Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Customer Satisfaction For Smes In Emerging Countries: A Comparative Study Of Hungary And Indonesia, Santi Setyaningsih, Peter Kelle

Faculty Publications

Improving Customer Satisfaction (CS) is a key strategical goal for companies, especially for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The objective of this research is to find and rank the major factors supporting CS. We focus on SMEs in two emerging markets located in two countries with different geographical and supply chain environments. We test a conceptual framework that includes several factors supporting CS. The data were collected from Hungarian and Indonesian SMEs by online questionnaire. We used statistical analysis such as Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Model (SEM) to test our model and hypothesis. …

Health Physics Workforce In The United States, Michael A. Noska, Caridad Borrás, E. Vincent Holahan, Shaheen A. Dewji, Thomas E. Johnson, Jerry W. Hiatt, Wayne D. Newhauser, John W. Poston, Nolan Hertel

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Probiotic Incorporation Into Yogurt And Various Novel Yogurt-Based Products, Douglas W. Olson, Kayanush J. Aryana

Faculty Publications

Probiotics are commonly added to yogurt to provide many health benefits for the consumer. A description is provided for some commonly used probiotics in yogurt. A GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list of probiotic bacteria that can be added to yogurt or similar types of products is provided. Additionally, prebiotics, synbiotics (combination of prebiotics and probiotics), postbiotics, paraprobiotics, and psychobiotics can be added to yogurt. Probiotic yogurt can come in various forms in addition to spoonable yogurt, and yogurt can be used as an ingredient in other food products. Many useful functional ingredients can be applied to probiotic yogurt. The …

Effects Of A Lifestyle Intervention In Young Women With Gdm And Subsequent Diabetes, Gang Hu, Huikun Liu, Junhong Leng, Leishen Wang, Weiqin Li, Shuang Zhang, Wei Li, Gongshu Liu, Huiguang Tian, Shengping Yang, Zhijie Yu, Xilin Yang, Jaakko Tuomilehto

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a 9-month intensive lifestyle intervention could lead to weight loss and improve cardiovascular risk factors among young women with both gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and newly diagnosed diabetes. A total of 83 young women, who had GDM and were subsequently diagnosed as type 2 diabetes at an average of 2.6 years after delivery, participated in a 9-month intensive lifestyle intervention and a follow-up survey at 6–9 years postintervention. After the 9-month intervention, these women had a weight loss of 2.90 kg (−4.02% of initial weight), decreased waist circumference (−3.12 cm), body …

Dual Nature Of Magnetic Nanoparticle Dispersions Enables Control Over Short-Range Attraction And Long-Range Repulsion Interactions, Ahmed Al Harraq, Aubry A. Hymel, Emily Lin, Thomas M. Truskett, Bhuvnesh Bharti

Faculty Publications

Competition between attractive and repulsive interactions drives the formation of complex phases in colloidal suspensions. A major experimental challenge lies in decoupling independent roles of attractive and repulsive forces in governing the equilibrium morphology and long-range spatial distribution of assemblies. Here, we uncover the ‘dual nature’ of magnetic nanoparticle dispersions, particulate and continuous, enabling control of the short-range attraction and long-range repulsion (SALR) between suspended microparticles. We show that non-magnetic microparticles suspended in an aqueous magnetic nanoparticle dispersion simultaneously experience a short-range depletion attraction due to the particulate nature of the fluid in competition with an in situ tunable long-range …

A Systematic Literature Review Of Anti-Discrimination Design Strategies In The Digital Sharing Economy, Miroslav Tushev, Fahimeh Ebrahimi, Anas Mahmoud

Faculty Publications

Applications of the Digital Sharing Economy (DSE), such as Uber, Airbnb, and TaskRabbit, have become a main facilitator of economic growth and shared prosperity in modern-day societies. However, recent research has revealed that the participation of minority groups in DSE activities is often hindered by different forms of bias and discrimination. Evidence of such behavior has been documented across almost all domains of DSE, including ridesharing, lodging, and freelancing. However, little is known about the underlying design decisions of DSE platforms which allow certain demographics of the market to gain unfair advantage over others. To bridge this knowledge gap, in …

Visualization Research: Scoping Review On Data Visualization Courses, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro

Faculty Publications

Understanding data visualization as one of the foundational skills of the 21st century, this research aimed to define up-to-date guidelines to effectively teach data visualization courses and–from there–developed the first version of a new data visualization course. To do so, it faced the following questions: What is the current role of data visualization in higher education? What have been the main trends in data visualization courses in higher education? What methodologies have been used to teach data visualization courses? What difficulties have been identified in data visualization courses? What recommendations have been offered by previous professors that have taught this …

Population Genomic Characterization Of Cercospora Janseana On Rice In The Southern United States, Jacob Searight

LSU Master's Theses

Cercospora janseana is the causative agent of narrow brown leaf spot (NBLS). Effort had been undertaken since the 1940’s to control this disease through resistance breeding in the Southern United States. However, a severe epidemic of NBLS in 2006 inspired renewed focus on managing this disease. One tool for managing this disease has been identified among resistant cultivars, the CRSP-2.1 resistance locus to NBLS. One thing limiting the investment and deployment of CRSP-2.1, and other unknown resistance genes, is the historical observation that resistance to NBLS rapidly breaks-down in the field. Together, the rapid breakdown of resistance to NBLS …

A Machine Learning Approach To Robotic Additive Manufacturing Of Uv-Curable Polymers Using Direct Ink Writing, Luis A. Velazquez

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design and implementation of a robotic additive manufacturing system that uses ultraviolet (UV)-curable thermoset polymers. Its design considers future applications involving free-standing 3D printing by means of partial UV curing and the fabrication of samples that are reinforced with fillers or fibers to manufacture complex-shape objects.

The proposed setup integrates a custom-built extruder with a UR5e collaborative manipulator. The capabilities of the system were demonstrated using Anycubic resin formulations containing fumed silica (FS) at varying weight fractions from 2.8 to 8 wt%. To fully cure the specimens after fabrication, a UV chamber was used. Then, measurements …

Languages Of Reform: Populist Revolution Or Middle-Class Progressivism?, Timothy Vest Klein

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Populists and Progressives around the turn of the 20^th century had similar reform goals and many of the same foes. Both wanted to expand the power of the federal government to counter corporate monopolies which were dominating the nation’s economy and political system. In the early 1900s, Progressives enacted numerous reforms that were championed by Populists, including regulating railroads and other large corporations, breaking-up monopolies, implementing a graduated income tax, among other reforms. With so much agreement on policy, why did Populists and Progressives actively work against one another in the 1890s?

Part of their antagonism came from their …

Experimental Music And Collaboration: Developing Artistry Through Performance Practice, John Lambert

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project locates collaboration and collaborative performance as a potential site for artistic growth. This study analyzes six collaborative projects: composed pieces for electric guitar accompanying a staged performance of collaged texts, an audio-visual installation, the preparation of several short pieces to accompany choreographed dances, a 90-minute soundtrack to a performance mixed live, an ongoing improvisational duo, and a live visuals performance to accompany Sunburned Hand of the Man at Duke University. It traces the growth of my artistry while also providing a method for both doing and writing about collaboration. In addition, it offers a model for understanding collaborative …

Toward A Safer Transportation System For Senior Road Users, Saba Doulabi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Senior pedestrians and drivers (65 years and older) are among the most vulnerable road users. As the population of seniors rise, concerns regarding older adults' traffic safety are growing. The advantages of using autonomous vehicles, innovative vehicle technologies, and active transportation are becoming more widely recognized to improve seniors' mobility and safety. This behooves researchers to further investigate senior road users’ safety challenges and countermeasures. This study contributes to the literature by achieving two main goals. First, to explore contributing factors affecting the safety of older pedestrians and drivers in the current transportation system. Second, to examine seniors’ perceptions, preferences, …

Fish And Invertebrate Community And Trophic Structure In The Gulf Of Mexico Coastal Plains Watersheds Across Varying Hydrologic Connectivity., Erin Elizabeth Thayer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Subtropical Northern Gulf of Mexico coastal plains watersheds tend to have mild seasonal temperature, low topography, and fine, mostly homogenous substrate sizes; these watersheds may not follow fish and invertebrate community patterns predicted by established lotic paradigms because those paradigms tend to describe communities in either temperate or tropical regions. However, the bases of most generally accepted lotic paradigms involve evaluation of allochthonous and autochthonous contributions to lotic ecosystems via three hydrologic connectivity dimensions including vertical (hyporheic and shallow groundwater), lateral (floodplain), and longitudinal (upstream and downstream). My dissertation goals were to explore these three dimensions within Louisiana coastal plains …

Searching For The Soldier Pheromone: Behavioral Effects Of Soldiers And Soldier-Produced Chemicals In The Formosan Subterranean Termite, Coptotermes Formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae)), Joseph Mccarthy

LSU Master's Theses

The Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus, is a eusocial insect and an invasive urban pest. Colonies function through a division of labor among castes (i.e., queens and kings, workers, and soldiers). Though soldiers are energetically expensive to maintain, C. formosanus has a relatively large soldier caste (~10% of the colony). Soldiers are physically unable to collect food or build tunnels but are regularly found with foraging workers. In some species, soldiers influence the worker foraging behavior. In C. formosanus, aside from defense, the roles soldiers play remains unknown. In this study, we determined if soldiers influence …

Archean Metamorphosed Ultramafic Rocks And Chromitites From The Beartooth Mountains, Montana, Usa: Insights Into Mantle Geochemistry And Tectonics, Rachel M. Gnieski

LSU Master's Theses

Metamorphosed ultramafic rocks and associated chromitite pods in the eastern Beartooth Mountains, Montana (USA) provide a window into the tectonic evolution of the Archean northern Wyoming Province. Meta-ultramafic rocks occur with a variety of metasupracrustal rocks as xenoliths in an extensive 2.8 Ga suite of TTG (meta)plutonic rocks. The origin of the ultramafic rocks is obscured by an upper amphibolite-to-greenschist facies overprint. Major element analyses (XRF, wt. %) of meta-ultramafic host rocks show SiO₂ from 40.53-50.37, MgO from 15.33-45.25, TiO₂ from 0.07-0.62, Al₂O₃ from 1.25-10.62, and Fe₂O₃(t) from 8.06-14.54. Total alkali …

A Study Of Indigenous North Vietnamese Ca Tru Music, And The Deities Of The Kalachakra Mandala, Daniel D'Aiuto Schultz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

This document is in two sections. Chapter I is a study on the history, instruments and performance of Vietnamese ca trù folk music. Indigenous Asian music, especially music from Vietnam, has held an almost mystical interest for me with its links to the doctrines of Buddhism and Hinduism. Ca trù’s singular style, always sung by women in fixed ensembles, is of particular interest because of its colorful history and unique performance practices. The ca trù music of Vietnam’s northern provinces, like much Asian folk music, is considered an endangered genre.

Sources for Ca trù insights are scarce, but some …

Compilation Optimizations To Enhance Resilience Of Big Data Programs And Quantum Processors, Travis D. Lecompte

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Modern computers can experience a variety of transient errors due to the surrounding environment, known as soft faults. Although the frequency of these faults is low enough to not be noticeable on personal computers, they become a considerable concern during large-scale distributed computations or systems in more vulnerable environments like satellites. These faults occur as a bit flip of some value in a register, operation, or memory during execution. They surface as either program crashes, hangs, or silent data corruption (SDC), each of which can waste time, money, and resources. Hardware methods, such as shielding or error correcting memory (ECM), …

Spam Detection Using Machine Learning And Deep Learning, Olubodunde Agboola

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Text messages are essential these days; however, spam texts have contributed negatively to the success of this communication mode. The compromised authenticity of such messages has given rise to several security breaches. Using spam messages, malicious links have been sent to either harm the system or obtain information detrimental to the user. Spam SMS messages as well as emails have been used as media for attacks such as masquerading and smishing ( a phishing attack through text messaging), and this has threatened both the user and service providers. Therefore, given the waves of attacks, the need to identify and remove …

Sers Platform For Single Fiber Endoscopic Probes, Debsmita Biswas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Molecular detection techniques have huge potential in clinical environments. In addition to many other molecular detection techniques, endoscopic Raman spectroscopy has great ability in terms of minimal invasiveness and real-time spectra acquisition. However, Raman Effect is low in sensitivity, limiting the application. Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), addresses this limitation. SERS brings rough nano-metallic surfaces in contact with specimen molecules which enormously enhances Raman signals. This provides Raman spectroscopy with immense capabilities for diverse fields of applications.

Generally, in clinical probe applications, the spectrometer is brought near the target molecules for detection. Typically, optical fibers are used to couple spectrometers to …

Color, Culture, And The Implications For Emotional, Cognitive, And Behavioral Reactions, Renee Lucas

LSU Master's Theses

Color plays a significant role in life, influencing how we perceive things, how symbols change in meaning, how brands, logos, and pictograms are communicated, as well as how our emotions are perceived and how our moods are affected. For designers, advertisers, and visual communicators, color is crucial because it has a big impact on how people perceive, relate to, and value an image or advertisement. There are many factors that play a role when people develop their personal color interpretations – one being culture. The purpose of this study is to investigate the links between culture, color, and individuals’ cognitive, …

Asexual Dramaturgies: Reading For Asexuality In The Western Theatrical Canon, Anna Maria Ruffino Broussard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Asexuality has recently gained recognition and visibility as a legitimate sexual orientation and identity standpoint that is usually defined as lacking sexual desire for any gender. Popular culture and the academy have both seen the emergence of a robust conversation about the definition and import of asexuality, recognizing the term as an umbrella concept covering an ever-diversifying array of identities. Within the nascent critical discourse on asexuality, theorists have sought to identify asexuality as a sexual orientation, to rethink our society’s sexual normativity, and to question compulsory sexuality, or the assumption that sexual desire is intrinsic to all people, thus …

Environmental Educators’ Perceptions Of Inaugural Louisiana State Department Of Education Environmental Education Standards And Accompanying Environmental Education Endorsement Plan: A Multiple Case Study Approach, Abigail Greer

LSU Master's Theses

Increasing environmental literacy through environmental education is an integral approach to fighting many of the environmental challenges facing Louisiana. The State Department of Education in Louisiana has released two initiatives to increase environmental literacy in the state while incorporating nonformal environmental education into formalized k-12 education. The first initiative is a set of Key Principles and Concepts (KPCs) in environmental education, which is aimed at providing standards to nonformal environmental educators in Louisiana. The second initiative, the Louisiana Environmental Education Advancement Plan (LEEAP), accompanies the KPCs and provides an opportunity for nonformal environmental education organizations to achieve endorsement through partnership …

Review Of Structural Color In The Genus Chrysochroa Dejean, 1833 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), Able Chow

LSU Master's Theses

The jewel beetles, (Coleoptera: Buprestidae Leach, 1815), is the eighth most speciose coleopteran family, with the majority of its members possessing diverse bright, saturated structural coloration of multilayer origin. This study focuses on the genus Chrysochroa Dejean, 1833, which includes some of the most brilliantly and charismatically colored buprestid species. While members of Chrysochroa are prised by entomologists amateurs and professional and are well-represented in museum collections, the evolution and ecology of their structural color remain underexplored. Twenty-eight select taxa including exemplars from all 13 subgenera of Chrysochroa were investigated to provide an overview of the objective optical properties and …

A Field-Deployable Quartz Crystal Microbalance System For Gas Detection, Jongyoon Park

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) has been widely studied as a mass sensing technique in laboratory environments and has shown a wide range of industrial applications such as food quality control, various forms of chemical detection, and biomolecular recognition under gas phase as well as liquid phase media. The construction of multi-sensor arrays combined with special sensor coatings enables multiple analyte detections and discrimination of multi-analyte along with statistical analysis. Despite the great sensing capabilities of QCM and growing interest in practical applications beyond the laboratory setup, most QCM studies are still performed in laboratory settings with benchtop QCM instruments. Therefore, …

Interactive Industrial Energy Assessment Learning Platform Using 360-Degree Virtual Reality Contents, Laleh Ghanbari

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The traditional passive industrial energy assessment training methods included low direct involvement of students, and they lacked an engaging learning environment. Since the main task for energy assessment is visual inspection and data collection, traditional passive training methods were not able to provide hands-on experience for the students. An active training method was needed to make the current industrial energy assessment training more efficient and effective, a method which provides the opportunity for students to have more interaction with the training environment. In this study, an interactive industrial energy assessment learning platform using 360ᵒ virtual reality contents was developed. The …

Migration And Displacement In Twenty-First Century Magical Realist Fiction, Laura Duncan Fontenot

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In “Migration and Displacement in Twenty-First Century Magical Realist Fiction” I discuss identity development and the search for belonging of displaced people within twenty-first century magical realist novels. In each instance, the characters undergo some form of change heralded by a magical moment or moments. The “magic” allows the authors to literalize underlying cultural tensions by physically altering some aspect of a character. The changes are not mere metaphors, they are literal, bodily transformations. The first stage of this process are magical thresholds that allow passage in space and time far beyond the conventions of reality. A magical threshold literalizes …

An Exploration Of Trained Reading Recovery Teachers' Perceptions About The Program And Subsequent Influences On Select Teachers' Views Of Reading Instruction, Ellen Brupbacher Daugherty

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As a foundational learning skill set, reading acquisition is the basis on which all other formal educational knowledge is built. In the state of Louisiana, 42.3% (2022) of first graders are not reading on grade level, therefore providing targeted intervention by highly trained teachers is crucial for accelerating student progress. Considering the paucity of research on the impact of Reading Recovery® (RR) training on teachers’ capacity to teach, as well as my personal experience, the purpose of this phenomenologically informed case study was to explore the perceptions of RR training and subsequent influences on teaching pedagogical practices. This qualitative study …

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 …

Religiosity And Misperceptions: The Effect Of Americans’ Religious Involvement On Their (Mis)Perceptions Of Political Parties, Rehm Nathanael Maham

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of The General: George Washington’S Aides-De-Camp And Their Campaign To Protect The Commander-In-Chief, Chloe Pellegrin

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.