Digital Commons Network^™

Matrix Recharge In A Shrink-Swell Floodplain Forest Soil, Savannah R. Morales

LSU Master's Theses

Despite the global distribution of fine-grained Vertisols, the hydrology of these floodplain soils is still not well understood. Vertisols shrink and swell depending on soil moisture leading to a range of soil pore sizes, from large macropore cracks to smaller micropores, and consequently a range of hydraulic conductivities. Despite the plethora of research indicating the importance of both flooding and soil moisture in floodplain ecosystems, the specific role that flooding plays in soil moisture recharge has been less widely studied and remains of interest. Blue food dye and deuterated water were used as tracers to determine the role of the …

Neurostimulator With Waveforms Inspired By Nature For Wearable Electro-Acupuncture, Jose Aquiles Parodi Amaya

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The work presented here has 3 goals: establish the need for novel neurostimulation waveform solutions through a literature review, develop a neurostimulation pulse generator, and verify the operation of the device for neurostimulation applications.

The literature review discusses the importance of stimulation waveforms on the outcomes of neurostimulation, and proposes new directions for neurostimulation research that would help in improving the reproducibility and comparability between studies.

The pulse generator circuit is then described that generates signals inspired by the shape of excitatory or inhibitory post-synaptic potentials (EPSP, IPSP). The circuit analytical equations are presented, and the effects of the circuit …

Capturing Contingency: Experimental Documentary In The Wake Of Direct Cinema, Dustin Reed Zemel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines experimental works in the late 1960s utilizing technologies and techniques connected with direct cinema and cinema vérité models of documentary filming. Focusing on three experimental filmmakers, I show how films by Jonas Mekas, Robert Fulton and William Greaves eschew the austere style associated with observational realism of direct cinema in favor of more ostentatious experimental assembly practices which highlight the role of the filmmaker as artist. I argue for a relational model of assessment in which documentary film’s qualitative renderings of environment become important determinants of documentary integrity and efficacy. With separate chapters focusing on works by …

Evaluation Of Traffic Speed Deflectometer For Pavement Structural Evaluation In Louisiana, Zia Uddin Ahmed Zihan

LSU Master's Theses

Many state agencies have recognized the importance of incorporating pavement structural conditions in the selection of maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) strategies along with functional indices. To measure in-service pavement structural capacity, surface deflection under a defined load has been typically used. The Rolling Wheel Deflectometer (RWD) and Traffic Speed Deflectometer (TSD) have emerged as continuous pavement deflection-measuring devices as they operate at traffic speed and reduces lane closure and user delays.

The research objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of using TSD measurements at the network-level for pavement conditions structural evaluation in Louisiana. To achieve the objectives …

Deconstructing Piatti: Exploring Underlying Physiological Challenges In The 12 Caprices For Solo Cello, Unusdian Errandonea

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Composed in 1865 and first published in 1874, Alfredo Piatti’s 12 Caprices for Solo Cello, Op.25 have become one of the most widely-used volumes of technical studies for cello students. A virtuoso cellist, influential teacher, and prolific composer dubbed “The Paganini of the Cello” by Franz Liszt, his complete command of the cello allowed him to push the limits of the instrument in an era when the virtuoso solo cello repertoire was just starting to flourish. To this day, the study of the Caprices is still tremendously helpful–and often required by teachers as material for developing the highest level of …

Graph Information Processing For Artificial Intelligence, Limeng Pu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the last decade, techniques for artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced tremendously, which lead to solutions to many problems that have long-troubled us. Such examples include image/video recognition, speech recognition, and 3D scenario recognition. As the tool become more and more powerful, we started to explore data types that have never been handled in an AI fashion. Graph is undoubtedly the first one that comes to mind. Many important real-life data is or can be represented as graphs or networks: social networks, communication networks, protein-protein interaction networks, molecular structures, etc. Yet very little attention has been devoted to the study …

Characterization Of Genes Required For Both Rpg1 And Rpg4-Mediated Wheat Stem Rust Resistance In Barley, Shyam Solanki, Jonathan Richards, Gazala Ameen, Xue Wang, Atiya Khan, Harris Ali, Alex Stangel, Prabin Tamang, Thomas Gross, Patrick Gross, Thomas G. Fetch, Robert S. Brueggeman

Faculty Publications

Background: Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) race TTKSK and its lineage pose a threat to barley production world-wide justifying the extensive efforts to identify, clone, and characterize the rpg4-mediated resistance locus (RMRL), the only effective resistance to virulent Pgt races in the TTKSK lineage. The RMRL contains two nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat (NLR) resistance genes, Rpg5 and HvRga1, which are required for resistance. The two NLRs have head-to-head genome architecture with one NLR, Rpg5, containing an integrated C-terminal protein kinase domain, characteristic of an "integrated sensory domain" resistance mechanism. Fast neutron mutagenesis of line Q21861 was utilized in …

Using Systematic Prompt Fading To Program A Self-Questioning Strategy With Elementary Students With Disabilities, Leah Michelle Turner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Standardized assessments are focused on integrating knowledge from multiple sources and developing composed written responses. This requires the students to be able to read and comprehend on grade level, within the various subject areas (reading, math, science, and social studies), which are skills students with disabilities struggle to do. The purpose of the study was to use a systematic prompt fading procedure as a vehicle to program a self-questioning strategy for students with disabilities. The intervention package occurred in seven phases: baseline, embedded questions training, embedded questions independent practice, self-questioning training, self-questioning independent practice, self-questioning fading, and maintenance. A systematic …

A Study On Large-Scale Deep Learning In Bioinformatics And Biomedical Applications, Shayan Shams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence and deep learning have provided researchers in various fields insights into the analysis of multiple datasets. These applications include image analysis, text analysis, and many more. However, the effectiveness of deep learning in some areas, such as biomedical imaging and genomic research, has been overshadowed by the variance in the types and complexity of data. This is in addition to the expensive labeling process and the limited size of datasets in these fields. These challenges require advanced deep learning models capable of learning from a small dataset and also from a small number of labeled …

Habitat Preference Modulates Transoceanic Dispersal In A Terrestrial Vertebrate, Mozes P.K. Blom, Nicholas J. Matzke, Jason G. Bragg, Evy Arida, Christopher C. Austin, Adam R. Backlin, Miguel A. Carretero, Robert N. Fisher, Frank Glaw, Stacie A. Hathaway, Djoko T. Iskandar, Jimmy A. Mcguire, Benjamin R. Karin, Sean B. Reilly, Eric N. Rittmeyer, Sara Rocha, Mickaël Sanchez, Alexander L. Stubbs, Miguel Vences, Craig Moritz

Faculty Publications

© 2019 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. The importance of long-distance dispersal (LDD) in shaping geographical distributions has been debated since the nineteenth century. In terrestrial vertebrates, LDD events across large water bodies are considered highly improbable, but organismal traits affecting dispersal capacity are generally not taken into account. Here, we focus on a recent lizard radiation and combine a summary-coalescent species tree based on 1225 exons with a probabilistic model that links dispersal capacity to an evolving trait, to investigate whether ecological specialization has influenced the probability of trans-oceanic dispersal. Cryptoblepharus species that occur …

Secure And Efficient Bft Consensus For Blockchains, Mohammad Mussadiq Jalalzai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Blockchains are simple data structures, containing transactions organized into blocks, in which each block points to a previous block using its hash. Thus, by following the chain, we can follow the history of transactions. Blocks are added to the chain through a consensus mechanism. Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocols that were designed before blockchains were introduced are usually considered appropriate for use in small scale networks of size 10-20 replicas. Blockchains have changed this trend as the blockchain networks usually require a larger number of replicas and classic BFT protocols cannot provide acceptable performance in large networks. One of …

High-Resolution Spectroscopy Of Boyajian's Star During Optical Dimming Events, M. J. Martínez González, C. González-Fernández, A. Asensio Ramos, H. Socas-Navarro, C. Westendorp Plaza, T. S. Boyajian, J. T. Wright, A. Collier Cameron, J. I. González Hernández, G. Holgado, G. M. Kennedy, T. Masseron, E. Molinari, J. Saario, S. Simón-Díaz, B. Toledo-Padrón

Faculty Publications

Boyajian's star is an apparently normal main-sequence F-type star with a very unusual light curve. The dipping activity of the star, discovered during the Kepler mission, presents deep, asymmetric, and aperiodic events. Here we present high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up during some dimming events recorded post-Kepler observations, from ground-based telescopes. We analyse data from the HERMES, HARPS-N, and FIES spectrographs to characterize the stellar atmosphere and to put some constraints on the hypotheses that have appeared in the literature concerning the occulting elements. The star's magnetism, if existing, is not extreme. The spots on the surface, if present, would occupy 0.02 per …

Mapping Soil Moisture From Remotely Sensed And In-Situ Data With Statistical Methods, Yaping Xu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Soil moisture is an important factor for accurate prediction of agricultural productivity and rainfall runoff with hydrological models. Remote sensing satellites such as Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) offer synoptic views of soil moisture distribution at a regional-to-global scale. To use the soil moisture product from these satellites, however, requires a downscaling of the data from an usually large instantaneous field of view (i.e. 36 km) to the watershed analysis scales ranging from 30 m to 1 km. In addition, validation of the soil moisture products using the ground station observations without an upscaling treatment would lead to cross-level fallacy. …

Rare Earth Geochemistry Of Apatitic Fossils From The Middle-Upper Ordovician Southern Margin Of Laurentia, Rafael Adrian Villanueva

LSU Master's Theses

Widespread deposition of phosphate and a transition from tropical to cool water carbonates is seen throughout Middle-Upper Ordovician Nashville Dome area spanning the M4/M5 sequence boundary. Hypotheses explaining the onset of these lithologic changes have included the onset of glaciation, drawdown of CO₂ related to the Guttenburg Isotope Carbon Excursion (GICE), and siliciclastic weathering, yet none of these studies have provided definitive evidence that shows any of these are the sole factor driving paleoenvironmental changes across the M4/M5 boundary. In order to test whether rapid subsidence along the southeastern margin of Laurentia may have caused an influx of phosphate …

Cognitive Intra-Individual Variability: The Effects Of Affect In A Healthy Young Adult Sample, Tovah M.D. Cowan

LSU Master's Theses

Cognition is foundational to our experience of the world, but also to how psychologists understand dysfunctions. Cognitive impairment is a feature of a variety of mental disorders, but traditional assessment measures have key limitations in prediction and classification. A proposed alternative is cognitive intraindividual variability (cIIV), which is suggested to measure cognitive control or neural inefficiencies, fluctuating within a task, or over short periods of time. cIIV has been shown to be more sensitive in classification for a variety of conditions than overall performance, including in affective disorders. Further, some research suggests that cIIV is related to self-report cognitive abilities, …

Atmospheric Deposition Of Nitrogen And Sulfur In China: Current Status And Future Changes, Cheng Shi

LSU Master's Theses

Dry and wet deposition of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) has detrimental impacts on the health of both human and ecosystems. Intensive human activities are responsible for elevating emissions and deposition of N and S species. Large population and fast industrial development led China to one of the countries with highest acid deposition. The large fluxes of N and S deposition have caused acidification of surface water and soil, which damages plant growth and biodiversity in China. N and S deposition has been investigated using ground-based monitoring networks and satellite-based sensors. The limitation of location of monitoring sites and performance …

Evaluation Of Post-Harvest Procedures For Quality Enhancement In The Louisiana Commercial Shrimp Industry, Nicholas Alan Haddad

LSU Master's Theses

The Louisiana commercial shrimp fishery has faced numerous challenges and is declining at an alarming rate. The opportunity may exist to add value to the industry by creating a superior product through optimal operating procedures. Post-harvest processes of plate freezing were analyzed to develop a high-quality shrimp product capable of fostering economic growth for fishermen. Quantifiable data was collected via overnight trips onboard plate freezing boats and at plate freezing docks. Sulfite-free melanosis prevention testing occurred by exploring the use of 4-hexylresorcinol treatments, in combination with vacuum packaging and modified atmosphere packaging, to delay the onset of black spot. Physical …

Application Of Pressure And Rate Transient Analyses To Stress-Sensitive Multi-Fractured Composite Systems And Compartmentalized Reservoirs, Oscar Mauricio Molina

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Pressure transient analysis (PTA) is one of the most robust and commonly interpretation tools available for reservoir characterization. Common applications of PTA include estimation of near-wellbore and reservoir properties, detection of reservoir limits and identification of depletion mechanisms. In addition, PTA allows the identification of sealing and leaky faults and the characterization of its properties, such as permeability and transmissibility hence direction of leakage within the fault.

The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce the analytical solution for pressure-transient behavior for three novel reservoir models. First, we develop the analytical model of a multi-fracture horizontal well (MFHW) with pressure-dependent …

Stress And Suicidality: Effects Of Stressful Life Events, Contextual Socioeconomic Disadvantage, And Early Life Traumas, Muhammed Yildiz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Determining the risk factors and associated pathways that lead individuals to suicidal behavior is an important endeavor in developing appropriate intervention and prevention strategies. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this dissertation examines how stressful life events, contextual socioeconomic disadvantage, and major early life traumas are associated with suicidal tendencies of U.S. individuals. In addition to direct associations, some of the potential mediating mechanisms that these stressors exert their effects through were also investigated. The major findings indicated that stressful life events increased the risk of suicidal ideation and attempt among adolescents, both directly, …

Forget Me Not: Are Stronger Memories More Susceptible To Retrieval-Induced Forgetting?, Laura Lee Heisick

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Successfully retrieving information sometimes causes forgetting of related, but unpracticed, information, termed retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). One explanatory mechanism of RIF suggests related, but currently irrelevant, information is inhibited during retrieval, resulting in poorer memory for competing representations. Critically, this perspective suggests stronger memories are more susceptible to RIF because stronger representations produce additional competition when unpracticed. To resolve this competition, strong competing items are inhibited, resulting in the counterintuitive prediction that stronger memories are more likely to be forgotten. The aim of the current experiments was to replicate and extend recent work suggesting non-typical objects and own-race faces, both of …

Factors Influencing Safety Performance Among Industrial Manufacturing Facilities In Louisiana, Sarah Emily Ragona

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected organizational, demographic, and safety practice factors on the number and types of injuries within the industrial manufacturing plants in eight parishes in southern Louisiana. The target population was industrial organizational facilities. The accessible population was industrial manufacturing plants in the eight parishes surrounding Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who are members of a trade association comprised of industrial manufacturers. The sample was 100% of the defined as the accessible population. The researcher contacted a trade organization to identify the data source, requested and was granted permission to both access …

Field Drilling Data Cleaning And Preparation For Data Analytics Applications, Daniel Cardoso Braga

LSU Master's Theses

Throughout the history of oil well drilling, service providers have been continuously striving to improve performance and reduce total drilling costs to operating companies. Despite constant improvement in tools, products, and processes, data science has not played a large part in oil well drilling. With the implementation of data science in the energy sector, companies have come to see significant value in efficiently processing the massive amounts of data produced by the multitude of internet of thing (IOT) sensors at the rig. The scope of this project is to combine academia and industry experience to analyze data from 13 different …

Transient Flow Analysis Of A Closing Blowout Preventer Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd), Daniel Barreca

LSU Master's Theses

Reliability of blowout preventers (BOPs) is crucial for drilling and production operations. Erosion of BOP components and hydrodynamic forces on rams may cause failure of BOP elements to seal the well. Transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of fluids within the wellbore and BOP offer quantitative and qualitative data related to this reliability during the closure of various BOP components. Since limited research has been published in transient CFD simulations of closing BOPs, this thesis discusses challenges and solutions to simulating closing blowout preventers. Single component fluids are simulated through several BOP geometries such as annular preventers, pipe rams, and …

A Low-Cost Experimental Testbed For Multi-Agent System Coordination Control, Victor Fernandez-Kim

LSU Master's Theses

A multi-agent system can be defined as a coordinated network of mobile, physical agents that execute complex tasks beyond their individual capabilities. Observations of biological multi-agent systems in nature reveal that these ``super-organisms” accomplish large scale tasks by leveraging the inherent advantages of a coordinated group. With this in mind, such systems have the potential to positively impact a wide variety of engineering applications (e.g. surveillance, self-driving cars, and mobile sensor networks). The current state of research in the area of multi-agent systems is quickly evolving from the theoretical development of coordination control algorithms and their computer simulations to experimental …

Influence Of Hydration Status On Running Performance And Makers Of Psychological And Physiological Stress In High School Cross Country Runners, Joshua Granger

LSU Master's Theses

Adequate hydration is an important attribute to an individual’s health and wellbeing. This is highlighted in athletic populations, who are at great risk for hypohydration, regardless of age, sex, and sport. The rampant hypohydration observed in athletes is present at all levels of competition, from professional athletes, with access to substantial monetary and nutrition support to division 3 and recreational athletes who often face monetary challenges. This trend continues to trickle down to lower levels of competition, such as high school, where athletes often practice and compete in dehydrated states. Practicing in these hypohydrated states can cause health issues such …

A Cup Of Breast Milk And A Warm Chair, Carlie A. Salomons

LSU Master's Theses

The work in the exhibition A Cup Of Breast Milk and A Warm Chair is a physical and ephemeral connection between mothers and daughters. It explores my personal connection to my maternal lineage. This connection is looked through the lens of common generational roles of women, ancestral inheritance and my childhood memories. I consider what it means to inherit and to be remembered outside of the standard androcentric genealogical structure. My inheritance from my maternal lineage comes in the form of women’s work, or handcrafts such as: crochet, knitting and sewing. In creating this body of work, I blend the …

Exploring The Role Of Gender And Race In Salary Negotiations, Chelsea D. Hightower

LSU Master's Theses

Research findings from the negotiation literature have revealed significant differences in the negotiation behaviors of men and women, specifically that women do not negotiate as often or as successfully as men do. This difference has been cited as one of many factors contributing to the persistence of the gender wage gap. A possible explanation for the differences is that men and women are treated differently when they negotiate. Thus, there is evidence that women negotiators tend to receive multiple forms of social and economic punishment (i.e., backlash) for engaging in behavior that is inconsistent with stereotype-based expectations of women in …

Phantasmatic: Interrogating The (Im)Materiality Of Bodies Through Wool And Clay, Alexandria J. Arceneaux

LSU Master's Theses

Phantasmaticis an exploration of materials and materiality which relies on the concept of the phantasmatic body elucidated in Gayle Salamon’s work Assuming a Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality. This thesis is an exploration of these ideas. In my work, I use wool and clay to represent the material (known) and phantasmatic (sensed) bodies in an effort to explore an expanded understanding of the body at large. My work is also an effort to expand my own understanding of my phantasmatic body and its relationship to (my) materiality.

Cost Effective, Highly Efficient Wireless Power Transfer Systems For Ev Battery Charging, Amir Masoud Bozorgi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The impact of changing inner diameter of wireless power transfer (WPT) coils on coupling coefficient is studied. It is demonstrated that at a certain outer and inner coil diameter, turn space variation has minor effect on the coupling coefficient. Next, two compensation networks, namely primary LCC and secondary LCC, which offer load-independent voltage transfer ratio and zero voltage switching for WPT, are presented. For both compensation networks, the condition for having zero voltage switching operation are derived. In addition, load-independent voltage transfer ratio (VTR) frequencies are obtained and VTR at each frequency is derived. Then, required equations for calculation of …

Sediment Identification Using Machine Learning Classifiers In A Mixed-Texture Dredge Pit Of Louisiana Shelf For Coastal Restoration, Haoran Liu, Kehui Xu, Bin Li, Ya Han, Guandong Li

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.