Digital Commons Network^™

A Critical Examination Of Media Images Of The Civil Rights Movement And Their Role In Shaping Collective Memories Among Northern White Audiences, Martha Ramirez

LSU Master's Theses

Collective memory theory has been used to study a wide array of phenomena, including the media’s role in shaping collective memories of pivotal and influential events throughout society. Often when lacking direct contact and engagement, the media may shape the collective memories of audiences. As such, the current study examines prominent images presented in the media and the potential role each could have contributed to the collective memory of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. More specifically, this study analyzes how collective memories, which are arguably influenced by the mass media, create memories for audiences that lack direct engagement (e.g., participating …

Intimate Rhetorics Of Networked Motherhood, Katie Nelson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fundamentally pregnant bodies are understood, similarly to women’s bodies, as necessitating discipline. However, new networked forums have emerged where pregnancy is understood as affirming and having the capacity to challenge a silenced subject position. Using three case studies, the #IHadAMiscarriage Instagram page, the #TakeBackPostpartum Instagram page, and mediatized discourses surrounding Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy, this dissertation writes intimate publicity into these mediatized transgressions of pregnancy and postpartum. I argue discourses about pregnancy and postpartum in these networked spaces constitute intimate publics through the cultivation of shared affected investments and divestments in embodied experiences. These investments in the embodied experiences are crafted …

The Dna Cloud: Is It Alive?, Theodoros Bargiotas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this analysis, I will firstly be presenting the current knowledge concerning the materiality of the internet based Cloud, which I will henceforth be referring to as simply the Cloud. For organisation purposes I have created two umbrella categories under which I place the ongoing research in the field. Scholars have been addressing the issue of Cloud materiality through broadly two prisms: sociological materiality and geopolitical materiality. The literature of course deals with the intricacies of the Cloud based on its present ferromagnetic storage functionality. However, developments in synthetic biology have caused private tech companies and University spin-offs to flirt …

A Microscale Approach To Investigate Breast Cancer Cellular Communication And Migration, Sharif Mohammad Mizanur Rahman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Metastatic breast cancer significantly decreases patient survival, with the majority of deaths caused by secondary metastasis. Cancer metastasis is a multi-step process that starts with the detachment of a cancer cell from the primary tumor and ends with establishing a secondary tumor at a distal location. This work's focus was to use an interdisciplinary microscale approach to study how cancer cells respond to neighboring cells and how they migrate in response to chemical gradients. Two distinct devices, a microfluidic device, and a 3D-printed plate insert, were developed to perform co-culture studies to elucidate the impact of ASCs on cancer cell …

Schizotypy: The Way Ahead, Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero, Martin Debbané, Juan Francisco Rodríguez-Testal, Alex S. Cohen, Anna R. Docherty, Javier Ortuño-Sierra

Faculty Publications

Background: Empirical evidence suggests that schizotypy is a useful construct for analyzing and understanding psychotic disorders. However, several issues remain to be resolved. Method: This selective, critical review, addresses some questions and limitations, and discusses future directions of work. Results: First, we present a conceptual outline and discuss the evidence from translational and interdisciplinary studies on schizotypy. Next, we examine and discuss newer analytical and methodological approaches, including network and machine learning approaches. We also discuss newer psychometric identification approaches, such as those using biobehavioral and ambulatory assessment. Next, we review recent cross-cultural studies in schizotypy research. Finally, we identify …

P-Cresol Biogenesis During Bioremediation Aimed At Stimulating Chlorinated Solvent Dehalogenation, Alexis Gathings

LSU Master's Theses

The broad goal of the research described in this thesis was to better understand the potential for biologically mediated production of p-cresol in groundwater at a Superfund site located in south Louisiana. Previous literature reports that microorganisms known to carry out the transformation from L-tyrosine to p-cresol occur in diverse environments.

In the research described in this thesis, studies were conducted utilizing groundwater from the Superfund site during the course of enhanced in situ bioremediation practices aimed at stimulating reductive dehalogenation of chlorinated solvent contamination. Microbial communities established with groundwater sampled from the Superfund site were observed to …

Fall 2020 Catalog, Lsu Press

LSU Press Seasonal Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Obesity, The Most Common Comorbidity In Sars-Cov-2: Is Leptin The Link?, Candida J. Rebello, John P. Kirwan, Frank L. Greenway

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and lung disease. These diseases are the most commonly reported health conditions that predispose individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection to require hospitalization including intensive care unit admissions. The innate immune response is the host’s first line of defense against a human coronavirus infection. However, most coronaviruses are armed with one strategy or another to overcome host antiviral defense, and the pathogenicity of the virus is related to its capacity to suppress host immunity. The multifaceted nature of obesity including its effects on immunity can fundamentally alter the pathogenesis of acute …

Cultural Heritage And User Interface Design, Narges Tavakoli

LSU Master's Theses

This study centers around localizing the user interface and experience design of digital products considering the culture of the audience and their visual heritage. Even though it seems the internet has made the distance between developing and advanced countries less than before, there are still fundamental differences between people’s beliefs and expectations. As a graphic designer who is based in The United States and is from Iran, I noticed the digital products (web, mobile applications) produced in Iran disregard the Iranian’s specific needs and emulate western patterns. So, I researched the dissimilarities between the two countries by using Greet Hofstede’s …

Patterns Of Physical Performance Spurts During Adolescence: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Canadian, Brazilian And Portuguese Boys, Eduardo Guimarães, Adam D.G. Baxter-Jones, Sara Pereira, Fernando Garbeloto, Duarte Freitas, Manuel A. Janeira, Go Tani, Peter T. Katzmarzyk, Simonete Silva, Donald A. Bailey, Robert L. Mirwald, José Maia

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Background: Data relating physical performance to the timing of the adolescent growth spurt are limited. Aim: This study identifies: (i) age-at-peak height velocity (APHV), (ii) physical performance spurt patterns aligned to APHV; and (iii) cross-cultural and time patterns in Canadian, Brazilian and Portuguese boys. Subjects and methods: A total of 512 boys (131 Canadian, 250 Portuguese and 131 Brazilian), 8–17 years of age were followed serially using longitudinal data. APHV was identified and five physical performance measures velocities [trunk extension (TE), trunk flexion (TF), standing long jump (SLJ), curl-ups (CU) and handgrip strength (HG)] were aligned at 6-month intervals, 4 …

Baton Rouge Slam!: An Obituary For Summer 2016: A Critical Performance Ethnography Of Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam, Joshua Hamzehee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This critical performance ethnography presents the theory, methodology, and practice surrounding the fieldwork, scripting, and performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. As participant-observer, director, and co-performer, I unpack social drama, performance ethnography, and slam culture by employing a lens rooted in critical race theory. Local poets permitted me to de- and re-contextualize their interviews into ensemble scenes and theatricalize their slam poems about the recent summer’s charged events. One year later, this involved and embodied process of ethnographic bricolage became the ensemble cast performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. Community members and …

Night Of The Witch: Alternative Spirituality, Identity And Media, Andreana Tarleton

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis works to understand the relationships witches and conjurors have with the film and television depictions of them. Employing the method of film critique, I argue that the witch stands as a cultural symbol in the US of women and femmes with power, and that their stories serve as lessons to these populations about what it means to be an acceptable woman or femme, while simultaneously creating and perpetuating stereotypes of magic practitioners. Then, using the combination of hashtag ethnography, in-person and video interviewing and internet surveys, I argue that #witchblr and #witchesofcolor, as well as the space of …

The Voice Of Honor: Centering An Indigenous Ethic Of Protocol In U.S. Rhetorical Studies, Dakota Sandras

LSU Master's Theses

This project takes seriously the pressing rhetorical questions facing the field of communication studies which illuminate opportunity for radical disciplinary transformation and demand action beyond heightened racial and cultural awareness. In response, I seek to demonstrate that centering Indigenous epistemologies might inform and advance decolonial strategies for change. More specifically, I examine the theory and practice of First Nations customs of protocol and develop what I deem an ethic of protocol consisting of honor, humility, and action. After observing how these core tenets function synergistically in the protocol of elders, rites of passage, and entering another’s land, I argue that …

There's No Place Like Home: Arlene Francis And Domesticity In Doubt, Caroline Argrave

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the life and career of stage, film, and television personality Arlene Francis, in order to add nuance to the understanding of how women broke into the entertainment industry. Francis, rather than brazenly flouting norms, wooed her employers and audience into acceptance by combining her prominent new “power” with comforting old-fashioned norms. The result was a woman doing something patently new while speaking in a way disarmingly familiar. In this way, Francis is reminiscent of other female pioneers, who used a traditionally feminine persona to charm their male colleagues into supporting their leadership, and as a result has …

Theater Of The Obsessed, Cynthia Sampson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Theater of the Obsessed uses fandom to illustrate how audiencing can be a form of queer worldmaking. I begin by establishing that audiencing is a process that takes place over time and is not confined to the seat you’re sitting in while consuming various media. Because audiencing is a nearly invisible process, I turn to fandom and fanworks to demonstrate what some of the other parts look like. From there, I take a mystorical approach. That is, I use mystory to braid my personal audiencing, popular culture examples, and professional scholarship together to create a wide image. What becomes apparent …

Ceramide–Rubusoside Nanomicelles, A Potential Therapeutic Approach To Target Cancers Carrying P53 Missense Mutations, Sachin K. Khiste, Zhijun Liu, Kartik R. Roy, Mohammad B. Uddin, Salman B. Hosain, Xin Gu, Sami Nazzal, Ronald A. Hill, Yong Yu Liu

Faculty Publications

Ceramide (Cer) is an active cellular sphingolipid that can induce apoptosis or proliferation-arrest of cancer cells. Nanoparticle-based delivery offers an effective approach for overcoming bioavailability and biopharmaceutics issues attributable to the pronounced hydrophobicity of Cer. Missense mutations of the protein p53, which have been detected in approximately 42% of cancer cases, not only lose the tumor suppression activity of wild-type p53, but also gain oncogenic functions promoting tumor progression and drug resistance. Our previous works showed that cellular Cer can eradicate cancer cells that carry a p53 deletion-mutation by modulating alternative pre-mRNA splicing, restoring wild-type p53 protein expression. Here, we …

The Avr4 Effector Is Involved In Cercosporin Biosynthesis And Likely Affects The Virulence Of Cercospora Cf. Flagellaris On Soybean, Josielle Santos Rezende, Marija Zivanovic, Maria Izabel Costa De Novaes, Zhi Yuan Chen

Faculty Publications

One of the most devastating fungal diseases of soybean in the southern USA is Cercospora leaf blight (CLB), which is caused mainly by Cercospora cf. flagellaris. Recent studies found that the fungal effector AVR4, originally identified in Cladosporium fulvum as a chitin-binding protein, is highly conserved among other Cercospora species. We wanted to determine whether it is present in C. cf. flagellaris and, if so, whether it plays a role in the pathogen infection of soybean. We cloned the Avr4 gene and created C. cf. flagellaris ∆avr4 mutants, which produced little cercosporin and significantly reduced expression of cercosporin biosynthesis genes. …

Educating For Whiteness: Applying Critical Race Theory’S Revisionist History In Library & Information Science Research, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Language Background And Second Language Phonetics Training On The Perception Of Lexical Stress In A Second Language, Todd A. Gibson, Carolina Bernales

Faculty Publications

Language background and second language (L2) training both have been found to contribute to L2 lexical stress perception. To explore their relative contributions, a lexical stress perception task was administered to a total of 129 university students of different language backgrounds. A group of 62 monolingual English-speaking students in the U.S.A. and 67 English-as-a-foreign-language students in Chile were asked to identify lexical stress in trochees and iambs. Chileans with previous phonetics training performed better than Chileans without the training and performed as well as their U.S. peers. U.S. participants and those Chileans without previous phonetics training performed better with trochees …

Fall 2019 Catalog, Lsu Press

LSU Press Seasonal Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Deprogramming Deficit: A Narrative Of A Developing Black Critical Stem Education Researcher, Monica L. Ridgeway

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

#Whyididntreport: Using Social Media Analysis To Inform Issues With Sexual Assault Reporting, Jordyn Warren

LSU Master's Theses

The #MeToo movement allowed victims of sexual assault to go public with their stories. When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford came forward with allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in September of 2018, she was scrutinized by President Trump for not reporting the incident to authorities “when it happened nearly 30 years ago.” Promptly, #WhyIDidntReport came to fruition on Twitter, uncovering the shame victims feel and the complexities behind why so many individuals didn’t and still don’t report their assaults. Victim-service agencies “provide victims with support and services to facilitate their physical and emotional recovery, offer protection from future victimizations, …

Rules Of Distributary Engagement: Cultural Adaptation And Digital Enhancement Of Hydro-Ecological Decision-Making In The Mekong Delta, Việt Nam, Clare-Mai H. Nguyen

LSU Master's Theses

Focused on current initiatives for climate resilience, this paper explores a culturally adaptive approach to participatory planning in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. It details key engagement components to accompany the use of Tangible Landscape, an interactive, data-driven modeling platform, in a series of workshops sponsored by the World Bank. Innovations like Tangible Landscape hold the potential to significantly increase stakeholders’ accessibility to scientific data and scenario models. To what extent do the specificity of place and culture determine the efficacy of these tools in democratizing decision-making?

This paper delves into Việt Nam’s socioeconomic development through Mekong agriculture, as well as …

Women Of The Edward J. Gay Family As Textile And Dress Consumers In Louisiana, 1849-1899, Lindsay Danielle Reaves

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Economic, social, and cultural historians have studied and analyzed consumption behaviors throughout the 20^th century and into the 21^st century. Decorative household textiles and dress items are two product categories that follow the consumption process. American consumption behaviors during the introduction of mass-produced textiles and dress items throughout the 19^th century have not been well documented.

The purpose of this research is to expand the knowledge of Southern planter-class women’s consumer behavior in relation to decorative household textiles and dress items. Arnould and Thompson’s (2005) Consumer Culture Theory and Belk’s (1988) research into possessions and the extended …

Toxic Culture: An Emotion And Sentiment Analysis Of College Football Fans In Relation To Controversy And Win-Loss Records, Joshua R. Jackson

LSU Master's Theses

Fans of certain college football teams will experience a wide array of emotions when their team is involved in a scandal. This study examined the fan bases of three university football teams as they learn about and react on social media to their schools and head coaches becoming implicated in controversies. Under the protection of those with similar likes and the secrecy of social media, users can voice opinions in favor of and against the football team’s firing of a coach or handling of an investigation. Fan bases analyzed in the study are Ohio State University, Maryland University, and Baylor …

Acquiring Native-Like Norms Of Making A Request In Spanish During Short-Term Study Abroad In Argentina And Spain, Christine H. Song

LSU Master's Theses

The current study examines if L2 learners of Spanish acquire native-like norms of making a request during short-term study abroad in Argentina and Spain via Discourse Completion Tasks (DCT). The investigation included 3 groups of the participants: an experimental group of 15 U.S. students who studied in Argentina or Spain; a control group of 12 U.S. students who had not studied abroad; and a control group of 7 native speakers of Spanish. The results show that students in the study abroad group became more native-like in making a request to a certain extent. Firstly, the students in the experimental group …

Factors Related To Parental Stress At Early Diagnostic Assessments For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Abigail Issarraras

LSU Master's Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is marked by pervasive impairments in social communication and restricted, repetitive interests, behaviors, and activities. Parents raising a child with ASD have consistently reported higher levels of parenting stress compared to parents of typically developing children and children with other disabilities. Several different factors influence parental stress levels at different stages of their child’s life, and so an understanding of the most predictive factors of parental stress at initial ASD assessments is critical to best serving the needs of families with a new diagnosis. The current study investigated several factors that may impact parenting stress at …

Multiple Voices In The Poetry Of Transculturation: Reading Contemporary Ex-Phonic Poetry Through Muwaššah: Ryoko Sekiguchi, Etel Adnan, And Suheir Hammad, Thana Al-Shakhs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research is a comparative study that compares two types of multicultural poetry: contemporary poetry written by non-native speakers and the Andalusian medieval genre of muwaššah. In spite of the cultural and temporal gap between the two periods, the poets apply similar strategies to represent multicultural voices, for example integrating foreign expressions. I argue that multicultural poetics break the rules of classical writing and use oral expressions that are more flexible to include different languages and cultural references. This study focuses on oral techniques that offer an appropriate style to express multiplicity.

This thesis is divided into four chapters. …

An Archive Of Pain: In Queer Suicide's Cultural Wake, Evan Schares

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that queer death is a chief site of political struggle over gender, race, and sexuality in contemporary culture. I consider myriad archives in the aftermath of three queer suicides, an aggregate of discourses I call cultural wakes, to examine how white affective investments circulate around the forces of racism, sexism, and citizenship. I place in situ the trauma of queer pain and loss against the global backdrop of public emotionality.

From Rationality To Relationality: Teacher-Student Relationship As Unknowing, Shaofei Han

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation reimagines the teacher-student relationship through a philosophical approach that draws on Laozi, Karen Barad, Deleuze & Guattari, and Emmanuel Levinas. The teacher-student relationship is normally considered a relationship of the knower (teacher) and the unknower (student) based on the modern western tradition of episteme. This dissertation interrogates the modern binary of the teacher/student, subject/object relationship by bringing ontology and ethics into educational discourse. The problematic practices of modern schooling include the reduction of teaching to knowledge transmission, and the rigid dichotomy of a subject/object relation between teacher and student. Following a Taoist Way of philosophical thinking, this work …