"En Clave" Tania León And Roberto Sierra: Autochthonous Music Of Cuba And Puerto Rico, Contemporary Music Composition And The 'Puente' In Between, Omar A. Ramirez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This document is in two parts. The first examines selected works of Latin-American composers Tania León and Roberto Sierra. Both composers cite their cultural background as a force that shapes their artistic expression. Many of their works are titled in Spanish, with compositions referencing their homelands in subject and narrative, and incorporate the autochthonous music(s) of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Elements of these afrodiasporic musical traditions can be found in their works: Alegre, Batá, Stride, (Leon), Loiza, and Concerto for Viola (Sierra), each examined here.

Autochthonous musical elements are highlighted in score excerpts and described using …

A Comprehensive Guide To A Trumpet Embouchure Change, Megan E. George

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to expand the literature related to the subject of trumpet embouchure change and provide a comprehensive resource that will assist both student and teacher in navigating a trumpet embouchure change. This resource will not only help them determine whether to go through with the process but will present them with multiple options regarding embouchure change starting methods. It can be used for a variety of ages but primarily intended for use with students high school age or older.

In current method books, one trumpet embouchure is usually presented and is often a “one-size-fits-all” …

The Role Of Mental Health Literacy And Social Media In Shaping University Students’ Intentions To Use Telehealth Services: A Theory Of Planned Behavior Approach In A Post-Pandemic Society, Jena R. Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the relationships between mental health literacy and social media use as an informational resource in college students and their intentions to use teletherapy. Using the theory of planned behavior as the framework, this research explores how attitudes towards teletherapy, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control influence students' willingness to seek out mental health services such as teletherapy. Findings revealed that mental health literacy is a strong predictor of students' attitudes and perceived behavioral control, reinforcing prior research that links literacy to better health management among patients. Social media was also a strong predictor of subjective norms, highlighting …

Studies On Cell Cycle Regulation And Ecm Modification During Tubular Organ Formation In Drosophila Embryos, Jeffrey Matthew

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The formation of tubular organs—such as the heart and kidneys—is a complex developmental process that requires the precise coordination of tissue remodeling with dynamic changes in cellular behavior. Key processes including cell proliferation, apoptosis, and extracellular matrix (ECM) formation must be tightly synchronized with mechanisms that generate and transmit physical forces, transforming a flat epithelial sheet into a three-dimensional organ. Disruptions in the homeostasis of these processes during organogenesis can lead to congenital defects, such as pulmonary atresia and renal hypoplasia.

To investigate the mechanisms underlying epithelial morphogenesis, the Chung laboratory employs the Drosophila embryonic salivary gland (SG) as a …

Quantitative Risk Analysis For Elections, George A. Buras

LSU Master's Theses

This paper examines risk analysis and risk management in the field of election security. The purpose of this paper is not to enumerate risks to election security or explain how they might be mitigated, but rather to understand and improve how we measure and communicate those risks.

First, I contextualize election security risks by establishing what it means for an election to be secure and I give an overview of the types of events that might threaten election security. Then, I explore different methods that we can use to model electoral risks. Existing resources for managing electoral risks use qualitative …

Exploring Pedagogical Approaches And Discussion For Young Beginner Double Bass Players, Jiaying Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years, early childhood education for the double bass has gained increasing attention and plays a crucial role in shaping the future development of the instrument. However, compared to other instruments, research on early childhood education for the double bass remains relatively underdeveloped, with a lack of written materials on the subject. This thesis introduces the formation of early childhood teaching concepts and explains why parents play an irreplaceable role in a child’s initial exposure to music learning. By collecting and analyzing traditional double bass teaching methods and integrating common principles from other string instrument teaching approaches, this study …

The Effects Of Disclosure Of Genai Use In The Production Of Advertising In High And Low Involvement Settings, Shawn Griffin

LSU Master's Theses

This study explores the effects of GenAI disclosure on advertising effectiveness and how these influences interact with consumers’ involvement in advertised products using a 2×2 experimental design with 83 participants, manipulating AI disclosure (disclosed vs. not disclosed) and involvement level (high vs. low). Findings indicate that disclosure negatively impacts brand attitude but has no significant effect on ad attitude, purchase intention, or sharing intention. An interaction effect was also found that in high-involvement conditions, disclosure increased the intention to share the ad. These results, framed through the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), offer insights into the …

Social Stories To Shape Impulsive Behaviors To Increase Self-Regulation In Preschoolers, Caroline Claire Hargrave

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Students need to be able to self-regulate their behavior within the classroom, thus not interrupting instruction and keeping the classroom running smoothly. Self-regulation is a critical skill children need to succeed in multiple aspects of life. Poor self-regulation skills can lead to challenges academically as well as socially. Contrary to self-regulation is impulsivity, which surrounds not thinking before doing. Impulsivity is a common factor seen within the preschool setting, which surrounds multiple behavior variations deemed unsuitable for classroom learning. Previous research indicates that social stories can be implemented within the classroom to decrease inappropriate behaviors in preschoolers with …

Deep Learning Applications For Predictive Modeling In Cancer Therapy And Enzyme Encoding, Mengmeng Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Predictive modeling has revolutionized computational biology and molecular bioinformatics, enabling significant advancements in cancer therapy and functional enzyme characterization. Despite considerable progress, significant challenges remain in accurately predicting combinational cancer therapies and systematically representing enzyme functions for computational applications. Traditional methods struggle with capturing the complex interactions between drugs and biological networks, as well as representing hierarchical relationships within enzyme classifications. This dissertation addresses these limitations by developing advanced deep learning models tailored to enhance predictive performance in both domains.

First, a data augmentation strategy is introduced to improve anticancer drug synergy prediction by generating pharmacologically relevant drug pairs based …

Silent Period Versus Selective Mutism In Young Bilingual Children: A Case Study, Blake Alley

LSU Master's Theses

Intro: It is difficult to distinguish between typical bilingual communication behaviors and those of monolinguals with communication disorders. One difficulty is distinguishing between a silent period and selective mutism. A silent period refers to a relatively brief period of time during which a bilingual refuses to speak in unfamiliar language contexts. Selective mutism refers to a refusal to speak for a long period of time in any language context. The purpose of this study is to disentangle selective mutism from a silent period for a 4 year 10-month-old Spanish English bilingual female.

Methods: This study will include questionnaires, and seven …

The Design, Construction, And Testing Of Mrna Vaccine Against Equine Herpes Virus, Bhawana Devkota

LSU Master's Theses

Equine Herpesvirus-1 (EHV 1) is a worldwide significant pathogen that causes respiratory illness, abortion, and neurological disorders in equine. Current vaccines, including live attenuated, inactivated, and subunit platforms, do not prevent viral latency, mucosal shedding, or cross-strain immunity, requiring alternative approaches. To address these gaps, this project explores the design, synthesis, and in vitro testing of an mRNA vaccine targeting immunogenic EHV 1 glycoprotein (gB, gC, gD, gG, and gM). Epitopes were computationally predicted using the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB), codon-optimized for Bos taurus, and cloned into pUCIDT vectors using SP6/T7 promoters. In vitro transcription (IVT) used nucleotide modifications …

Erratum: Correction: Soil Contamination By Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals And Dioxins Following Train Derailment In East Palestine, Oh (Environmental Science. Processes & Impacts (2025) 27 3 Doi: 10.1039/D4em00609g.), Myron L. Lard, Sarah E. Eichler, Peng Gao, Kuldeep Singh, Joseph D. Ortiz, Robert L. Cook, Slawomir Lomnicki, Stephania A. Cormier, Jennifer Richmond-Bryant

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Correction for 'Soil contamination by environmentally persistent free radicals and dioxins following train derailment in East Palestine, OH' by Myron L. Lard et al., Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1039/d4em00609g.

An Interdisciplinary Analysis Framework For Found Object Experimental Music, Erin Demastes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Found object experimental music consists of compositions and performances created with objects not intended for musical performance. Found objects can range from appliances and household items to power tools and consumer products to souvenirs and heirlooms. Although these objects are used with the intent of creating musical compositions, new characteristics that are not found in traditional music emerge. One major characteristic that differentiates found object music from traditional music is that the objects have inherent cultural associations and meaning outside of their use in the composition. While an analysis of the sonic structures and scores of found object experimental music …

The Metaphysics Of Frank Herbert's Dune And God Emperor Of Dune: On Time And Language, Garrett J. Busshart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies the metaphysics of time and rhetoric in the science fiction novels Dune (1963) and God Emperor of Dune (1981) by Frank Herbert. The first chapter critiques the protagonist’s sense of temporality, an ideology in which the future consists of multiple possible choices while each decision of one forecloses a still larger set. Jean-Pierre Dupuy calls this a “supermarket” model of temporality, as if the future were a contingent-free menu of possibilities a subject is free to pick between. My assertion is that this sense of temporality—the Western norm—matches the protagonist’s, Paul Atreides’s, rhetoric. In disclosing Paul’s sense …

Examining The Role Of Cognition And Late-Life Treatment Resistant Depression On Everyday Functioning, Ashlyn Runk

LSU Master's Theses

The capacity to complete instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) is essential to older adults maintaining their ability to age in place and is influenced by factors including depression and cognition. There is evidence to suggest that depression and cognition influence each other in their relationship with everyday functioning. However, much of this work has been done in samples with low overall levels of depressive symptoms. The goal of the current study was to examine these relationships in older adults with a history of moderate to severe treatment resistant depression and determine if the relationship between executive functioning and everyday …

American Option Pricing Using Generalised Stochastic Hybrid Systems, Evelyn Buckwar, Sascha Desmettre, Agnes Mallinger, Amira Meddah

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Ec2vec: A Machine Learning Method To Embed Enzyme Commission (Ec) Numbers Into Vector Representations, Mengmeng Liu, Xialong Ni, J. Ramanujam, Michal Brylinski

Faculty Publications

Enzyme commission (EC) numbers play a vital role in classifying enzymes and understanding their functions in enzyme-related research. Although accurate and informative encoding of EC numbers is essential for enhancing the effectiveness of machine learning applications, simple EC encoding approaches suffer from limitations such as false numerical order and high sparsity. To address these issues, we developed EC2Vec, a multimodal autoencoder that preserves the categorical nature of EC numbers and leverages their hierarchical relationships, resulting in more meaningful and informative representations. EC2Vec encodes each digit of the EC number as a categorical token and then processes these embeddings through a …

A Case For The Original Setting Of Rachmaninoff’S Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36, Alexias L. Ferrer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This document aims to examine both the original 1913 and revised 1931 settings of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2 Op. 36, and to present a case in favor of the lesser-known 1913 rendition of the piece as the more definitive setting of the work. The study begins with historical background information on the work and shows how the piece originated from a mature composer at the most productive period in his life and contrasts this to the historical background of the work’s revision. In a deeper analysis of form and content, the positives and negative qualities of each version …

Trans-Arg: Predicting Antibiotic Resistance Genes With A Transformer-Based Model And Pretrained Protein Language Model, Mohd Manzar Abbas, Amit Ranjan, Aixin Hou, Supratik Mukhopadhyay

Faculty Publications

Antibiotic resistance presents an emerging challenge to global health by reducing the efficacy of antibiotics administered to treat bacterial infections. Traditional approaches for detecting antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) involve alignment-based sequence similarity techniques, which are time-consuming and resource-intensive. This signifies the necessity for developing advanced computational methods to detect ARGs early. To address this challenge, we introduce Trans-ARG, a novel multi-head attention transformer-based model designed to predict potential ARGs. Our approach leverages the pretrained ESMFold model to extract embeddings from protein sequences, capturing intricate structural and functional information. Protein sequences labelled as ARG or non-ARG were used as the dataset. …

High-Resolution Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2 (Highresmip2) Towards Cmip7, Malcolm J. Roberts, Kevin A. Reed, Qing Bao, Joseph J. Barsugli, Suzana J. Camargo, Louis Philippe Caron, Ping Chang, Cheng Ta Chen, Hannah M. Christensen, Gokhan Danabasoglu, Ivy Frenger, Neven S. Fučkar, Shabeh Ul Hasson, Helene T. Hewitt, Huanping Huang, Daehyun Kim, Chihiro Kodama, Michael Lai, Lai Yung Ruby Leung, Ryo Mizuta, Paulo Nobre, Pablo Ortega, Dominique Paquin, Christopher D. Roberts, Enrico Scoccimarro, Jon Seddon, Anne Marie Treguier, Chia Ying Tu, Paul A. Ullrich, Pier Luigi Vidale, Michael F. Wehner, Colin M. Zarzycki

Faculty Publications

Robust projections and predictions of climate variability and change, particularly at regional scales, rely on the driving processes being represented with fidelity in model simulations. Consequently, the role of enhanced horizontal resolution in improved process representation in all components of the climate system continues to be of great interest. Recent simulations suggest the possibility of significant changes in both large-scale aspects of the ocean and atmospheric circulations and in the regional responses to climate change, as well as improvements in representations of small-scale processes and extremes, when resolution is enhanced. The first phase of the High-Resolution Model Intercomparison Project (HighResMIP1) …

Developing A Southern Ocean Marine Ecosystem Model Ensemble To Assess Climate Risks And Uncertainties, Kieran Murphy, Denisse Fierro-Arcos, Tyler Rohr, David Green, Camilla Novaglio, Katherine Baker, Kelly Ortega-Cisneros, Tyler D. Eddy, Cheryl S. Harrison, Simeon L. Hill, Patrick Eskuche-Keith, Camila Cataldo-Mendez, Colleen M. Petrik, Matthew Pinkerton, Paul Spence, Ilaria Stollberg, Roshni C. Subramaniam, Rowan Trebilco, Vivitskaia Tulloch, Juliano Palacios-Abrantes, Sophie Bestley, Daniele Bianchi, Philip Boyd, Pearse J. Buchanan, Andrea Bryndum-Buchholz, Marta Coll, Stuart Corney, Samik Datta, Jason D. Everett, Romain Forestier, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Vianney Guibourd De Luzinais, Ryan Heneghan

Faculty Publications

Climate change could irreversibly modify Southern Ocean ecosystems. Marine ecosystem model (MEM) ensembles can assist policy making by projecting future changes and allowing the evaluation and assessment of alternative management approaches. However, projected changes in total consumer biomass from the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (FishMIP) global MEM ensemble highlight an uncertain future for the Southern Ocean, indicating the need for a region-specific ensemble. A large source of model uncertainty originates from the Earth system models used to force FishMIP models, particularly future changes to lower trophic level biomass and sea-ice coverage. To build confidence in regional MEMs …

Global And Regional Marine Ecosystem Models Reveal Key Uncertainties In Climate Change Projections, Tyler D. Eddy, Ryan F. Heneghan, Andrea Bryndum-Buchholz, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Cheryl S. Harrison, Derek P. Tittensor, Heike K. Lotze, Kelly Ortega-Cisneros, Camilla Novaglio, Daniele Bianchi, Matthias Büchner, Catherine Bulman, William W.L. Cheung, Villy Christensen, Marta Coll, Jason D. Everett, Denisse Fierro-Arcos, Eric D. Galbraith, Didier Gascuel, Jerome Guiet, Steve Mackinson, Olivier Maury, Susa Niiranen, Ricardo Oliveros-Ramos, Juliano Palacios-Abrantes, Chiara Piroddi, Hubert Du Pontavice, Jonathan Reum, Anthony J. Richardson, Jacob Schewe, Lynne Shannon, Yunne Jai Shin, Jeroen Steenbeek

Faculty Publications

Climate change is affecting ocean temperature, acidity, currents, and primary production, causing shifts in species distributions, marine ecosystems, and ultimately fisheries. Earth system models simulate climate change impacts on physical and biogeochemical properties of future oceans under varying emissions scenarios. Coupling these simulations with an ensemble of global marine ecosystem models has indicated broad decreases of fish biomass with warming. However, regional details of these impacts remain much more uncertain. Here, we employ CMIP5 and CMIP6 climate change impact projections using two Earth system models coupled with four regional and nine global marine ecosystem models in 10 ocean regions to …

Hd-Tacs Over The Left Frontal Aslant Tract Entrains Theta Activity Associated With Speech Motor Control, Karim Johari, Fatemeh Tabari

Faculty Publications

Transient disruption or permanent damage to the left Frontal Aslant Tract (FAT) is associated with deficits in speech production. The present study examined the application of theta (4 Hz) high-definition transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD-tACS) over the left SMA and IFG –as a part of FAT- as a potential multisite protocol to modulate neural and behavioral correlates of speech motor control. Twenty-one young adults participated in three counterbalanced sessions in which they received in-phase, anti-phase, and sham theta HD-tACS. In each session, 4 Hz stimulation was applied over the left IFG and SMA, and subsequently EEG data was recorded while …

Modulators Of Energy Expenditure Accuracy In Adults With Overweight Or Obesity: E-Mechanic Secondary Analyses, Rachel Matthews, Christoph Höchsmann, Melissa L. Erickson, James L. Dorling, Guillaume Spielmann, Neil M. Johannsen, Timothy S. Church, Corby K. Martin

Faculty Publications

Purpose American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) metabolic equations are used to estimate energy expenditure (EE) of physical activity and prescribe aerobic exercise to meet EE requirements. Limited evidence supports their accuracy in sedentary adults with overweight or obesity during controlled exercise interventions. The purpose of this study was to compare EE estimated by the ACSM walking equation versus EE measured by indirect calorimetry during a 24-wk aerobic exercise intervention, and identify potential modulators for their accuracy. Methods Data from the exercising groups (8 or 20 kcal·kg body weight-1·wk-1) of the E-MECHANIC study were utilized in this ancillary analysis (N …

From The Mountains To The Beach: Water Purification Ecosystem Services And Recreational Beach Use In Puerto Rico, Maya Corridore, Rebeca De Jesús Crespo, Mariam Valladares-Castellanos, Thomas Douthat

Faculty Publications

Recreational beach use is important for coastal economies and is influenced by water clarity, a trait that may be maintained by water purification ecosystem services (ESs). However, few studies have addressed these linkages. In this study, we ask the following questions: (1) Do watershed-scale water purification ecosystem services influence coastal water quality? (2) Does coastal water quality help explain beach visitation rates? To address these questions, we focused on Puerto Rico (PR), where coastal tourism has economic and cultural importance. We estimated water purification ESs using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST), coastal water quality using long-term …

A 3d Superposition Approximation For Gamma Knife Dose Calculation, Payton H. Stone, Lam M. Lay, Raymi Ramirez, Daniel Neck, Connel Chu, Joyoni Dey, David Solis

Faculty Publications

Effective dose calculation is essential for optimizing Gamma Knife (GK) stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment plans. Modern GK systems allow independent sector activation, enabling complex dose distributions per shot. This study presents a dose approximation method designed to account for shot flexibility and generate 3D doses external to GammaPlan. A treatment plan was created with the TMR10 calculation for individual sector activations using a Radiosurgery Head Phantom. The resulting dose arrays established a basis set of sector-specific distributions, which were then referenced by shot parameters from the plan, allowing dose accumulation through superposition. This superposition approximation (SA) was compared to the …

Structural And Magnetic Properties Of Cotemo O6, Yu Li, Jared Coles, Xin Gui, Hyowon Park, Yan Wu, Xinglong Chen, Jing Han Chen, Xiaoping Wang, Huibo Cao, Shane Stadler, Omar Chmaissem, David P. Young, Stephan Rosenkranz, John F. Ditusa

Faculty Publications

We have conducted a comprehensive investigation into the magnetic properties of the chiral multiferroic material CoTeMoO6. In contrast with the previous claim of canted antiferromagnetic order with ferromagnetic components [Y. Doi, J. Solid State Chem. 182, 3232 (2009)10.1016/j.jssc.2009.09.008], our investigation reveals an antiferromagnetic ground state with compensated moments, providing an interesting platform for exploring exotic material properties. Through careful measurements of magnetization under a series of applied fields, we demonstrate that there exist two sequential field-induced magnetic transitions in CoTeMoO6, with one occurring at Hc1=460 Oe along the a axis, and the other at Hc2=1.16 T with the field along …

Post-Wildfire Mobilization Of Organic Carbon, Travis Numan, Srinidhi Lokesh, Abrar Shahriar, Anil Timilsina, Myron L. Lard, Justin Clark, Yasaman Raeofy, Qian Zhao, Simon R. Poulson, Paul S. Verburg, Jocelyn A. Richardson, Robert L. Cook, Vera Samburova, Yu Yang

Faculty Publications

Wildfires significantly alter watershed functions, particularly the mobilization of organic carbon (OC). This study investigated OC mobility and the physicochemical characteristics of wildfire-impacted soils and ashes from the northern California and Nevada fires (Dixie, Beckworth, Caldor). Organic carbon in wildfire-derived ashes (9.2–57.3 mg/g) generally exceeded levels in the background soils (4.3–24.4 mg/g), except at the Dixie fire sites. The mobile OC fraction varied from 0.0093 to 0.029 in ashes and 0.010 to 0.065 in soils, though no consistent trend was observed between the ashes and soils. Notably, the ash samples displayed lower OC mobility compared with the soils beneath them. …

Comparing The Restoration Effect And Stress Recovery In Real And Virtual Environments With A Green Wall, Alireza Sedghikhanshir, Yan Chen, Yimin Zhu, Melissa R. Beck, Amirhosein Jafari

Faculty Publications

Biophilic design, incorporating natural elements, is known to enhance stress recovery. Immersive virtual environments (IVEs) are increasingly utilized for biophilic design validation and research, but their efficacy in replicating the restorative effects of real environments remains uncertain. Varying responses to virtual settings suggest that specific design factors may affect their effectiveness. This study provides a novel comparison of the stress recovery and restoration effect between real and virtual green walls in a controlled climate chamber. Sixty-three participants were exposed to either a real or virtual green wall for seven minutes after a 5 min stressor task. Physiological stress responses, including …

Soil Contamination By Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals And Dioxins Following Train Derailment In East Palestine, Oh, Myron L. Lard, Sarah E. Eichler, Peng Gao, Kuldeep Singh, Joseph D. Ortiz, Robert L. Cook, Slawomir Lomnicki, Stephania A. Cormier, Jennifer Richmond-Bryant

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

The Norfolk Southern train derailment on February 3, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio, prompted concerns about the health impacts from the chemical spills and open-air combustion. We hypothesize that the combustion of chemicals, including vinyl chloride, in the presence of transition-metal oxides from the train, tracks, and soil minerals were conducive to the formation of hazardous byproducts including environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs), dioxins, and furans. We also hypothesize that these harmful byproducts of combustion have a shared origin and thus will have elevated concentrations in soil samples collected close to the derailment site when compared to concentrations in background …