Digital Commons Network^™

Modifications To Para-Menthane-(3,8)-Diol To Increase Mosquito Repellency, Heidi Nowakowski

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Spatiotemporal Properties Of Solid State Harmonics, Christopher Abadie

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Spring 2018 Catalog, Lsu Press

LSU Press Seasonal Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Pressure Transient Techniques For Continuous Monitoring Of Co2 Storage/Eor, Nam Hoang Tran

LSU Master's Theses

Pressure well testing has been widely used in the oil and gas industry for determining reservoir properties and well conditions. More recently, studies have been done to show the applicability of well testing for the continuous monitoring of CO₂ storage projects. In the current thesis, we study a diverse range of pressure transient techniques with the same goal of characterizing CO₂. The thesis finds that the use of pressure transient analysis is a strong tool for CO₂ monitoring. Each method discussed within the paper has its advantages and disadvantages. The first technique is able to determine …

A Turning Point In The Life Course: A Comparative Analysis Of Influences Of Military Service On Mental Health And Deviance, Ugur Orak

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Military service is an important school of training and one of the largest employers in the U.S., functioning as a major turning point in the lives of millions of American individuals. Whether serving in the military has a beneficial or a detrimental impact on individuals’ tendencies to engage in deviant behaviors has long been discussed and empirical studies have presented inconsistent results. In addition, research examining the interplay between military service, deviance, and mental health has generally focused on the service in a combat zone or during wartime and centered upon certain types of deviance and mental health problems. Addressing …

Pore-Scale Analysis Of Interfacial Instabilities And Impact Of Heterogeneity On Relative Permeability By Lattice Boltzmann Method, Zhipeng Zhu

LSU Master's Theses

Interfacial instabilities occur often during immiscible fluid flow through porous media and their understanding is essential for waterflooding operations or other oil recovery processes. Although many studies including experimental and numerical have been done to reproduce and analyze the interfacial instabilities in porous median, there is still significant knowledge gap in fundamental understanding of these flow instabilities at the pore-scale. In order to better understand the interfacial instabilities phenomenon, the pore-scale simulations are performed. In this study, Lattice Boltzmann Method is used to simulate two different types of interfacial instabilities: viscous fingering and capillary fingering in irregular sphere packs by …

Analysis Of Alternative Forage-Based Pasture Systems For Maximizing Profitability In Grass-Fed Beef Production, Zachary Turnage

LSU Master's Theses

Two alternative forage-based pasture systems in the United States Gulf Coast region were analyzed for maximizing profitability in grass-fed beef production over a two-year period from 2016 to 2017. The pasture systems varied upon forage types, forage combinations, and different degrees of management complexities used in grass-fed beef production. Forty-eight fall-weaned steers were assigned to eight groups of six steers each and randomly selected into different pasture systems. Two years of experimental data from the LSU AgCenter Iberia Research Station in Jeanerette, Louisiana, was reported to derive and compare cost and return estimates for each system. A representative farm approach …

Artificial Recharge Of Groundwater As A Management Tool For The Kabul Basin, Afghanistan, Mohammad Farid Masoom

LSU Master's Theses

Decades of war and political instability, consecutive droughts, population increase and displacement, caused serious infrastructural damages to water resources of Afghanistan. The main source of water supply for people in Afghanistan is groundwater. However, over-exploitation of groundwater has led to groundwater level declines in most parts of the country. Kabul, the largest city of Afghanistan, is the capital city with a population of 4.5 million and the fifth fastest-growing city in the world. The city has observed groundwater level declines of 5-10 meters (m) since 1980. Decline of about 30 m has also been observed in one of the monitoring …

The Impact Of Observation Duration On The Dependability Of The Direct Behavior Rating- Classroom Management External Rater Form (Dbr- Cm Er), Kaitlin Angela Cassidy

LSU Master's Theses

Classroom management skills are evidence-based strategies used to maintain a productive learning environment. The Direct Behavior Rating – Classroom Management: External Rater Form (DBR-CM ER) is an indicator for assessing classroom management. Utilizing classroom management strategies has been proven effective; however, limited tools are available for assessing such skills and further assessment of the reliability and dependability of such measures is needed. Calculating inter observer agreement (IOA) assesses evidence for inter-rater reliability and IOA results were about 87%. Additionally, the study evaluated the variance contributing to the ratings produced by the DBR-CM ER. A fully crossed analytic design (p x …

Rebel Governance In Civil War: Variations In Rebel Governance - A Case Study Analysis., Harriet Ann Sellers

LSU Master's Theses

Insurgent groups vary in how they interact with civilians. Some insurgent groups perform government functions to further their political objectives during civil war, whilst other rebel groups use solely violent means. Why do some insurgent groups perform governance functions to further their political objectives, whilst others interact very little with the local population? I seek to explain the variation in rebel governance, which I argue is motivated by the objective of the insurgency. More specifically, I argue that secessionist insurgencies are more likely to implement governance structures than non-secessionist insurgent groups. Using an in-depth case study analysis, I found varying …

The Incremental Validity Of Parent-Reported Executive Functioning In Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders And Reading Achievement, Ilayna Krysten Mehrtens

LSU Master's Theses

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a commonly diagnosed neuropsychological disorder in childhood. Children with ADHD are at an increased risk for comorbid learning disorders, particularly in reading. Attempts to understand the factors that contribute to the high co-occurrence of these disorders have identified Executive Functioning (EF) as a potential explanatory mechanism for this relationship. However, previous findings regarding the role of EF have been mixed. Additionally, much of the research regarding the influence of EF on reading achievement among children with ADHD has been limited to performance-based measures of EF. Subsequently, there is little research regarding the relative influence of behavioral …

Evaluating Classifiers' Optimal Performances Over A Range Of Misclassification Costs By Using Cost-Sensitive Classification, Ramy Al-Saffar

LSU Master's Theses

We believe that using the classification accuracy is not enough to evaluate the performances of classification algorithms. It can be misleading due to overlooking an important element which is the cost if classification is inaccurate. Furthermore, the Receiver Operational Characteristic (ROC) is one of the most popular graphs used to evaluate classifiers performances. However, one of the biggest ROC’s shortcomings is the assumption of equal costs for all misclassified data. Therefore, our goal is to reduce the total cost of decision making by selecting the classifier that has the least total misclassification cost. Nevertheless, the exact misclassification cost is usually …

Higher Energy Gap Control Of Fluorescence In Conjugated Polymers, Chien-Hung Chiang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chemo- and biosensors based on fluorescent conjugated polymer benefit from greater detection sensitivity due to amplification of the electronic perturbations produced by analyte binding. This amplification stems from the exciton-transporting properties of conjugated polymers. A conventional design paradigm relies on the analyte binding events which generate sites of lower energy relative to the polymer energy: either fluorescence quenching sites (turn-off sensors) or bathochromically shifted fluorophores (turn-on sensors). In both type sensors, the excitons migrate to the lower-energy site created by analyte binding.

This dissertation primarily focused the investigation of an alternative paradigm when analyte binding creates higher energy gap sites …

Vertical Sediment Accretion In Jamaica Bay Wetlands, New York, Ryan Christopher Clarke

LSU Master's Theses

Over the last century, ~60% of the saltmarsh wetlands in Jamaica Bay (in the Gateway National Recreation Area of the Greater New York City region) have been converted to intertidal or subtidal unvegetated mudflats and projections suggest that all of Jamaica Bay’s saltmarsh wetlands may disappear within the next two decades. After landfall of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and to better understand environmental controls on the maintenance of the remaining Jamaica Bay wetlands, cores were collected from twelve saltmarsh locations in the bay to study the chronology of wetland vertical accretion and mineral sediment accumulation. In association with the United …

Influence Of Black Mangrove Expansion On Salt Marsh Faunal Communities Of Eastern Coastal Louisiana, Christina Powell

LSU Master's Theses

The salt marshes along the Gulf of Mexico provide a critical habitat for many species, but their spatial distribution is changing, because Avicennia germinans (black mangroves) are expanding due to warmer winters. Currently, little is known about how A. germinans are used as habitat providing food and refuge for aquatic fauna. Therefore, the overall goal of this study was to determine how A.germinans expansion into the Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass) marshes of Louisiana’s Mississippi River delta plain affects salt marsh-dependent organisms. This study analyzed three habitat types: Spartina-dominated, Avicennia-dominated, and a mix of the two, focusing on habitat use and …

Sh-Wave Seismic Reflection Imaging And Inversion: An Analysis Of Architectural And Physical Properties Of A Near-Surface Point-Bar, Nathan William Benton

LSU Master's Theses

Both architecture and physical properties of near-surface point-bar sediment packages have not be imaged or analyzed via SH-wave seismic reflection surveying, respectively. Point-bar architecture within near-surface environments characterized by conductive, saturated, and/or unconsolidated sediments cannot be well-imaged with other remote sensing methods compared to the SH-wave seismic reflection surveying method. The physical properties that distinguish different point-bar sediment packages are variably altered during early-stage diagenetic processes such as compaction and dewatering, thereby changing SH-wave seismic velocities and subsequently shear impedance of different sediment packages. This study accomplishes two objectives by acquiring, processing, and inverting seismic reflection data from two surveys …

Topographic Control On Post-Lgm Groundings Of The West Antarctic Ice Sheet In The Whales Deep Basin, Eastern Ross Sea, Matthew Danielson

LSU Master's Theses

By the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) had advanced to the outer continental shelf of eastern Ross Sea trough basins. During the post-LGM retreat, the WAIS paused several times within 75 km of the Whales Deep Basin (WDB) shelf edge. An overlapping stack of seven grounding zone wedges (GZWs) records the locations of these groundings. Here we used ~7500 km of seismic reflection data to map the subglacial unconformity that was eroded when WAIS was grounded at the shelf edge, i.e., prior to the deposition of the backstepping GZWs. With respect to …

General Stochastic Integral And Itô Formula With Application To Stochastic Differential Equations And Mathematical Finance, Jiayu Zhai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A general stochastic integration theory for adapted and instantly independent stochastic processes arises when we consider anticipative stochastic differential equations. In Part I of this thesis, we conduct a deeper research on the general stochastic integral introduced by W. Ayed and H.-H. Kuo in 2008. We provide a rigorous mathematical framework for the integral in Chapter 2, and prove that the integral is well-defined. Then a general Itô formula is given. In Chapter 3, we present an intrinsic property, near-martingale property, of the general stochastic integral, and Doob-Meyer's decomposition for near-submartigales. We apply the new stochastic integration theory to several …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Assessment Of Cationic Polypeptoids Toward Gene Delivery And Development Of Air Stable N-Substituted N-Thiocarboxyanhydrides, Jessica Michelle Simpson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Peptoids are a class of peptidomimetic polymers, which have attracted much attention over the years. Due to their structural similarity to peptides, this group of polymers affords good biocompatibility making them of interest for biomedical applications. This dissertation is largely about the design, synthesis, and characterization of cationic polypeptoids for biological applications, particularly nonviral gene delivery. The dissertation will also cover the development, characterization, and polymerization behavior of a new, air stable N-thiocarboxyanhydride (NTA) monomer.

Introducing functionality, such as small biomolecules and organic compounds can provide distinctive properties to the polymers. Chapter 1 introduces gene therapy and concepts pertinent …

Probing The Single-Particle Character Of Rotational States In F 19 Using A Short-Lived Isomeric Beam, D. Santiago-Gonzalez, K. Auranen, M. L. Avila, A. D. Ayangeakaa, B. B. Back, S. Bottoni, M. P. Carpenter, J. Chen, C. M. Deibel, A. A. Hood, C. R. Hoffman, R. V.F. Janssens, C. L. Jiang, B. P. Kay, S. A. Kuvin, A. Lauer, J. P. Schiffer, J. Sethi, R. Talwar, I. Wiedenhöver, J. Winkelbauer, S. Zhu

Faculty Publications

A beam containing a substantial component of both the Jπ=5+, T1/2=162 ns isomeric state of F18 and its 1+, 109.77-min ground state is utilized to study members of the ground-state rotational band in F19 through the neutron transfer reaction (d,p) in inverse kinematics. The resulting spectroscopic strengths confirm the single-particle nature of the 13/2+ band-terminating state. The agreement between shell-model calculations using an interaction constructed within the sd shell, and our experimental results reinforces the idea of a single-particle-collective duality in the descriptions of the structure of atomic nuclei.

Numerical Experiment Of Sediment Dynamics Over A Dredged Pit On The Louisiana Shelf, Nazanin Chaichitehrani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sediment transport over Sandy Point dredge pit in the northern Gulf of Mexico was examined using field measurements and a finely resolved numerical model. Delft3D model with well-vetted computational grid and input parameters was used. Numerical experiments were performed to examine the effect of wind-generated waves, wind-driven currents and their interaction on sediment dynamics in our study area during a cold front in November 2014 and fair-weather conditions between July and August of 2015. Sediment dispersal from the lower Mississippi River, sediment resuspension, transport and deposition with high spatial and temporal resolution were simulated. A reliable satellite-derived near-surface suspended particulate …

A Phenomenological Investigation Into The Impact Of The College Student Union On Student Engagement At A Historically Black University, Nathalie Nicole Godfrey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Known as the proverbial “living room of campus,” college student union facilities date back to the late 1800s. Unions were a place for congregation and fellowship, a place where student engagement was crucial. Today’s college union varies from campus to campus, with some focused on student development, some with a keen focus on generating revenue through providing services, and some that attempt to strike a balance between the two.

The concept of student engagement and the research surrounding engagement rarely has shed light on the role of the college student union facility in the engagement process. Entities traditionally found within …

Sediment And Plant Dynamics In A Degrading Coastal Louisiana Landscape, Glenn Michael. Suir

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Alterations to Louisiana’s river systems and local hydrology have resulted in reduced freshwater, sediment, and nutrient inputs into wetland landscapes, causing significant negative impacts on marsh productivity and stability. To combat these losses many restoration projects have been constructed or planned throughout coastal Louisiana. Typical goals of wetland restoration efforts are to conserve, create, or enhance wetland form, and to achieve wetland function that approaches natural conditions. Failure to adequately maintain wetland elevation and hydrology can have serious implications on sedimentation and vegetation processes, which significantly reduces the likelihood of reaching structural and functional targets. Measures of wetland condition have …

Signal Propagation, Provenance, And Climate Records In The Indus Submarine Canyon Since The Last Deglacial, Yuting Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Monsoon is one of the most powerful climatic phenomena on Earth and controls environments in South Asia. Erosion and weathering patterns are influenced by monsoon variations and can be reconstructed through marine sediment records. However, such reconstruction is based on the assumption that such sediments are representative of the onshore basins from which they are sourced. Debate continues regarding the degree to which storage and recycling homogenize short-term variations in sediment compositions. The Indus Submarine Canyon links the river mouth and the deep-water fan of the Indus drainage system. Determining how sediment fluxes through this canyon is important if …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Covalent Adaptable Networks Comprised Of Dynamic Imine And Aminal Covalent Bonds, Albert Chao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation is about the design, synthesis and characterization of materials comprised of covalent adaptable networks (CANs). There are three chapters within this dissertation.

Chapter 1 contains a short overview of conventional thermosets and thermoplastics. A new strategy of combining advantages from thermosets and thermoplastics is utilizing dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC) for material design. Dynamic covalent bonds are able to undergo dynamic exchange which allow the material to adapt to a new state when under stimuli such as stress or strain. Material comprised of such reversible networks is called covalent adaptable networks (CANs). These types of reversible covalent bonds followed …

5-Lipoxygenase (5-Lox)-5-Lipoxygenase Activating Protein (Flap)-Nanodisc Complex: A Model For The 5-Lox-Flap Interaction, Erin Elizabeth Schexnaydre

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Leukotrienes (LT) are lipid mediators of the inflammatory response that play important roles in diseases such as asthma and atherosclerosis. Leukotriene A4 (LTA₄) is synthesized from arachidonic acid (AA) by 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) with the help of 5-lipoxygenase activating protein (FLAP), a trimeric nuclear transmembrane protein. Exactly how 5-LOX and FLAP interact is not well understood, however FLAP is essential for the production of leukotrienes in vivo. I used nanodiscs (NDs), engineered membrane systems, as a tool to study the 5-LOX-FLAP interaction. FLAP was incorporated into NDs with a phospholipid composition to mimic of the nuclear membrane. Structural features …

On Almost-Planar Graphs, Guoli Ding, Joshua Fallon, Emily Marshall

Faculty Publications

A nonplanar graph G is called almost-planar if for every edge e of G, at least one of G\e and G/e is planar. In 1990, Gubser characterized 3-connected almost-planar graphs in his dissertation. However, his proof is so long that only a small portion of it was published. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a short proof of this result. We also discuss the structure of almost-planar graphs that are not 3-connected.

Equivalence Of Edge Bicolored Graphs On Surfaces, Oliver T. Dasbach, Heather M. Russell

Faculty Publications

Consider the collection of edge bicolorings of a graph that are cellularly embedded on an orientable surface. In this work, we count the number of equivalence classes of such colorings under two relations: reversing colors around a face and reversing colors around a vertex. In the case of the plane, this is well studied, but for other surfaces, the computation is more subtle. While this question can be stated purely graph theoretically, it has interesting applications in knot theory.

Non-Gaussianity In Loop Quantum Cosmology, Ivan Agullo, Boris Bolliet, V. Sreenath

Faculty Publications

We extend the phenomenology of loop quantum cosmology (LQC) to second order in perturbations. Our motivation is twofold. On the one hand, since LQC predicts a cosmic bounce that takes place at the Planck scale, the second-order contributions could be large enough to jeopardize the validity of the perturbative expansion on which previous results rest. On the other hand, the upper bounds on primordial non-Gaussianity obtained by the Planck Collaboration are expected to play a significant role on explorations of the LQC phenomenology. We find that the bounce in LQC produces an enhancement of non-Gaussianity of several orders of magnitude, …

Legacy Contaminants In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Shelf, Jessica N. Landry

LSU Master's Theses

The Mississippi River watershed is the third largest in the world and drains from 31 states in the United States. Due to its route through the U.S., it passes through hundreds of EPA labeled Superfund sites as well as agricultural and suburban watersheds. These sites are known to have historical chemical contamination, and as a result chemicals can be transported by runoff down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico where their ultimate fate is unknown. Organochlorine chemicals are known to be persistent and are found in agricultural land as well as US EPA Superfund sites, especially DDT, PCBs, …