Online-Delivered Group And Personal Exercise Programs To Support Low Active Older Adults' Mental Health During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Randomized Controlled Trial, Mark R. Beauchamp, Ryan M. Hulteen, Geralyn R. Ruissen, Yan Liu, Ryan E. Rhodes, Colin M. Wierts, Katrina J. Waldhauser, Samantha H. Harden, Eli Puterman

Faculty Publications

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, experts in mental health science emphasized the importance of developing and evaluating approaches to support and maintain the mental health of older adults.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether a group-based exercise program relative to a personal exercise program (both delivered online) and waitlist control (WLC) can improve the psychological health of previously low active older adults during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The Seniors COVID-19 Pandemic and Exercise (SCOPE) trial was a 3-arm, parallel randomized controlled trial conducted between May and September 2020 in which …

Challenging The Illusion Of Diversity: A New Theoretical Paradigm Towards Newsroom Inclusion., Paromita Saha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past forty years, the news industry has attempted to diversify the racial composition of their newsrooms from the perspective of representing their markets better mirroring best business practices in the industry. The statistics show that an affirmative style of recruitment has produced minimal, superficial results with a high turnover of minority journalists who are hardly promoted to editorial positions, as well as skewed representations of minority racial groups. The literature indicates that hegemonic ideological forces and the White male professional ethos behind journalism is not conducive to minority journalists producing meaningful changes to news content. My study indicates …

Towards Verifying Smartphone Users Via Gripping Hand Image Classification, Kaitlyn M. Madden

LSU Master's Theses

Smartphones continue to proliferate throughout our daily lives, not only in sheer quantity but also their ever-growing list of uses. They are no longer just for communication and the occasional phone game. Smartphones can be used to open garage doors, transfer money, see who is at your front door, and much, much more. With this increased dependence and use, smartphone security is critical. In this paper we propose a system to verify a user’s identity by applying a convolutional neural network (CNN) model to an image of the user’s hand while holding their device. This model aims to address situations …

Degumming Of Hemp Fibers Using Combined Microwave Energy And Deep Eutectic Solvent, Bulbul Ahmed

LSU Master's Theses

Hemp is considered as one of the sustainable agricultural fiber materials. Degumming or surface modification of hemp bast is needed to produce single fibers for ensuing textile and industrial applications. The traditional degumming process necessitates a high amount of alkali, which causes detrimental environmental pollution. This study offers a new method to degum hemp fibers with reduced use of harmful alkali and precious water resources. In this work, hemp bast fibers were degummed by using combined microwave energy and deep eutectic solvent (DES). The properties of hemp fibers manufactured by this method were investigated and compared with the traditional alkali …

Sulfur And Sage, John Swincinski

LSU Master's Theses

Sulfur and Sage is a body of abstract paintings created out of memories of time spent immersed in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains and the Yellowstone Caldera during the summer of 2020. The paintings reflect specific places, experiences, and insights, which occurred as I sought solitude by returning to the one place where I feel most at peace with the universe – the woods.

Each painting is augmented by a written vignette, describing the occurrence it is based on. Should the viewer choose to include these short stories as they encounter the artwork, they provide the jumping off point …

Evaluating Word Embedding Models For Traceability, Mahfuza Khatun, Mahfuza Khatun

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Traceability link recovery (TLR) is a software engineering activity that helps to ensure software quality and assists with keeping track of changes by establishing links between software artifacts that are a part of the software engineering process, such as requirements, use cases, source code, test cases, and documentation. Software requirement artifacts are typically written in natural language. An Information Retrieval process is frequently used in many software activities, including the TLR activity. Recently, Word Embedding (WE) techniques have been used in many natural language processing tasks as well as in TLR tasks. We investigate the effectiveness of WE techniques …

What Are People Searching During The Pandemic? Exploring The Determinants Of Public Interest Through Google Searches, Justin Weng

LSU Master's Theses

In 2020, COVID-19 became a serious health concern to people worldwide, regardless of their socioeconomic status, cultural characteristics, or political freedom. Even though this unprecedented crisis was the most impactful and dominant issue in 2020, COVID-19 was not the only issue that people were interested in. This study explored if and how national characteristics influenced global public interests during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Using popular online searches in 23 nations, this study categorized global public interests into two ways: COVID-19 related and non-COVID-19 related issues, with four and 13 sub-categories, respectively. Results showed that people in higher political freedom …

Causes And Characteristics Of Electrical Resistivity Variability In Shallow (<4 M) Soils In Taylor Valley, East Antarctica, William S. Gutterman

LSU Master's Theses

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the largest ice-free region in Antarctica and are characterized as a polar desert environment. Soils in the region are typically very dry (<1% soil water by weight) and remain frozen for most of the year. Increases in air temperature and incoming solar radiation during the austral summer generate meltwater from glaciers, ground ice, and snow patches supplying moisture to soils and altering the physical and chemical makeup of the subsurface. Previous studies have utilized airborne electromagnetic surveys (AEM) to analyze groundwater systems in the deep subsurface but have not yet examined soil moisture in the shallow (<4 m) subsurface. Here, I used electrical resistivity data from two AEM surveys (2011 and 2018) and soil geochemical data from three transects to characterize the spatial heterogeneity of soil properties in the near-subsurface of lower Taylor Valley. Soil resistivities from 2011 and 2018 range from 33.2 Ωm to 3535 Ωm with low elevations of <100 meters above sea level (masl) typically displaying the lowest resistivities and high elevations displaying greater resistivities. Liquid brine fractions were empirically estimated from electrical resistivity values using Archie’s Law and range from 0.3% to 68.2% for soils with resistivities <200 Ωm. Additionally, soil transect data show greater percentages of fine-grained sediments (<63 µm) exist at elevations <100 masl where soil resistivities begin decreasing. Resistivity variability in the subsurface is ultimately controlled by the site history, local and regional climate, soil salinity, soil moisture, soil lithology.

Understanding The Association Between Loneliness And Callous-Unemotional Traits In Young Adults, Tatiana Michelle Matlasz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

One of the defining features of callous-unemotional (CU) traits is a lack of distress or care about performance in important activities or the negative effects of one’s behavior on others. However, recent research has found a significant relationship between CU traits and loneliness, suggesting individuals with elevated CU traits may be aware of impaired social functioning and care about their performance in social relationships. Given this somewhat surprising finding, the current study sought to identify possible explanations for this association. Specifically, we tested the following potential mediators of the relationship between CU traits and loneliness: peer rejection, relationship quality, social …

Racial Dissimilarity And Employee Attitudes And Behaviors: The Moderating Role Of Competitive Work Environment And Social Support, Sydney Green

LSU Master's Theses

Racial diversity within public and private organizations is a controversial topic: many companies are encouraged to make their team racially representative of the general public while also maintaining productivity. At the same time, research suggests that increasing racial diversity may have a negative influence on desirable work-related outcomes, especially if employees perceive themselves to be racially dissimilar from their coworkers. In attempting to increase racial diversity, organizations may leave some of their employees experiencing negative consequences related to being the only employee of a particular racial minority group (e.g., Black). These types of circumstances and their negative consequences adds to …

Bim-Based Generative Modular Housing Design And Implications For Post-Disaster Housing Recovery, Pedram Ghannad

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The adverse social and financial impacts of catastrophic disasters are increasing as population centers grow. After disastrous events, the government agencies must respond to post-disaster housing issues quickly and efficiently and provide sufficient resources for the reconstruction of destroyed and damaged houses for full rehabilitation. However, post-disaster housing reconstruction is a highly complex process because of the large number of projects, shortage of resources, and heavy pressure for delivery of the projects after a disastrous event. This complexity and lack of an inconsistent, systematic approach for planning lead to an ad-hoc decision-making process and inefficient recovery. This research explored modular …

To Be Read: The Educational Opportunities Of Booktube, Anita M. Dubroc

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

BookTube, a literary-focused subcommunity of YouTube, is a network of readers where educational theory and literary theory collide. BookTube is known for delving out book reviews and showing off book hauls, but its content creators, known as booktubers, do much more than display walls of colorful hardback books. The BookTube community is a networked knowledge community (Sorensen & Mara, 2014) in which informal knowledge is valued as much as the formal knowledge attained in classrooms. Online book reviews on sites such as Amazon and Goodreads have demonstrated the waning influence of professional book reviewers because now any reader take on …

The Examination Of Racial Identity Of Black Males Through Self-Efficacy, Social Integration, Persistence, And Mentorship At A Predominantly White Institution, Marvin Earl Dupiton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black males account for 4.3% of the total enrollment at four-year postsecondary institutions in the United States. The percentage of Black men who are enrolled in college is nearly the same as it was in 1976 (Harper, 2006a; Palmer & Strayhorn, 2008; Strayhorn, 2008a, 2010). With this low exponential growth of Black males attending institutions of higher education, there is the assumption that institutions have not done much to provide for this population of students that are recruited consistently to attend these universities. Black males do not have enough resources to reassure their cultural masculinity as well develop as an …

A Semiotic Approach To Visual Analysis Of Dress: Symbolic Communication Of Clothing Color, Cut, And Composition Through The French Film Costumes Of Anaïs Romand, Leigh Danielle Honeycutt

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the communicative role of clothing in film. Using the skillful costume canvas of French designer Anaïs Romand, we explore the possible visual messages and potential cultural and linguistic meanings that clothing choice conveys. This analysis uses Roland Barthes’ Theory of the “Five Codes” from his book S/Z as well as psychological sources about color analysis as its methodological basis. Images from each of the five period piece films were chosen and analyzed using semiotics. The costumes in all five films chosen for analysis were designed under the direction of Anaïs Romand and were all either nominated for, …

An Improved Earned Value Management Method Integrating Quality And Safety, Brian Briggs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The construction industry invests significant time and money to improve quality and safety while reducing cost and schedule impacts. The industry has a sincere desire to improve construction project management methods to improve efficiency. Historically, quality and safety underperformances result from undermanaged quality control and safety activities. The cost and schedule impacts associated with poor quality work have always had an impact on construction operations. The unprecedented challenges and uncertainties of COVID-19 highlighted the need to improve the Earned Value Management (EVM) method within construction to reflect these quality and safety activities. The central goal of this dissertation is to …

Lyapunov Function-Based Stabilizing Control Scheme For Wireless Power Transfer Systems With Lcc Compensation Network, Abu Shahir Md Khalid Hasan

LSU Master's Theses

A stabilizing control scheme based on a Lyapunov function is proposed for wireless power transfer (or WPT) systems. A state-space model of the WPT system is developed and the Lyapunov function is formulated based on an energy equation of the system involving state variables. The internal resistance of a battery varies during charge and discharge. Therefore, if a WPT system is used to charge a battery, its output load will vary. Furthermore, the coupling coefficient between the transmitter (primary) and receiver (secondary) coils decreases when they are misaligned. Comparative case studies are conducted to verify the efficacy of the proposed …

Operating The Digital Space In The Age Of Protest Participation, Kyle Stanley

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines young African American adults’ usage of social media and other digital spaces as tools to build community given the rise in protest participation in North American (U. S.) society while at the height of a global health pandemic. Since early adulthood is a time where African Americans are most active online, this study will examine how and why those African Americans are turning to digital spaces to find social connections. Racism and racial injustice are two of the most pressing issues in the African American community, and it is clear that it can be an emotionally laborious …

Telling A New Story Of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Narrative Versus Argument Communication Effects On Ocd Stigma And Recognition, Ashlyn Blaire Soileau

LSU Master's Theses

This study utilizes narrative persuasion theory to investigate the effect of narrative and argument appeals when communicating about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to the public. This study tested stigma and recognition of OCD with a 2x2 factorial between-subject design using advertisement types and gender as the independent variables. Findings showed that communication type and gender do not affect OCD recognition. However, a univariate ANCOVA analysis, when controlling for empathy and OCD experience. The results revealed that gender and ad type did affect OCD stigma. Also, women showed lower stigma scores for social restrictiveness when seeing the narrative appeal when contrasted with …

An Analysis Of Effort, Success, And Attitudes Of Louisiana Hunters By Email And Mixed-Mode Surveys, Michael Sullivan

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Louisiana surveys waterfowl hunters every 5 years to assess harvest, harvest practices, demographics, and specific management objectives, as well as to research hypotheses derived from previous surveys of waterfowl hunters. In the 2020 survey, research hypotheses addressed hunter perceptions of changing waterfowl migration patterns, satisfaction, and relationships between perceptions and avidity with survey distribution waves and sample coverage. I surveyed a stratified census of 68,578 Louisiana waterfowl hunters by email following the 2019–2020 season, and asked 31 questions about waterfowl-hunting effort, success, satisfaction, regulatory alternatives, and demographics. I used generalized linear models to test hypotheses about hunters’ perception of …

Late Embryogenesis Abundant Proteins And Mitochondrial Membranes From An Animal Extremophile: Insights Into Severe Water Stress, John Marcus Anderson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on two major topics germane to mechanisms by which animals tolerate extreme water stress. First, the impact of transgenic expression of late embryogenesis abundant proteins (LEA) on water stress tolerance of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster was investigated. The overall aim was to extend current understanding of the protective properties of LEA proteins documented with isolated cells to a desiccation-sensitive organism during exposure to drying and hyperosmotic stress. Four lines of D. melanogaster were created that expressed transgenes encoding selected LEA proteins originally identified in embryos of the extremophile Artemia franciscana. After 80% tissue water loss, …

Impact Of Personality Traits And Team Criteria On Construction Team Performance, Arlys Silva Payne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigated how personality traits and team criteria influence team performance in real construction projects. Though personality influence on team performance has been significantly investigated in other business sectors, the literature revealed that the construction industry lacks investigations regarding personality influencing team performance. The existing literature revealed that the Big Five Factors (BFF) was the most popular assessment tool for personality. Thus, this dissertation adopted the 50-Item Personality questionnaire developed by Goldberg, which consited of extraversion, aggreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. The literature also revealed several common team criteria to evaluate team performance: team member satisfaction, shared …

Creation Of Hand Sensors And Orthotics To Capture And Replicate Human Movement And Forces, Edward Frank Austin Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Paralysis is a debilitating condition affecting as many as 5.4 million in the United States. Upper extremity paralysis/paresis is the most debilitating form of paralysis due to the robust kinematic patterns in our hands and wrist. These forces and movements available at our hand allow us to manipulate objects as small as a sewing needle yet still lift multiple grocery bags at one time on a daily basis. Inability to use the upper extremities usually necessitates 24-hour assistance. Therefore, it is imperative to build devices that are biomimetic to assist those with upper extremity paralysis. To accomplish this feat, this …

Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Methods Study Investigation Of A Health Science System Faculty's Adaptations To An Online (Non-Traditional) Teaching Environment For Health Professional Students, Daryl Philip Lofaso

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed method study was to explore the transition to an online educational platform for future health professional students at a southern health sciences system due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) virus. The majority of health professional students received their education via face-to-face prior to the pandemic. The pandemic altered their traditional pedagogical method of face-to-face to online instruction. The health professional school faculty offer the best instruction in a lecture hall not on a computer screen using Zoom. This study was designed to analyze how the faculty adapted in moving to an online instructional method, …

Leveraging Multiple Data Sources: How Catch Data, Metadata, And Genetic Samples Can Aid The Recovery Of Endangered Smalltooth Sawfish (Pristis Pectinata), Kelcee Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The small population sizes characteristic of many imperiled species means that they are vulnerable to both demographic and genetic extinction threats. Responses to these threats (e.g., population trends, genetic diversity estimates) are often difficult to obtain, but critical for conservation. Thus, researchers studying imperiled species may have to consult multiple data sources, collaborate with a wide variety of stakeholders, or ask new questions about previously collected data. I used this approach to understand more about the United States (U.S.) population of Pristis pectinata, an endangered elasmobranch that has declined up to 95% due to habitat loss and bycatch in …

The Use Of Problem Solving Skills Training To Treat Disruptive Behavior In Schools, Emma Larson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Disruptive behaviors in children are a class of behaviors that involve problems with impulse control, regulating emotions, compliance, aggression, and respecting the rights of others or societal norms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Nelson, 1996). The presence of these disruptive behaviors take a negative toll on the environment including the education setting, criminal justice system, public health services, and families (Tolan and Leventhal, 2013; Cuffel, 1997). Meta-analyses have shown several evidence-based treatments for disruptive behavior with cognitive-behavioral therapy being an effective approach (Eyeberg, Nelson, & Boggs, 2008; McCart & Sheidow, 2016). One such cognitive-behavioral therapy that is effective for decreasing disruptive …

Single-Family Residential Flood Loss Reduction Through Freeboard, Ehab Said Gnan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The lack of flood loss estimation methods conducted on a micro-scale level that consider the full loss‐exceedance probabilities curve poses a significant problem in flood risk assessment. Also, the lack of robust benefit-cost analysis (BCA) that quantifies benefits at the micro-scale level leads to sub-optimal results, and therefore sub-optimal decisions when determining the optimal freeboard. Further, flood loss assessments focus on owner-occupied housing and neglect rental housing. These loss assessment deficiencies underscore the need for a robust assessment that quantifies the life-cycle benefits for all stakeholders and provides actionable information to enable informed decisions.

This research presents a comprehensive methodology …

The Innocence Of Lennie Small In Carlisle Floyd's Opera Of Mice And Men In Excerpts Presented As A Performer's Guide, Michael Robert Hendrick

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Of Mice and Men is a 20th century American opera composed by Carlisle Floyd. Carlisle Floyd also served as librettist, as he did with all of his operas. Based on the American novel of the same name by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men is Carlisle Floyd's second most performed opera. This project serves to demonstrate the innocence of the role of Lennie Small, as seen through his intellectual shortcomings, enhanced by the vocal line and music of the composer. A performer's guide is also provided.

Variações Sérias Sobre Um Tema De Anacleto De Medeiros - Piano A Quatro Mãos, By Ronaldo Miranda: A Performer’S Guide, Patricia Bretas De O Da Rosa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

This study examines Ronaldo Miranda’s Variações Sérias Sobre um Tema de Anacleto de Medeiros – Piano a Quatro Mãos, 1998, transcribed from the original, which was composed for wind quintet (1991). The piano duet version is well-known and part of the core repertoire of most Brazilian piano duos.

Enhanced by the interview with the composer, the paper starts by addressing the relevant facts of his rich and prolific musical life while tracing four compositional phases through a list of his piano works.

A brief history of the Serious Variations (so named in this paper) deals with its genesis, characteristics, …

Performance Evaluation Of Gas Lift Valves Using Numerical Simulation, Felipe Simoes Maciel

LSU Master's Theses

This work aimed to assess the performance of two numerical simulation methods to replicate flow capacity test (FCT) results and predict the flow coefficient (Cv) and critical pressure ratio (Rcp) of gas lift valves (GLVs). FCT's use a modified GLV with an adjustable stem positioning system to obtain pressure as a function of flow rate for different stem positions to calculate Cv and Rcp. Therefore, this study used both a one-dimensional (1D) mechanistic model and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict the same variable from the FCT without tests using modified GLVs. This methodology demonstrates accurate results, which were compared …

Vertical Feature Delineation For Flood Hazard Assessments At The Coastal Land Margin, Shu Gao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coastal and riverine flooding constitutes a major environmental hazard that affect millions of people residing along the world’s coastline. Improved understanding of the driving mechanisms that can cause flooding within coastal watersheds requires advanced hydrologic and coastal storm surge simulation. Such advanced simulation is dependent upon an accurate digital elevation model (DEM) for the optimal topographical representation of the true domain in the discretized model grid (mesh). However, it is not possible to afford mesh resolution as fine as contemporary DEMs, resolved at sub-10 meters, due to the impractical computational expense. Therefore, significant elevation barriers such as roadbeds, levees, railroads, …