Predicting Working Memory And Fluid Intelligence From Measures Of Musicality, Juan Alexander Ventura

LSU Master's Theses

The relationship between musicality and cognitive abilities has been a popular topic in the media and among researchers over the last 25 years. Research has been inconsistent on whether musicality influences performance on non-musical complex tasks, such as measures of working memory and fluid intelligence. Inconsistencies regarding results between studies have arisen partly due to differences in sample and task selection, in addition to conflicting interpretations of results. Consequently, we conducted an individual differences investigation on the prediction of working memory (tonal, verbal, and visuospatial) and fluid intelligence by measures of musicality (formal years of musicality training, musical sophistication, melodic …

Ab Initio Calculations Of The Linear And Nonlinear Susceptibilities Of N2, O2, And Air In Midinfrared Laser Pulses, Jeffrey M. Brown, Arnaud Couairon, Mette B. Gaarde

Faculty Publications

We present first-principles calculations of the linear and nonlinear susceptibilities of N2, O2, and air in the midinfrared (MIR) wavelength regime from 1-4μm. We extract the frequency-dependent susceptibilities from the full time-dependent dipole moment that is calculated using time-dependent density functional theory. We find good agreement with curves derived from experimental results for the linear susceptibility and with measurements for the nonlinear susceptibility up to 2.4μm. We also find that the susceptibilities are insensitive to the laser intensity even in the strong field regime up to 5×1013W/cm2. Our results will allow accurate calculations of the long-distance propagation of intense midinfrared …

Essays On Stock Repurchases And Exchange Listing, Dung Thi Bui

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation consists of two essays on stock exchange switching and the association between discretionary payouts and real investment.

In the first essay, we examine 49 firms that voluntarily switch from the NYSE to Nasdaq for the period from 2000 to 2013 to determine whether the choice between listing on the NYSE versus on Nasdaq matters any more. We find that there is no documentable economic benefits to moving and some costs in the form of lower liquidity. Consistently, there is little evidence of a significant market reaction. We also find that switch firms are far more like the NYSE …

Microstructural Characterization Of Shear Transformation Zones And Modeling Indentation Size Effect In Amorphous Polymers, Leila Malekmotiei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The first aim of this work is developing a procedure for experimental and analytical characterization of nano-scale microstructures which mediate large scale deformation in amorphous polymers. Glassy polymers are extensively used as high impact resistant, low density, and clear materials in industries. Nevertheless, their response under severe loading conditions is yet to be appropriately unraveled. Due to the lack of long-range order in the microstructures of glassy solids, their plastic deformation is different from that in crystalline solids. Shear Transformation Zones (STZs) are believed to be the main plasticity carriers in amorphous solids and defined as the localized atomic or …

A Study Of Scalability And Cost-Effectiveness Of Large-Scale Scientific Applications Over Heterogeneous Computing Environment, Arghya K. Das

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recent advances in large-scale experimental facilities ushered in an era of data-driven science. These large-scale data increase the opportunity to answer many fundamental questions in basic science. However, these data pose new challenges to the scientific community in terms of their optimal processing and transfer. Consequently, scientists are in dire need of robust high performance computing (HPC) solutions that can scale with terabytes of data.

In this thesis, I address the challenges in three major aspects of scientific big data processing as follows: 1) Developing scalable software and algorithms for data- and compute-intensive scientific applications. 2) Proposing new cluster architectures …

“Breathless Zeal And Careless Confidence”: German Propaganda In World War I (1914-1918), Elisabeth Fondren

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the building and rethinking of German propaganda institutions during World War I. The goal of this dissertation is to illustrate the evolution of German government ideas on propaganda between 1914-1918.

During the war, German military leaders, politicians, and diplomats had ambitions to change, reform and modernize approaches to media governance. They were losing the battle of ideas, they realized early on. And so German officials were desperate to make propaganda fit into the structure of government; they tried to use new media technologies to be more persuasive. Although there was an abundance of ideas, all of their …

"Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall": Reflections On Colorism, Healing, And Resistance In Literature And Social Media, Sarah Lorena Webb

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Colorism is a warped mirror image problem. A mirror is anything we refer to, consciously or not, for feedback about ourselves. A mirror is warped to the extent that it disempowers or disenfranchises those reflected in it. Speculative mirrors expose the distortion of warped mirrors by revealing positive or subversive alternatives. Speculative mirrors help us conceive of theories that resist harmful ideology. Newly aware of the distortion of warped mirrors and newly equipped with the tool of speculative mirrors, we may choose to engage in self-reflection—the process of composing one's own affective and empowering or tactical self-concept. Projecting one's self-reflection …

Pore-Scale And Conventional Wettability Measurement Considerations For Improving Certainty Of Geological Co2 Sequestration, Mohammad Jafari

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Parallel to the approach of developing zero-carbon-emission energies, other solutions have been recently proposed to decrease the amount of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Geological CO2 sequestration (GCS) has provided economic benefits and slight adverse environmental effects. GCS involves capturing CO2 from large producers, then injecting it into deep layers of the earth’s subsurface to be stored for hundreds to thousands of years. A safe and economic GCS requires a profound knowledge of immiscible CO2-water/brine fluid flow in CO2 storage sites including capillary pressure which has a barrier effect against leakage. The main uncertainty in measuring capillary pressure is due …

The Politics Of Despair Enabled By Dysconscious Xenophobiaism: A Call To Action On Behalf Of Immigrants And Their Children, Irina S. Okhremtchouk, Adam T. Clark

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Changing U.S. Political Climate Influence On The Professional Outlook Of Prospective Teachers, Patrick D. Hales, Nicole Graves, Tony Durr, Mary Browne

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Trolling Free Speech Rallies: Social Media Practices And The (Un)Democratic Spectacle Of Dissent, Jennifer J. Asenas, Brittany Hubble

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Feminist Tweets To Trump: How To Find Commonality In Diversity, Sally Kitch

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Editorial Introduction: Trump Special Issue, David Lee Carlson, Kenneth Fasching-Varner

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Trump Special Issue Table Of Contents, Taboo Journal

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Differential Effects Of Mindful Breathing And Loving-Kindness Meditation Exercises On College Students' Mental Health, Sarah J. Bolognino

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mindfulness and loving-kindness are two concepts with associated meditation exercises that have been evaluated as part of mindfulness-based treatment approaches (MBTAs) to improve mental health. A common MBTA, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) includes multiple component exercises including mindful breathing meditation (MBM), and loving-kindness meditation (LKM). The purpose of the present study was to examine differential effects of MBM and LKM on the proposed process variables of social connectedness, cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance, present moment awareness, affect, and compassion for self and others, as well as across outcomes measures of general anxiety, social anxiety, depression, and wellbeing. Additionally the …

Development Of A Slab-Based Monte Carlo Proton Dose Algorithm With A Robust Material-Dependent Nuclear Halo Model, John Wesley Chapman Jr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Pencil beam algorithms (PBAs) are often utilized for dose calculation in proton therapy treatment planning because they are fast and accurate under most conditions. However, as discussed in Chapman et al (2017), the accuracy of a PBA can be limited under certain conditions because of two major assumptions: (1) the central-axis semi-infinite slab approximation; and, (2) the lack of material dependence in the nuclear halo model. To address these limitations, we transported individual protons using a class II condensed history Monte Carlo and added a novel energy loss method that scaled the nuclear halo equation in water to arbitrary geometry. …

Investigating Elearning Continuance Through Expectation Disconfirmation Theory, Susana Reyes Lee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study set out to investigate the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) eLearning participation and completion phenomenon of learners and to explore motivation of CPD eLearning intentions and completions. This study focused on why learners choose CPD eLearning and why they continue in CPD eLearning. Based on the Expectations Disconfirmation theory (EDT) and the DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success Model (1992), a survey was developed and then sent to a cross-section of registered CPD eLearners from the first responder community. After the data was collected 217 responses were analyzed with SPSS correlational techniques and through PROCESS which is a modeling …

Investigation Of Structure And Dynamics Of Deep Eutectic Solvent Using Infrared Spectroscopy, Yaowen Cui

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) are liquid mixtures prepared from solids. As a new class of green solvents, DES not only share many properties with ionic liquids, such as low volatility, conductivity, tailorable constituents, but also have some advantages over ionic liquids, like easier preparation, safe and inexpensive materials, biodegradability, low toxicity, and excellent solubility. Because of those attractive properties, DES has been studied in many scientific and engineering fields. However, compared with the great number of studies of the application, many questions about structure and dynamics of DES are unanswered. To shed light on the mystery of solvent or solvation …

Evaluation Of Microbial Safety And Quality Of Louisiana Strawberries After Flooding, Shifa Shiraz

LSU Master's Theses

Rainfall and flooding have impacted the strawberry industry in Louisiana. Floodwater is an ideal medium for microbiological growth and may cause contamination of soil, agricultural water, and fresh produce with foodborne pathogens. This research aimed to evaluate the microbial safety and quality of strawberries after flooding. Three strains of generic Escherichia coli were used to establish a baseline population of approximately 10⁶ CFU/L (high contamination) and 10² CFU/L (low contamination) in floodwater. Five raised beds were filled with water to simulate a flooding event. Simulated floodwater was mixed with cow manure and spiked with generic E. coli then …

Dynamics Of Phospholipid Membranes Beyond Thermal Undulations, Sudipta Gupta, Judith U. De Mel, Rasangi M. Perera, Piotr Zolnierczuk, Markus Bleuel, Antonio Faraone, Gerald J. Schneider

Faculty Publications

© 2018 American Chemical Society. We investigated the molecular dynamics of unilamellar liposomes by neutron spin echo spectroscopy. We report the first experimental evidence of a short-range motion at the length scale of the size of the headgroup of a lipid. The associated mean squared displacement shows a t0.26 dependence in the pico- to nanosecond region that indicates another process beyond the predictions of the Zilman-Granek (ZG) model (t0.66) and translational diffusion (t1). A comparison with theory shows that the observed low exponent is associated with a non-Gaussian transient trapping of lipid molecules in a local area and supports the …

Glyphosate In Soils: Retention, Transport, And Effect Of Phosphate, Joshua Padilla

LSU Master's Theses

Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine)] (GPS) is currently the most commonly used herbicide worldwide, and is generally considered as immobile in soils. However, numerous reports of the environmental occurrence of the herbicide coupled with recent evidence of human toxicity require further investigation as to the behavior of GPS in the soil environment. The objectives of this study were to quantify GPS sorption and mobility in two Louisiana agricultural soils with varying physiochemical properties; Commerce silt loam and Sharkey clay. Results of batch sorption studies indicated a high affinity of both soils for solvated GPS, with 24-hour Freundlich partitioning coefficients of 158 and …

Convenient Camouflage, John Alleyne

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Major influences in my work are most notably derived from the collages of Romare Bearden, paintings done by abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, and the multidisciplinary practice of Rashid Johnson. This list of artists has been my influence for the past academic year as a result of personal research, some of which was conducted at the Museum of Modern Art, the TATE Modern in London and Musée du Louvre in Paris. My aim in my artwork and in this thesis is to change the perception of Black people, specifically Black men and boys, and to challenge stereotypes …

Moments Of Metanoia, Mariah Anne Pickett

LSU Master's Theses

The term ‘metanoia’ embodies a climactic moment on the precipice—an instance where one is confronted by the tremendous threshold between youth and maturation. Moments of Metanoia explores these experiences that create an overwhelming division between the way things were and the way things will be. They are the crystallizing moments of metamorphosis or the shattering moments of undoing. As evidenced by their thematic appearances in ancient mythology, these dramatic episodes of transformation have existed as a part of the human condition for millennia. By using Greek mythology to explore metanoia, the universality of the human experience is emphasized. Each piece …

That Survival Apparatus, Justin T. Bryant

LSU Master's Theses

As a point of departure, I will be interpreting the poem “Mask” by Maya Angelou. By looking at its literal and interpretive meaning, I will explain how African diasporic fugitivity is reflected in my work. In my paper I will examine art historic and cultural indicators to explain my strategy within making. A part of this strategy uses media and imagery that is mostly familiar to me.

A Comparison Of Causal Inference Methods And Their Application In Big Data Analytics, Xuan Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With the rise of Big Data analytics, the new field of causal inference (Pearl, 2009) has received more attention in business research fields such as Accounting (Lawrence, Minutti-Meza, & Zhang, 2011) and Marketing (Manganaris, Bhasin, Reid, & Hermiz Keith, 2010). Traditional statistics focuses on correlation which may lead to misleading conclusions because the estimates can be severely biased even when data sets are large. The objective of causal inference is to obtain estimates from observational data that are unbiased and can thus be interpreted as causal. This study provides a systematic comparison of the performance of four causal inference methods …

"If You Stand On This Corner, People Know What You're About": Powerful Geographies Of Airline & Goodwood In #Justiceforalton, Shannon Kathleen Groll

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the multiple geographies of Airline & Goodwood, a site of protest occupied nightly during a part of summer 2016 in response to the police shooting of Alton Sterling. Through a methodology of observant-participation, interviews, and oral histories, I make the case that the politics of this site differed from other contemporaneous protest sites in the city through specific place-making activity which highlighted the site’s powerful contemporary and historical geographies. I connect protest at this site to the precarity of Black life and death in Baton Rouge through interviews and oral histories which discuss the historical …

Fallen Fruit: How Social Practice Art Adapts To Success, Caroline Marie Giepert

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis will discuss the development of socially engaged art collective Fallen Fruit (active 2004 – present) in regards to their community-oriented projects, museum exhibitions, and recent online artwork Endless Orchard (2017). Fallen Fruit presents an interesting example of a social practice art group since they straddle both an activist agenda as well as the commercial world of mainstream institutions and the Internet. This paper will analyze the rationale for Fallen Fruit’s manner of adapting to commercial success by considering their progression from localized projects in the communities of Los Angeles to curated exhibitions in well-known museums and venture into …

Altar To Uncertainty, Kelly Stombaugh

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

I have always been in awe of great storytellers. Like an alchemist, the masterful storyteller can take the most mundane of tales and transmute it into an enrapturing experience. The best of these, however, are the stories which seem very otherworldly but, in the end, can reveal deep and relatable truths to the listener.

For this exhibition, “Altar to Uncertainty,” I have undertaken the creation of a single book and story which surrounds and visually extends itself through printed etchings upon the walls to tell a transformative tale of redemption through trauma, hopelessness and loss.

My intention with this …

Survival And Inactivation Of Salmonella Enterica And Human Norovirus On Consumer Contact Surfaces, Dorra Simmons

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Salmonella enterica and human norovirus (HuNoV) are the leading cause of bacterial and viral gastroenteritis worldwide, respectively. One of the most important transmission routes of these pathogens is contaminated surfaces. In this study, we investigated the survival and the disinfection of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) and HuNoV on selected consumer contact surfaces.

In the case of S. Typhimurium, formica laminate, stainless steel, and plastic cutting board surfaces were inoculated with different microbial loads of cells collected at log (6 h), stationary (24 h), or LTS (14 days) phases. The disinfection efficacy of two disinfectants (sodium hypochlorite or …

Dearest, Grace Tessein

LSU Master's Theses

Dearest is the examination of what remains of a person, looking to the objects they cherished most while contemplating the inevitability of their certain absence. The work questions the futility of preservation in the measure of time, the failure of memories held in fragile containers, and the decay of the physical body. The materials that compose Dearest are chosen for their innate longevity and their ability to evoke remembrance.