Digital Commons Network^™

Precision Of Parameter Estimation In Quantum Metrology, Chenglong You

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The fundamental precision limit of an interferometer is crucial since it bounds the best possible sensitivity one could achieve using such a device. This thesis will focus on several different interferometers and try to give the ultimate precision bounds by carefully counting all the resources used in the interferometers.

The thesis begins with the basics of the quantum state of light. The fundamentals of quantum metrology are also reviewed and discussed. More specifically, the terminology of classical and quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound and classical and quantum Fisher information are introduced.

Chapter 3 discusses the conclusive precision bounds in two-mode interferometer such …

Disaster Vulnerability And Social Capitals In The Gulf Coast And Flint, Michigan, Vanessa Parks

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore the migration intentions, self-rated physical and mental health, and alcohol use of people living in regions facing environmental stressors. In my first chapter, I examine factors that predict willingness to move away from southeast Louisiana, a region threatened by land loss, hurricanes, and environmental pollution. Specifically, I assess the relationships risk perceptions, place attachment, and fishing employment have with willingness to move. I find that risk perceptions are positively related to willingness to move and that place attachment and fishing employment are negatively related to willingness to move. In my second chapter, I show the …

Fate Of Selected Pollutants Of Concern On Particulate Matter (Pm) Surface, Ajit Ghimire

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research focuses on the environmental fate of particle associated pollutants such as Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), and Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals (EPFRs) with a special emphasis on their transformation due to interaction with a matrix or co-pollutants. It encompasses two approaches to the stated problems: analysis of samples collected in the environment and laboratory simulation of the molecular transformations.

The PBDE studies relied on the ambient air Particulate Matter (PM) samples collected from Bangkok, Thailand. Results showed the presence of various PBDE homologs from tri- to hepta-PBDEs on both PM_2.5and Total Suspended Particle (TSP) …

Insights Into The Collaborative Process Between Electronic Music Composers And Commissioning Saxophonists, Taylor Barbay Assad

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This monograph gives information about the collaborative process that takes place between commissioning saxophonists and composers of electronic music. It focuses specifically on music for solo performers and works for electronics, either with prerecorded tape or live electronics. The core of this paper centers on interviews conducted with composers of works for saxophone and electronics and professional saxophonists about the nature of their collaborations on new music for solo saxophone and electronics. The composers and performers selected had previously worked together on preparing and premiering a piece. Questions were developed for interviews of the composers and performers. The questions were …

Vulnerability Of Industrial Facilities In The Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor To Relative Sea Level Rise And Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge, Joseph Blake Harris

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Relative sea level rise (RSLR) and tropical cyclone-induced storm surge are major threats to the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor (LMRIC) which has approximately 120 industrial complexes located within the corridor. Spatial interpolation methods were applied to the 2004 National Oceanic and Atmospheric published Technical Report #50 subsidence dataset and cross-validation techniques were used to determine the accuracy of each method. Digital elevation models (DEMs) were created for the years 2025, 2050, and 2075, based on these predictive surface of subsidence rates. Future DEMs were utilized to model RSLR and determine the extent of storm surge on the LMRIC by …

Foucauldian Dynamics In The Formation Of A Fifth Grade Writing Culture, Ashley Renee Watson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study looks at a student writing culture in a fifth grade English language arts classroom through the lens of Foucauldian power dynamics to examine the power relationships in the classroom and curriculum. The research questions were: 1) What is the nature of a writing culture in a fifth-grade writing classroom? 2) What are students’ perceptions of writing in a fifth grade ELA classroom? The methodology for the study was case study research.

The research took place during the 2017-2018 school year at Southeast Elementary School in Lancaster County in the southeastern part of the United States. Data was collected …

Old School For The New School: Discussing The Importance Of Motown Records In American Music History, Crystal Darcell Birdsong

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to look at the contribution of Motown Records within music history and American history, as well as why it should be of great importance to those who study 20^th century music. It tends to be overlooked in the world of academia, despite efforts to bring the subject to the forefront of today’s classwork and courses at the collegiate level. It is not so much that it does not exist, but it is not nearly as prevalent as it should be, seeing as its contribution to music history and history in general is so …

Quantitative Evaluation Of A Lightweight Sediment For A Physical Model Of The Lower Mississippi River, Mauricio Hooper

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM), housed at the LSU Center for River Studies on the Baton Rouge, LA Water Campus, is a distorted, movable bed model comprising the lower 195 miles of the Mississippi River from Donaldsonville through the Head of Passes into the Gulf of Mexico. Since the LMRPM was designed to replicate the hydraulics (i.e., flow and river stages) and bulk non-cohesive sediment transport, the model lightweight sediment must replicate both the incipient motion and two-dimensional dune characteristics (height and length). In addition, the model scale and distortion require that the sediment time scale be determined …

The Drosophila Neuroblasts: A Model System For Human Ribosomopathies, Sonu Shrestha Baral

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation describes the use of Drosophila neuroblasts (NBs) to model human ribosomopathies; the overall goal is to understand why specific stem cell and progenitor cell populations are the primary targets in nucleolar stress as seen in the ribosomopathies. Chapter 1 provides an overview of relevant literature. Chapter 2 describes nucleolar stress in Drosophila neuroblasts as a model for human ribosomopathies. For this, we induce nucleolar stress by using the UAS-GAL4 system to express RNAi that depletes Nopp140 transcripts, and we also employ homozygous, CRISPR-Cas9-generated Nopp140 gene disruptions with a systemic null phenotype (Nopp140-/-). Embryonic lethality was observed …

Infrared Laser Ablation For Biomolecule Sampling, Kelin Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this research, an infrared laser at a wavelength of 3 µm was used to ablate material from tissue sections for biomolecule analysis. Pulsed infrared (IR) irradiation of tissue with a focused laser beam efficiently removed biomolecules, such as proteins, enzymes, DNA, and RNA from tissue sections for further analysis. In a proteomics project, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) was used to determine regions of interest (ROI) for laser ablation. The matrix was then washed off. By overlaying the MSI generated heat-map, the section was sampled using IR laser ablation and custom stage-control software. Two ROI were selected …

Finding Rough America, Eric Kennedy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Finding Rough America seeks to establish and examine the components of a body of texts, both in prose and film, that I call Rough America. I argue that this corpus works to broaden the cultural understanding of literature and film about the lives of American lower classes. To do so, I adopt and adapt Guy Standing’s conception of the “precariat class,” an economic classification used to identify the widespread precariousness among what was once the middle- and working-classes. After establishing Rough America as following in the tradition of American literary naturalism, I ground the study of the corpus’s primary thematic …

Sensory Analysis For Determining The Influence Of Visual Stimuli Upon Eating Experiences, Pitchayapat Chonpracha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Consumers are currently more conscious about salt and sugar intake than they were in the past. Visual cues have been shown to impact consumers’ cognitive and their taste perceptions. Current research information about visual cues enhancing human’s tastes expectation of saltiness and sweetness is limited. The sophisticated sensory analysis for products containing a reduced amount of salt and sugar is undoubtedly time–consuming and costly if the sensory experiment is designed with many samples. Therefore, the following three studies were achieved: I) an examination of how intrinsic and extrinsic visual cues affect the overall consumer eating experiences; II) a comparison of …

Understanding Host-Fungus Interactions Between Soybean And Phakopsora Pachyrhizi To Enhance Soybean Resistance To Rust Disease, Dongfang Hu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Asian soybean rust (ASR) caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi was first reported in Japan in 1902. In 2004, Asian soybean rust was first reported in Louisiana and other Southeastern US states. It is one of the most important soybean diseases worldwide. Even though fungicide application can offer some protection and prevent severe yield losses caused by ASR if applied promptly, it is not a viable option as a long-term disease control measure because it increases the growers’ operation costs and the risk of environmental pollution. In addition, it also increases the chances of developing fungicide resistance within a pathogen population. The …

Coastal Louisiana Landscape And Hurricane Storm Surge Evolution 1850 - 2110, Christopher George Siverd

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The hurricane storm surge analysis presented in this dissertation examines surge response to changes in the Louisiana coastal landscape and Gulf of Mexico water level from 1850 to 2110. Land to water (L:W) isopleths, lines depicting areas of constant land to water ratio along the modern Louisiana coast, are utilized in the development of a simplified storm surge model that closely reproduces the surge output of a state-of-the-art detailed model. Eleven comparable storm surge models are constructed with each featuring a representation of the Louisiana coastal landscape circa 1850, 1890, 1930, 1970, 1990, 2010, 2030, 2050, 2070, 2090 and 2110. …

Identification And Characterization Of Novel Transporters Involved In The Co2 Concentrating Mechanism Of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Ananya Mukherjee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii possesses a CO₂ concentrating mechanism (CCM) which helps in successful acclimation to low CO₂ conditions. One of the main aspects of the CCM is bringing in inorganic carbon (Ci) into the cell as bicarbonate using Ci transporters. Current models of the CCM postulate that a series of ion transporters bring HCO₃^- from outside the cell to the thylakoid lumen where the carbonic anhydrase, CAH3, dehydrates accumulated HCO₃^- to CO₂, raising the CO₂ concentration for Rubisco. Previously, HCO₃^- transporters have been identified at both the …

Development Of Sheath Blight-Resistant Breeding Lines For Southern U.S. Environments And Morphological And Genetic Survey Of Giant Salvinia Populations In Louisiana And Texas, Dominique Clark Galam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The southern US environment is a very conducive environment for agriculture and fisheries. Rice farming, shrimping and water related activities help drive the local economy. However, there are several factors that impede the success of these activities. Sheath blight (SB) disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani is one of the major biotic constraints to high grain yield and quality for most commercial U.S. rice varieties. Although different breeding lines with high levels of "partial resistance" have been developed none has been used directly as a commercial variety. The first research objective of this research was to identify and develop advanced breeding …

Experimental And Numerical Study Of Dynamic Water Control In Naturally Fractured Reservoirs, Younes Ahmed Alblooshi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Excessive water production problem is more troubling in naturally fractured reservoirs (NFR) than matrix-only deposits. In NFR, fluid flow through fracture conduits substantially differs from that in the rock matrix. Development of fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs require good understanding of fluid flow in the network of fractures. In NFR with bottom-water drive, mitigation of excessive water is always a challenge.

This dissertation presents an experimental and numerical study of dynamic water control in fractured basements using downhole water sink (DWS) well technology. A DWS well is a dual-completed well with the top completion used for oil production from payzone and a …

The Child Ethnographer In The Field: Examples From English, Spanish, And French Caribbean Literature, Emily Ann O'Dell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I consider the child to be an ethnographer in works of fiction and autofiction from the Caribbean islands. Through their liminality as culturally and developmentally betwixt or between, their cultural malleability, their linguistic fluidity, and their curiosity, the child becomes a "native" ethnographer who is capable of translating the culture (both linguistically and culturally) for the reader in order to establish understandings of Caribbean cultures. This is accomplished through the creation of hybridized or creolized texts that have many of the same characteristics as postmodern ethnographies.

In the English Caribbean Xuela provides an ethnographic perspective of Dominican …

Effect Of Environmental Factors And Residual Sanitizers On Survival And Attachment Of Indicator Organism And Human Pathogens On Fresh Produce, Vijay Singh Chhetri

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A comprehensive understanding of the behavior of microbial contaminants on produce surfaces in agricultural farms and during post-harvest activities is essential for the development of produce safety risk management strategies. Our studies investigated the survival and the attachment of E. coli on watermelon surfaces in agricultural settings with different levels of vegetation, and the effect of residual sanitizers on the survival and the attachment of E. coli O157: H7 and L. monocytogenes on spinach leaves. The attachment strength (S_R) of the E. coli cells on watermelon surfaces significantly increased (P<0.05) from 0.04 to 0.99 in the first 24 h, which was primarily due to the decrease in loosely attached population, given that the population of strongly attached cells was constant. The daily die-off rate of E. coli ranged from -0.12 …

Essays On Education And Crime, Swarup Joshi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Education is considered one of the most important tools for success in the labor market. The benefits of education extend to multiple other externalities. However, access to education is not universal even within the same school, county, and state. This dissertation includes three different essays which looks at the literature on intervention programs, an intervention program to increase access to post secondary education, and impact of education on crime. The first chapter investigates the literature on intervention programs, their costs and impacts. It also discusses the literature connecting education and crime. The second chapter details the intervention program studied in …

Key Users, Hashtags, And Topics: Network Analyses Of Twitter During Natural Disasters, Rui Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

During natural disasters, social media can play prominent roles in how publics learn and communicate about disasters, as well as improve disaster communication and operations. The open and flat structure of Twitter platform makes Twitter a suitable platform for disaster communication.

The purpose of this study is to explore the key users, hashtags, and topics in the Twitter networks of natural disasters. In doing so, this study takes a multi-method approach including big data mining and a series of network analyses. This study has collected 9,716,677 tweets during five natural disasters: Louisiana Flood 2016, Hurricane Florence 2018, Hurricane Michael 2018, …

Effective Geometric Modeling For Scientific Computing And Forensic Reconstruction, Celong Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Geometric modeling is a fundamental and critical problem for many computer graphic and computer vision problems. We usually want to build a parameterization which establishes a low-distortion one-to-one map between geometric data and canonical parametric domain, and it is a fundamental tool to support many visual data processing tasks such as mesh generation, finite element simulations, visual analytics, geometric reconstruction, etc. In this dissertation, I studied two problems. The first is to construct low- distortion canonical (polycube) parameterization of large-scale geometric regions, with which high-quality semi-structured quad meshes can be generated and used to facilitate more efficient scientific computing. The …

Use Of A Behavioral Health Framework To Assess Perceptions Of Hurricane Evacuation Support Services In New Orleans, Louisiana, Aubry Kyle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents research conducted during the hurricane seasons of 2017 and 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The research’s purpose was to assess citizen perceptions of evacuation support services offered during mandatory evacuation events. A prospective quantitative survey and qualitative, open-ended, semi-structured interview assessed perceptions. Both research methods were designed and assessed using the constructs of the Health Belief Model, a public health model created to assess perceived barriers, benefits, risks, severity, self-efficacy, and cues to action regarding health programming. Quantitative research yielded 211 surveys, representing opinions of New Orleans residents within 1-km Euclidian distance of an evacuation pick-up marker. …

Effective Tax Rates For Multinational And Domestic Corporations: A Closer Examination, Allen Lee Ryan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the differences in effective tax rates between U.S. multinational corporations and U.S. domestic corporations during the past 30 years. In a recent article published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Dyreng et al. (2017) found that cash effective tax rates for U.S. multinational and U.S. domestic corporations have been declining since 1988. The authors also found that multinational corporations show a higher cash effective tax rate when compared to domestic corporations. Using federal and state effective tax rates, I first examine the difference between these tax rates for multinational and domestic corporations. I find mixed results …

Improving Coupled Enzyme Assays With Capillary Electrophoresis, Thu Hoai Nguyen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this project is to address limitations of coupled enzyme assays using capillary electrophoresis (CE). In some enzyme assays, it is ineffective to directly detect products and substrates spectroscopically (absorption or fluorescence). Coupling the enzyme-catalyzed reaction of interest with another enzyme-catalyzed reaction allows for indirect detection of product formation or substrate depletion for the target enzyme. While conventional coupled enzyme assays are facile for kinetic measurements, they can be problematic for inhibition screening due to spectral and inhibitor interferences. To address these limitations of coupled assays, CE has been used to develop enzyme assays for acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase …

The Modern Mississippi: Provenance Indicators And Human Impact, Brittney Anne Gregory

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Given the significant degree to which the modern Mississippi River and its tributaries have been altered through dams, levees, and diversions, it is important to understand how sediment is transported from source to sink. The objective of this dissertation is to explore how the modern Mississippi River transports sediment from its tributaries to its delta using three independent proxies. Provenance indicators have traditionally been an effective way with which to characterize sediment transport in large river systems. First, detrital U-Pb zircon dating is used to investigate modern flux and possible anthropogenic influences on coarse-grained sediment within the modern Mississippi River. …

Multiple Voices In The Poetry Of Transculturation: Reading Contemporary Ex-Phonic Poetry Through Muwaššah: Ryoko Sekiguchi, Etel Adnan, And Suheir Hammad, Thana Al-Shakhs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research is a comparative study that compares two types of multicultural poetry: contemporary poetry written by non-native speakers and the Andalusian medieval genre of muwaššah. In spite of the cultural and temporal gap between the two periods, the poets apply similar strategies to represent multicultural voices, for example integrating foreign expressions. I argue that multicultural poetics break the rules of classical writing and use oral expressions that are more flexible to include different languages and cultural references. This study focuses on oral techniques that offer an appropriate style to express multiplicity.

This thesis is divided into four chapters. …

Cationic Cobalt (Ii) Hydroformylation, Drew Michael Hood

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While investigating a bimetallic cobalt hydroformylation catalyst a new class of monometallic cationic cobalt (II) hydroformylation catalyst were discovered. These newly discovered catalyst proved to be very unique with high hydroformylation activity under mild conditions. The pre-catalyst were characterized using various methods including NMR, EPR, MS, and X-ray crystallography. Similarly the active catalyst was also investigated using NMR, EPR, FTIR, and X-ray crystallography. Various catalyst modifications were investigated for their effects on hydroformylation activity. Likewise various reaction parameters were probed to determine their effect on hydroformylation activity. Finally the best cationic cobalt (II) catalyst were directly compared to industry standards …

Essays On The Role Of Systematic And Idiosyncratic Volatility In Pricing Individual Equity Options, Mobina Shafaati

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

It is widely accepted that the value of an option is an increasing function of the underlying volatility. The positive relation between volatility and option price is intuitive only if we keep all other determinants of the option value constant, including the stock price. The notion that an asset price is completely unaffected by the volatility of the asset is virtually unacceptable in asset pricing theory and holds only in a stylized one-factor world in which the volatility change is completely diversifiable. In Chapter 1, I examine the role of the non-zero correlation of the underlying asset return and its …

Three Essays On Irrigation Water Management In Louisiana Crop Production, Tej Kumar Gautam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Competition for water resources among agricultural, municipal, and industrial sectors is increasing even in a traditionally water rich state like Louisiana. Irrigation water management is likely to be a critical issue in Louisiana in the near future. We conducted state-wide farm surveys to collect information regarding irrigation practices and concerns from Louisiana farmers during the crop years 2015 and 2016.

We analyzed three different issues associated with irrigation water management in Louisiana crop production. These analyses are presented in the form of three different essays. The first essay identifies the determinants of irrigation technology adoption and crop acreage allocation by …