Louisiana State University

About: Louisiana State University is a education organization based out in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 40206 authors who have published 76587 publications receiving 2566076 citations. The organization is also known as: LSU & Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

Sensitivity of the Advanced LIGO detectors at the beginning of gravitational wave astronomy

Abstract: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) consists of two widely separated 4 km laser interferometers designed to detect gravitational waves from distant astrophysical sources in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 10 kHz. The first observation run of the Advanced LIGO detectors started in September 2015 and ended in January 2016. A strain sensitivity of better than 10^(−23)/√Hz was achieved around 100 Hz. Understanding both the fundamental and the technical noise sources was critical for increasing the astrophysical strain sensitivity. The average distance at which coalescing binary black hole systems with individual masses of 30 M⊙ could be detected above a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 8 was 1.3 Gpc, and the range for binary neutron star inspirals was about 75 Mpc. With respect to the initial detectors, the observable volume of the Universe increased by a factor 69 and 43, respectively. These improvements helped Advanced LIGO to detect the gravitational wave signal from the binary black hole coalescence, known as GW150914.

“I Heard it through the Grapevine”: Doctoral Student Socialization in Chemistry and History

Abstract: Twenty doctoral students in the disciplines of chemistry and history were interviewed to better understand the socialization processes that influence their success and how these processes differ by year in the degree program and disciplinary culture. Five major themes emerged describing these socialization processes and how they facilitate or impede degree success, including Ambiguity, describing the programmatic guidelines and expectations that surrounded much of the students’ experience; Balance, pointing to the students’ need to balance graduate school responsibilities along with external relationships and demands; Independence, describing the students’ desire to find equilibrium as they transitioned to the role of independent scholar; Development, highlighting the significant cognitive, personal, and professional development that occurs in these students’ graduate experience; and Support, describing the faculty, peer, and financial support needed for the students’ success in their degree programs. Suggestions for policy, practice, and further research are discussed.

User-defined relevance criteria: an exploratory study

Abstract: The objective of this study was to describe the criteria mentioned by users evaluating the information within documents as it related to the users' information need situations. Data were collected by asking users in an academic environment to evaluate representations and the full text of documents that had been retrieved specifically for each user's information need situation. Users were asked to mark the portions of the document representations or of the full text of documents that indicated to the users whether they would or would not pursue the information within documents. An open-ended interview technique was then employed to discuss each marked portion with users. The interviews were audiotaped, the tapes transcribed, and the transcriptions were content analyzed in order to identify and describe evaluation criteria. The results indicate that the criteria employed by users included tangible characteristics of documents (e.g., the information content of the document, the provision of references to other sources of information), subjective qualities (e.g., agreement with the information provided by the document) and situational factors (e.g., the time constraints under which the user was working). The implications of this research for our understanding of the concept of relevance, and for the design and evaluation of information retrieval systems, are discussed. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.