Digital Commons Network^™

Digitalverse And The African Narratives: Ai As A New Platform For African Cultural Preservation, Mudasiru Babatunde Sulaiman Mr, Tajudeen Salaudeen

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Abstract

This article delves into the concept of digital universe as a transforming digital system for the preservation of African culture, with a target on the unique role of artificial intelligence (AI) as a means of storytelling and cultural continuity. For long, there have been problems of availability of sustainable digital infrastructure where African storytelling can be preserved. This study therefore examines the intersection of AI and African storytelling through emerging digital projects, virtual storytelling spaces, and tools that digitize and translate African languages and oral traditions. It argues that AI not only expands the reach of African cultural narratives, …

More Than Just Blocks: Supporting Development Through Block Play In Early Childhood, Stephanie Szanter, Carrie L. Ota

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

Block play is much more than a classroom center; it is a place where children explore ideas, solve problems, communicate, and work together in meaningful ways. This article examines how block play supports children’s social-emotional, cognitive, physical, and language development through hands-on experiences that feel natural and engaging. Using classroom examples and current research, the article highlights how block play changes over time, how teachers can thoughtfully support and extend children’s thinking, and how simple adjustments to materials and setup can deepen learning. Rather than requiring elaborate activities, strong block play environments grow from careful observation, responsiveness, and an understanding …

On The Existence, Uniqueness And Stability Of Solutions Of Sdes With State-Dependent Variable Exponent, Mustafa Avci

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

We study a time-inhomogeneous nonlinear SDE with drift and diffusion governed by state-dependent variable exponents. This framework generalizes models like the geometric Brownian motion (GBM) and the constant elasticity of variance (CEV), offering flexibility to capture complex dynamics while posing analytical challenges. Using a fixed-point approach, we prove existence and uniqueness, analyze higher-order moments, derive asymptotic estimates, and assess stability. Finally, we illustrate an application where Poisson’s equation admits a probabilistic representation via a timehomogeneous nonlinear SDE with state-dependent variable exponents.

Design And Fabrication Of 3d Bioprinted Scaffold: Experimental And Machine Learning Methods, Mohan K. Dey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The development of reliable hydrogel-based scaffolds for extrusion bioprinting remains limited by the poor structural fidelity of low-viscosity bioinks and the lack of robust, high-throughput quality evaluation methods. This dissertation can resolve such challenges by developing the combination of optimized hydrogel formulations, cryogenic-assisted bioprinting, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based scaffold evaluation to the use of tissue engineering and preclinical cancer modelling applications. To assess the rheological behavior, printability, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility of the alginate – gelatin (Alg–Gel) system, a novel system of hydrogel was developed and characterized using Alg–Gel hydrogel system. The 7% alginate, 8% gelatin mixture was found to …

From Osbcurity To The Stage: A Stylistic And Pedagogical Exploration Of The Four Concert Etudes By Mikhail Bukinik, Luis Bernardo Castro

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research examines Mikhail Bukinik’s 4 Konzertetüden (concert etudes) for solo cello through both a stylistic performance and pedagogical approach. Despite Bukinik’s historical presence as a cellist and composer, these specific works have fallen into obscurity and remain largely absent from the standard pedagogical and performance canon. The research has two primary objectives. The first is to reintroduce these works to the modern repertoire, focusing on dissemination and performance practice. This involves a stylistic analysis of the four etudes, culminating in a recorded live performance during the lecture recital and the creation of a professional studio recording to serve as …

Predictive Modeling Of Readmission, Mortality, And Resource Utilization After Surgical And Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, Raymond J. Martin

LSU Master's Theses

Aortic stenosis is the most prevalent valvular heart disease in North America. Its definitive treatments—surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)—carry a substantial burden of unplanned hospital readmission, which worsens patient outcomes, strains hospital capacity, and creates financial risk under value-based payment programs. Prior predictive work has largely focused on binary classification of 30-day readmission after TAVR. Such studies typically report predictor effects as odds or hazard ratios without validating patient-level probabilities, and neglect both the timing of readmission and the resources it consumes. To address these gaps, this thesis develops and empirically validates a unified, …

A Data-Driven Framework For Mitigating Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis: From Estimation To Risk-Adjusted Computer-Aided Diagnosis, William M. Brown Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) of cancer, standard cost metrics (false-positives and false-negatives) fundamentally fail to account for overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis is a critical scenario where a disease is correctly detected (true-positive) but is biologically indolent and would never have caused the patient harm or symptoms. While widely recognized in the medical community as a major healthcare crisis driving stressful and invasive overtreatment, overdiagnosis remains severely under-researched within computer science and engineering. This dissertation addresses this interdisciplinary gap by defining the three key computational challenges of overdiagnosis: (i) accurate estimation, (ii) harm quantification, and (iii) algorithmic mitigation. To overcome the estimation challenge, …

Experimental Evaluation Of Membranes In The Recovery Of Hydrogen From Serpentinization, Rafael Dos Santos

LSU Master's Theses

Natural hydrogen generated through serpentinization reactions has emerged as a promising low-carbon energy resource. However, serpentinization-derived gas streams commonly contain methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), requiring purification before hydrogen can be utilized in industrial applications. Membrane-based gas separation technologies offer a potentially cost-effective solution for hydrogen recovery; however, to the best of the author's knowledge, no previous studies have specifically investigated their application to serpentinization-derived gas streams.

This work evaluates the performance of two commercial polymeric membrane modules (Evonik and Generon) and one palladium-copper (Pd-Cu) membrane module (Okaya) for hydrogen recovery from gas compositions representative of serpentinization environments. An …

Impact Of Asphalt Binder Chemical Composition On The Performance Of Asphalt Mixture., Sagar Parajuli

LSU Master's Theses

Asphalt binder is composed of four chemical fractions, namely, saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes (SARA). Binders with the same performance grade (PG) can exhibit different chemical compositions due to variability in crude oil sources and refining processes. The objective of this study was to evaluate how such chemical variations influence the mechanical performance of asphalt mixtures at high, intermediate and low temperatures.

Eighteen 12.5-mm nominal Maximum Aggregate Size mixtures were designed using two aggregate types (limestone and gravel), and three binder grades (PG 67-22, PG 70-22m and PG 76-22m), each from three different sources with varying chemical fractions. A suite …

Explainable Machine Learning For Biomedical Diagnostics: Optical Imaging And Eeg Signal Analysis, Fozia Rajbdad

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The growing convenience of complex biomedical data begins new roads for better disease detection and functional identification via artificial intelligence (AI). Nevertheless, conventional analysis methods often rely on basic metrics that drop sensitive biotic differences, and various AI systems are difficult to infer, limiting their clinical reliability and practical use. There is a growing need for explainable, physiologically relevant computational models that can extract key biomarkers from diverse biomedical data sources. This dissertation addresses this problem by obtaining explainable machine learning and deep learning procedures for studying biomedical signals and optical imaging data.

This dissertation is divided into two parts; …

A Detailed Characterization Of Exoplanet Host Stars And Their Planets With The Chara Array, Ashley A. Elliott

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

There exists a vastly diverse compilation of exoplanetary systems; ranging from planets the size of Earth to planets larger than Jupiter, planets with or without an atmosphere, planets with rocky compositions to planets with gaseous compositions, and more. Enough planets have been discovered and confirmed to enable statistically reliable statements about demographics, formation mechanisms, planetary properties, etc., all of which require reliable exoplanet parameters. Properly characterizing and understanding these worlds first requires accurate measurements of their host star fundamental properties as exoplanets were, at some point in time, under the direct influence of their host stars. Direct measurements of stars …

A Reduced-Order Framework For Stochastic Criticality Estimation In Granular Energetic Materials, Philip T. Melton

LSU Master's Theses

Granular energetic materials (EMs) exhibit stochastic shock initiation because pore collapse, frictional dissipation, and localized thermal activation depend on microstructural descriptors that vary between nominally identical samples. Fully resolved mesoscale and atomistic calculations can represent these mechanisms, but their computational cost limits direct ensemble evaluation of microstructure-conditioned criticality thresholds. This thesis introduces a reduced-order framework for stochastic criticality estimation in granular EMs by coupling five explicitly defined model components: first, a one-dimensional steady compaction-shock model that maps initial solid volume fraction and shock pressure to a bulk mass-specific dissipated-work budget; second, an SEM/synthetic-image segmentation workflow that extracts pore area, perimeter, …

Scraping The Earth: Testing Ndvi As An Indicator Of Military Ground Maneuver Within The Israeli Invasion Of The Gaza Strip, Thomas A. Bergeron

LSU Master's Theses

The advancement of open-source (OSINT) and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) has allowed independent researchers to study human conflict in new ways, with tools that were previously reserved only for state intelligence agencies. In order to advance methodologies, researchers must continue to evaluate new tools to study war.  Valued for its accessibility and moderate spatial resolution, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is one such tool that has not been widely systematically tested for its use in an open-source GEOINT investigation of modern conflict. This study tests NDVI as an indicator of military maneuver by leveraging a mixed-method approach against open-source kinetic …

Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence For Real-Time Quality Assurance In Additive Manufacturing, Md Shafikul Islam

LSU Master's Theses

Additive manufacturing requires quality assurance methods capable of detecting process anomalies before defects propagate across subsequent layers. This thesis develops a trustworthy artificial intelligence framework for real-time surface anomaly detection in Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) using laser-derived depth maps and Vision Transformers (ViTs). Conventional convolutional models aggregate global context gradually through stacked local kernels, which can limit their sensitivity to spatially distributed surface deviations. The proposed approach instead tokenizes depth-map patches and applies global self-attention to classify four process conditions: normal printing, under-extrusion, over-extrusion, and empty or void regions. The framework combines token-level attention visualization, vanilla saliency, Integrated Gradients, and …

Teaching Through Sound: Approaches To The Use Of Fixed Media In Pedagogical Viola Etudes, Roberto C. Mochetti Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the pedagogical possibilities of fixed media in newly composed viola etudes. While fixed media is commonly treated as accompaniment or as a performance medium, this project argues that it can also serve as an active component of technical and musical training. By providing stable and repeatable sonic environments, fixed media can support forms of listening, intonation, sound production, and performer awareness that are difficult to cultivate through traditional etudes alone. This argument responds to a broader pedagogical gap in string training, where long-established etudes and models of technical development remain central even as contemporary viola performance increasingly …

Direct Measurement Of Stem Position For Gas-Lift Valves While Flowing At High Pressure, Paulo E. Reitz

LSU Master's Theses

The present work challenges the idea of estimating the gas lift valves true dynamic stem position by providing an alternative capable of tracking the real stem position during flow tests. This is of interest for the improvement of performance determination tests and procedures that involve critical safety concerns, complex training and considerable investments, both in time and money. This scenario, together with the strong interest of industry for valve optimization and the scarcity of works available in literature, encouraged this study. An apparatus named Vision System was developed for tracking and measuring the stem position during flow tests. The developed …

Perpetual Purgatory: Lamennais's Religious Influence On The Persona And Music Of Franz Liszt, Matthew Peter Wood

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For generations, musicological consensus has treated Liszt’s signature technique of “thematic transformation” as musical form born out of structural and sonic experimentation. This study argues that the impetus for Liszt to create his signature compositional device of thematic transformation proceeds from the influence of the post-Revolutionary liberal Catholicism of the French Abbé Félicité de Lamennais. By exploring the historical, cultural, and artistic intersections between Lamennais’s texts and Liszt’s manuscripts, this dissertation builds on existing scholarship to replace a conventional analysis of thematic transformation with new religio-philosophical analytical lens through which to view Liszt’s most significant contribution to the historical trajectory …

Cooperative Evolution For Discovering Scalable Spiking Neural Network Architectures, Catherine C. Rodriquez

LSU Master's Theses

SNNs are a foundational model in neuromorphic computing, where efficient architectures must be discovered for a wide range of applications. Evolutionary methods, such as EONS, offer a flexible approach to this search but become increasingly difficult to scale as task complexity grows due to the rapidly expanding combined topology–parameter search space and associated memory demands. To address this challenge, we propose a co-evolutionary ensemble framework in which a population of candidate SNNs is evolved with fitness defined by each network’s marginal contribution to group performance. Grounded in cooperative game theory and difference evaluation functions from multiagent systems, this formulation provides …

Assessing Integrated Pest Management Protocols For The Invasive Aquatic Weed Giant Salvinia (Salvinia Molesta), Samantha Lee Prinsloo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta) is free-floating aquatic fern that originates from South America. Through human introduction, giant salvinia has escaped its native range and is listed as an invasive species across multiple continents causing negative socio-economic and environmental impacts. This research aimed to expand our understanding of integrated pest management for controlling giant salvinia by combining chemical and biological control. The objectives were to assess the effects of rainfastness, carrier volume, and growth stage on herbicide efficacy, assess augmented biological control and optimal weevil release densities, assess weevil populations in the field, determine herbicide and surfactant toxicity to …

A Stochastic Maximum Principle For Singular Mean-Field Regime-Switching Optimal Control, Maalvladedon Ganet Some, Edward Korveh

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

In this paper, we investigate a mean-field singular stochastic optimal control problem for systems governed by mean-field regime-switching singular stochastic differential equations. The state process is assumed to depend on both a regular and a singular control, and the coefficient associated with the singular component is allowed to be regime dependent. We derive both necessary and sufficient singular stochastic maximum principles. Because the regular control domain is not assumed to be convex, we employ the spike variation technique and obtain the necessary maximum principle by introducing a second-order adjoint process. As an application, we use the main theoretical results to …

An Itô Integral For A Two-Sided Lévy Process, Raluca Balan, Jaime Garza

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

In this article, we construct an Itô integral with respect to a two-sided finite-variance Lévy process {L(x)}x∈R, without a Gaussian component. Using Rosenthal inequality for discrete-time martingales, we give an estimate for the p-th moment of this integral, for any even integer p ≥ 2. Then, using Poisson-Malliavin calculus, we show that the Itô integral is an extension of the Hitsuda-Skorokhod integral with respect to the compensated Poisson random measure associated to the Lévy process.

Supersymmetric Quantum Fields Via Quantum Probability, Radhakrishnan Balu

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

The super version of imprimitivity theorem is available now to describe global supersymmetry of systems using the representations of super Lie groups (SLG). This result uses the equivalence between super Harish- Chandra pairs and super Lie groups, at the categorical level, and is applicable to super Poincaré group and generalizes a smooth SI to super context. We apply the result to build supersymmetric quantum fields. Towards this end, we set up a super Fock space of a disjoint union of super Hilbert spaces which is equivalent to super tensoring of boson (even) part symmetrically and that of fermion (odd) part …

Movement Ecology And Population Dynamics Of Box-Nesting Black-Bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna Autumnalis) In Louisiana, Katie E. Miranda

LSU Master's Theses

Understanding demographic and behavioral processes underlying population dynamics is essential for effective wildlife management, especially for species subject to harvest pressure or experiencing population shifts. Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis) are currently undergoing a notable northward range expansion and are increasing in abundance across the southeastern United States, raising management concerns for both ecological and economic reasons. As a result, there is growing public support for a special Black-bellied Whistling-Duck-specific harvest season, yet little research has been conducted on this species, particularly within newly-established populations. To address this gap, I conducted this study with the goal of evaluating seasonal …

Identification Of Small Molecules That Enhance Aminoglycoside-Mediated Suppression Of Cftr And Nf1 Nonsense Mutations, Joshua Sammons, Jianguo Chen, Kari Thrasher, Lianwu Fu, Ming Du, Hui Wen, J. Robert Bostwick, Paige Vinson, Omar Moukha-Chafiq, Corinne Augelli-Szafran, Kim M. Keeling, Deeann Wallis, Robert A. Kesterson, Steven M. Rowe, David M. Bedwell

Genetically Engineered Models Core Publications

Nonsense suppression rescues functional protein from mRNAs containing in-frame premature termination codons (PTCs). This approach employs small molecules that promote insertion of tRNAs at a PTC during translation (called “readthrough”), enabling translation to continue past the PTC to generate a full-length, functional protein. Some aminoglycosides such as G418 promote readthrough; however, their long-term use is thwarted by toxicity and modest potency. ELX-02, a novel synthetic aminoglycoside, was developed to have both enhanced readthrough activity and reduced toxicity in mammalian cells compared to traditional aminoglycosides. Recent studies suggest that at safe doses, aminoglycosides like ELX-02 may not possess sufficient efficacy to …

Controlling Agentic Ai: Game-Theoretic Foundations Of Coordination And Competition In Llm Multi-Agent Systems, Quanyan Zhu

2026 LSU Symposium on Control, Learning, and Intelligent Systems

No abstract provided.

Safe By Construction, Personalized By Design: Formal Methods Meet Human Feedback For Safe And Adaptive Autonomous Systems Behavior, Ruya Karagulle, Necmiye Ozay

2026 LSU Symposium on Control, Learning, and Intelligent Systems

No abstract provided.

Control Theories For Machine Learning Algorithms Analysis And Design (Ct4ml): An Overview Of A Short Course, Yangquan Chen

2026 LSU Symposium on Control, Learning, and Intelligent Systems

No abstract provided.

Experimental Evaluation Of Input Shaping For Lsms Crane Maneuvers, Karan Baker, Sanjay Maharjan, Sean Maki, John Cooper, Dominic Bisio, Adrian Stein

2026 LSU Symposium on Control, Learning, and Intelligent Systems

No abstract provided.

Data-Driven Predictive Control For Uav Interception Via Koopman-Based Lifting, Sanjay Maharjan, Darren Johnson, Animesh Bangal, Yousuf Atteia, Tariq Hlayel, Adrian Stein

2026 LSU Symposium on Control, Learning, and Intelligent Systems

No abstract provided.

Soft Robotics And Sensor-Embedded Inferior Vena Cava Simulator, Robert Herbert, Julio Zuazola, Anish Maharjan, Tatum Dixon, Landon Hyder, Lily Nguyen

2026 LSU Symposium on Control, Learning, and Intelligent Systems

No abstract provided.