Policing Understood As A Racial Project: An Exploration Of The Role Law Enforcement Has Played In The Shaping Of Race Relations In The United States, Jahaan Chandler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Law enforcement and minority communities have had a complicated history in the United States to say the least. The theoretical propositions used to explain the myriad of interlocking relationships between race, criminal activity, neighborhood disorder, public perceptions of crime, and law enforcement itself, have provided us with nuggets of insight that have all contributed to enhancing our understanding of crime and policing in the U.S., but none have provided an overall interpretation of this complex and often convoluted relationship. This dissertation seeks to rectify this issue by not only examining the history of law enforcement and its relation to minority …

General Versus Person-Specific Models Of Psychotic-Like Symptoms, Thanh Phuoc Le

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disease and carries a profound burden of illness and disability. Schizotypy, reflecting personality traits associated with a vulnerability for schizophrenia-spectrum pathology, is characterized, in part, by a tendency to experience psychotic-like symptoms (PLS). Perceived social support, or lack thereof, plays a role in the intensity of PLS. Etiological mechanisms underlying PLS, such as monolithic social support, are putatively expected to be common across individuals sharing elevated schizotypal traits. This “nomothetic” model fails to appreciate that social support is multidimensional and likely idiographic in its effects on PLS. Another salient issue that arises when attempting to …

Identifying A Culturally Appropriate Stimulus For The Bangla Picture Description Task, Barnali Mazumdar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The absence of culture- and language-specific aphasia assessment in Bangla underscores a critical problem in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Aphasia occurs in ~41% of stroke survivors. Over 40 years, stroke incidence has doubled in the low- and middle-income countries, such as Bangladesh and India, where there are ~250 million native Bangla speakers.

This study aimed to identify an appropriate picture stimulus for the Bangla Picture Description Task (PDT) intended for inclusion in a Bangla aphasia assessment. Researchers have reported the importance of cultural relevance and three visuographic variables of a picture, i.e., high-context, color, and photograph vs. black and white …

The Cryptid Tourist Gaze: Cryptid Tourism And The Performance Of Monster-Hunting, Sara Brooke Christian

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Cryptid Tourist Gaze: Cryptid Tourism and the Performance of Monster-Hunting examines different modes of monster-hunting and argues that the ways of hunting for monsters has evolved from major expeditions to cryptid tourism. I devised an original term called the Cryptid Tourist Gaze in order to analyze these different monster-hunting modes. The Cryptid Tourist Gaze is an individual's perspective of and experience with a cryptid monster and reflects how an individual perceives and presents cryptid monsters and cryptid monster experiences.

I suggest that individuals now perform monster-hunting through documentary media consumption, festival attendance, and museum curation and visitation, which are …

Educational Theory-Integrated Construction Industry Training: State-Of-The-Art Review, Hazem Jadallah, Carol J. Friedland, Isabelina Nahmens, Charles Pecquet, Charles Berryman, Yimin Zhu

Faculty Publications

Workforce training is needed throughout the construction industry to create and maintain competent workers; unfortunately, most construction training and education research focuses on university student education. Integrating education science theory into construction training has the potential to improve industry training, but the status of this integration has not been well articulated. To address this gap, this article undertakes a state-of-the-art review of education theory–integrated construction training for current industry professionals. To measure the extent of educational theory integration, this article identifies and summarizes studies that meet inclusion criteria, identifies the frequency of occurrence of Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs as a measure …

Using Distributed Techology To Make Music In The Time Of The Attention Economy, Tate Carson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sounds Aware is a mobile web app that allows users to record soundwalks and share them so that other people can experience them. The creator of the soundwalk records their perceptions of the restorativeness of a specific place on the walk, these answers are then sonified for whoever experiences the walk later to hear. Sounds Aware aims to be a social app that is restorative to our attention. It does this by encouraging experience of nature and by using decentralized technology that exists outside of the attention economy.

The attention economy is discussed as a force that exists within much …

Effect Of Informed Conditions On Sensory Expectations And Actual Perceptions: A Case Of Chocolate Brownies Containing Edible-Cricket Protein, Cristhiam Gurdian, Damir Torrico, Bin Li, Georgianna Tuuri, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Joseph Ducreux And The Physiognomical Millieu, Josiah Phelps

LSU Master's Theses

Joseph Ducreux was an eighteenth-century artist from Nancy, France, whose grimacing self-portraits made their way into to the Parisian Salons during the age of the French Revolution. His self-portraits showcased himself in a state of yawning, state of laughing, state of self-confidence, and state of fear. This series is believed to derive from his study of physiognomy and his knowledge of physiognomical studies by such Enlightenment scholars as Johann Kasper Lavater. It will contextualize Ducreux’s his oeuvre of self-portraits and his commercial portraits including those previously executed for the French court, with the influence of the pseudo-science of physiognomy. The …

Mixed (F)Ixed Messages, Lauren A. Verrett

LSU Master's Theses

Many individuals have an understanding that our lives have a timeline, and this timeline is full of objectives that we perceive as absolutes. Through personal observations it has become apparent that there are many amazing men and woman that are stagnant because they were raised to believe that meeting these goalposts are a priority. In an age of individualism, it is evident that every individual has control of their own life through their actions. However, in this same age of technology and social media, the anxiety of not meeting certain requirements or standards is even more apparent than previous generations. …

[Thoughts On] The Painter & The Act Of Painting, Samantha Rosado

LSU Master's Theses

In the satirical manifesto that accompanies my work, humor, and sarcasm play an important role in understanding the narrator’s tone. The information included is both factual and imagined, pulled from stories and experiences of a group of painters. My hope is to help aspiring painters develop their own rules and philosophies based on what they learn through the canon of art history. As a writer I aim to motivate those who feel under-represented in the world of fine art and craft to reject feelings of inadequacy. As an artist I make with the intention of being vulnerable and honest.

Body/Mind:Matter, Mary Ellen Ratcliff

LSU Master's Theses

Body/Mind:Matter presents the unfiltered experiences of living in a period of momentous instability. Three life-sized figurative sculptures stage my emotional journey towards mindfulness as a direct response to the pandemic and my growing concern for our collective future. A winding network of crocheted yarns and growing vines interweave the troubled figures to signify our complex dependencies upon one another and our environment.

The condition of the encumbered bodies is a result of the worried mind. Revitalized matter proposes reconciliation by introducing a sense of hope; decaying surfaces reveal new life; fused wires hold up under immense pressure; and soft woven …

Association Between Bitter Taste Receptor Phenotype And Clinical Outcomes Among Patients With Covid-19, Henry P. Barham, Mohamed A. Taha, Stephanie T. Broyles, Megan M. Stevenson, Brittany A. Zito, Christian A. Hall

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

IMPORTANCE Bitter taste receptors (T2Rs) have been implicated in sinonasal innate immunity, and genetic variation conferred by allelic variants in T2R genes is associated with variation in upper respiratory tract pathogen susceptibility, symptoms, and outcomes. Bitter taste receptor phenotype appears to be associated with the clinical course and symptom duration of SARS-CoV-2 infection. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between T2R phenotype and patient clinical course after infection with SARS-CoV-2. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A prospective cohort study was performed from July 1 through September 30, 2020, at a tertiary outpatient clinical practice and inpatient hospital in the United States among …

Fun House, Stephanie Cobb

LSU Master's Theses

The expression “fun house” seems empathetic and joyful, but has potentially melancholy connotations. Fun houses are participatory. They allow guests to move freely through their colorful halls. At the same time, they do not organize guest’s experience. Usually, we are thoughtful of all possible contingencies that make the world so unpredictable. We prefer certainty to doubt and try to avoid risks. However, reason and order have limits. To feel alive, we must take risks. The connotation of the paintings in Fun House may imply either a sunny mood through tenderness between figures or a tense ambivalence that lingers in their …

Joseph Ducreux And The Physiognomical Millieu, Josiah Phelps

LSU Master's Theses

Joseph Ducreux was an eighteenth-century artist from Nancy, France, whose grimacing self-portraits made their way into to the Parisian Salons during the age of the French Revolution. His self-portraits showcased himself in a state of yawning, state of laughing, state of self-confidence, and state of fear. This series is believed to derive from his study of physiognomy and his knowledge of physiognomical studies by such Enlightenment scholars as Johann Kasper Lavater. It will contextualize Ducreux’s his oeuvre of self-portraits and his commercial portraits including those previously executed for the French court, with the influence of the pseudo-science of physiognomy. The …

The Role Of School Sociocultural Factors On The Mental Health And Academic Competence Of Elementary Aged Children, Aijah Kai Baruti Goodwin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the diversification of school systems, schools are being challenged to engage in more culturally responsive practices to meet the needs of diverse students. Therefore, this study utilized Gay’s (2002) model of culturally responsive teaching to assess the relationship between sociocultural factors and the academic competence and mental health of elementary-aged children. This study also aimed to investigate the mediating and moderating relationship that culturally responsive classroom practices play on children’s academic competence and mental health. One hundred thirty-one diverse parents (97.7%), and legal guardians (2.3%) with children in elementary school (M_age = 8.05) were recruited for participation …

Mothering Across Borders: A Phenomenological Exploration Into The Work-Family Balance Experiences Of Jamaican Transnational Mothers In The United States, Phelecia Alecia Udoko

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The U.S. is home to one of the largest Jamaican populations residing outside of Jamaica and comprises over 50% of the U.S.-Caribbean workforce. Despite this, the experiences of Jamaican mothers who balance domestic work and families abroad–a phenomenon known as transnational motherhood – is often overlooked in research on work-family balance. Currently, a need exists to further explore work-family balance (WFB) as the lack of it has been associated with negative organizational outcomes. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the WFB experiences of Jamaican transnational mothers and to explore the role of institutional/national policies and culture on WFB …

Lucidity And Moral Action In The Theater Of Albert Camus, Stephen Savage

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study addresses a gap in scholarly research on Albert Camus, first by exploring the place of his theater within his corpus. It divides Camus’s corpus into a set of three mythopoeic cycles: an absurd cycle focused on the Myth of Sisyphus, a cycle on revolt centered on the Myth of Prometheus, and a cycle on judgment centered on the Greek goddess Nemesis. This structure is used to examine how his Camus’s original plays (Caligula, The Misunderstanding, State of Siege, and The Just Assassins) and dramatic adaptations of the works of William Faulkner (Requiem for a Nun) and Fyodor Dostoevsky …

The Relationship Between Type Of Parental First Concerns And Severity Of Developmental Delays In Toddlers With Autism Or Developmental Delay, Joshua J. Montrenes

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social communication and the presence of restricted, repetitive behaviors. The impairments which are commonly associated with ASD manifest during early development as delayed speech or impaired social skills, for example. These early indicators are often noticed by parents who convey concern to medical professionals. Research has found associations between these early parental concerns and a later diagnosis of autism, noting their predictive validity. Research has yet to address the relationship between types of parental concerns and developmental functioning. This study examined whether certain parent reported concerns are more predictive of impaired …

Machine Learning Methods For Depression Detection Using Smri And Rs-Fmri Images, Marzieh Sadat Mousavian

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Major Depression Disorder (MDD) is a common disease throughout the world that negatively influences people’s lives. Early diagnosis of MDD is beneficial, so detecting practical biomarkers would aid clinicians in the diagnosis of MDD. Having an automated method to find biomarkers for MDD is helpful even though it is difficult. The main aim of this research is to generate a method for detecting discriminative features for MDD diagnosis based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data.

In this research, representational similarity analysis provides a framework to compare distributed patterns and obtain the similarity/dissimilarity of brain regions. Regions are obtained by either …

Musical Gesture Through The Human Computer Interface: An Investigation Using Information Theory, Michael Vincent Blandino

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study applies information theory to investigate human ability to communicate using continuous control sensors with a particular focus on informing the design of digital musical instruments. There is an active practice of building and evaluating such instruments, for instance, in the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference community. The fidelity of the instruments can depend on the included sensors, and although much anecdotal evidence and craft experience informs the use of these sensors, relatively little is known about the ability of humans to control them accurately. This dissertation addresses this issue and related concerns, including continuous control performance …

Virtual Worlds: Social Interactions Among Online Gamers Through Voice Chat, Omar Bradley Ictech Ii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Online gaming scholarship has rarely focused on the micro sociological aspects of virtual worlds as much of the research on online games is undertaken by psychologists and scholars in other fields. When a sociological lens is employed in analyzing social interactions that occur in virtual worlds, new understandings of social phenomena in virtual worlds can come to light. My research draws upon multiple sociological theories to make sense of data collect via in-depth interviews and participant observations in an attempt to understand how voice chat influences relationship formation and maintenance, gender relations among online gamers, and how online gamers use …

Mental Imagery In The Regulation Of Differential Fear Conditioning: A Multimodal Investigation Involving Self-Report, Psychophysiology, And Brain Imaging, Tyler Daniel Robinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mental imagery is a common component in a range of emotion regulation techniques. However, the effectiveness and neural mechanisms of regulation via mental imagery are underexplored due to a lack of studies targeting mental imagery specifically. This discrepancy results in uncertainty regarding the mechanism of regulation in existing paradigms. Biased competition for attentional resources presents a plausible model by which a mental imagery-based distracter can downregulate response to an emotional stimulus. If visualizing an imagined distracter effectively regulates emotional response, the inclusion of mental imagery components in other techniques represents a potential confound. To address this discrepancy, this dissertation investigates …

Citations Versus Expert Opinions: Citation Analysis Of Featured Reviews Of The American Mathematical Society, Lawrence Smolinsky, Daniel S. Sage, Aaron J. Lercher, Aaron Cao

Faculty Publications

Peer review and citation metrics are two means of gauging the value of scientific research, but the lack of publicly available peer review data makes the comparison of these methods difficult. Mathematics can serve as a useful laboratory for considering these questions because as an exact science, there is a narrow range of reasons for citations. In mathematics, virtually all published articles are post-publication reviewed by mathematicians in Mathematical Reviews (MathSciNet) and so the data set was essentially the Web of Science mathematics publications from 1993 to 2004. For a decade, especially important articles were singled out in Mathematical Reviews …

Four Distinct Trajectories Of Tau Deposition Identified In Alzheimer’S Disease, Jacob W. Vogel, Alexandra L. Young, Neil P. Oxtoby, Ruben Smith, Rik Ossenkoppele, Olof T. Strandberg, Renaud La Joie, Leon M. Aksman, Michel J. Grothe, Yasser Iturria-Medina, Michael Weiner, Paul Aisen, Ronald Petersen, Clifford R. Jack, William Jagust, John Q. Trojanowki, Arthur W. Toga, Laurel Beckett, Robert C. Green, Andrew J. Saykin, John C. Morris, Leslie M. Shaw, Enchi Liu, Tom Montine, Ronald G. Thomas, Michael Donohue, Sarah Walter, Devon Gessert, Tamie Sather, Gus Jiminez, Danielle Harvey, Matthew Bernstein, Nick Fox, Paul Thompson

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the spread of tau pathology throughout the cerebral cortex. This spreading pattern was thought to be fairly consistent across individuals, although recent work has demonstrated substantial variability in the population with AD. Using tau-positron emission tomography scans from 1,612 individuals, we identified 4 distinct spatiotemporal trajectories of tau pathology, ranging in prevalence from 18 to 33%. We replicated previously described limbic-predominant and medial temporal lobe-sparing patterns, while also discovering posterior and lateral temporal patterns resembling atypical clinical variants of AD. These ‘subtypes’ were stable during longitudinal follow-up and were replicated in a separate sample …

Incidental Emotions And Their Effects On Decision-Making Tasks, Kayla D. Brown

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Mental Imagery In Fear Extinction: A Multi-Component Examination Based On Behavioral, Physiological, And Neurological Measures, Xinrui Jiang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Imagery has long been utilized in clinical treatments of affective symptoms with the assumption that mental imagery can stand in for its perceptual counterpart and exert regulatory effects over emotional responses. While this assumption has its ground in theoretical framework of mental imagery supported by evidence of neurological overlaps between imagery and perception, and clinical applications of imagery interventions were found to be successful, very little has been done through means of experimental examinations.

This investigation began with a differential fear conditioning study (study 1) to simulate and assess imagery extinction. Results provided support for the efficacy of imagery exposure …

Empowering The Caregiver Network Of Farmers With A Disability: A Case Study Of The North Carolina Agrability Project, Kristoff Minus, Janine Woods, Richie Roberts, Chastity English, Beatriz Rodriguez

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Planning And Repeated Writing Interventions On Writing Fluency, Katherine Lea Moore

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Writing is an essential skill for academic success. Evidence shows students with writing difficulties experience lower overall academic performance (Graham & Perin, 2007). The development of fluent writing is particularly important, as it has been shown to be a strong predictor of global writing quality (Malecki & Jewell, 2003). Limited research exists on writing interventions specifically targeting writing fluency. While performance feedback procedures have been found effective for increasing writing fluency (Hier & Eckert, 2016), interventions such as story-mapping and self-regulation strategy development (SRSD), which target higher order writing skills, have also been shown to improve writing fluency abilities (Harris, …

Lgbtq Youth Homeless Shelter Challenging Perceptions And Interactions With The Built Environment, Mary Oliver

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Aspire To Inspire: A Mentoring Program's Efforts To Inspire Disconnected African American Male Students To Aspire To Their Goals., Khristopher Keon Hobbs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to explore, record, explain and describe the lived experiences of African American male students engaged in mentorship programs for post-secondary education. This study takes an exploratory phenomenological approach to research and is conducted at a mentorship program site. The following research questions guided this study and provided insight into participant’s experiences:

1. How do Black males describe their experience in a holistic mentorship development program that prepares them for post-secondary educational success?
2. How were aspirations for post-secondary education cultivated among Black male students who are currently enrolled in high school and entering their first year in …