conserving cases (δCP=0, π). The best-fit values of other parameters are sin2θ23=0.526-0.036+0.032 and Δm322=2.463-0.070+0.071×10-3 eV2/c4.

Estimation Of Atmospheric Turbulence Using Differential Motion Of Extended Features In Time-Lapse Imagery, Santasri R. Bose-Pillai, Jack E. Mccrae, Christopher A. Rice, Ryan A. Wood, Conner E. Murphy, Steven T. Fiorino

Faculty Publications

We address the design, development, and testing of a pointer/tracker as a probe beam for the purpose of making high-speed, aero-optical measurements of the flow over a scaled beam director turret. The tracker uses retro-reflection of the probe beam off of a Reflexite annulus surrounding the turret. The constraints of the design required a near-total-commercial off the shelf system that could be quickly installed and removed in a rented aircraft. Baseline measurements of environmental vibrations are used to predict pointing performance; mitigation of line-of-sight jitter on the probe beam is achieved through passive isolation and the design of relay optics. …

Proton Therapy For Adults With Mediastinal Lymphomas: The International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group Guidelines, Bouthaina Shbib Dabaja, Bradford S. Hoppe, John P. Plastaras, Wayne Newhauser, Katerina Rosolova, Stella Flampouri, Radhe Mohan, N. George Mikhaeel, Youlia Kirova, Lena Specht, Joachim Yahalom

Faculty Publications

Among adult lymphoma survivors, radiation treatment techniques that increase the excess radiation dose to organs at risk (OARs) put patients at risk for increased side effects, especially late toxicities. Minimizing radiation to OARs in adults patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas involving the mediastinum is the deciding factor for the choice of treatment modality. Proton therapy may help to reduce the radiation dose to the OARs and reduce toxicities, especially the risks for cardiac morbidity and second cancers. Becauseproton therapymay have some disadvantages, identifying the patients and the circumstances that may benefit the most from proton therapy is important. We …

A Note On The Knot Floer Homology Of Fibered Knots, John A. Baldwin, David Shea Vela-Vick

Faculty Publications

We prove that the knot Floer homology of a fibered knot is nontrivial in its next-to-top Alexander grading. Immediate applications include new proofs of Krcatovich’s result that knots with L–space surgeries are prime and Hedden and Watson’s result that the rank of knot Floer homology detects the trefoil among knots in the 3–sphere. We also generalize the latter result, proving a similar theorem for nullhomologous knots in any 3–manifold. We note that our method of proof inspired Baldwin and Sivek’s recent proof that Khovanov homology detects the trefoil. As part of this work, we also introduce a numerical refinement of …

Metallo-Polyelectrolytes As A Class Of Ionic Macromolecules For Functional Materials, Tianyu Zhu, Ye Sha, Jing Yan, Parasmani Pageni, Md Anisur Rahman, Yi Yan, Chuanbing Tang

Faculty Publications

The fields of soft polymers and macromolecular sciences have enjoyed a unique combination of metals and organic frameworks in the name of metallopolymers or organometallic polymers. When metallopolymers carry charged groups, they form a class of metal-containing polyelectrolytes or metallo-polyelectrolytes. This review identifies the unique properties and functions of metallo-polyelectrolytes compared with conventional organo-polyelectrolytes, in the hope of shedding light on the formation of functional materials with intriguing applications and potential benefits. It concludes with a critical perspective on the challenges and hurdles for metallo-polyelectrolytes, especially experimental quantitative analysis and theoretical modeling of ionic binding.

Observation Of Inclined Eev Air Showers With The Radio Detector Of The Pierre Auger Observatory, A. Aab, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta, I. F.M. Albuquerque, J. M. Albury, I. Allekotte, A. Almela, J. Alvarez Castillo, J. Alvarez-Muñiz, G. A. Anastasi, L. Anchordoqui, B. Andrada, S. Andringa, C. Aramo, N. Arsene, H. Asorey, P. Assis, G. Avila, A. M. Badescu, A. Balaceanu, F. Barbato, R. J.Barreira Luz, S. Baur, K. H. Becker, J. A. Bellido, C. Berat, M. E. Bertaina, X. Bertou, P. L. Biermann, J. Biteau, S. G. Blaess, A. Blanco, J. Blazek

Faculty Publications

With the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we have observed the radio emission from 561 extensive air showers with zenith angles between 60 and 84. In contrast to air showers with more vertical incidence, these inclined air showers illuminate large ground areas of several km2 with radio signals detectable in the 30 to 80 MHz band. A comparison of the measured radio-signal amplitudes with Monte Carlo simulations of a subset of 50 events for which we reconstruct the energy using the Auger surface detector shows agreement within the uncertainties of the current analysis. As expected …

Controlling Refractionusing Sub-Wavelength Resonators, Yue Chen, Robert Lipton

Faculty Publications

We construct metamaterials from sub-wavelength nonmagnetic resonators and consider the refraction of incoming signals traveling from free space into the metamaterial. We show that the direction of the transmitted signal is a function of its center frequency and bandwidth. The directionality of the transmitted signal and its frequency dependence is shown to be explicitly controlled by sub-wavelength resonances that can be calculated from the geometry of the sub-wavelength scatters. We outline how to construct a medium with both positive and negative index properties across different frequency bands in the near infrared and optical regime.

Deconstruction And Conditional Erasure Of Quantum Correlations, Mario Berta, Fernando G.S.L. Brandaõ, Christian Majenz, Mark M. Wilde

Faculty Publications

We define the deconstruction cost of a tripartite quantum state on systems ABE as the minimum rate of noise needed to apply to the AE systems, such that there is negligible disturbance to the marginal state on the BE systems, while the system A of the resulting state is locally recoverable from the E system alone. We refer to such actions as deconstruction operations and protocols implementing them as state deconstruction protocols. State deconstruction generalizes Landauer erasure of a single-party quantum state as well the erasure of correlations of a two-party quantum state. We find that the deconstruction cost of …

Wide-Field Kinematics Of Globular Clusters In The Leo I Group (Corrigendum), G. Bergond, S. Zepf, Aaron Romanowsky, R. Sharples, K. Rhode

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cactusnets: Layer Applicability As A Metric For Transfer Learning, Edward Collier, Robert Dibiano, Supratik Mukhopadhyay

Faculty Publications

Deep neural networks trained over large datasets learn features that are both generic to the whole dataset, and specific to individual classes in the dataset. Learned features tend towards generic in the lower layers and specific in the higher layers of a network. Methods like fine-tuning are made possible because of the ability for one filter to apply to multiple target classes. Much like the human brain this behavior, can also be used to cluster and separate classes. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no metric for how applicable learned features are to specific classes. In this …

Unexpected Effects Of Inorganic Phosphate Glass On Crystallization And Thermo-Rheological Behavior Of Polyethylene Terephthalate, Kyoungtae Kim, Shahab Kashani Rahimi, Todd M. Alam, Eric G. Sorte, Joshua U. Otaigbe

Faculty Publications

The effects of ultra-low glass transition temperature (T_g) phosphate glass (Pglass) on the thermal, morphological, rheological, mechanical, and crystallization properties of hybrid Pglass/poly(eththylene terephthalate)(PET) were investigated. Nano- and micro-scale distribution of the Pglass in the PET polymer matrix was observed. The polydispersed Pglass in the PET matrix functioned as a nucleation agent, resulting in increasing crystallization temperature. The Pglass in the PET matrix decreased the T_g, indicating a plasticizing effect of the Pglass in the hybrids that was confirmed by the significantly decreased complex viscosity of the PET matrix. In addition, with increasing temperature, a non-terminal …

Applications Of Position-Based Coding To Classical Communication Over Quantum Channels, Haoyu Qi, Qingle Wang, Mark M. Wilde

Faculty Publications

Recently, a coding technique called position-based coding has been used to establish achievability statements for various kinds of classical communication protocols that use quantum channels. In the present paper, we apply this technique in the entanglement-assisted setting in order to establish lower bounds for error exponents, lower bounds on the second-order coding rate, and one-shot lower bounds. We also demonstrate that position-based coding can be a powerful tool for analyzing other communication settings. In particular, we reduce the quantum simultaneous decoding conjecture for entanglement-assisted or unassisted communication over a quantum multiple access channel to open questions in multiple quantum hypothesis …

Search For The Lepton-Flavour Violating Decays B0→K∗0Μ ± E ∓, S. Sandilya, K. Trabelsi, A.J. Schwartz, I. Adachi, H. Aihara, S. Al Said, D. M. Asner, H. Atmacan, V. Aulchenko, T. Aushev, R. Ayad, V. Babu, I. Badhrees, S. Bahinipati, A. M. Bakich, V. Bansal, P. Behera, C. Beleño, V. Bhardwaj, B. Bhuyan, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

We have searched for the lepton-flavor-violating decay B⁰ → K^*0μ ^±e∓ using a data sample of 711 fb⁻¹ that contains 772 × 10⁶ B B̅ pairs. The data were collected near the ϒð4SÞresonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy eþe− collider. No signals were observed, and we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions of B(B⁰ →K^*0μ⁺e⁻)<1.2×10⁻⁷, B(B⁰ → K^*0μ⁻e⁺) < 1.6 × 10⁻⁷, and, for both decays combined, B(B⁰ → K …

Equiangular Tight Frames From Group Divisible Designs, Matthew C. Fickus, John Jasper

Faculty Publications

An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a type of optimal packing of lines in a real or complex Hilbert space. In the complex case, the existence of an ETF of a given size remains an open problem in many cases. In this paper, we observe that many of the known constructions of ETFs are of one of two types. We further provide a new method for combining a given ETF of one of these two types with an appropriate group divisible design (GDD) in order to produce a larger ETF of the same type. By applying this method to known …