Digital Commons Network^™

The Body In Pain / The Body In Ecstasy, Shannon Kenny

LSU Master's Theses

The Body in Pain / The Body in Ecstasy is a series of short lyric essays/extended poems which catalogue major discriminatory movements against disabled people in the 20th and 21st century, specifically in the United States. My work contains duel storylines, using these movements/categories of violence as frames for my own personal narrative, and connecting individual experience to larger historical structures. I do this to disrupt the notion that history is disconnected from the present, and showcase how humans are built by context, where personal and political are inexorably intertwined, and social development is tied to both the body and …

Generating Audio Using Recurrent Neural Networks, Andrew Pfalz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Long Short Term Memory cells are a type of recurrent neural network that perform well when predicting sequence data. This works presents four approaches to modeling audio data. The models are trained to predict either raw audio samples or magnitude spectrum windows based on prior input audio. In a process called sampling, the models can then be employed to generate new audio using what they learned about the data they were trained on.

Four methods for sampling are presented. The first has the model predict a vector for each vector in the input. The second has the model predict one …

Experimental Evaluation Of Lignocellulosic Biomass Pyrolysis By Dielectric Heating And Thermocatalytic Upgrading Of Pyrolysis Vapors Via Iron-Doped Montmorillonite Clay Catalyst, Candice Raffaela Ellison

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This work is an investigation of microwave-assisted biomass pyrolysis and thermocatalytic upgrading of pyrolysis vapors. In the first two chapters, the microwave susceptibility of mixtures of biomass with potential microwave absorbers are characterized by dielectric measurements at microwave frequencies. Dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor of biomass mixtures with char and biomass mixtures with bentonite are found to increase quadratically with increasing weight percent of char or bentonite.

Chapter 3 presents a finite element model, developed in COMSOL Multiphysics, comparing two waveguide applicator configurations for microwave processing using biomass as a model material. A standing wave configuration results in intense …

Understanding “Southern” Identities And Confederate Iconography: Internal Orientalism, (Mis)Representation, And Social Media, Robert W. Perham

LSU Master's Theses

In light of recent debates surrounding Confederate iconography (flags, statues and symbols), this thesis has three foci. First, the continued construction of the American “South” as an internal “Other.” Second, the reactive perspectives taken by self-identifying “Southerners” who both support and denounce Confederate iconography. Third, the role that social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) have as sites that both disseminate hegemonic discourse and facilitate resistance. Drawing on a Foucauldian discourse analysis of content (news articles, posts, videos, images, memes) published and discussed on social media, I explore whether "the South" continues to be portrayed as a lesser "Other" nationally, …

Designing A World: A Foray Into Scenography And Settling, Nathan David Ynacay

LSU Master's Theses

This work examines the design process as taught and what was practiced during Louisiana State University’s production of LMNOP the Muzical.

This will examine the design process as typically taught to undergraduate theatre students in all aspects of the discipline. The collaborative nature of the design process as taught to cast members, directors, and production team will be examined. After this examination, the design process for Louisiana State University’s production of LMNOP the Muzical will be used to compare and contrast the actual process with the theory of a collaborative design process. After, there will be an evaluation of …

Labor And Delivery: Television Performances By Pregnant Actresses From 1948-2016, Evleen Michelle Nasir

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Labor and Delivery: Television Actresses’ Pregnant Performances from 1948-2016, examines the labor of six pregnant actresses working on United States television. Mary Kay Stearns, Lucille Ball, Jane Leeves, Kerry Washington, and Katey Sagal all worked through pregnancies while filming their respective television shows. These women exemplify the multitude of actresses who maintained their careers and their pregnancies in the television industry. This is the first study of its kind to examine the labor of an actresses’ pregnant body on film while she performs a role other than herself. Previous examinations of pregnancy in performance are few but have largely focused …

Jane Austen's Hidden Bodies: Adaptation As Critical Commentary, Elizabeth Gilliland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Much of adaptation theory calls for a shift away from fidelity discourse, arguing that an adaptation does not need to be a faithful translation of the original, but should rather be viewed as literature in its own right. As such, adaptations are often studied separately from their source texts; yet even so, an unofficial hierarchy sometimes remains in deeming some types of adaptations more ripe for study than others. Further, in separating the adaptation from the original, some of the more radical alterations can be routinely dismissed as an “added” element to the text, rather than exploring what commentary these …

A Preliminary Examination Of The Time And Organization Preparation System-College (Tops-C) With Undergraduate Students, Ashley Elizabeth Bordelon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Many factors contribute to the educational success of undergraduate students, including personal beliefs, effort, and the ability to self-manage. Many students are not prepared for the rigors of post-secondary education. This need is particularly striking given the limited availability of manualized evidenced based interventions available to support college students with academic task demand management. This study sought to determine the efficacy of the Time and Organization Preparation System-College (TOPS-C), a program aimed to increase study skills, organization, self-regulated learning, and time management through direct instruction, group contingency, and performance feedback. To determine changes in skill level, students completed the Learning …

Craft Production And Sociocultural Context: A Case Study Of Nasa Werregue Coiled Basketry In Colombia, Cindy Cordoba Arroyo

LSU Master's Theses

According to the Alliance of Artisan Enterprise from the Aspen Institute, the existence of the artisan enterprise is valuable for native communities since it creates jobs and preserves ancient techniques (Aspen Institute, 2012). The design and development of the Werregue (Astrocaryum Standleyanum) coiled basket is a source of income for indigenous communities in Colombia. This research uses a case study method which employed semi-structured interviews with fifteen skilled Nasa Werregue coiled basketmakers, to analyze the sociocultural characteristics, design, production, and market in Werregue coiled basketry in the Pacific region of Colombia within two research settings, Cali and the …

Effect Of Driver, Vehicle, And Road Related Factors On Crashes At Intersections And Non-Intersections: A Naturalistic Driving Study, Grace Naa Ashley

LSU Master's Theses

Traffic accidents in the U.S. have declined over the last two decades but continue to cost the country billions of U.S. dollars each year. Intersection accidents alone account for 23% of the 32,675 deaths that occurred by motor vehicle crashes in 2014. In light of this, the first part of this study sought to identify driver behavior and secondary tasks that influenced the occurrence of a crashes at controlled, uncontrolled and non-intersections with multiple logistic regression. The second part of the study used decision tree which applied machine learning algorithms to identify significant factors that influenced the occurrence of crashes …

The Uneasy Beginnings Of Public Diplomacy: Vira Whitehouse, The Committee On Public Information, And The First World War, Lauren Claire West

LSU Master's Theses

The established methods and practices of American public diplomacy are commonly credited to the publicity agencies created during and after the Second World War, such as the Office of War Information (OWI) and the United States Information Agency (USIA). However, the Committee on Public Information (CPI) was the first practicing public diplomacy agency. Created by President Woodrow Wilson in April 1917, the CPI and its Foreign Division became a tool for winning the First World War through the dissemination of newspaper articles, films, photographs, and other media techniques. The CPI was the first of its kind to engage with the …

Challenging Local Realism With Human Choices, C. Abellán, A. Acín, A. Alarcón, O. Alibart, C. K. Andersen, F. Andreoli, A. Beckert, F. A. Beduini, A. Bendersky, M. Bentivegna, P. Bierhorst, D. Burchardt, A. Cabello, J. Cariñe, S. Carrasco, G. Carvacho, D. Cavalcanti, R. Chaves, J. Cortés-Vega, A. Cuevas, A. Delgado, H. De Riedmatten, C. Eichler, P. Farrera, J. Fuenzalida, M. García-Matos, R. Garthoff, S. Gasparinetti, T. Gerrits, F. Ghafari Jouneghani, S. Glancy, E. S. Gómez, P. González

Faculty Publications

A Bell test is a randomized trial that compares experimental observations against the philosophical worldview of local realism 1, in which the properties of the physical world are independent of our observation of them and no signal travels faster than light. A Bell test requires spatially distributed entanglement, fast and high-efficiency detection and unpredictable measurement settings 2,3 . Although technology can satisfy the first two of these requirements 4-7, the use of physical devices to choose settings in a Bell test involves making assumptions about the physics that one aims to test. Bell himself noted this weakness in using physical …

Dress Rules And Body Perceptions Of Mature Plus Size Women, Megan Katherine Romans

LSU Master's Theses

Due to western societies continued obsession with youth, thinness, and fitness it is no surprise that mature women and plus size women alike are still highly stigmatized and widely ignored by the fashion industry. Past studies related to mature women and plus size women’s dress and body perception have been conducted, however, there is a severe lack of research related to mature women who are also plus size. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to understand the dress rules and body perceptions of mature plus size women (MPSW) over their lifetime. This exploratory study consisted of 16 semi-structured interviews …

Describing The Education Reform Landscape: A Typology Of State Charter School Laws, William Flanary Dabney Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since 2014, 42 states have adopted charter school legislation. Research has been conducted on charter school effectiveness and legislative adoption. However, limitations in the research exist regarding school choice in that studies address inequalities and outcomes at the school level, with limited attention to the state-level policy environment. Additionally, research does not consider variations in state school choice policy nor does it link policy differences to equitable educational outcomes.

This descriptive study described and categorized the variation of state charter school polices and explored differences in state level education finance, student demographics and academic outcomes, and school type characteristics. A …

Commitment And Danger, Black Life And Black Love: Toward Radical Possibilities, Valerie Kinloch

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Singing In Dark Times, William Ayers, Rick Ayers

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Where I’M From..., Christine Clark

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Our Academic Penalscape: Slow Work In Always Urgent Times, Erica Meiners

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Radical Containing Combustion Derived Particulate Matter Enhance Pulmonary Th17 Inflammation Via The Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor, Sridhar Jaligama, Vivek S. Patel, Pingli Wang, Asmaa Sallam, Jeffrey Harding, Matthew Kelley, Skylar R. Mancuso, Tammy R. Dugas, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Pollutant particles containing environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) are formed during many combustion processes (e.g. thermal remediation of hazardous wastes, diesel/gasoline combustion, wood smoke, cigarette smoke, etc.). Our previous studies demonstrated that acute exposure to EPFRs results in dendritic cell maturation and Th17-biased pulmonary immune responses. Further, in a mouse model of asthma, these responses were enhanced suggesting exposure to EPFRs as a risk factor for the development and/or exacerbation of asthma. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) has been shown to play a role in the differentiation of Th17 cells. In the current study, we …

A Case Study Of Brand Associations For Yeezy Brand, Garrett Kalel Grant

LSU Master's Theses

Brands can thrive in the marketplace based on their ability to generate brand equity. Companies have utilized many techniques to gain brand equity with their consumers. One method that has been very popular has been co-branding. Branding literature explains that one way that brand equity is created is through brand associations. Brand associations are generated through a consumer's direct and indirect experience with a brand. This research looked at a special case of co-branding in the form of the clothing line Yeezy. The purpose of this research is to better understand this special case of co-branding strategy by analyzing Yeezy …

Business Plan For Face To Face Els, Llc, Ellen Lucy Simon

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Participation And Representation: Does Risk Acceptance Influence The Decision Making Of Political Actors?, Joshua Daniel Hostetter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Are political actors influenced by their acceptance of risk? By political actors I mean individuals in society or government that have an influence on political outcomes. By risk acceptance I mean the degree to which an individual is comfortable with uncertainty and willing to challenge the status quo. The purpose of the present dissertation is to further enhance scholarly understanding of the causal psychological mechanisms that influence political behavior by considering individual risk acceptance.

Kam’s (2012) theoretical framework suggests that risk-accepting individuals are more likely to participate in politics because they seek out exciting and novel activities. She does …

Quality Function Deployment Method And Its Application On Wearable Technology Product Development, Mir Salahuddin

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate consumers and product developer’s expectations of wearable technology products in the context of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) framework. The specific objectives were to: 1) Explore the quality features that consumers consider most important when purchasing wearable technology product. 2) Explore the technical features product developers consider most important in the development of wearable technology. 3) Identify the technical features that wearable technology product developers need to focus on to meet the customer requirements.

The Qualtrix online survey system was used to collect demographic, quantitative and essay length written responses from participants. …

Does Beyoncé’S Lemonade Really Teach Us How To Turn Lemons Into Lemonade?: Exploring The Limits And Possibilities Through Black Feminism, Erica B. Edwards, Jennifer Esposito, Venus Evans-Winters

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

A Black Girl’S Song Misogynoir, Love, And Beyoncé’S Lemonade, Zeffie Gaines

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

This article examines Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade in the context of black feminist theory, misogynoir, and issues of black self-love. After a brief overview of the initial response to Beyoncé’s album, this essay explores the deeper, metaphorical implication of Lemonade. This essay demonstrates that while Lemonade is ostensibly about marital infidelity, the trope of unfaithfulness is used to make a more profound commentary on the ontological crisis around blackness and black womanhood in American culture. Through close readings of several important scenes and tracks in Lemonade, this essay demonstrates that this album constitutes a masterwork by Beyoncé and should be …

The Bad Bitch Barbie Craze And Beyoncé African American Women’S Bodies As Commodities In Hip-Hop Culture, Images, And Media, Crystal Lavoulle, Tisha Lewis Ellison

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

In this special issue of Taboo, the authors use Beyoncé’s album, Lemonade, to introduce the concept of the Bad Bitch Barbie, a term used to identify a woman who embraces her body while simultaneously using it as a commodity. Representing a Black body ideal in Lemonade, Beyoncé uses images of Black women’s bodies to express empowerment, boldness, and resilience as Black women struggle to live in a racist and sexist society. There has been recent interest in the ways Black women have been portrayed in current media and popular culture, and many individuals have taken the opportunity to honor Black …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Beyoncé’S “Freedom”: An Examination Of Black College Women’S Experiences At Predominately White Institutions, Robin Phelps-Ward, Courtney Allen, Jimmy L. Howard

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

In this article we discuss the illusions of freedom and the complicated relationship Black women have with institutions of higher education. We suggest Beyoncé’s performance of “Freedom” at the 2016 BET Awards metaphorically and symbolically underscores the experiences of Black women in college. Through a rhetorical analysis of Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s BET Music Awards performance of “Freedom.” we explore how the venue, visual style, and lyrics symbolize the feelings of unity, frustration, resistance, resilience, struggle, and disposability embodied in the experiences of Black women enrolled at colleges and universities in the United States. Using Black feminist thought and intersectional …

How #Blackgirlmagic Cultivates Supreme Love To Heal And Save Souls That Can Heal And Save The World: An Introduction To Endarkened Feminist Epistemlogical And Ontological Evolutions Of Self Through A Critique Of Beyoncé’S Lemonade, Jeanine Staples

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Editorial Introduction, Venus Evans-Winters, Jennifer Esposito

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.