Digital Commons Network^™

Aspects Of The Equivalence Between The FΜ And C Vμ Terms In Lorentz-Violating Quantum Field Theory, Sapan Karki, Brett David Altschul

Faculty Publications

It is known that in Lorentz-violating effective field theory, there is a classical equivalence between certain coefficients (c and f), in spite of the fact that the operators of the two types of coefficients described appear to have opposite behaviors under CPT. This paper is a continuation of previous work extending this equivalence to the quantum level: generalizing the explicit spinorial point transformations that interconvert the c and f terms; demonstrating that the transformations do not give rise to any additional anomaly terms as the quantum level; and giving explicit prescriptions for modifying the C, P, and T operators in …

Resilience Resources And Coping Strategies Of Covid-19 Female Long Haulers: A Qualitative Study, Atefeh Aghaei, Abhishek Aggarwal, Ran Zhang, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Shan Qiao Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background: Female long haulers deal with persistent post-acute COVID-19 symptoms that have serious health implications. This study aimed to identify resilience resources at multiple socio-ecological levels for female long haulers and describe how resilience resources affect their responses to long COVID. Methods: Purposive sampling was adopted to recruit participants through social media from April to June 2021 followed by 15 semi-structured interviews. An inductive analytical approach was adopted to categorize themes by open and axial coding that were verified by peer review. Results: Female long haulers relied on resources at various socio-ecological levels to foster their resilience in response to …

Crafting Effective Regulatory Policies For Psychedelics: What Can Be Learned From The Case Of Cannabis?, Amanda J. Abraham, Christina M. Andrews Ph.D., Samantha J. Harris, Melissa M. Westlake, Colleen M. Grogan

Faculty Publications

Importance: Medicaid is a key policy lever to improve opioid use disorder treatment, covering approximately 40% of Americans with opioid use disorder. Although approximately 70% of Medicaid beneficiaries are enrolled in comprehensive managed care organization (MCO) plans, little is known about coverage and prior authorization (PA) policies for medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in these plans. Objective: To compare coverage and PA policies for buprenorphine, methadone, and injectable naltrexone across Medicaid MCO plans and fee-for-service (FFS) programs and across states. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study analyzed MOUD data from 266 Medicaid MCO plans and FFS programs in …

Online-Delivered Over Staff-Delivered Parenting Intervention For Young Children With Disruptive Behavior Problems: Cost-Minimization Analysis, Justin B. Ingels, Phaedra S. Corso, Ron Prinz, Carol W. Metzler, Matthew R. Sanders

Faculty Publications

Background: High-prevalence childhood mental health problems like early-onset disruptive behavior problems (DBPs) pose a significant public health challenge and necessitate interventions with adequate population reach. The treatment approach of choice for childhood DBPs, namely evidence-based parenting intervention, has not been sufficiently disseminated when relying solely on staff-delivered services. Online-delivered parenting intervention is a promising strategy, but the cost minimization of this delivery model for reducing child DBPs is unknown compared with the more traditional staff-delivered modality.

Objective:This study aimed to examine the cost-minimization of an online parenting intervention for childhood disruptive behavior problems compared with the staff-delivered version of the …

An Autoencoder-Based Deep Learning Method For Genotype Imputation, Meng Song, Jonathan Greenbaum, Joseph Luttrell Iv, Weihua Zhou, Chong Wu, Zhe Luo, Chuan Qiu, Lan Juan Zhao, Kuan-Jui Su, Qing Tian, Hui Shen, Huixiao Hong, Ping Gong, Xinghua Shi, Hong-Wen Deng, Chaoyang Zhang

Faculty Publications

Genotype imputation has a wide range of applications in genome-wide association study (GWAS), including increasing the statistical power of association tests, discovering trait-associated loci in meta-analyses, and prioritizing causal variants with fine-mapping. In recent years, deep learning (DL) based methods, such as sparse convolutional denoising autoencoder (SCDA), have been developed for genotype imputation. However, it remains a challenging task to optimize the learning process in DL-based methods to achieve high imputation accuracy. To address this challenge, we have developed a convolutional autoencoder (AE) model for genotype imputation and implemented a customized training loop by modifying the training process with a …

Adiabatic Shear Banding In Nickel And Nickel-Based Superalloys: A Review, Russell A. Rowe, Paul G. Allison, Anthony N. Palazotto, Keivan Davami

Faculty Publications

This review paper discusses the formation and propagation of adiabatic shear bands in nickel-based superalloys. The formation of adiabatic shear bands (ASBs) is a unique dynamic phenomenon that typically precedes catastrophic, unpredicted failure in many metals under impact or ballistic loading. ASBs are thin regions that undergo substantial plastic shear strain and material softening due to the thermo-mechanical instability induced by the competitive work hardening and thermal softening processes. Dynamic recrystallization of the material’s microstructure in the shear region can occur and encourages shear localization and the formation of ASBs. Phase transformations are also often seen in ASBs of ferrous …

A Numerical Investigation Of Hurricane Florence-Induced Compound Flooding In The Cape Fear Estuary Using A Dynamically Coupled Hydrological-Ocean Model, Daoyang Bao, Z. George Xue, John C. Warner, Melissa Moulton, Dongxiao Yin, Christie A. Hegermiller, Joseph B. Zambon, Ruoying He

Faculty Publications

Hurricane-induced compound flooding is a combined result of multiple processes, including overland runoff, precipitation, and storm surge. This study presents a dynamical coupling method applied at the boundary of a processes-based hydrological model (the hydrological modeling extension package of the Weather Research and Forecasting model) and the two-dimensional Regional Ocean Modeling System on the platform of the Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport Modeling System. The coupled model was adapted to the Cape Fear River Basin and adjacent coastal ocean in North Carolina, United States, which suffered severe losses due to the compound flood induced by Hurricane Florence in 2018. The model's robustness was …

Assessment And Constraint Of Mesozooplankton In Cmip6 Earth System Models, C. M. Petrik, J. Y. Luo, R. F. Heneghan, J. D. Everett, C. S. Harrison, A. J. Richardson

Faculty Publications

Although zooplankton play a substantial role in the biological carbon pump and serve as a crucial link between primary producers and higher trophic level consumers, the skillful representation of zooplankton is not often a focus of ocean biogeochemical models. Systematic evaluations of zooplankton in models could improve their representation, but so far, ocean biogeochemical skill assessment of Earth system model (ESM) ensembles have not included zooplankton. Here we use a recently developed global, observationally based map of mesozooplankton biomass to assess the skill of mesozooplankton in six CMIP6 ESMs. We also employ a biome-based assessment of the ability of these …

Divergent Effects Of Biological And Physical Processes On Dissolved Oxygen And Dissolved Inorganic Carbon Dynamics On A Eutrophied And Hypoxic Continental Shelf, Zoraida J. Quiñones-Rivera, Björn Wissel, R. Eugene Turner, Nancy N. Rabalais, Dubravko Justić, Kerri P. Finlay, Charles S. Milan

Faculty Publications

Dissolved oxygen (DO) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) represent reciprocal sides of aquatic metabolism. In closed systems, absolute DO and DIC changes follow a ~ 1 : 1 ratio, but in open systems coupling depends on mixing, air–sea gas exchange, and anaerobic respiration. To quantify DO–DIC controls in coastal waters, we evaluated their concentrations and stable isotopes together with water quality and physical conditions across the hypoxic zone off the Louisiana continental shelf in July 2002 and July 2003. This area is characterized by high yet variable productivity and strong seasonal changes in vertical stratification and river discharge. Prior to …

The Impact Of Visual Stimuli And Properties On Restorative Effect And Human Stress: A Literature Review, Alireza Sedghikhanshir, Yimin Zhu, Melissa R. Beck, Amirhosein Jafari

Faculty Publications

Restorative environments are known as places where human stress can be decreased through restoration of depleted psychological resources. Since the efficiency of natural environments in restoration is supported by the literature, designing a restorative built environment can be obtained by integrating natural objects into built environments. However, various factors may lead to the failure of design intentions in real restorative environments such as visual stimuli and their properties. In addition, previous literature has widely used images and immersive virtual environments (IVEs) to deliver restorative environments in the design stage, and the impact of the delivery methods on visual properties needs …

The Hopeful Expect To Be Comfortable: Exploring Emotion And Personal Norms Related To Sustainable Buildings In The United States, Laura Arpan, Romina Rissetto, Zhuxuan Yan, Astrid Roetzel, Elie Azar, Farrokh Jazizadeh, Federica Morandi, Yimin Zhu, Arsalan Heydarian, Leonidas Bourikas, Gesche Huebner, Andrea Gasparella

Faculty Publications

Sustainable buildings are designed to reduce energy use and other environmental impacts and to provide indoor environmental conditions that maximize well-being and satisfaction among building occupants. However, occupants' comfort in and satisfaction with such buildings has been inconsistent. Evidence indicates occupants' expectations of indoor building environments influence their perceptions of climatic conditions (e.g., temperature) and comfort while in buildings. Accordingly, it is important to better understand a priori expectations associated with sustainable buildings. An online experiment examined the influence of exposure to a depiction of a sustainable vs. a conventional building on a priori expectations of indoor environmental conditions/quality (IEQ) …

Development Of The Mentalizing Network Structures And Theory Of Mind In Extremely Preterm Youth, Xiaoxue Fu Ph.D., Andy Hung, Aryanne D. De Silva, Tyler Busch, Whitney I. Mattson, Kristen R. Hoskinson, Hudson Gerry, Eric E. Nelson

Faculty Publications

Adolescents born preterm (<37 weeks of gestation) are at elevated risk for deficits in social cognition and peer relationships. Theory of Mind (ToM) is a complex form of social cognition important for regulating social interactions. ToM and the underlying mentalizing network continue to develop across adolescence. The present study recruited 48 adolescents (12–17 years old) who were either born extremely preterm (EPT; <28 weeks of gestation) or full-term (FT) at birth. Cortical thickness, gray matter volume and surface area were measured in four regions of the mentalizing network: the temporoparietal junction, anterior temporal cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus and frontal pole (mBA10). We also assessed the adolescents’ performance on a ToM task. Findings revealed both group differences and group-by-age interaction effects in the gray matter indices within the temporal lobe regions of the mentalizing network. The EPT group also performed significantly worse than the FT group on the ToM task. The cortical structural measures that discriminated the EPT and FT groups were not related to ToM performance. These results highlight altered developmental changes in brain regions underlying mentalizing functions in EPT adolescents relative to FT controls.

Legal Citations: A Foundation Of Written Advocacy, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

The article advanced this formula for achieving effective appellate advocacy: “First, you seek to persuade the court of the merit of the client’s case, to create an emotional empathy for your position. Then you assist the court to reach a conclusion favorable to the client’s interest in terms of the analysis of the law and the procedural posture of the case.”

Varietal Resistance And Chemical Ecology Of The Rice Stink Bug, Oebalus Pugnax, On Rice, Oryza Sativa, Santhi Bhavanam, Michael J. Stout

Faculty Publications

The rice stink bug, Oebalus pugnax F. (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a key pest of heading rice in the southern United States. Chemical insecticide application is currently the primary method of control of O. pugnax, warranting an improved management program for this species. The potential other management tactics for O. pugnax include eco-friendly measures such as host-plant resistance, silicon application, and the use of semiochemicals. In this study, the feeding preference and performance of O. puganx on cultivated and non-cultivated rice varieties were examined. Choice tests showed that the rice varieties Cheniere and Kaybonnet were most and least preferred by O. …

Mortality Of The Crapemyrtle Bark Scale (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae) By Commercial Biopesticides Under Greenhouse And Field Conditions, Giovana Matos Franco, Yan Chen, Vinson P. Doyle, Stephen A. Rehner, Rodrigo Diaz

Faculty Publications

The crapemyrtle bark scale (CMBS), Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae, is an important pest of crapemyrtles, Lagerstroemia spp. Biopesticides are frequently used to control soft-bodied insects; however, there is no information on their efficacy against CMBS. The objectives of this study were to test the use of selected biopesticides against CMBS under different seasons, evaluate their pathogenicity to CMBS, and determine optimum temperature for spore germination. Commercial formulations of the fungal biopesticides Isaria fumosorosea PFR97, Beauveria bassiana ANT-03, and the bacterial biopesticides Burkholderia rinojensis A396 and Chromobacterium subtsugae PRAA4-1 T were tested in greenhouse settings and did not have significant treatment effect on …

Lethal Concentration And Sporulation By Contact And Direct Spray Of The Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria Bassiana On Different Stages Of Nezara Viridula (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), Maribel Portilla, Minling Zhang, James Paul Glover, Gadi V.P. Reddy, Chris Johnson

Faculty Publications

The southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) is the most significant pest of soybean worldwide. The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of a Delta native strain NI8 of Beauveria bassiana by contact and direct spray on nymphs (2nd to 5th instar) and adults of N. viridula. Water control and four concentrations of B. bassiana were used to evaluate the survival, mortality, and molting percentage and to estimate median lethal concentration (LC50), median lethal sporulation (LS50), and resistance ratio (RR50). Direct spray at all concentrations observed the greatest reduction in survival on all life stages. …

Estimation Of Resistance Allele Frequencies To Cry1a.105 And Cry2ab2 In The Corn Earworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) With F2 Isolines Generated From A Mass-Mating Method, Wenbo Yu, Graham P. Head, Paula Price, Sebe Brown, Don Cook, Xinzhi Ni, Francis P.F. Reay-Jones, Marcelo Dimase, Fangneng Huang

Faculty Publications

The corn earworm/bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), in the United States is targeted by transgenic corn and cotton expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins. Previous studies have shown that resistance to Cry1A/Cry2A Bt corn has occurred in the field. In this study, we established 103 F2 isolines by mass-mating of H. zea populations collected during 2018 and 2019 in four southeastern U.S. states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina. Dissection of mated females showed that at least 92.7% of the isolines were originated from single matings, suggesting that the applied mass-mating method is a suitable approach to establish H. zea F2 isolines. …

Burning The Candle At Both Ends: How And Why Academic Librarians Who Are Parents Experience And Combat Burnout At Work, Michael Holt, Amy Chew, Jessica Lee, Robert Taylor

Faculty Publications

Academic librarians already wear many hats, juggling a multitude of skills and duties in order to meet the needs of their patrons. When one of those hats is parenthood, however, balancing work and home life can sometimes seem like an insurmountable task. In this chapter we explore how and why academic librarians who are also parents experience burnout, as well as methods used to combat burnout by examining the results of a nationally distributed mixed-methods survey. The survey also addresses practices to combat and prevent burnout, both on a personal and institutional level, and the perceptions of their effectiveness.

Speech Artifact Is Also Present In Spike Data, Joel I. Berger, Karim Johari, Christopher K. Kovach, Jeremy Dw Greenlee

Faculty Publications

Bush et al. (2022) highlight that brain recordings examining speech production can be significantly affected by microphonic artifact, which would change the interpretation of these kinds of data. While these findings are vital in determining whether data are artifactual or physiological in origin, frequencies were only examined up to 250 Hz (i.e., local field potentials), which would imply that spike-related data (single or multi-neuron recordings) are unaffected. We highlight here that this type of contamination may also be present in unit recordings, with the same aim to understand genuine neural mechanisms rather than mis-interpreting artifactual data.

Carbon Dioxide Degassing And Lateral Dissolved Carbon Export During The Unprecedented 2019 Mississippi River Mega Flood – Implications For Large River Carbon Transport Under Future Climate, Y. J. Xu, Z. Xu

Faculty Publications

In 2019, the Mississippi River experienced the longest and largest flood that surpassed by far the 1927, 1973, and 2011 mega floods. This unprecedented event provided an unique opportunity to test the hypotheses that summer floods increase not only lateral dissolved carbon transport but also carbon dioxide (CO2) degassing, and that the increase in CO2 outgassing from river surface occurs mainly due to higher terrestrial carbon inputs and warmer temperatures. To test the hypotheses, we conducted intensive river sampling and in-situ measurements on partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and other water physical, chemical and biological parameters in 6-day intervals throughout …

Hydrologic Connectivity And Residence Time Affect The Sediment Trapping Efficiency And Dissolved Oxygen Concentrations Of The Atchafalaya River Basin, Daniel E. Kroes, Richard H. Day, Michael D. Kaller, Charles R. Demas, William E. Kelso, Tiffany Pasco, Raynie Harlan, Steven Roberts

Faculty Publications

Little is known about water movement, volume, or residence time (RT), and how those characteristics affect sediment trapping efficiency (TE) and dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) in the United States' largest remaining bottomland hardwood swamp, the Atchafalaya River Basin. To better understand these dynamics, this study used bathymetry, lidar, and stage records to determine volumes in the Basin's hydrologically distinct water management units (WMUs). Discharge measurements determined flow distribution and RT. Residence time was compared with DO to identify conditions that coincided with DO increases or decreases. Suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) were used to determine TE relative to calculated and measured …

Louisiana Black-Bellied Whistling-Duck Clutch Characteristics In The Presence Of Conspecific And Interspecific Brood Parasitism, Dylan L. Bakner, Katie E. Miranda, Kevin M. Ringelman

Faculty Publications

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis; Whistling-Duck) are undergoing a rapid range expansion northward and now breed throughout the Southeastern United States. As a facultative cavity-nesting species, they have the potential to compete with Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) and Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) for nest sites. Little is known about Whistling-Duck breeding biology, and estimates of clutch characteristics and rates of conspecific and interspecific brood parasitism (CBP and IBP, respectively) are lacking. We monitored Whistling-Duck nests in Louisiana to describe nesting chronology, clutch size of parasitized and unparasitized (normal) nests, and hatchability (i.e., the portion of eggs that hatched) for clutches of …

Modeling The Sorption Of Ni(Ii) And Zn(Ii) By Mn Oxide–Coated Sand: Equilibrium And Kinetic Approaches, Joshua T. Padilla, H. Magdi Selim, Lewis A. Gaston

Faculty Publications

The behavior of metal cations in oxide-dominated systems is controlled by sorption reactions, which in turn depend on pH. Descriptions of such reactions are of interest for contaminant monitoring or remediation efforts; however, widely used isotherms such as Freundlich or Langmuir neglect the effect of pH and are therefore limited in their applicability. Two pH-dependent isotherms and their kinetic analogs were developed and evaluated regarding their ability to describe equilibrium and time-dependent sorption of Ni and Zn by Mn oxide–coated sand (MOCS). The sorption of Ni and Zn by MOCS at pH 4.0, 5.5, and 7.0 was investigated using batch …

Impact Of Biochar, Fertilizers And Cultivation Type On Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals In Agricultural Soil, Edita Baltrėnaitė-Gedienė, Slawomir Lomnicki, Chuqi Guo

Faculty Publications

Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) have been considered as emerging contaminants due to their detrimental effects on human health. The adverse health impacts are attributed to oxidative stress induced by EPFRs through the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The biochar pyrolysis process entails the thermal decomposition of organic compounds in the biomass, with the carbonization conditions and feedstock type facilitating the formation of EPFRs. When biochar is used to amend soil, these radicals may promote the formation of ROS, and thus influence the transformation of organic and inorganic contaminants in soil and impact the rhizosphere. Agricultural soils are being …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of Machine Learning Econometrics In Asset Pricing, Hector O. Zapata, Supratik Mukhopadhyay

Faculty Publications

Machine learning (ML) is a novel method that has applications in asset pricing and that fits well within the problem of measurement in economics. Unlike econometrics, ML models are not designed for parameter estimation and inference, but similar to econometrics, they address, and may be better suited for, problems of prediction. While some ML methods have been applied in econometrics for decades, their success in prediction has been limited, and examples of this abound in the asset pricing literature. In recent years, the ML literature has advanced new, more efficient, computation methods for regularization, modeling nonlinearity, and improved out-of-sample prediction. …

Confidence Intervals For Relative Intensity Of Collaboration (Ric) Indicators, Joel Emanuel Fuchs, Lawrence Smolinsky, Ronald Rousseau

Faculty Publications

Purpose: We aim to extend our investigations related to the Relative Intensity of Collaboration (RIC) indicator, by constructing a confidence interval for the obtained values. Design/methodology/approach: We use Mantel-Haenszel statistics as applied recently by Smolinsky, Klingenberg, and Marx. Findings: We obtain confidence intervals for the RIC indicator Research limitations: It is not obvious that data obtained from the Web of Science (or any other database) can be considered a random sample. Practical implications: We explain how to calculate confidence intervals. Bibliometric indicators are more often than not presented as precise values instead of an approximation depending on the database and …