Digital Commons Network^™

Influence Of Black Mangrove Expansion On Salt Marsh Faunal Communities Of Eastern Coastal Louisiana, Christina Powell

LSU Master's Theses

The salt marshes along the Gulf of Mexico provide a critical habitat for many species, but their spatial distribution is changing, because Avicennia germinans (black mangroves) are expanding due to warmer winters. Currently, little is known about how A. germinans are used as habitat providing food and refuge for aquatic fauna. Therefore, the overall goal of this study was to determine how A.germinans expansion into the Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass) marshes of Louisiana’s Mississippi River delta plain affects salt marsh-dependent organisms. This study analyzed three habitat types: Spartina-dominated, Avicennia-dominated, and a mix of the two, focusing on habitat use and …

Examining Anxiety And Achievement Goal Theory In Physical Activity Settings, Timothy Michael Dasinger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the United States (US), a majority of adults do not meet the recommended guides of physical activity despite the many benefits. One benefit of activity is the reduction of anxiety. Although there is robust evidence demonstrating the anxiolytic effects of physical activity, the mechanism is not fully understood. Some psychological explanations are related to a lack of confidence in one’s ability. Because of this, Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) may be a viable framework to explain the anxiolytic effects of physical activity. The focus of this dissertation is to examine the efficacy of AGT as a mechanism and to explore …

Determining Growth Characteristics And Control Programs For Nealley's Sprangletop (Leptochloa Nealleyi Vasey), Trace Buck

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Research was conducted at the LSU AgCenter Dean Lee Research and Extension center near Alexandria, La in 2016 and 2017 to evaluate the growth characteristics and control of Nealley’s sprangletop. Nealley’s sprangletop is a relatively new weed with little research available to understand its growth habit and effective control strategies.

Nealley’s sprangletop undergoes a more drastic height increase of 212 to 742 mm, 4 to 6 WAE than Amazon sprangletop 377 to 612 mm in the same time frame. Averaged across harvest interval tiller and leaf number of Nealley’s sprangletop was approximately 50 and 40% less than Amazon sprangletop. …

Characteristics Associated With Improvements In Health Among Community Mental Health Clients With Thought Disorders Receiving Co-Located Primary Care Services, Mary Elizabeth Heintz

LSU Master's Theses

Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are disproportionately impacted by preventable physical health conditions, which put them at risk for premature mortality. Integrated primary and behavioral health care (PBHC) programs have demonstrated promise in treating comorbid physical and mental health conditions, common to individuals diagnosed with SMI. The current study focused on individuals with thought disorders (i.e., schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and brief psychotic disorder), as those diagnosed are more likely to be retained in care. Treatment retention is especially important, as adherence slows down the progression of psychiatric symptoms and physical health diseases. Extant research has focused on evaluation of …

Magnetic Gradient Drilling, Garrett Lowry Nielsen

LSU Master's Theses

The drilling industry has always had difficulties with staying within the mud weight window. The problems associated with failure to stay within the mud weight window include uncontrolled influxes and wellbore collapse on the low pressure side of the window, and fluid losses and wellbore damage on the high pressure side of the window. When the risk for getting outside of this mud window becomes too great, casing must be set in order to isolate formations from each other. If too many strings of casing are set, or if the damage from getting out of the mud weight window is …

Unquenchable Enthusiasm For The American Way And American Life: Prescribing, Promoting, And Praising Conservative Values Of Japanese Americans During Internment, Kallie Nycole Credeur

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines two Japanese American newspapers, the Heart Mountain Sentinel and the Rocky Shimpo, during World War II—specifically the period of Japanese Internment. This study examines articles from these two publications on topics including loyalty, patriotism, the war effort, resettlement, and race relations in order to illustrate that the Japanese American editorial staffs expressed their conservatism through these newspapers. Through these articles, the Japanese American newspaper staff promoted principle beliefs of conservative nationalism, economic conservatism, and social conservatism.

The Cost Of The Bridge Way: Identity Formation In No Excuses Charter Schools, Olivia Jackson Cox

LSU Master's Theses

Media coverage and debate over education policy has fashioned in the minds of many Americans a basic fear that our public schools are failing. In the midst of this alarmist climate, a compelling solution has arisen: charter schools, which are publicly funded but often privately run. A particular brand of charter schools call themselves “no excuses schools:” they insist that every child can perform at high levels, regardless of poverty, race, or any other circumstance. While many studies and reports have investigated claims that student achievement is higher at charter schools than traditional public schools (Cunningham, 2012; Hoxby et al …

Understanding Perceptions Of Race: Exploring White Racial Consciousness Among White Students At A Predominately White Institution In The Southeast, Victoria Elizabeth Callais

LSU Master's Theses

Higher education is continuing to diversify and there is a need for student affairs to be intersectional in their approach (Renn & Reason, 2013). Having an understanding of how the dominate group, White/Caucasians, identify their racial identity or understand their identity in relation to other races is essential to creating dialogue and programming that targets the inequalities that exist in higher education. In this study, White student’s White racial consciousness is explored using a phenomenological approach. At the time of the study, the students participating were all enrolled undergraduates at Louisiana State University. The White Racial Consciousness Model is designed …

Characterizing The Physiological Role Of Inward Rectifier Potassium (Kir) Channels In Tick Salivary Gland Function, Zhilin Li

LSU Master's Theses

The tick salivary gland is a critical tissue that enables blood feeding, maintenance of the ionic gradients, and facilitates pathogen transmission. Therefore, the broad objective of this investigation was to leverage pharmacological approaches to investigate the role of potassium ion channels to salivary gland function of Amblyomma americanum in an effort to identify a tractable target site for therapeutic development.

Data collected in Chapter 2 clearly illustrated that the A. americanum salivary gland is reliant upon inward rectifier potassium (Kir) channels for fluid secretion, which was similar to previous work performed by our laboratory on Drosophila salivary gland. Therefore, the …

Degrees Are Not Enough : Success And Challenges Of Black Women Pursuing College Degrees., Dequinten Shrez Glenn

LSU Master's Theses

Black women are succeeding highly across the country in Higher Education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2010) Black women received 66% of undergraduate degrees received by Black people in America in the 2007-2008 school year. This extreme success reflects their abilities to compete at the highest levels while attending institutions of higher education. Their success is not rewarded with job opportunities and equal wages which is reflected by their lack of representation in highly paid fields including science and medicine.

America has been organized and governed by systemic oppression of certain groups this oppression stems from a …

Audit Committee Industry Specialization: An Examination Of Auditor Choice, Financial Reporting Quality Implications, And Market Perception, Danny Lynn Shaw

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I investigate whether high-quality audit committees (ACs) prefer high-quality auditors. I then examine the benefits of high-quality ACs engaging high-quality auditors. The prediction is that high-quality ACs (i.e. those composed of members with industry expertise) will be more likely to choose high-quality auditors (i.e. Big 4/Mid-tier firms and industry specialist auditors) in order to preserve the reputational capital they have built as financial monitors. Further, improvement to financial reporting quality (FRQ) is expected to occur when an industry specialist AC engages a Big4/Mid-tier auditor (i.e. complementary relationship). On the other hand, it is expected that any incremental improvement to FRQ …

Essays On Health Economics: The Impact Of Public Policy On Health And Labor Market Outcomes, Grace Ellis Arnold

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present three essays in health economics that can be read independently from one another. Chapter 2 examines the long-run impact of teenage access to family planning services on young women's health and non-health outcomes. Using the state-level variation in Medicaid family planning expansions, I find that expanding access to family planning services negatively impacts teen births and has positive spillover effects with regards to education and labor outcomes. A back of the envelope calculation suggests that the benefits outweigh the costs of providing these services to teenagers. In Chapter 3, I exploit the state-time variation in …

Channel‐Island Connectivity Affects Water Exposure Time Distributions In A Coastal River Delta, Matthew Hiatt, Edward Castañeda‐Moya, Robert Twilley, Ben R. Hodges, Paola Passalacqua

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transmission Potential Of Rickettsia Felis Through Cutaneous Inoculation Of Infectious Flea Feces, Kelsey Porter Legendre

LSU Master's Theses

Rickettsia felis, the causative agent of flea-borne spotted fever, is an emerging pathogen of the transitional group Rickettsiae and an important cause of febrile illness in Africa. Since the organism’s original discovery in the early 1990s, much research has been directed towards elucidating transmission mechanisms within the believed primary host and reservoir, the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis). However, while a growing number of human cases are being reported throughout the world, a definitive transmission mechanism from arthropod host to vertebrate host resulting in clinical disease has not been found. Several possible mechanisms, including bite of infected arthropods …

Development Of The Routines And Time Management Inventory For Young Adults, Morgan Ashwill Grinnell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Routines are observable and repetitive behavior patterns that are context specific and help to automate aspects of daily life (Sytsma, Kelley, & Wymer, 2001; Zisberg, Young, Schepp, & Zysberg, 2007). The presence of routines in an individual’s life promotes overall functioning, and irregular routines have been associated with poorer physical and psychological health (Margraf, Lavallee, Zhang, & Schneider, 2016). Time management skills, such as those required to plan, prioritize, and execute tasks are crucial to cultivating stable routines. Although measures of routines exist for children, adolescents, families, and older adults, the routines of younger adults have been neglected.

The purpose …

Topographic Control On Post-Lgm Groundings Of The West Antarctic Ice Sheet In The Whales Deep Basin, Eastern Ross Sea, Matthew Danielson

LSU Master's Theses

By the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) had advanced to the outer continental shelf of eastern Ross Sea trough basins. During the post-LGM retreat, the WAIS paused several times within 75 km of the Whales Deep Basin (WDB) shelf edge. An overlapping stack of seven grounding zone wedges (GZWs) records the locations of these groundings. Here we used ~7500 km of seismic reflection data to map the subglacial unconformity that was eroded when WAIS was grounded at the shelf edge, i.e., prior to the deposition of the backstepping GZWs. With respect to …

The Impact Of Cultural Attitudes On Economic Outcomes And The Political Behavior Of Blacks, Jhacova Williams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I offer two distinct studies on cultural attitudes. In the first study, I analyze the extent to which the political participation of blacks can be traced to historical lynchings that took place between 1882 and 1930 in the same counties. Using county-level voter registration data, I show that blacks who reside in southern counties that experienced a relatively higher number of historical lynchings have lower voter registration rates today. This relationship holds after accounting for a variety of historical and contemporary characteristics of counties and strengthen when lynchings are instrumented with historical measures of environmental suitability for …

General Stochastic Integral And Itô Formula With Application To Stochastic Differential Equations And Mathematical Finance, Jiayu Zhai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A general stochastic integration theory for adapted and instantly independent stochastic processes arises when we consider anticipative stochastic differential equations. In Part I of this thesis, we conduct a deeper research on the general stochastic integral introduced by W. Ayed and H.-H. Kuo in 2008. We provide a rigorous mathematical framework for the integral in Chapter 2, and prove that the integral is well-defined. Then a general Itô formula is given. In Chapter 3, we present an intrinsic property, near-martingale property, of the general stochastic integral, and Doob-Meyer's decomposition for near-submartigales. We apply the new stochastic integration theory to several …

A Pedagogical Approach To The Waltzes And Tangos For Piano By Francisca Gonzaga, Ana Paula Machado Simoes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Francisca (Chiquinha) Gonzaga (1847–1935) was an important composer in the development of Brazilian music. She was also a remarkable female personality and broke paradigms in a society dominated by men. In spite of that, her works are not widely performed and studied yet. The goal of this dissertation is to provide a pedagogical approach to her works. This research explores her waltzes and tangos for piano, analyzes their musical, reading and technical difficulties, and provides a graded level for half of them to stimulate their use as repertoire for piano students and performers.

Chiquinha composed 37 waltzes and 30 tangos …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Assessment Of Cationic Polypeptoids Toward Gene Delivery And Development Of Air Stable N-Substituted N-Thiocarboxyanhydrides, Jessica Michelle Simpson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Peptoids are a class of peptidomimetic polymers, which have attracted much attention over the years. Due to their structural similarity to peptides, this group of polymers affords good biocompatibility making them of interest for biomedical applications. This dissertation is largely about the design, synthesis, and characterization of cationic polypeptoids for biological applications, particularly nonviral gene delivery. The dissertation will also cover the development, characterization, and polymerization behavior of a new, air stable N-thiocarboxyanhydride (NTA) monomer.

Introducing functionality, such as small biomolecules and organic compounds can provide distinctive properties to the polymers. Chapter 1 introduces gene therapy and concepts pertinent …

Recoil Ions From The Β Decay Of Sb 134 Confined In A Paul Trap, K. Siegl, N. D. Scielzo, A. Czeszumska, J. A. Clark, G. Savard, A. Aprahamian, S. A. Caldwell, B. S. Alan, M. T. Burkey, C. J. Chiara, J. P. Greene, J. Harker, S. T. Marley, G. E. Morgan, J. M. Munson, E. B. Norman, R. Orford, S. Padgett, A. Perez Galván, K. S. Sharma, S. Y. Strauss

Faculty Publications

The low-energy recoiling ions from the β decay of Sb134 were studied by using the Beta-decay Paul Trap. Using this apparatus, singly charged ions were suspended in vacuum at the center of a detector array used to detect emitted β particles, γ rays, and recoil ions in coincidence. The recoil ions emerge from the trap with negligible scattering, allowing β-decay properties and the charge-state distribution of the daughter ions to be determined from the β-ion coincidences. First-forbidden β-decay theory predicts a β-ν correlation coefficient of nearly unity for the 0- to 0+ transition from the ground state of Sb134 to …

A Single Fungal Map Kinase Controls Plant Cell-To-Cell Invasion By The Rice Blast Fungus, Wasin Sakulkoo, Miriam Osés-Ruiz, Ely Oliveira Garcia, Darren M. Soanes, George R. Littlejohn, Christian Hacker, Ana Correia, Barbara Valent, Nicholas J. Talbot

Faculty Publications

Blast disease destroys up to 30% of the rice crop annually and threatens global food security. The blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae invades plant tissue with hyphae that proliferate and grow from cell to cell, often through pit fields, where plasmodesmata cluster. We showed that chemical genetic inhibition of a single fungal mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase, Pmk1, prevents M. oryzae from infecting adjacent plant cells, leaving the fungus trapped within a single plant cell. Pmk1 regulates expression of secreted fungal effector proteins implicated in suppression of host immune defenses, preventing reactive oxygen species generation and excessive callose deposition at plasmodesmata. Furthermore, …

Probing The Single-Particle Character Of Rotational States In F 19 Using A Short-Lived Isomeric Beam, D. Santiago-Gonzalez, K. Auranen, M. L. Avila, A. D. Ayangeakaa, B. B. Back, S. Bottoni, M. P. Carpenter, J. Chen, C. M. Deibel, A. A. Hood, C. R. Hoffman, R. V.F. Janssens, C. L. Jiang, B. P. Kay, S. A. Kuvin, A. Lauer, J. P. Schiffer, J. Sethi, R. Talwar, I. Wiedenhöver, J. Winkelbauer, S. Zhu

Faculty Publications

A beam containing a substantial component of both the Jπ=5+, T1/2=162 ns isomeric state of F18 and its 1+, 109.77-min ground state is utilized to study members of the ground-state rotational band in F19 through the neutron transfer reaction (d,p) in inverse kinematics. The resulting spectroscopic strengths confirm the single-particle nature of the 13/2+ band-terminating state. The agreement between shell-model calculations using an interaction constructed within the sd shell, and our experimental results reinforces the idea of a single-particle-collective duality in the descriptions of the structure of atomic nuclei.

A Tale Of Two Birds: Lighting Design And Implementation Of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull And Aaron Posner's Stupid Fucking Bird Running In Repertory At Swine Palace Theatre, Chelsea G. Touchet

LSU Master's Theses

The course of creation never did run smooth. Every act of creation is a process of creation. While theatrical creation and execution may follow the same basic steps each time, the process will always be evolving. One may take many paths to reach the same destination.

This project is a study of the process of creation and execution of a repertory theatrical lighting design for a professional company in an academic setting. In the spring of 2017, Swine Palace Theatre, the professional company associated with Louisiana State University’s (LSU) School of Theatre, produced Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull in full rotating …

An Analysis Of Alu Elements In Baboons, Cody James Steely

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Transposable elements compose a large portion of mammalian genomes and are estimated to make up anywhere from ~45% - ~70% of the human genome. Alu elements are primate-specific retrotransposons that are found in high copy number (> 1 million copies) and are spread throughout the genome. These elements are the most commonly repeated sequence in the human genome and have contributed to a number of disease states in humans. Alu elements are useful markers for population genetics and phylogenetics and have proven valuable in understanding difficult to determine relationships between species and within populations.

Baboons (genus Papio) are spread throughout …

Fast Magic-Angle-Spinning 19F Spin Exchange Nmr For Determining Nanometer 19F-19F Distances In Proteins And Pharmaceutical Compounds, Matthias Roos, Tuo Wang, Alexander A. Shcherbakov, Mei Hong

Faculty Publications

© 2018 American Chemical Society. Internuclear distances measured using NMR provide crucial constraints of three-dimensional structures but are often restricted to about 5 Å due to the weakness of nuclear-spin dipolar couplings. For studying macromolecular assemblies in biology and materials science, distance constraints beyond 1 nm will be extremely valuable. Here we present an extensive and quantitative analysis of the feasibility of 19F spin exchange NMR for precise and robust measurements of interatomic distances up to 1.6 nm at a magnetic field of 14.1 T, under 20-40 kHz magic-angle spinning (MAS). The measured distances are comparable to those achievable from …

Enhanced Grain Partitioning Of X-Ray Microtomography Segmented Images, Nicholas C. Skrivanos Ii

LSU Master's Theses

In the field of petroleum engineering, rock samples are often taken from wells during the drilling process. Grain partitioning of digital three-dimensional microtomography segmented images obtained from these samples provides valuable in-situ properties and statistics that allow for accurate particle and structure characterization. This information can be used directly in detailed production and reservoir analysis, and can also be used to generate realistic packing models for advanced simulation. Additionally, the partitioned image can be used as a building block for realistic hydraulic fracture modeling. This technology has applications in other fields as well, such as core analysis in soil sciences …

Evolution Of Alu Elements In The Saimiri And Papio Lineages Of Primates, Jasmine Nicole Brown Baker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Alu elements are approximately 300 base pair (bp) primate specific non- autonomous retrotransposons. Alu elements, a short interspersed element (SINE), account for high copy numbers in all primate genomes. Numerous Alu element subfamilies have undergone varying degrees of activity and amplification within primates. Identification of these subfamilies has proved to be very informative in elucidating phylogenies and as phylogenomic markers. Squirrel monkeys, genus Saimiri, are one of the most well-known neotropical primates and the second most commonly used laboratory monkey. Squirrel monkey species diverged approximately 1.5 million years ago and are native to South America. Despite being well-known, there …

From Party To Publicity: The Transitional Role Of Three Publicity Experts On The Road To Modern Campaigning, Meagan H. Collman

LSU Master's Theses

During an election cycle, social media newsfeeds and TV screens are overrun with political advertisements and celebrity politics. Publicity has become a critical component of presidential elections. While many argue that a reliance on publicity developed with the popularization of the television, I argue that a dependency on publicity occurred in the early-to- mid 1900’s with three publicity experts who paved the way for future elections. Robert Woolley in Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 campaign exercised unprecedented management over his publicity bureau and used new techniques catering to new mediums of the time; Albert Lasker in Warren Harding’s 1920 campaign merged the …

Numerical Experiment Of Sediment Dynamics Over A Dredged Pit On The Louisiana Shelf, Nazanin Chaichitehrani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sediment transport over Sandy Point dredge pit in the northern Gulf of Mexico was examined using field measurements and a finely resolved numerical model. Delft3D model with well-vetted computational grid and input parameters was used. Numerical experiments were performed to examine the effect of wind-generated waves, wind-driven currents and their interaction on sediment dynamics in our study area during a cold front in November 2014 and fair-weather conditions between July and August of 2015. Sediment dispersal from the lower Mississippi River, sediment resuspension, transport and deposition with high spatial and temporal resolution were simulated. A reliable satellite-derived near-surface suspended particulate …