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Characterizing The Northern Hemisphere Circumpolar Vortex Through Space And Time, Nazla Bushra

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This hemispheric-scale, steering atmospheric circulation represented by the circumpolar vortices (CPVs) are the middle- and upper-tropospheric wind belts circumnavigating the poles. Variability in the CPV area, shape, and position are important topics in geoenvironmental sciences because of the many links to environmental features. However, a means of characterizing the CPV has remained elusive. The goal of this research is to (i) identify the Northern Hemisphere CPV (NHCPV) and its morphometric characteristics, (ii) understand the daily characteristics of NHCPV area and circularity over time, (iii) identify and analyze spatiotemporal variability in the NHCPV’s centroid, and (iv) analyze how CPV features relate …

Evolution Of Extreme Habitat Specialists In The Dark: Cavefishes And Anglerfishes, Pamela Hart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Extremophilic organisms are fascinating in that they thrive in physiologically demanding environments. Extreme habitats include subsurface caves and the deep sea, which share several qualities like low light and cold temperatures. Extremophiles have adapted bizarre characteristics that allow them to thrive in such harsh environments including eye and pigment loss (cavefishes) and development of a lure in anglerfishes. These traits are integral to the health and fitness of these organisms, yet the evolutionary history of these traits is unclear.

Cave adaptation has evolved repeatedly across the Tree of Life, famously leading to eye degeneration and loss, yet its macroevolutionary implications …

Historical Trends In The Trade Wind Inversion In The Tropical North Atlantic Ocean And Caribbean, Craig A. Ramseyer, Paul W. Miller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Alteration Of Flood Pulses By Damming The Nenjiang River, China – Implication For The Need To Identify A Hydrograph-Based Inundation Threshold For Protecting Floodplain Wetlands, Liwen Chen, Yanfeng Wu, Y. Jun Xu, Guangxin Zhang

Faculty Publications

Floodplain wetlands of low-gradient rivers are especially sensitive to alteration of hydrologic conditions. Although many studies have investigated changes in downstream hydrologic regimes caused by river dam construction, no study has specifically quantified the long-term effect of altered flood pulse on floodplain wetlands. Such knowledge is needed to develop effective dam operation strategies and plans for downstream wetland protection and restoration. We applied data time series from 1984 to 2018 to delineate the inundation extent of floodplain wetlands during the pre- (1984–2005) and post-dam (2006–2018) periods. Four segments of the 360-km river reach were selected to investigate how inundation frequency …

The Second Line Parade And The Construction Of Identity Through Costume In The Group The Undefeated Divas, Gents And Kids., Suellen Da Costa Coelho

LSU Master's Theses

This research aims to investigate the role of costume in identity formation in the second line group The Undefeated Divas, Gents and Kids. The methodology used in this research was data collection through interviews with members of the group. Through these interviews, we seek to establish the importance of costume in reflecting and constructing a sense of community within the group.

While the existing literature focuses on the history of second line parades and their importance in Louisiana’s culture, this research intends to explore costume’s meaning and significance. The purpose of this work is to complement the existing literature in …

Effects Of Historical Land-Use Change On Surface Runoff And Flooding In The Amite River Basin, Louisiana, Usa Using Coupled 1d/2d Hec-Ras–Hec-Hms Hydrological Modeling, Alexandre G. H. Cowles

LSU Master's Theses

The Amite River Basin is a largely rural watershed spanning parts of four counties in southern Mississippi and seven parishes in southeast Louisiana, with basinwide imperviousness increasing from 0.82% in 1938 to 3.85% in 2016. The Basin has been the subject of significant research interest since catastrophic flooding in 2016 caused 13 deaths and widespread damages. Rapid development in recent decades has led to an expansion of impervious surfaces in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas, encroaching on floodplains and wetlands. At the basin scale, differences in flooding due to impervious cover changes were found to be somewhat limited, particularly along …

Louisiana Agriculture Spring, 2021, Lsu Agcenter

Louisiana Agriculture

No abstract provided.

The Synchrony Of Pathogen Events, Tivon Eugene

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Franz Delitzsch, The Jewish Jesus, And The Pattern Of History: A Nineteenth-Century Dialogue About Christians And Jews In Germany, Shelby Frank Myers

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Representations Of Slavery At Louisiana Plantation Museums: Observations And Proposals For Change, Madeline Tinsley

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Ldoe’S Innovative Assessment Pilot: Bridging Or Widening The Gap?, Eric Forbes

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Industrial Emission Patterns: A Study Of Two Refineries In Louisiana, Khanh Vu

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Review Of The Louisiana Industrial Tax Exemption Program, Cole Smiroldo

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

"The Face Of The Agency": Interviews With Death Investigators In South Louisiana, Natalie H. King

LSU Master's Theses

According to the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators, “the role of the medicolegal death investigator is to investigate any death that falls under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner or coroner, including all suspicious, violent, unexplained and unexpected deaths” (American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators [ABMDI], n.d.). As such, a death investigator has a job that is highly intense and stressful at a level similar to that of doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and firefighters. The majority of the literature written about death investigators focuses on procedural issues, while there seemingly is a lack of literature focused on …

Voice Therapy: Racial Disparities In Adherence And Clinically Significant Outcomes, Amber D. Burks

LSU Master's Theses

Voice therapy is evidence-based, behavioral intervention that can reduce functional and organic voice disorders. Despite its proven effectiveness, non-adherence to voice therapy is still an issue. Research shows that an estimated 65% of patients who initiate voice therapy drop out before reaching therapeutic goals. Voice therapy outcomes are largely dependent on patients’ adherence to treatment regimens, but there is limited information concerning factors that may be associated with voice therapy adherence and therapeutic outcomes for patients who successfully complete voice therapy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate which demographic factors could be associated with higher adherence rates to …

Sea-Level Rise And Settlement At Ta’Ab Nuk Na, Belize: Analyses Of Marine Sediment From The I-Line, 4m Transect, Conner B. Flynt

LSU Master's Theses

The ancient Maya of Mesoamerica created a culture with writing, religion, and vast trade networks. These trade networks are evident on the southern coast of Belize, where archaeologists have found sites dedicated to salt making. One of these sites, Ta’ab Nuk Na, was the subject of this thesis. Sediment and charcoal samples were collected from this site by the Underwater Maya Research Group led by Heather McKillop and E. Cory Sills. For my thesis research, I subjected these samples and components within them to loss-on ignition, radiometric dating, and microscopic analysis. Loss-on ignition was used to ascertain organic material percentage …

Henry V. Howe And His Collection Of Foraminifera At Louisiana State University, Lorene E. Smith, Barun K. Sen Gupta

Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University

Henry V. Howe, the founder of the current academic program in geology at Louisiana State University (LSU), and a renowned ostracod specialist, was also a distinguished foraminiferal paleontologist. His best work in that field, involving the discovery of many new species, was on the taxonomy of Eocene Foraminifera of Louisiana. The present H.V. Howe Type Collection of Microfossils began with Howe’s gift of slides to LSU. This collection, enriched by contributions from later workers, now includes over 580 slides of foraminiferal primary type specimens, with holotypes and syntypes of 361 species and 15 taxa labeled as “varieties.” Information regarding these …

The Bioarchaeology Of The Lake St. Agnes Mound (16av26) Site: Exploring Diet From Fragmentary Remains, Kenneth Tremblay

LSU Master's Theses

The Lake St. Agnes Mound (16AV26) site, located in central Louisiana, is composed of two, temporally distinct burial components; one, a Coles Creek period component, at the base of the mound (~780-880 CE), and the other, a Plaquemine subperiod component, at its apex (~1400 CE). These burials, though heavily fragmented, commingled, and representing small sample sizes, are valuable for studying the transition to agriculture in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. It is now clear that for the Coles Creek period, maize was likely only a ceremonial crop rather than a staple food source (Kidder, 1993; Listi, 2011). The reliance on …

The Arena Players, Inc.: The Oldest Continuously Operating African American Community Theatre In The United States, Alexis Michelle Skinner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hay (1994) gave the Arena Players the moniker, “the oldest continuously operating African American community theatre company” in the U.S. But, if Black Theatre is increasingly found in mainstream venues in regional theatre and Broadway while Black Drama is relegated to syllabi, where is the living practice of African American, or black, community theatre? And what guarantees its survival? Craig (1980) and Fraden (1994) give voice to black critics, like Locke (1925), in co-creating objectives for black theatre during the FTP which took stage as the Negro Little Theatre continued. Hill & Hatch (2003) solidify the geographical and ideological connections …

Assessing The Validity Of The Estimation Of Population Affinity From The Maxillary Hard Palate: An Empirical Approach Using A Modern Forensic Sample, Christopher M. Goden

LSU Master's Theses

In response to Beathard and DiGangi’s (2020) call to action for empirical assessment of population affinity estimation methodology, this study investigates the validity of maxillary palate shape as an indicator of ancestral population affinity for human skeletal remains through the use of Elliptical Fourier Analysis (EFA) and Linear Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). Further, this study also places emphasis on the expressed variation of palate shape within and between population groups exemplified by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of EFA data.

Computed tomography scans of 180 individuals of Black, White, and Hispanic population affinities were obtained from the New Mexico Decedent Imaging …

Gold-Semiconductor Photocatalysts For Water Treatment Under Visible And Ultraviolet Light, Daniel Willis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Water scarcity threatens the lives of millions of people worldwide. It is imperative to improve the energy efficiency and affordability of water treatment methods to avoid a looming water-energy crisis. To meet this challenge, I have pursued research on the use of sunlight—our most reliable and abundant source of energy—to drive water treatment through photocatalysis. I explored the literature and found gold-semiconductor materials to hold promise for harvesting sunlight and catalyzing the breakdown of waterborne contaminants. Initially, I designed a novel optical cavity with gold (Au) nanoparticles on a zinc oxide / titania (TiO₂) / aluminum film stack …

Using The Seventh Rib Length And Depth Measurements As A Method To Estimate Ancestry And Sex In Adults, Alexandria M. Amaki

LSU Master's Theses

This study tested the correlation of dimensions of the left seventh rib (L7) to ancestry and sex in adult humans. The first hypothesis, based on Bergmann’s theory, is that Black (African-American) individuals will have smaller L7 dimensions than White individuals (Americans of primarily European descent). The second hypothesis is that males, due to sexual dimorphism, will have larger ribs than females. 299 individuals from the Hamann-Todd Skeletal Collection were used in the study, approximately evenly distributed among sex and ancestry groups. Five variables were examined, including three measurements (length, width, and width point), and two calculations (area and ratio). A …

Exploring Shared Leadership And Multi-Organizational Collaboration In Sport For Development And Peace, Seungmin Kang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although multi-organizational collaborations have become a trend in the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector, existing research remains limited to collaborations between two organizations. Further, researchers continue to report managerial challenges of the multi-organizational collaborations and emphasize leadership as a key component for achieving desired outcomes in SDP collaborations. Thus, the purpose of this research was to explore the role of shared leadership in multi-organizational SDP collaboratives. Three research questions guided this study to explore the role of shared leadership through the lived experiences of SDP practitioners: (a) How is leadership shared between members in multi-organizational SDP collaboratives?, (b) …

Predictive Modeling Of Fmol Health System Utilization Using Machine Learning Algorithms And Retrospective Study Of Covid Tested Patients, Ramyakrishna Tummala

LSU Master's Theses

Overutilization of Emergency Departments (ED) is a major problem among the health care providers in the United States. In this research, a machine learning-based predictive model for predicting ED high utilizers will be designed based on a set of existing and proposed facilities and the population and social determinant of health (SDOH) factors influencing utilization. The purpose of the model will be to alert the healthcare systems and government organizations by identifying the reasons for overutilization of the medical services among the people in a particular community. Also, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) developed in Whunan city, China has …

Identity Construction In The Yoruba Group Project Abroad: Discourse Analysis Of Language Use, Tawakalitu Odunayo Lasisi

LSU Master's Theses

This research examines the experiences of five Nigerian Americans who participated in the Yoruba Group Project Abroad in the year 2018. After taking classes on Yoruba language at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels in their various universities here in the US, the students traveled to Nigeria in the summer of 2018 to immerse themselves in the native speakers’ environment in Ibadan, Nigeria. While in Ibadan, they were paired with Nigerian host families (Yoruba speakers) in order to have an overarching immersive experience. These students constitute the population of this research. Using a qualitative research method and an in-depth online …

Mapping Louisiana's Missing: Spatiotemporal Profiling Of Louisiana's Missing Persons- An Experimental Application Of Geographic Information Systems And Forensic Anthropology, Liam J. Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

The growing number of unresolved unidentified and missing persons cases in the United States is this nation’s ‘silent mass disaster’ (Ritters, 2007). In addition to contextualizing biocultural traits of these cases, forensic anthropologists are uniquely qualified to address this underrecognized humanitarian crisis due to their proven ability to bridge conflicting stakeholders in often complex sociopolitical environments and to create improved opportunities for community collaboration. This project explores local and state demographic trends of missing persons cases and how this information can be used to assist investigative agencies with their missing population, analyzes gaps in identification data, and selects optimal locations …

Meritocracy And Marketization Of Education: Taiwanese Middle-Class Strategies In A Private Secondary School, Amanda Shufang Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the 20th century, economic growth in Taiwan has brought social prosperity and fundamentally altered Taiwanese social structure. While successive generations of young people have climbed the social ladder and experienced upward mobility, being successful is still narrowly defined through academic achievement. This study argues that, despite constant education reform, a solution to class inequality in education has yet to be found. The mandate of the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum in 2019 was an answer to local, global, and international transformations. While citizens celebrate the neoliberal concepts of autonomy and deregulation embedded in the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum, coercion is …

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 …

Do Black Girls Receive Later Developmental Disability Diagnoses?: Results From A National Study Of Children In The United States, Danequa Forrest

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

This study sought to analyze if age at diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and developmental delay varies by race and sex for children between ages 6 and 17 years old. I used data from the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services (“Pathways”), a follow-up survey to the 2009/10 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN). With this nationally representative dataset, I was able to perform ordinary least squares linear regression in Stata 13. Results determined that Black girls were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder about two years later than White girls, nearly …

Heterogeneous Contributions Of Change In Population Distribution Of Body Mass Index To Change In Obesity And Underweight, Maria L.C. Iurilli, Bin Zhou, James E. Bennett, Rodrigo M. Carrillo-Larco, Marisa K. Sophiea, Andrea Rodriguez-Martinez, Honor Bixby, Bethlehem D. Solomon, Cristina Taddei, Goodarz Danaei, Mariachiara Di Cesare, Gretchen A. Stevens, Leanne M. Riley, Stefan Savin, Melanie J. Cowan, Pascal Bovet, Albertino Damasceno, Adela Chirita-Emandi, Alison J. Hayes, Nayu Ikeda, Rod T. Jackson, Young Ho Khang, Avula Laxmaiah, Jing Liu, J. Jaime Miranda, Olfa Saidi, Sylvain Sebert, Maroje Sorić, Gregor Starc, Edward W. Gregg, Leandra Abarca-Gómez, Ziad A. Abdeen, Shynar Abdrakhmanova, Suhaila Abdul Ghaffar

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape …