Digital Commons Network^™

Experience That Works: An Investigation Uncovering Essential Elements Of Field Experiences And Internships Within Principal Preparation Programs That Significantly Impact And Contribute To Principal Effectiveness, Nathan Wayne Hite

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study applied situational leadership and transformational leadership theories to discern essential elements of principal preparation program field experiences and internships that contributed most to principal effectiveness. Identifying critical components of principal preparation field experiences and internships were imperative to ensure principal effectiveness within the ever-changing landscape of education. The objective of this study was to discover essential components of field experiences and internships provided by principal preparation programs that contributed most to principal effectiveness, increasing the likelihood public school districts hired principal candidates who were equipped with the skills necessary to step into the position with minimal on-the-job training. …

Synthesis Of Carbon Nanohoops And Macrocycles Via Alkyne Metathesis, Xin Zhou

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cycloparaphenyleneacetylene (CPPA) and cycloparaphenylene (CPP) are called carbon nanohoops; they are fully conjugated macrocycles with radially oriented aromatic groups. Though many syntheses of CPPA and CPP were reported, in the macrocyclization step, the yields were usually not satisfying, as the reactions were irreversible. Our group utilizes alkyne metathesis to address this problem. Chapter 1 provides backgrounds and an introduction to the carbon nanohoops and alkyne metathesis.

Chapter 2 details the synthesis of the [3]CPP⁴A and [3]CPP⁵A, with good macrocyclization yields via alkyne metathesis. This study showed the error-correction ability of alkyne metathesis, especially with nonsymmetric substrates. …

A Sharp Rate Of Convergence In The Functional Central Limit Theorem With Gaussian Input, S.V. Lototsky

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Noise Regression Techniques In Resting-State Fmri Studies Using Data Of 434 Older Adults, Norman Scheel, Jeffrey N. Keller, Ellen F. Binder, Eric D. Vidoni, Jeffrey M. Burns, Binu P. Thomas, Ann M. Stowe, Linda S. Hynan, Diana R. Kerwin, Wanpen Vongpatanasin, Heidi Rossetti, C. Munro Cullum, Rong Zhang, David C. Zhu

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Subject motion is a well-known confound in resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and the analysis of functional connectivity. Consequently, several clean-up strategies have been established to minimize the impact of subject motion. Physiological signals in response to cardiac activity and respiration are also known to alter the apparent rs-fMRI connectivity. Comprehensive comparisons of common noise regression techniques showed that the “Independent Component Analysis based strategy for Automatic Removal of Motion Artifacts” (ICA-AROMA) was a preferred pre-processing technique for teenagers and adults. However, motion and physiological noise characteristics may differ substantially for older adults. Here, we present a comprehensive comparison of noise-regression …

Identity Composition: A Qualitative Study Of Community College English Composition And Lgbtq-Inclusive Pedagogical Practices, Lucas Michel Gassen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research investigates the identity-based practices and experiences of English composition instructors who teach at community colleges and assesses the extent to which LGBTQ-inclusive pedagogical approaches are undertaken to meet the needs of sexual and gender minority students. The participant pool was comprised of community college instructors within the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS) who have taught English composition courses within the past five years. This study aims to answer the following research questions: 1. In what ways and to what extent is identity-based instructional content incorporated in community college English composition courses? 2. In what ways and …

Case Study Of The Impact Of Teacher Efficacy On Select Pk-3 School Faculty In A South Louisiana School: A Perceptual Investigation, Tara L. Alfred-Pellerin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This single case study explored the perceptions, feelings, and ideas of a select group of PK-3 certified teachers in a small, south Louisiana elementary school. As educators, perceptions and opinions often go unrecognized within the central school board and in the district. In order for teachers to be successful, it is imperative they are equipped with professional development and opportunities for collaboration in order to increase their self-efficacy to become more invested. This study focused on steps to increase self-efficacy, the importance of teacher collaboration, and professional development within an elementary school. It was grounded by theoretical frameworks of self-efficacy …

Are Teachers Prepared For Writing? Insight On The Training And Development Of Teachers For Writing Instruction In K-2 Classrooms, Denise Shillingsburg Rueter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This multiple case study examined the degree to which pre-service teachers were prepared to teach writing and how these skills were further developed in the beginning years of teaching to ensure students were receiving foundational literacy skills to be successful in both reading and writing. The setting for this study took place in an urban charter school and a suburban traditional public school in southeastern Louisiana. The participants for this study included two university instructors of teacher preparation programs who taught literacy methods courses. Also included were four K-2 classroom teachers, one kindergarten teacher, one second-grade teacher, and two first-grade …

Of Language And Thought: American Political Discourse, Normative Reason, And Essentially Contested Concepts, Riley Clare Valentine

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes progressive liberalism and neoliberalism as forms of normative reason that redefine specific political concepts, which are central to American liberalism – equality, liberty, the role of the State, and the pursuit of happiness. I contend that language is an important expression of normative reason. Language is how political reason and the norms accompanying it are expressed. I move through Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Barack Obama, exploring shifts in language and interpretations of political concepts through progressive liberal and neoliberal forms of normative reason. I argue that a tension emerges between progressive liberalism and neoliberalism, and a …

Wave-Front Reconstruction Via Single-Pixel Homodyne Imaging, Savannah L. Cuozzo, Charris Gabaldon, Pratik J. Barge, Ziqi Niu, Hwang Lee, Lior Cohen, Irina Novikova, Eugeniy E. Mikhailov

Faculty Publications

We combine single-pixel imaging and homodyne detection to perform full object recovery (phase and amplitude). Our method does not require any prior information about the object or the illuminating fields. As a demonstration, we reconstruct the optical properties of several semi-transparent objects and find that the reconstructed complex transmission has a phase precision of 0.02 radians and a relative amplitude precision of 0.01.

Fashion Or Function: Examining Consumers' Perceived Values Of Mass-Customized Menswear Via A Content Mining Approach, Yuli Liang, Snigdha Rangineni, Chuanlan Liu

Faculty Publications

Mass customization has been used in various clothing products including T-shirts, dress shirts, jeans, sports shoes, accessories, etc. However, even though the concept of mass customization has been accepted among scholars and business practitioners, and the application of mass customization has been practiced in the fashion industry for more than two decades, the acceptance among ultimate consumers and the market of MC in the apparel industry has not taken off yet. To this end, this study intends to fill the identified gap through a content mining exploratory qualitative study using customer value theory to evaluate individual consumers' actual customization experiences. …

Utilizing Genomics And Historical Data To Optimize Gene Pools For New Breeding Programs: A Case Study In Winter Wheat, Carolina Ballén-Taborda, Jeanette Lyerly, Jared Smith, Kimberly Howell, Gina Brown-Guedira, Md Ali Babar, Stephen A. Harrison, Richard E. Mason, Mohamed Mergoum, J. Paul Murphy, Russell Sutton, Carl A. Griffey, Richard E. Boyles

Faculty Publications

With the rapid generation and preservation of both genomic and phenotypic information for many genotypes within crops and across locations, emerging breeding programs have a valuable opportunity to leverage these resources to 1) establish the most appropriate genetic foundation at program inception and 2) implement robust genomic prediction platforms that can effectively select future breeding lines. Integrating genomics-enabled1 breeding into cultivar development can save costs and allow resources to be reallocated towards advanced (i.e., later) stages of field evaluation, which can facilitate an increased number of testing locations and replicates within locations. In this context, a reestablished winter wheat breeding …

Novel Texture-Based Probabilistic Object Recognition And Tracking Techniques For Food Intake Analysis And Traffic Monitoring, Robert Jacob Dibiano

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

More complex image understanding algorithms are increasingly practical in a host of emerging applications. Object tracking has value in surveillance and data farming; and object recognition has applications in surveillance, data management, and industrial automation. In this work we introduce an object recognition application in automated nutritional intake analysis and a tracking application intended for surveillance in low quality videos. Automated food recognition is useful for personal health applications as well as nutritional studies used to improve public health or inform lawmakers. We introduce a complete, end-to-end system for automated food intake measurement. Images taken by a digital camera are …

Impact Of Horizontal Resolution (Submesoscale Permitting Vs. Mesoscale Resolving) On Ocean Dynamic Features In The South China Sea, Renhao Wu, Liqun Jia, Chunyan Li, Yu Liu, Bo Han, Dake Chen

Faculty Publications

Model resolution is a key factor that impacts the model bias in simulating ocean dynamics. How would model resolution influence model bias is an important question. In this study, we set up two sets of experiments with identical settings except the grid resolution, one with a minimum spacing of 2 km, referred to as the submesoscale permitting (SP) model, and the other with a minimum spacing of 6 km, referred to as the mesoscale resolving (MR) model, to investigate the impact of horizontal resolution on simulated dynamic features in the South China Sea. Results show that the SP outperforms the …

Inheritance Of Resistance To Cry1a.105 In Helicoverpa Zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Wenbo Yu, Graham P. Head, Fangneng Huang

Faculty Publications

Cry1A.105 is a bioengineered Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticidal protein consisting of three domains derived from Cry1Ac, Cry1Ab, and Cry1F. It is one of the two pyramided Bt toxins expressed in the MON 89034 event, a commonly planted Bt maize trait in the Americas. Recent studies have documented that field resistance of the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), to the Cry1A.105 toxin in maize plants has become widespread in the United States. To investigate the inheritance of resistance to Cry1A.105 in H. zea, two independent tests, each with various genetic crosses among susceptible and Cry1A.105-resistant populations, were performed. The responses of …

Observational Constraints On Anisotropies For Bouncing Alternatives To Inflation, Ivan Agullo, Javier Olmedo, Edward Wilson-Ewing

Faculty Publications

We calculate how primordial anisotropies in the background space-time affect the evolution of cosmological perturbations for bouncing alternatives to inflation, like ekpyrosis and the matter bounce scenario. We find that the leading order effect of anisotropies in the contracting phase of the universe is to induce anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background with a very concrete form: a scale-invariant quadrupolar angular distribution. Sub-leading effects are the generation of higher-order moments in the angular distribution, as well as cross-correlations between scalar and tensor modes. We also find that observational constraints from the cosmic microwave background on the quadrupole moment provide strong …

All-Sky Medium Energy Gamma-Ray Observatory Explorer Mission Concept, Regina Caputo, Marco Ajello, Carolyn A. Kierans, Jeremy S. Perkins, Judith L. Racusin, Luca Baldini, Matthew G. Baring, Elisabetta Bissaldi, Eric Burns, Nicholas Cannady, Eric Charles, Rui M.Curado Da Silva, Ke Fang, Henrike Fleischhack, Chris Fryer, Yasushi Fukazawa, J. Eric Grove, Dieter Hartmann, Eric J. Howell, Manoj Jadhav, Christopher M. Karwin, Daniel Kocevski, Naoko Kurahashi, Luca Latronico, Tiffany R. Lewis, Richard Leys, Amy Lien, Lea Marcotulli, Israel Martinez-Castellanos, Mario Nicola Mazziotta, Julie Mcenery, Jessica Metcalfe, Kohta Murase

Faculty Publications

The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer (AMEGO-X) is designed to identify and characterize gamma rays from extreme explosions and accelerators. The main science themes include supermassive black holes and their connections to neutrinos and cosmic rays; binary neutron star mergers and the relativistic jets they produce; cosmic ray particle acceleration sources including galactic supernovae; continuous monitoring of other astrophysical events and sources over the full sky in this important energy range. AMEGO-X will probe the medium energy gamma-ray band using a single instrument with sensitivity up to an order of magnitude greater than previous telescopes in the energy range …

Academic Program Recommendations For Graduate Degrees In Medical Physics: Aapm Report No. 365 (Revision Of Report No. 197), Jay W. Burmeister, Nathan C. Busse, Ashley J. Cetnar, Rebecca R. Howell, Robert Jeraj, A. Kyle Jones, Steven H. King, Kenneth L. Matthews, Victor J. Montemayor, Wayne Newhauser, Anna E. Rodrigues, Ehsan Samei, Timothy V. Turkington, Mary P. Gronberg, Brian Loughery, Alison R. Roth, Michael C. Joiner, Edward F. Jackson, Paul A. Naine, Leonard H. Kim

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Kmt-2021-Blg-0171lb And Kmt-2021-Blg-1689lb: Two Microlensing Planets In The Kmtnet High-Cadence Fields With Followup Observations, Hongjing Yang, Weicheng Zang, Andrew Gould, Jennifer C. Yee, Kyu Ha Hwang, Grant Christie, Takahiro Sumi, Jiyuan Zhang, Shude Mao, Michael D. Albrow, Sun Ju Chung, Cheongho Han, Youn Kil Jung, Yoon Hyun Ryu, In Gu Shin, Yossi Shvartzvald, Sang Mok Cha, Dong Jin Kim, Hyoun Woo Kim, Seung Lee Kim, Chung Uk Lee, Dong Joo Lee, Yongseok Lee, Byeong Gon Park, Richard W. Pogge, John Drummond, Dan Maoz, Jennie Mccormick, Tim Natusch, Matthew T. Penny, Wei Zhu, Ian A. Bond, Fumio Abe

Faculty Publications

Follow-up observations of high-magnification gravitational microlensing events can fully exploit their intrinsic sensitivity to detect extrasolar planets, especially those with small mass ratios. To make followup observations more uniform and efficient, we develop a system, HighMagFinder, to automatically alert possible ongoing high-magnification events based on the real-time data from the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet). We started a new phase of follow-up observations with the help of HighMagFinder in 2021. Here we report the discovery of two planets in high-magnification microlensing events, KMT-2021-BLG-0171 and KMT-2021-BLG-1689, which were identified by the HighMagFinder. We find that both events suffer the 'central-resonant' caustic …

A Covariant Polymerized Scalar Field In Semi-Classical Loop Quantum Gravity, Rodolfo Gambini, Florencia Benítez, Jorge Pullin

Faculty Publications

We propose a new polymerization scheme for scalar fields coupled to gravity. It has the advantage of being a (non-bijective) canonical transformation of the fields, and therefore ensures the covariance of the theory. We study it in detail in spherically symmetric situations and compare to other approaches.

Trends In Obesity Prevalence Among Children And Adolescents Aged 2 To 19 Years In The Us From 2011 To 2020, Kathy Hu, Amanda E. Staiano

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ground-Penetrating Radar Detection Of Hydrologic Connectivity In A Covered Karstic Setting, Joseph P. Honings, Carol M. Wicks, Steven T. Brantley

Faculty Publications

Increasing demand for water for agricultural use within the Dougherty Plain of the southeastern United States has depleted surface water bodies. In karstic landscapes, such as the Dougherty Plain in southwest Georgia where the linkages between surface and ground waters are close, there is a need to understand the physical characteristics of the subsurface that allow these close linkages. Having a better understanding of the subsurface characteristics will aid numerical modeling efforts that underpin policy decisions and economic analyses. Two common features on this karstic landscape are draws and geographically isolated wetlands. Using LiDAR, aerial imagery, and ground-penetrating radar, this …

Genomic Basis For Individual Differences In Susceptibility To The Neurotoxic Effects Of Diesel Exhaust, Alexandra Noël, David G. Ashbrook, Fuyi Xu, Stephania A. Cormier, Lu Lu, James P. O’Callaghan, Shyam K. Menon, Wenyuan Zhao, Arthur L. Penn, Byron C. Jones

Faculty Publications

Air pollution is a known environmental health hazard. A major source of air pollution includes diesel exhaust (DE). Initially, research on DE focused on respiratory morbidities; however, more recently, exposures to DE have been associated with neurological developmental disorders and neurodegeneration. In this study, we investigated the effects of sub-chronic inhalation exposure to DE on neuroinflammatory markers in two inbred mouse strains and both sexes, including whole transcriptome examination of the medial prefrontal cortex. We exposed aged male and female C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) mice to DE, which was cooled and diluted with HEPA-filtered compressed air for 2 h …

Measuring The Effect Of Bipartisan Support For Foreign Policy Initiatives In The Senate On U.S. Policy Success, Emily Fitkin

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Hd-Tdcs Of Primary And Higher-Order Motor Cortex Affects Action Word Processing, Karim Johari, Nicholas Riccardi, Svetlana Malyutina, Mirage Modi, Rutvik H. Desai

Faculty Publications

The contribution of action-perception systems of the brain to lexical semantics remains controversial. Here, we used high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) in healthy adults to examine the role of primary (left hand motor area; HMA) and higher-order (left anterior inferior parietal lobe; aIPL) action areas in action-related word processing (action verbs and manipulable nouns) compared to non-action-related control words (non-action verbs and non-manipulable nouns). We investigated stimulation-related effects at three levels of semantic processing: subliminal, implicit, and explicit. Broadly, we found that stimulation of HMA and aIPL resulted in relative facilitation of action-related language processing compared to non-action. HMA …

The Impact Of Social Support Sources On Lgbtq Adolescents, Kaitlyn C. Mccauley

LSU Master's Theses

Research demonstrates that adolescents social support plays an important role in protecting against adverse events (e.g., Brewin & MacCarthy, 1989; Muzik et al., 2017). LGBQ adolescents have been shown to experience greater adverse experiences such a daily microaggressions and higher rates of both childhood adversity (Baams, 2018) and peer victimization (Kosciw et al., 2014). Increased stressors often lead to poorer outcomes in this population. Social support research for adolescents has shown that different sources of social support have shown to buffer these reported issues (e.g., greater parent and peer support buffers suicidal ideation, Fredrick et al., 2018). Studies with LGBQ …

Responses Of Phytoplankton Communities Driven By Differences Of Source Water Intrusions In The El Niño And La Niña Events In The Taiwan Strait During The Early Spring, Yanping Zhong, Edward A. Laws, Jiafu Zhuang, Jingxiao Wang, Peixuan Wang, Caiyun Zhang, Xin Liu, Bangqin Huang

Faculty Publications

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is one of the most important drivers of interannual variations of marine ecosystems, especially monsoonal ecosystems. The channel effect in a strait amplifies the impact of monsoons and may be an ideal area to study ecosystem responses to ENSO events. Previous studies have shown that physical processes in the Taiwan Strait (TWS) vary during the different ENSO phases, but the biological responses are still unclear. In this study, we found clear differences in the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the TWS between different ENSO phases based on data from satellites and field cruises …

Unsupervised Summarization Of Privacy Concerns In Mobile Application Reviews, Fahimeh Ebrahimi, Anas Mahmoud

Faculty Publications

The proliferation of mobile applications (app) over the past decade has imposed unprecedented challenges on end-users privacy. Apps constantly demand access to sensitive user information in exchange for more personalized services. These - mostly unjustifiable - data collection tactics have raised major privacy concerns among mobile app users. Such concerns are commonly expressed in mobile app reviews, however, they are typically overshadowed by more generic categories of user feedback, such as app reliability and usability. This makes extracting user privacy concerns manually, or even using automated tools, a challenging and time-consuming task. To address these challenges, in this paper, we …

A Comparison Of Intertidal Metazoan Biodiversity Among Different Salinity Zones Of Louisiana Coastal Marshes, Claudia Husseneder, Patrick Rayle, Benjamin G. Aker, W. Kelley Thomas, Lane D. Foil

Faculty Publications

Tidal marshes are among the most valuable, productive, and vulnerable ecosystems with high biodiversity. Louisiana’s saltmarshes are endangered by natural and man-made stressors, including oil pollution, saltwater intrusion, and land loss due to sea level rise and erosion. Freshwater diversions have been planned to restore sediment input from the Mississippi River to rebuild marsh habitats in South Louisiana. These proposed diversions will undoubtedly change salinity levels, which is a major controlling factor in the distribution of marsh organisms, including those in soil; however, detailed pre-event inventories are lacking. This study describes the diversity of metazoan meiofauna (organisms between 45 and …

Discovery And Validation Of Grain Shape Loci In U.S. Rice Germplasm Through Haplotype Characterization, Brijesh Angira, Tommaso Cerioli, Adam N. Famoso

Faculty Publications

Rice grain shape is a major determinant of rice market value and the end-use. We mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) for grain shape traits in a bi-parental recombinant inbred line population (Trenasse/Jupiter) and discovered two major grain length QTLs—qGL3.1 and qGL7.1. Previously, a major grain shape gene GS3 was reported in the qGL3.1 region and grain length gene GL7 was reported to be encompassing qGL7.1 locus. The re-sequencing SNP data on the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) 3K Rice Genome Project (RGP) panel were obtained from the IRRI SNP-Seek database for both genes and haplotype diversity was characterized for each …

Resonant Plasmonic–Biomolecular Chiral Interactions In The Far-Ultraviolet: Enantiomeric Discrimination Of Sub-10 Nm Amino Acid Films, Tiago Ramos Leite, Lin Zschiedrich, Orhan Kizilkaya, Kevin M. Mcpeak

Faculty Publications

Resonant plasmonic–molecular chiral interactions are a promising route to enhanced biosensing. However, biomolecular optical activity primarily exists in the far-ultraviolet regime, posing significant challenges for spectral overlap with current nano-optical platforms. We demonstrate experimentally and computationally the enhanced chiral sensing of a resonant plasmonic–biomolecular system operating in the far-UV. We develop a full-wave model of biomolecular films on Al gammadion arrays using experimentally derived chirality parameters. Our calculations show that detectable enhancements in the chiroptical signals from small amounts of biomolecules are possible only when tight spectral overlap exists between the plasmonic and biomolecular chiral responses. We support this conclusion …