Digital Commons Network^™

Preventing School Absenteeism: The Case For Relationships, Rachel Denise Pounders

LSU Master's Theses

Chronic absenteeism affects nearly 20% of high school students every year (ED, 2016). It is an indicator of students at-risk and the strongest indicator of student dropout. Poor outcomes and risk indicators associated with chronic absenteeism are well established, but little is known about factors that could mitigate chronic absenteeism among vulnerable high school students. This study explored the potential influence of teacher, counselor, and peer relationships on chronic absenteeism in students, after controlling for sex, race, and socioeconomic status. The nationally representative sample came from the National Longitudinal Study of 2009 (NSLS:09) and included 17,777 students. Data were collected …

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 …

Quijano As Quijote: Decoding Madness Through Psychological Theory, Cristian Rivera

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis approaches Alonso’s Quijano’s conversion into Don Quijote from the point of view of a psychologist. The aim of this thesis is to explain the cognitive and psychological experiences that move Alonso Quijano to become Don Quijote and its impact in the development of our current studies of the mind. Thus, one specific question will direct my project although this question will be addressed using a multidisciplinary psychologist approach. The research question is “How can Alonso Quijano’s psychological experiences and interpretations of the real world be explained today?” This question will be addressed by referencing five episodes in the …

Innovation And Competitiveness Of The Wood Furniture Industry In Kenya, Gilbert Osoro Ototo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The wood furniture industry in Kenya has been growing rapidly despite a decline in domestic timber supply. Although most furniture is made locally, a larger share is increasingly being imported from other countries, creating competition for domestic manufacturers. The government aims at shifting most of the demand to domestic producers to protect the sector and create jobs. However, lack of innovation has been cited as the main cause of diminishing competitiveness of the sector. Studies have shown that innovation plays a key role in creating new products, improving production processes, and establishing better business systems.

Innovation in the furniture sector …

Neurocognitive Interactions Between Anticipatory Anxiety And Memory Encoding, Felicia M. Chaisson

LSU Master's Theses

Although acute anxiety has been shown to improve encoding of threat-relevant information, its effects on threat-neutral information are less understood. Recent research suggests that anxiety can impair subsequent recall for neutral words, particularly following practice with the recall task. Here we use event-related potentials (ERPs) to test the notion that anxiety specifically disrupts the implementation of encoding strategies—such as elaborative encoding—that tend to develop with practice. ERPs were recorded as participants studied two sets of neutral words, one of which was presented in a stressful context using the threat-of-shock paradigm (threat block), and the other in a non-threatening context (safe …

Making Room For Fat Student Affairs Professionals In Higher Education, Wesley Heath

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sizeism is often called the last acceptable form of prejudice in our social world. Weight discrimination has been widely documented in job searches, doctors’ offices, promotions, wage gaps, education, and even courtrooms. Despite decades of critical weight scholarship, little research has been done on fat higher education employees. Using the critical theory and the fat studies theoretical framework, this phenomenological study explores bias, prejudice, and discrimination experienced by fat student affairs professionals on college campuses. Four overarching research questions were identified and focused on the following topics: the limitations of physical space on college campuses, perceptions of available resources, stereotypes …

Intimate Rhetorics Of Networked Motherhood, Katie Nelson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fundamentally pregnant bodies are understood, similarly to women’s bodies, as necessitating discipline. However, new networked forums have emerged where pregnancy is understood as affirming and having the capacity to challenge a silenced subject position. Using three case studies, the #IHadAMiscarriage Instagram page, the #TakeBackPostpartum Instagram page, and mediatized discourses surrounding Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy, this dissertation writes intimate publicity into these mediatized transgressions of pregnancy and postpartum. I argue discourses about pregnancy and postpartum in these networked spaces constitute intimate publics through the cultivation of shared affected investments and divestments in embodied experiences. These investments in the embodied experiences are crafted …

"Will God Forgive Us?": Christianity And The Climate Crisis In Auteur Cinema, Margaret Alice Parson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is an unavoidable and real catastrophic threat to the future of Planet Earth. This dissertation is interested in how contemporary auteur cinema draws on Christian forms to give expression to the ineffability of environmental collapse. In this rhetorical generic criticism, I discuss three recent auteur films: First Reformed (2017, directed by Paul Schrader), Interstellar (2014, directed by Christopher Nolan), and mother! (2017, directed by Darren Aronofsky). In order to best rhetorically analyze these films, I perform a generic criticism which utilizes aspects of psychoanalysis and affect theory as per the work of Gunn. Each film is …

Garden Of Ruins: Military Occupation And State Power In Civil War Louisiana, Johnathan Matthew Ward

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using Civil War Louisiana as its focus, I argue that military occupation and expansive state power during the US Civil War served the primary mechanisms by which national states fought the war, stabilized order, and shaped a postwar nation. While many histories of the war separate frontline combat from the domestic home front and distinguish between the policy decisions of high politics and everyday decisions on the ground, this dissertation connects the political decisions of war to the daily acts of governance and resistance in occupied Louisiana. Union occupation officials and Confederate state authorities made contingent decisions throughout the war …

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 …

Experiences Of Hospitalization For Suicide Ideation And Suicide Attempt In Gender Diverse Adults, Alix B. Aboussouan

LSU Master's Theses

Individuals who identify as Transgender/Gender Diverse (TGD) have elevated rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). No studies have determined the prevalence of hospitalization for STBs in TGD adults or whether this care is viewed as helpful. Understanding hospitalization experiences may determine potential new treatment targets and training initiatives integral to developing affirming care experiences for TGD individuals. This study sought to explore the lifetime prevalence of hospitalization for suicide ideation (SI) and suicide attempt (SA) for TGD individuals, determine how helpful TGD individuals find hospitalization, and investigate demographics, gender minority stressors, or provider/hospitalization characteristics that correlate with hospitalization helpfulness …

Parental Mental Health Help Seeking: Variables Associated With Asian American Parent Help Seeking Intent, Grace L. Chen

LSU Master's Theses

There is a vast disparity between children who have mental health concerns and rates of service utilization. This disparity is even greater for children of ethnic minority populations. Understanding the factors contributing to parent help seeking behavior may help address the gap in service utilization. Asian Americans specifically have low rates of mental health service utilization among adults. However, there is limited research on parent help seeking in Asian American parents. In combination with low service utilization across children with mental health concerns, Asian American children are an at-risk population. The study aims to advance research by exploring variables relating …

The Effects Of Familial Support, Social Support, And On-Campus Involvement On Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms On Academic Achievement, Kelsey G. Coulthard

LSU Master's Theses

Research demonstrates that students with higher levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) exhibit lower grades in college (Pereira, et al., 2018). Further, higher levels of PTS during the first semester of college leads to higher rates of withdrawing from school (Boyraz, Horne, Owens, & Armstrong, 2013). Although there is ample evidence that the association between traumatic experiences are negatively correlated with academic performance, little is known about factors that may moderate or influence the relationship. Research has determined that higher levels of social support may facilitate recovery from trauma exposure and may lessen PTS symptoms in college students (Grasso, 2011). …

Exploring Attentional Biases, Dispositional Mindfulness, And The Suicide Stroop, Emma H. Moscardini

LSU Master's Theses

Extant research has found that attentional biases to suicide-related stimuli are relevant to suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). As such, attentional biases are a core feature of both the Fluid Vulnerability Theory of Suicide and the cognitive model of suicide. Individuals with an STB history have demonstrated attentional biases to suicide-related stimuli on a suicide Stroop task, and this attentional bias has been found to aid in prediction of suicide attempts at six-month follow-up. Better understanding this attentional bias may be useful for informing mindfulness-based interventions which target attentional biases, as dispositional mindfulness has been found to be related to …

Knock Knock, Who’S There? Communications In Closed Environments With A Special Focus On Vietnam Pows, Carrie Cole

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Prescribed Exercise To Reduce Recidivism After Weight Loss-Pilot (Prevail-P): Design, Methods And Rationale, Damon L. Swift, Joshua E. Mcgee, Anna C. Huff, Marie C. Clunan, Nicole R. Gniewek, Taylor T. Brown, Briceida G. Osborne, Colleen Bucher, Charles J. Tanner, Savanna G. Barefoot, Patricia Brophy, Angela Clark, Gabriel S. Dubis, Corby K. Martin, Robbie A. Beyl, Joseph A. Houmard, Robert A. Carels, Walter Pories, Laura E. Matarese

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Clinically significant weight loss is associated with health benefits for overweight and obese adults. Participation in adequate amounts of physical activity is critical for weight maintenance. However, the recommended amount of physical activity needed to promote weight maintenance is based primarily on retrospective studies that quantified physical activity levels through questionnaires which tend to overestimate physical activity levels. In addition, the present literature has provided little data on the impact of these physical activity levels on cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors, which may have equal or more clinical importance than weight changes. The Prescribed Exercise to Reduce Recidivism After Weight …

Association Between Home Environment In Infancy And Child Movement Behaviors, Chelsea L. Kracht, Leanne M. Redman, Patrick H. Casey, Rebecca A. Krukowski, Aline Andres

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Introduction: An adequate balance of movement behaviors, including physical activity (PA), sleep, and screen time, is important for preventing excess weight gain in children. This study examined the relationship between the infant home environment and movement behaviors later in life. Methods: Pregnant women were recruited for a cohort study related to maternal and child development. The home environment was assessed for developmental stimulation, organization, and toys by the Pediatric Review of Children's Environmental Support and Stimulation (PROCESS) questionnaire when the child was 6 months of age. At 2 years of age, mother-reported child screen time, and child PA and sleep …

“Borne Back Ceaselessly Into The Past”: Iterations Of The Sublime In William Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, And Virginia Woolf, Ashley Gilly

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Feedback-Based Pneumatic Compression System For Effective Lymphedema Management, Mohammad Imrul Kayes

LSU Master's Theses

Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) is a method of detecting lymphedema- a debilitating medical condition involving swelling of the extremities. Pneumatic compression devices are frequently used in the compression treatment of lymphedema. Although existing compression technology provides relief of symptoms, it has limitations in terms of ease-of-use, portability, and monitoring of treatment progress. Currently, there are no BIA analyzers in the market that run on a low-power microcontroller and a rechargeable battery. Moreover, no such device currently exists that integrate the BIA analysis with pneumatic compression system to offer a feedback-based solution for lymphedema treatment. This work represents the first steps towards …

Interdependencies Between Acoustic And High-Speed Videoendoscopy Parameters, Patrick Schlegel, Andreas M. Kist, Melda Kunduk, Stephan Dürr, Michael Döllinger, Anne Schützenberger

Faculty Publications

In voice research, uncovering relations between the oscillating vocal folds, being the sound source of phonation, and the resulting perceived acoustic signal are of great interest. This is especially the case in the context of voice disorders, such as functional dysphonia (FD). We investigated 250 high-speed videoendoscopy (HSV) recordings with simultaneously recorded acoustic signals (124 healthy females, 60 FD females, 44 healthy males, 22 FD males). 35 glottal area waveform (GAW) parameters and 14 acoustic parameters were calculated for each recording. Linear and non-linear relations between GAW and acoustic parameters were investigated using Pearson correlation coefficients (PCC) and distance correlation …

Mobile Technology For Improved Contraceptive Care In Morocco, Manal Kharbouch, Ali Idri, Taoufik Rachad, Hassan Alami, Leanne Redman, Youssef Stelate

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

The fulfillment of unmet needs for contraception can help women reach their reproductive goals. Therefore, there is a growing concern worldwide about contraception and women’s knowledge of making an advised choice about it. In this aspect, an outgrown number of apps are now available providing information concerning contraception whether it concerns natural contraception or modern contraception. However, vast amounts of these apps contain inaccurate sexual health facts and non-evidence-based information concerning contraception. On these bases, and in respect to: (1) the needs of women to effectively prevent unintended pregnancies while conducting a stress-free healthy lifestyle. (2) the World Health Organization …

Association Of Initial Β-Amyloid Levels With Subsequent Flortaucipir Positron Emission Tomography Changes In Persons Without Cognitive Impairment, David S. Knopman, Emily S. Lundt, Terry M. Therneau, Sabrina M. Albertson, Jeffrey L. Gunter, Matthew L. Senjem, Christopher G. Schwarz, Michelle M. Mielke, Mary M. Machulda, Bradley F. Boeve, David T. Jones, Jon Graff-Radford, Prashanthi Vemuri, Kejal Kantarci, Val J. Lowe, Ronald C. Petersen, Clifford R. Jack, Paul Aisen, Michael Weiner, William Jagust, John Q. Trojanowki, Arthur W. Toga, Laurel Beckett, Robert C. Green, Andrew J. Saykin, Leslie M. Shaw, Zaven Khachaturian, Greg Sorensen, Maria Carrillo, Lew Kuller, Marc Raichle, Steven Paul, Peter Davies, Howard Fillit

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Importance: Tau accumulation in Alzheimer disease (AD) is closely associated with cognitive impairment. Quantitating tau accumulation by positron emission tomography (PET) will be a useful outcome measure for future clinical trials in the AD spectrum. Objective: To investigate the association of β-amyloid (Aβ) on PET with subsequent tau accumulation on PET in persons who were cognitively unimpaired (CU) to gain insight into temporal associations between Aβ and tau accumulation and inform clinical trial design. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study included individuals aged 65 to 85 years who were CU and had participated in the Mayo Clinic Study of …

Applying Spatial Video Geonarratives And Physiological Measurements To Explore Perceived Safety In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Alina Ristea, Michael Leitner, Bernd Resch, Judith Stratmann

Faculty Publications

Spatial crime analysis, together with perceived (crime) safety analysis have tremendously benefitted from Geographic Information Science (GISc) and the application of geospatial technology. This research study discusses a novel methodological approach to document the use of emerg-ing geospatial technologies to explore perceived urban safety from the lenses of fear of crime or crime perception in the city of Baton Rouge, USA. The mixed techniques include a survey, spatial video geonarrative (SVG) in the field with study participants, and the extraction of moments of stress (MOS) from biosensing wristbands. This study enrolled 46 participants who completed geonarratives and MOS detection. A …

Cognitive Maturity As An Intervening Influence On Exposure To Adverse Childhood Experiences, Negative Attributions, And Symptoms Of Depression Among Pre-Adolescent And Adolescent Youth., Mckenzie Marie Ketchum

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Most depression interventions targeted to youth are adapted from adult curricula without enough consideration given to the developmental level and capacity of the intended audience (Kovacs & Lopez-Duran, 2012). Although depression in youth has received recognition and treatment, there remains a gap between the theoretical knowledge base of youth cognitive development and the application of this knowledge to the innovation of developmentally appropriate depression interventions suited for youth of varying levels of cognitive maturity. The current study investigated the influence of cognitive development over the moderation of negative attributions on the relationship between exposure to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and …

Patterns Of Relative And Quantitative Abundances Of Marine Bacteria In Surface Waters Of The Subtropical Northwest Pacific Ocean Estimated With High-Throughput Quantification Sequencing, Jie Kong, Xin Liu, Lei Wang, Hao Huang, Danyun Ou, Jiayu Guo, Edward A. Laws, Bangqin Huang

Faculty Publications

Bacteria play a pivotal role in shaping ecosystems and contributing to elemental cycling and energy flow in the oceans. However, few studies have focused on bacteria at a trans-basin scale, and studies across the subtropical Northwest Pacific Ocean (NWPO), one of the largest biomes on Earth, have been especially lacking. Although the recently developed high-throughput quantitative sequencing methodology can simultaneously provide information on relative abundance, quantitative abundance, and taxonomic affiliations, it has not been thoroughly evaluated. We collected surface seawater samples for high-throughput, quantitative sequencing of 16S rRNA genes on a transect across the subtropical NWPO to elucidate the distribution …

Ceo Political Ideology: Implications For Firm Innovation, Samira Fallah

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the influence of CEO political ideology on firm’s innovation strategy and outcomes. In my theorizing, I draw on upper-echelons theory that underscores the role of executives’ personal orientations on their decisions as well as the scholarship in political psychology that demonstrates the different values and psychological needs of liberals and conservatives. Given liberals’ lower need to manage uncertainty and their openness to new experiences, I propose that a firm with a more liberal CEO is likely to develop more innovations, pursue exploratory innovations and develop innovations with extreme quality (high and low). I also build …

Evaluating Us Consumers' Perception Of Foods Made With Cricket Powder, Ryan Paul Ardoin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Expanding the consumption of edible insects has been proposed as a strategy for global food security due to their sustainability of production and high nutritional value. In the U.S.A., the idea of eating insects is generally unappealing. This research took a methodical approach to understanding U.S. consumers perceptions of insects as food- specifically, products made with cricket powder. Recent consumer-oriented entomophagy research (2015-2020) was reviewed to consolidate understanding of Westerners’ perceptions of edible insects and to evaluate research trends. An online survey of 1,005 U.S. consumers investigated appropriate products for insect protein powder incorporation (based on willingness to try; WTT), …

Label-Free Lipidome Study Of Paraventricular Thalamic Nucleus (Pvt) Of Rat Brain With Post-Traumatic Stress Injury By Raman Imaging, Ardalan Chaichi, Syed Mohammad Abid Hasan, Nishir Mehta, Fabrizio Donnarumma, Philip Ebenezer, Kermit K. Murray, Joseph Francis, Manas Ranjan Gartia

Faculty Publications

© 2021 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a widespread psychiatric injury that develops serious life-threatening symptoms like substance abuse, severe depression, cognitive impairments, and persistent anxiety. However, the mechanisms of post-traumatic stress injury in brain are poorly understood due to the lack of practical methods to reveal biochemical alterations in various brain regions affected by this type of injury. Here, we introduce a novel method that provides quantitative results from Raman maps in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) region. By means of this approach, we have shown a lipidome comparison in PVT regions …

We Belong Together; Libraries, Communities And Third Places, Randa L. Morgan

Faculty Publications

University students expect much from their libraries. They want a place to study and research. They want a place to eat and hang out with their friends. They want to be able to relax between classes and find a quiet place to focus on work. They want a home away from home. As libraries have begun to accommodate these requests and shift away from the traditional ideas of a library, our students’ expectations are contradictory: have we lost the stereotypical idea of a library or are we in a renaissance where libraries are a third place for many students? Academic …