Digital Commons Network^™

Comparing Editorial And Artificially Generated Fingerings: A Case Study, Lixi Qin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fingering is crucial for piano performance. Unlike other instruments with relatively fixed fingerings, keyboard instruments offer countless fingering combinations. As musical styles have evolved, so too have the instruments themselves, resulting in a rich history of diverse fingering systems, which sometimes conflict with one another. Moreover, due to individual differences in hand shape and size, the fingering advice from editors or teachers may not be universally applicable, and there is a lack of an objective, unified standard for validating these recommendations.

For students who do not fully understand fingering principles and have not been exposed to a wide range of …

Complexity Of Avian Evolution Revealed By Family-Level Genomes, Josefin Stiller, Shaohong Feng, Al Aabid Chowdhury, Iker Rivas-González, David A. Duchêne, Qi Fang, Yuan Deng, Alexey Kozlov, Alexandros Stamatakis, Santiago Claramunt, Jacqueline M.T. Nguyen, Simon Y.W. Ho, Brant C. Faircloth, Julia Haag, Peter Houde, Joel Cracraft, Metin Balaban, Uyen Mai, Guangji Chen, Rongsheng Gao, Chengran Zhou, Yulong Xie, Zijian Huang, Zhen Cao, Zhi Yan, Huw A. Ogilvie, Luay Nakhleh, Bent Lindow, Benoit Morel, Jon Fjeldså, Peter A. Hosner, Rute R. Da Fonseca, Bent Petersen

Faculty Publications

Despite tremendous efforts in the past decades, relationships among main avian lineages remain heavily debated without a clear resolution. Discrepancies have been attributed to diversity of species sampled, phylogenetic method and the choice of genomic regions^1–3. Here we address these issues by analysing the genomes of 363 bird species⁴ (218 taxonomic families, 92% of total). Using intergenic regions and coalescent methods, we present a well-supported tree but also a marked degree of discordance. The tree confirms that Neoaves experienced rapid radiation at or near the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary. Sufficient loci rather than extensive taxon sampling were more effective …

Optimal Planning And Design Of Operations And Maintenance Systems For Offshore Wind Farms, Md Imran Hasan Tusar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Feasible and sustainable sources of power are a critical issue nowadays. Offshore wind farms (OWF) can be a solution to power generation problems, but it is relatively more expensive— their installation cost is more than twice of their comparable size onshore counterparts. The cost that matters most is the operations and maintenance (O&M) cost. Expensive and sophisticated transfer vehicles and highly skilled technicians are needed to conduct O&M activities, resulting in a remarkably higher O&M cost for an offshore wind farm project. Offshore wind turbines can capture more wind than onshore turbines because of their larger structure and location in …

Extreme Climate Events And Agricultural Commodity Markets, Mohammad Abir Chowdhury Shovon

LSU Master's Theses

This article investigates the impact of extreme climate events on U.S. agricultural commodity markets, specifically focusing on corn and soybeans. Using event study methods and a comprehensive dataset of 254 extreme climate events for corn as well as 250 extreme climate events for soybeans in top ten corn & soybeans producing states of the USA between 1995 and 2023, we examine how storms, floods, extreme temperatures, and droughts affect the abnormal returns of these commodities. Our findings indicate that 22.04% of climate events significantly impact corn returns and 21.20% of climate events have significant impact on soybeans returns. Notably, extreme …

Characteristics Influencing Enrollment Choices: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Factors That Influence Black Students' Decision To Enroll In College Of Agriculture Programs, Jennifer L. Brown

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study aims to identify the barriers that affect Minority enrollment in agriculture, particularly focusing on increasing the enrollment of Black students. There is a significant concern regarding the gap between Black individuals and agriculture enrollment in post-secondary agriculture programs at land-grant institutions. The purpose of this mixed method phenomenology was to (1) identify factors that influence the decision of Black students to enroll in the College of Agriculture and (2) uncover the societal and economic influences that continue to serve as barriers to Black students’ enrolling in agriculture. The quantitative portion of the investigation utilized a web-based instrument structured …

Learning Proximal Operators With Gaussian Process And Adaptive Quantization In Distributed Optimization, Aldo Duarte Vera Tudela

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In networks consisting of agents communicating with a central coordinator and working together to solve a global optimization problem in a distributed manner, the agents are often required to solve private proximal minimization subproblems. Such a setting often requires a further decomposition method to solve the global distributed problem, resulting in extensive communication overhead. In networks where communication is expensive, it is crucial to reduce the communication overhead of the distributed optimization scheme. Integrating Gaussian processes (GP) as a learning component to the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) has proven effective in learning each agent's local proximal operator to …

Optics Design And Fabrication For A Lung Interferometry-Radiography System, Rachael Lyn Blair

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: High prevalence of lung diseases leads to many people worldwide needing spirometry and imaging testing. The typical imaging done uses chest radiography and/or low-dose CT. Lung tissue is difficult to visualize, making them substandard for monitoring lung disease progression. An improvement on these systems is x-ray interferometry which produces additional images that provide better visualization of changes in the lung tissue. The set-up of x-ray interferometry builds upon other imaging systems in that it includes diffraction gratings.

Materials: This thesis focused on implementing the fabrication processes to create diffraction gratings for a lung imager prototype that is currently under …

Struggling To Be Positive Problem Solvers – A Study On The Relationship Of Elementary Mathematical Self-Concept, Gender, Learner Identification, And Productive Struggle Trajectories On Constructed Response Questions When Being Taught With A Standardized Curriculum, Kali D. Rogers

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mathematical word problems are some of the most difficult problems for students to solve due to their complexity and relationship to real-world situations (Şahin et al., 2014; Verschaffel et al., 2020). With math being known for right-or-wrong answers, these open-ended questions cause much confusion and frustration, specifically for students of various subgroups. In the last several decades, educational teaching expectations have shifted from engaging, self-created learning to robotic and redundant curriculum expectations that induce a ‘teaching to the test’ environment (Shafiyeva, 2021). Mathematics is the powerhouse of where students can experience and succeed with productive struggle learning that teaches the …

Vibrato Rate And Extent In The Baritone Voice Through The Twentieth And Early Twenty-First Century, Scott Purcell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Observations of vibrato rate and extent through the twentieth and early twenty-first century point to an overall decrease in rate and increase in extent. This descriptive analysis studied fifty-five randomly selected recordings of professional operatic baritones, five from each decade from 1910 to 2021, and analyzed their vibrato rate and extent with VoceVista Video Pro. Results showed a consistent decrease in mean vibrato rate from 1910 to 1960, with small increases and decreases from 1960-2021. Vibrato extent was less consistent, but still increased from 1910-2021. The mean vibrato rate was 5.84 Herz (Hz), with a coefficient of variation (CV) of …

Multiphoton Quantum Sensing, Fatemeh Mostafavikhatam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While the fundamental principles of light-matter interaction are well-understood and drive countless technologies, the world of multiphoton processes remains a fascinating puzzle, holding the potential to drastically alter our understanding of how light interacts with matter at its most basic level [1–4]. This rich interplay of light and matter unveils novel phenomena that can be harnessed for sensing with exceptional precision, as exemplified by multiphoton quantum sensing. This thesis delves into the applications of multiphoton quantum protocols, particularly in imaging, communication, and plasmonic sensing, to surpass classical limitations and achieve enhanced sensitivity. We explore the potential of multiphoton quantum processes, …

Modes Of Weather System-Induced Flows Through An Arctic Lagoon, Chunyan Li, Wei Huang, Changsheng Chen, Kevin M. Boswell, Renhao Wu

Faculty Publications

With the increasing warming of the Arctic, the summertime ice-free period in the coastal Arctic becomes longer and the water exchange between arctic lagoons and coastal Beaufort Sea becomes more important for land–ocean interaction. This study examined the dynamics of water exchange between the arctic lagoons and the Arctic Ocean under the influence of weather systems (the transient arctic cyclones and hovering Beaufort High pressure system). We implemented rare observations, numerical modeling with the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM), and a forcing-response Empirical Orthogonal Function (fr-EOF) analysis to determine the weather-driven flow patterns and characteristics in the micro-tidal arctic …

Mapping And Omics Integration: Towards Precise Rice Disease Resistance Breeding, John Christian Ontoy, Jong Hyun Ham

Faculty Publications

Rice (Oryza sativa), as a staple crop feeding a significant portion of the global population, particularly in Asian countries, faces constant threats from various diseases jeopardizing global food security. A precise understanding of disease resistance mechanisms is crucial for developing resilient rice varieties. Traditional genetic mapping methods, such as QTL mapping, provide valuable insights into the genetic basis of diseases. However, the complex nature of rice diseases demands a holistic approach to gain an accurate knowledge of it. Omics technologies, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, enable a comprehensive analysis of biological molecules, uncovering intricate molecular interactions within the rice …

Exploring Pathways Toward Open-Hardware Ecosystems To Safeguard Genetic Resources For Biomedical Research Communities Using Aquatic Model Species, Yue Liu, Jack C. Koch, Lucía Arregui, Allyssa Oune, Sarah Bodenstein, Maria T. Gutierrez-Wing, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Development of reliable germplasm repositories is critical for preservation of genetic resources of aquatic species, which are widely utilized to support biomedical innovation by providing a foundational source for naturally occurring variation and development of new variants through genetic manipulations. A significant barrier in repository development is the lack of cryopreservation capability and reproducibility across the research community, posing great risks of losing advances developed from billions of dollars of research investment. The emergence of open scientific hardware has fueled a new movement across biomedical research communities. With the increasing accessibility of consumer-level fabrication technologies, such as three-dimensional printers, open …

Energy Compensation For Crop Growth Under Plastic Mulching: Theories, Models, And Limitations, Dianyuan Ding, Ting Li, Lihong Wu, Xi Zhang, Ying Zhao, Hao Feng, Chao Zhang, Ole Wendroth

Faculty Publications

Plastic film mulching (PM) is a useful agronomic means to adapt to the environmental conditions of dryland agriculture and improve crop production. To improve the theoretical framework of PM technology, this study focuses on the interaction between the soil temperature change caused by PM and crop growth. The definition, action mechanism, and simulation of the compensatory effect of PM on growing degree days are introduced to reveal the effect of soil temperature under PM on crop development and growth. Our summary shows that the strength of the warming effect changes with the growth and development of crops, strengthening during the …

The Cospar Planetary Protection Policy For Missions To Icy Worlds: A Review Of History, Current Scientific Knowledge, And Future Directions, P. T. Doran, A. Hayes, O. Grasset, A. Coustenis, O. Prieto-Ballesteros, N. Hedman, O. Al Shehhi, E. Ammannito, M. Fujimoto, F. Groen, J. E. Moores, C. Mustin, K. Olsson-Francis, J. Peng, K. Praveenkumar, P. Rettberg, S. Sinibaldi, V. Ilyin, F. Raulin, Y. Suzuki, K. Xu, L. G. Whyte, M. Zaitsev, J. Buffo, G. Kminek, B. Schmidt

Faculty Publications

Recent discoveries related to the habitability and astrobiological relevance of the outer Solar System have expanded our understanding of where and how life may have originated. As a result, the Icy Worlds of the outer Solar System have become among the highest priority targets for future spacecraft missions dedicated to astrobiology-focused and/or direct life detection objectives. This, in turn, has led to a renewed interest in planetary protection concerns and policies for the exploration of these worlds and has been a topic of discussion within the COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) Panel on Planetary Protection. This paper summarizes the results …

Complementing Model Species With Model Clades, Makenzie E. Mabry, R. Shawn Abrahams, Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz, William J. Baker, Simon Barak, Michael S. Barker, Russell L. Barrett, Aleksandra Beric, Samik Bhattacharya, Sarah B. Carey, Gavin C. Conant, John G. Conran, Maheshi Dassanayake, Patrick P. Edger, Jocelyn C. Hall, Yue Hao, Kasper P. Hendriks, Julian M. Hibberd, Graham J. King, Daniel J. Kliebenstein, Marcus A. Koch, Ilia J. Leitch, Frederic Lens, Martin A. Lysak, Alex C. Mcalvay, Michael T.W. Mckibben, Francesco Mercati, Richard C. Moore, Klaus Mummenhoff, Daniel J. Murphy, Lachezar A. Nikolov, Michael Pisias, Eric H. Roalson

Faculty Publications

Model species continue to underpin groundbreaking plant science research. At the same time, the phylogenetic resolution of the land plant tree of life continues to improve. The intersection of these 2 research paths creates a unique opportunity to further extend the usefulness of model species across larger taxonomic groups. Here we promote the utility of the Arabidopsis thaliana model species, especially the ability to connect its genetic and functional resources, to species across the entire Brassicales order. We focus on the utility of using genomics and phylogenomics to bridge the evolution and diversification of several traits across the Brassicales to …

Cellulose Nanofiber As Mask/Personal Protective Equipment Surface Agent For Enhanced Anti-Bacterial Performance, Sophia Jackson, Jonathan Chen

Faculty Publications

The utilization of face-covering masks as an extended form of personal protective equipment has led to exponential waste measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, with estimations of up to 7200 tons of medical-type waste daily. A primary cause of this waste is surgical layered disposable masks that are constructed by melt-blown nonwovens usually made of non-biodegradable thermoplastic polymers like polypropylene. To increase widespread sustainable options to the public, commercialized or do-it-yourself-based fabric masks serve as a solution, but their resistance to harmful molecules is less than that of the medical-grade masks due to the fabric structure that leaves space for penetration. …

Chemically Amplified, Dry-Develop Poly(Aldehyde) Photoresist, Jose Lopez Ninantay, Anthony Engler, Jared Schwartz, Paul A. Kohl

Faculty Publications

The catalytic decomposition of poly(phthalaldehyde) with a photoacid generator can be used as dry-develop photoresist, where the exposed film depolymerizes into small molecules to allow the development of features via controlled vaporization. Higher temperatures enabled shorter dry-development times, but also promoted faster photoacid diffusion that compromised pattern fidelity. Trihexylamine was used as a base quencher to counteract acid diffusion in a phthalaldehyde-propanal co-polymer photoresist. The propanal co-monomer in the polymer improves the vaporization rate because it has a higher vapor pressure than phthalaldehyde. Addition of the base quencher was found to improve the contrast, pattern fidelity, and ease-of-handling of the …

Enhanced Microstructural Stability And Hardness Of Multi-Component Nanocrystalline Nickel Alloys Processed Via Mechanical Alloying, Mari Therese S. Burton, B. Chad Hornbuckle, Vincent H. Hammond, Kristopher A. Darling, Helen M. Chan, Christopher J. Marvel, Martin P. Harmer

Faculty Publications

Nanocrystalline alloys are noteworthy for their high strength, and nanocrystalline Ni is being investigated for high-temperature applications. However, nanocrystalline alloys are unstable against coarsening, thereby prone to degradation of strength. In this work, two nanocrystalline alloys, Ni–(0, 11 at pct W)–3 at pct Ta–2 at pct Y, were designed to exhibit microstructural stability and high strength by forming nanoscale precipitates, maintaining stable nanoscale grains to exploit Hall–Petch hardening, and decreasing the stacking fault energy of the Ni-based matrix. Produced via high-energy cryogenic mechanical alloying, both alloys exhibited thermal stability and enhanced mechanical properties due to beneficial impurity yttrium oxide/nitride particles …

A Reciprocal Integral Identity Of Coupled Poisson And Laplace Equations In Two Arbitrary Domains Sharing A Common Boundary, Sai Sashankh Rao, Harris Wong

Faculty Publications

In solving the coupled vapor and liquid unidirectional flows in micro heat pipes, we discovered numerically an integral identity. After asymptotic and polynomial expansions, the coupled flows yield two reciprocal systems of equations. In system A, a vapor velocity UA obeys the Poisson equation and drives, through an interfacial boundary condition, a liquid velocity WA that satisfies the Laplace equation. In reciprocal system B, a liquid velocity WB obeys the Poisson equation and drives, through another interfacial boundary condition, a vapor velocity UB that satisfies the Laplace equation. We found that the vapor volume flow rate of UB is numerically …

Totoro: A Scalable Federated Learning Engine For The Edge, Cheng Wei Ching, Xin Chen, Taehwan Kim, Bo Ji, Qingyang Wang, Dilma Da Silva, Liting Hu

Faculty Publications

Federated Learning (FL) is an emerging distributed machine learning (ML) technique that enables in-situ model training and inference on decentralized edge devices. We propose Totoro, a novel scalable FL engine, that enables massive FL applications to run simultaneously on edge networks. The key insight is to explore a distributed hash table (DHT)-based peer-to-peer (P2P) model to re-architect the centralized FL system design into a fully decentralized one. In contrast to previous studies where many FL applications shared one centralized parameter server, Totoro assigns a dedicated parameter server to each individual application. Any edge node can act as any application's coordinator, …

Benthic Community Response To The Impacts Of Proposed Sediment Diversions In Louisiana Estuaries, Jillian C. Tupitza

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sediment diversions designed to mitigate land loss in coastal Louisiana will likely cause ecosystem-wide shifts. The first diversion, planned for Barataria Bay, will divert fresh water and sediment from the Mississippi River into the surrounding wetlands to help them keep pace with high rates of relative sea-level rise (RSLR). Estuarine benthic communities were used in this study as tools to characterize ecological patterns in the context of anticipated salinity changes. I reviewed relevant literature, conducted a two-year survey of Barataria Bay benthos, executed a reciprocal transplant experiment to describe changes that might occur in both community composition and trophic dynamics, …

The Lowest Discriminant Ideal Of Cayley-Hamilton Hopf Algebras, Zhongkai Mi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Discriminant ideals are defined for an algebra R with central subalgebra C and trace tr : R → C. They are indexed by positive integers and more general than discriminants. Usually R is required to be a finite module over C. Unlike the abundace of work on discriminants, there is hardly any literature on discriminant ideals. The levels of discriminant ideals relate to the sums of squares of dimensions of irreducible modules over maximal ideals of C containing these discriminant ideals. We study the lowest level when R is a Cayley-Hamilton Hopf algebra, i.e. C is also a Hopf subalgebra, …

Analysis Of Close Contact Melting, Mohana Durga Gurunadhan

LSU Master's Theses

This report presents a numerical transient analysis of Close Contact Melting (CCM), intended to help in accurate prediction of melt rate and interface configuration, which is to be utilized for a prospective frozen propellant based propulsion system. Three different substrate shapes namely- Flat, Cylindrical and Wedge, are chosen for the study. The domain discretization is based on generation of boundary fitted mesh and the time varying physical domain is transformed to a fixed computational domain, wherein the associated governing equations are solved. Apart from the conventional linear system solvers, an algebraic multigrid based solver is implemented. A non-iterative implicit/explicit melt …

Ammonium Chemotaxis In Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Gabela Nelson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Analysis of ammonium chemotaxis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is largely hindered, compared to that of phototaxis, despite equal importance on flagellated microalgal physiology. A major contribution of this shortfall is the lack of proper assay method. We developed a simple Petri dish assay method in which light is homogenously exposed while patterns of the cellular migration are tracked with a function of time. Using the method, new findings were revealed. First, this research presented that a strain lacking the eyespot organelle required for light gradient-sensing exhibits similar chemotactic behavior compared to a wild-type strain, suggesting Chlamydomonas sense an ammonium gradient not …

Community-Level Post-Hazard Functionality Methodology For Buildings Exposed To Floods, Omar Nofal, Nathanael Rosenheim, Sabarethinam Kameshwar, Jayant Patil, Xiangnan Zhou, John W. Van De Lindt, Leonardo Duenas-Osorio, Eun Jeong Cha, Amin Endrami, Elaina Sutley, Harvey Cutler, Tao Lu, Chen Wang, Hwayoung Jeon

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a building-level post-hazard functionality model for communities exposed to flood hazards including the interdependencies between the population, buildings, and infrastructure. An existing portfolio of building archetypes is used to model the post-hazard physical flood functionality of different building typologies within the community with the goal of supporting resilience-informed decision-making. Specific fragility-based flood functionality curves were developed for this portfolio to quantify the exceedance probability of a prescribed set of functionality states. While the physical functionality of buildings is significant to the total functionality of a building and community resilience assessment, the functionality of utilities such as power …

Generating Rate Features For Mobile Applications, Shristi Shrestha, Anas Mahmoud

Faculty Publications

Mobile application (app) stores employ standardized mechanisms for rating hosted apps, typically in the form of free text reviews and numerical rating scales. App users use these mechanisms to express their opinions about their apps and discover apps that fit their specific needs. However, existing app rating systems do not take into account the operational characteristics of application domains. Thus, generated user reviews are often short, subjective, and one-dimensional. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we propose a multi-dimensional rating system for mobile apps. Our assumption is that an adaptive goal-based app rating system can prompt users to generate …

Blocks? Graphs? Why Not Both? Designing And Evaluating A Hybrid Programming Environment For End-Users, Nico Ritschel, Felipe Fronchetti, Reid Holmes, Ronald Garcia, David C. Shepherd

Faculty Publications

Many modern end-user development environments support one of two visual modalities: block-based programming or data-flow programming. In this work, we investigate the trade-offs between the two modalities in the context of robotics tasks. These often contain both aspects that are better solved with blocks and others that best fit data-flow programming. To address this style of task, we present and discuss two novel programming environment prototypes, one purely block-based and one a hybrid of blocks and data-flow programming. We compare the designs through a controlled experiment with 113 end-user participants, in which we asked them to solve programming and program …

A Feasibility Study Of Drilling Fluid Slippage For Wellbore Displacement, John Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

In the ideal plug-flow mode viscoplastic drilling fluids display uniform frontal velocity due to wall slippage (at very low flowrate limited by the fluid’s yield strength). The flow rate could be increased by raising the yield strength that would make the fluid best candidate for frontal displacement. Based on this concept the study qualifies wall slippage effect for wellbore displacement. Using a conceptual model of fluid motion between two parallel plates defines maximum velocity as a function of shearing rate and yield stress. Conversion to coaxial geometry gives practical formulas for fluid testing with rotational viscometer. A new analysis of …

Improved Modeling And Application Of Data Assimilation In Gas Influx Management During Managed Pressure Drilling, Chen Wei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The management of gas influxes in a drilling well has been considered one of the most critical topics for maintaining petroleum drilling safety and efficiency. Reliable modeling of gas influx behaviors in a wellbore or a marine riser greatly benefits the improved understanding of a gas kick event and the development of optimized influx management strategies. However, the current studies on transient multiphase flow modeling show varying limitations on both the model rigorousness and the overall numerical efficiency. Meanwhile, the existence of great system uncertainties, such as the unclear influx sizes and distributions in the well/riser, has brought significant challenges …