Digital Commons Network^™

How Did You Code “I'M Really Confident That I Can Find The Exact Ikea Pillow”?: Creating An Effective Codebook As A Team, Andrea Hebert

Faculty Publications

The subject librarian for Louisiana State University’s School of Library & Information Science designed a short survey that included open-ended questions to explore the self-efficacy of graduating MLIS students. The librarian asked a graduating MLIS student to participate in the study as a co-investigator. The survey results were imported into Dedoose, a web-based application, which allowed the co-investigators to collaborate at a distance for qualitative coding and analysis. Although teams of researchers often create the initial codebook collaboratively, the co-investigators in this study each created individual codebooks using inductive coding, which draws themes from data. After the co-investigators completed their …

Reflector Dip Trends In Seismic Sh-Wave Imaging Of A Modern Lower Mississippi River Point Bar, Adam Gostic

LSU Master's Theses

Various studies of ancient point bars have noted that a relationship can be observed between the dip angle and grain size of point bar lateral accretion deposits, with the most mud-rich deposits tending to exhibit the greatest dip. No analysis and only cursory explanations for this relationship have been provided. Additionally, buried mid-channel bars are absent from typical models of point bar architecture.

We successfully image the architecture of late-stage point bar deposits with a near surface 2D seismic SH-wave reflection survey and generate an SH-wave velocity model of the subsurface in the study area in order to interpret the …

Measurement Of The Average Shape Of Longitudinal Profiles Of Cosmic-Ray Air Showers At The Pierre Auger Observatory, A. Aab, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta, I. F.M. Albuquerque, J. M. Albury, I. Allekotte, A. Almela, J. Alvarez Castillo, J. Alvarez-Muñiz, G. A. Anastasi, L. Anchordoqui, B. Andrada, S. Andringa, C. Aramo, H. Asorey, P. Assis, G. Avila, A. M. Badescu, A. Bakalova, A. Balaceanu, F. Barbato, R. J.Barreira Luz, S. Baur, K. H. Becker, J. A. Bellido, C. Berat, M. E. Bertaina, X. Bertou, P. L. Biermann, J. Biteau, S. G. Blaess, A. Blanco, J. Blazek

Faculty Publications

The profile of the longitudinal development of showers produced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays carries information related to the interaction properties of the primary particles with atmospheric nuclei. In this work, we present the first measurement of the average shower profile in traversed atmospheric depth at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The shapes of profiles are well reproduced by the Gaisser-Hillas parametrization within the range studied, for E>10 17.8 eV . A detailed analysis of the systematic uncertainties is performed using ten years of data and a full detector simulation. The average shape is quantified using two variables related to …

Iron Mediated Organic Preservation In A River Influenced Continental Margin, Neha Ajit Ghaisas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Continental margins such as the Mississippi river influenced Louisiana shelf (MIS), are important land-ocean interfaces where excessive water column productivity and rapid burial results in large amounts of organic carbon (OC) being sequestered in the sediments. The preservation of OC in sediments is controlled by a number of processes among which mineral-OC interactions are considered to be more important. Specifically, the interactions between sediment iron (Fe) species and OC have been shown to promote carbon preservation. However, the exact nature of preservation mechanism is not well understood and is based on limited global data, which specifically lacks estimates from large …

Conceptualizing Emotion Within Physical Education: Exploration Of Antecedents And Outcomes Using The Control-Value Theory Of Achievement Emotions, Kelly L. Simonton Jr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Investigating student emotions has gained attention in motivational literature because they represent mechanisms for interpreting experiences and behaviors. Physical education (PE) is critical to promoting skills and positive experiences that lead to an active and healthy lifestyle. Yet, in PE there is a dearth of information and theoretical evaluation of student emotions. To address this gap, this dissertation uses the control value theory of achievement emotions (CVTAE) as a lens to investigate student emotions, antecedents, and outcomes in PE-related settings.

The purpose of Study 1 was to investigate effects of an attribution-training treatment on participants’ emotions and motivation toward a …

Modes Of Cartoon Corporeal Performance, Gregory Langner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation project works to introduce and interrogate a phenomenon I am calling cartoon corporeality. The phenomenon refers to the varied ways in which cartoons “escape” their usual two-dimensionality through performance, appearing to manifest in physical environments in ways that should be understood as culturally impactful. Cartoon corporeality encompasses different modes of performance wherein the explicit visual presence of a cartoon subject informs an immediately observable physical impact through the body of the performer. I interrogate the phenomenon by focusing on four select modes of cartoon corporeal performance: videogame play, cosplay, theatrical adaptation, and the active weaving of cartoons …

History, Politics, And Religion In The Life And Compositions Of Sahba Aminikia, Sinella Aghasi Moshabad

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sahba Aminikia is an Iranian-American composer who was underrepresented in his home country. He was born into a family with Baha’i faith only two years after the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979. The consequences of the revolution brought several challenges for him as a musician and a religious minority. Aminikia was deprived of the right to further his education, so he first moved to Russia, and later on, immigrated to the United States where he received his master's degree in composition. The research is focused on the analysis of the two pieces titled One Day; Tehran(2010), and Shab …

Putting It All Together: Adding Value To The Global Ocean And Climate Observing Systems With Complete Self-Consistent Ocean State And Parameter Estimates, David Trossman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Alternative Fundamental Weighting Scheme Based On Enterprise Value Multiple, Wenguang Lin, Gary C. Sanger

Faculty Publications

Fundamental indexing has been proposed as a semi-active strategy that outperforms classical market-capitalization weighting. This paper proposes an alternative weighting scheme based on the enterprise value multiple (EM) that integrates the market value of equity with debt information. Over the period 1972–2017, the EM-weighted index has lower tracking error and a higher information ratio when compared with a composite fundamental index in US equities. The EM index generates an information ratio of 0.71 which is larger than the composite fundamental index. The EM index also generates significant alpha that exceeds the traditional fundamental index using several asset pricing models. Further …

Carceral Dreams: Punishment In Contemporary Utopian Fiction, Amandine Faucheux

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation argues that the representation of legal violence—punishment—is an essential definitional axis to utopian literature. Utopian scholarship tends to position the political or economic system that a text imagines as the key determinant of that text’s identity as a Utopia, a dystopia, or an anti-Utopia. I propose instead that the propensity of the imaginary society to inflict violence in a legal or official context defines its utopian or dystopian quality. Through an analysis of twentieth and twenty-first century Anglophone utopian novels and stories by George Orwell, Octavia E. Butler, James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), Adam Roberts, and Kelley Eskridge, …

Evaluating Seasonal Nutrient Fluxes In Emerging And Eroding Wetlands Of The Louisiana Delta Plain, Kiran Upreti

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Deltaic wetlands can ameliorate high NO₃^- loads via denitrification, a dominant NO₃^- reduction pathway in inland and coastal habitats. Dissimilatory Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia (DNRA), in contrast to denitrification, conserves N within the system and has been found to be favored over denitrification with increase in salinity and temperature. There are no studies in the Louisiana Deltaic plain with simultaneous estimation of denitrification and DNRA. Increased P availability has been shown to increase denitrification so it is essential to understand P biogeochemistry when studying N cycle. Here, we evaluated net denitrification using N₂:Ar and …

Phase Estimation In Linear And Nonlinear Interferometers, Sushovit Adhikari

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Phase estimation has a wide range of applications. Over the years, several strategies have been studied to improve precision in phase estimation. These strategies include using exotic quantum states to quantum detection schemes. This dissertation summarizes my effort in improving the precision of phase estimation with a linear and nonlinear interferometer.

Chapter 1 introduces quantum optics and quantum metrology. I introduce all relevant quantum states of light used. We also look into tools and terminologies of quantum metrology such as Fisher information, shot-noise limit, Heisenberg limit, etc., along with examples of phase estimation with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

In Chapter 2, …

Multiplexed Paper Microfluidics For Titration And Detection Of Ingredients In Beverages, Manas Ranjan Gartia, Alisha Prasad

Faculty Publications

Food safety and access to systematic approaches for ensuring detection of food hazards is an important issue in most developing countries. With the arrival of paper-based analytical devices (mu PADs) as a promising, rapid, easy-to-use, and low-cost analytical tool, we demonstrated a simple microfluidic-based titration study for the analysis of packaged fruit juices. Similar, to the titration experiments using traditional glassware in chemistry laboratories, in this study the titration experiments were developed using paper microfluidics for the analysis of several analytes such as pH, vitamin C, sugars, and preservatives present in the packaged fruit juices. The allergen found commonly in …

Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy For Rapid And Cost-Effective Determination Of Elemental Composition Of Ground Forage, Yadav Sapkota, Louis M. Mcdonald, Thomas C. Griggs, Thomas J. Basden, Brandon Lee Drake

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cross-Shelf Habitat Shifts By Red Snapper (Lutjanus Campechanus) In The Gulf Of Mexico, Michael A. Dance, Jay R. Rooker

Faculty Publications

Habitat shifts that occur during the life cycles of marine fishes influence population connectivity and structure. A generalized additive modeling approach was used to characterize relationships between environmental variables and the relative abundance of red snapper Lutjanus campechanus over unconsolidated substrate on the continental shelf (< 150 m) of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM) at three different life stages: juvenile (age-0, < 125 mm FL), sub-adult (age-1-2, 125–300 mm FL), and adult (age-2+, >300 mm FL). Fisheries independent data (2008–2014) were used to develop separate models for both the eastern and western GoM, and final models were used to predict the relative availability of suitable habitat for each life stage across the two regions. Predictor variables included in final models varied by age class and region, with …

Atmospheric Cold Front-Induced Exchange Flows Through A Microtidal Multi-Inlet Bay: Analysis Using Multiple Horizontal Adcps And Fvcom Simulations, Chunyan Li, Wei Huang, Brian Milan

Faculty Publications

Atmospheric cold fronts provide recurring forcing for circulations and long-term transport in estuaries with microtides. Multiple horizontal ADCPs were used to obtain time series data from three inlets in Barataria Bay. The data cover a period of 51 atmospheric cold fronts between 2013 and 2015. The weather and subtidal ocean response are highly correlated in the "weather band" (3-7 days). The cold front-associated winds produce alternating flows into, out of, and then back into the bay, forming an asymmetric "M" for low-pass filtered flows. Results show that cold front-induced flows are the most important component in this region, and the …

Marr Family Transcription Factors From Burkholderia Species: Hidden Clues To Control Of Virulence-Associated Genes, Ashish Gupta, Anuja Pande, Afsana Sabrin, Sudarshan S. Thapa, Brennan W. Gioe, Anne Grove

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2019 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. Species within the genus Burkholderia exhibit remarkable phenotypic diversity. Genomic plasticity, including genome reduction and horizontal gene transfer, has been correlated with virulence traits in several species. However, the conservation of virulence genes in species otherwise considered to have limited potential for infection suggests that phenotypic diversity may not be explained solely on the basis of genetic diversity. Instead, differential organization and control of gene regulatory networks may underlie many phenotypic differences. In this review, we evaluate how regulation of gene expression by members of the multiple antibiotic resistance regulator …

On The Adjoint Markov Policies In Stochastic Differential Games, Nicolai V. Krylov

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

A Nonlocal Approach To The Quantum Kolmogorov Backward Equation And Links To Noncommutative Geometry, Will Hicks

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Bioassay-Guided Isolation And Structure Elucidation Of Fungicidal And Herbicidal Compounds From Ambrosia Salsola (Asteraceae), Frank R. Fronczek

Faculty Publications

The discovery of potent natural and ecofriendly pesticides is one of the focuses of the agrochemical industry, and plant species are a source of many potentially active compounds. We describe the bioassay-guided isolation of antifungal and phytotoxic compounds from the ethyl acetate extract of Ambrosia salsola twigs and leaves. With this methodology, we isolated and identified twelve compounds (four chalcones, six flavonols and two pseudoguaianolide sesquiterpene lactones). Three new chalcones were elucidated as (S)-beta-Hydroxy-2,3,4,6'-tetrahydroxy-5-methoxydihydrochalcone (salsolol A), (S)-beta-Hydroxy-2',4,4',6'-tetrahydroxy-3-methoxydihydrochalcone (salsolol B), and (R)-alpha, (R)-beta-Dihydroxy-2,3,4,4,6'-pentahydroxydihydrochalcone (salsolol C) together with nine known compounds: balanochalcone, six quercetin derivatives, confertin, and neoambrosin. Chemical structures were determined …

The Aqueous Environment As An Active Participant In The Protein Folding Process, Michal Brylinski

Faculty Publications

Existing computational models applied in the protein structure prediction process do not sufficiently account for the presence of the aqueous solvent. The solvent is usually represented by a predetermined number of H2O molecules in the bounding box which contains the target chain. The fuzzy oil drop (FOD) model, presented in this paper, follows an alternative approach, with the solvent assuming the form of a continuous external hydrophobic force field, with a Gaussian distribution. The effect of this force field is to guide hydrophobic residues towards the center of the protein body, while promoting exposure of hydrophilic residues on its surface. …

Conservation Adoption Among Owners And Tenantfarmers In The Southern United States, Naveen Adusumilli, Hua Wang

Faculty Publications

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This study investigates owner and tenant characteristics and differences between these two groups in their participation in federal conservation initiatives. Bivariate probit model analysis, based on a 2016–2017 Louisiana row-crop producer’s survey show that owners, relative to tenant farmers, are more likely to adopt conservation in early years of ownership. The results emphasize the need for mechanisms for tenants in short-term contracts to invest in long-term conservation. Moreover, conservation initiatives should be tailored, as tenant farmers are increasingly farming more land and policies should carefully account for this growing group of …

Pyrethroid And Organophosphate Pesticide Resistance In Field Populations Of Horn Fly In Brazil, L. G. Brito, F. S. Barbieri, R. B. Rocha, A. P.L. Santos, R. R. Silva, E. S. Ribeiro, F. Guerrero, L. Foil, M. C.S. Oliveira

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Royal Entomological Society Pesticides are used worldwide to control arthropod parasites in cattle herds. The indiscriminate and/or inappropriate use of pesticides without veterinary guidance is a reality in several countries of South America. Improper pesticide use increases the chances of contamination of food and the environment with chemical pesticides and their metabolites. Reduction of these contamination events is an increasing challenge for those involved in livestock production. The horn fly, Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus) (Diptera: Muscidae), is one of the most economically important parasites affecting cattle herds around the world. As such, horn fly control efforts are often …

Duration Of Protection From Live Attenuated Vs. Sub Unit Hsv-2 Vaccines In The Guinea Pig Model Of Genital Herpes: Reassessing Efficacy Using Endpoints From Clinical Trials, David I. Bernstein, Rhonda D. Cardin, Derek A. Pullum, Fernando J. Bravo, Konstantin G. Kousoulas, David A. Dixon

Faculty Publications

© 2019 Bernstein et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background Although herpes simplex viruses (HSV) are a major target for vaccine development no vaccine is currently licensed. Methods A live attenuated HSV virus vaccine, VC2 was compared to a subunit HSV vaccine, glycoprotein D (gD2) administered with the adjuvant, MPL/Alum using the Guinea pig model of genital herpes. Three doses of intramuscular (IM) vaccine were provided followed by intravaginal challenge …

The Aqueous Environment As An Active Participant In The Protein Folding Process, Małgorzata Gadzała, Dawid Dułak, Barbara Kalinowska, Zbigniew Baster, Michał Bryliński, Leszek Konieczny, Mateusz Banach, Irena Roterman

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Authors Existing computational models applied in the protein structure prediction process do not sufficiently account for the presence of the aqueous solvent. The solvent is usually represented by a predetermined number of H2O molecules in the bounding box which contains the target chain. The fuzzy oil drop (FOD) model, presented in this paper, follows an alternative approach, with the solvent assuming the form of a continuous external hydrophobic force field, with a Gaussian distribution. The effect of this force field is to guide hydrophobic residues towards the center of the protein body, while promoting exposure of hydrophilic …

The Effect Of Invasive Aquatic Vegetation On Odonate Diversity In An Urban Area, Sarah Thomas

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Systematic Review Of Post-Migration Facilitators And Barriers To Integration Among Muslim Refugees In The United States, Sarah Elizabeth Mähler

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Assessing Knowledge Of Coastal Land Loss In Louisiana High School Graduates, Madelyn Smith

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Predictions Of The Wfirst Microlensing Survey. I. Bound Planet Detection Rates, Matthew T. Penny, B. Scott Gaudi, Eamonn Kerins, Nicholas J. Rattenbury, Shude Mao, Annie C. Robin, Sebastiano Calchi Novati

Faculty Publications

The Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is the next NASA astrophysics flagship mission, to follow the James Webb Space Telescope. The WFIRST mission was chosen as the top-priority large space mission of the 2010 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey in order to achieve three primary goals: to study dark energy via a wide-field imaging survey, to study exoplanets via a microlensing survey, and to enable a guest observer program. Here we assess the ability of the several WFIRST designs to achieve the goal of the microlensing survey to discover a large sample of cold, low-mass exoplanets with semimajor axes …

Deep-Ultraviolet Laser Ablation Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry, Remilekun O. Lawal, Fabrizio Donnarumma, Kermit K. Murray

Faculty Publications

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. A 193-nm wavelength deep ultraviolet laser was used for ambient laser ablation electrospray ionization mass spectrometry of biological samples. A pulsed ArF excimer laser was used to ablate solid samples, and the resulting plume of the desorbed material merged with charged electrospray droplets to form ions that were detected with a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Solutions containing peptide and protein standards up to 66-kDa molecular weight were deposited on a metal target, dried, and analyzed. No fragmentation was observed from peptides and proteins as well as from the more easily fragmented vitamin B …