Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of A Group Contingency Arrangement Of Synchronous Reinforcement On Disruptive Behavior In Elementary Classes, Gabriela Gomes

LSU Master's Theses

Synchronous schedules of reinforcement are a type of schedule of covarion in which the onset and offset of the response are aligned with the onset and offset of the reinforcer. In this study, we used multiple baseline across classes and reversal designs to determine the effects of a synchronous reinforcement schedule, arranged as a group contingency, on disruptive classroom behavior and time spent following rules during independent work periods in three elementary classrooms: 2 first grade and 1 fourth grade. Additionally, we compared the effects of a synchronous reinforcement schedule with a continuous noncontingent schedule in the fourth-grade classroom. The …

Improving Stem Assessments: Strategies For Increasing The Accessibility And Adoption Of Two-Stage Exams, Kristina Callaghan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over three decades of research have shown that students taught using active learning strategies achieve better learning outcomes compared to those taught using traditional methods. Two-stage exams, which pair a traditional exam with a group component, are an increasingly popular method for incorporating active learning within the assessment component of a course. Previous studies have shown this assessment strategy provides a variety of benefits for students, including increased engagement and collaboration, immediate feedback, and potentially increased content retention. However, the unique circumstances of each instructor can pose a non-trivial barrier to the implementation of two-stage exams. In this thesis, we …

Applications For The Quasi-Atomic Orbital And Constrained Density Functional Theory Methods On Catalytic Reactions, Alvaro David Loaiza Orduz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Selective activation of C–O, C–H, and C–C bonds underpins biomass upgrading, alkane functionalization, and CO₂ conversion. Despite their importance, the electronic factors governing catalytic performance remain incompletely understood, and many industrial processes still rely on empirical trends or material-specific observations. This dissertation addresses this gap by applying density functional theory (DFT), thermodynamic decomposition, and electronic-structure analysis to identify unifying principles of reactivity across transition-metal phosphides, vanadate oxides, copper-based electrocatalysts, and mixed IrO₂–RuO₂ layers. This work examines how charge transfer, orbital localization, and ligand-induced perturbations control reaction pathways in diverse catalytic systems. C–O bond scission in 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF) and methanol was …

Decoupling Of Reproduction And Lifespan Trade-Off In Caenorhabditis Elegans Through Microbial Programming, Nora M. Villafuerte

LSU Master's Theses

The microbiome is increasingly recognized as a major regulator of host physiology. Using the Caenorhabditis elegans model, we investigated how natural commensal bacteria modulate host reproduction and lifespan through internal egg hatching, a phenotype in which retained embryos hatch within the maternal body. Screening strains from the CeMbio collection identified four focal strains Ochrobactrum BH3, Lelliottia JUb66, Pantoea BIGb0393, and Enterobacter CEent1 that significantly increased internal egg hatching during the late reproductive period. This contrasts with pathogenic bacteria, which induce early-onset internal egg hatching. Across the focal strains, worms exhibited reduced total brood size but an expanded reproductive window relative …

Phytoplankton Biomass Dynamics In Wet (2019) And Dry (2023) Years In Lake Pontchartrain Estuary, Louisiana From Sentinel 2-Msi And Pace-Oci Observations, Shiwani Shrestha, Bingqing Liu, Jiang Li, Wei Huang, Melissa M. Baustian, Eurico J. D'Sa, Sibel Bargu, Francesca Messina, Ioannis Y. Georgiou, Abhishek Kumar, Angelina Freeman, Scott Mize

Faculty Publications

This study provides a comprehensive assessment of phytoplankton biomass dynamics in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, by combining monthly water quality data with multispectral and hyperspectral satellite observations using a machine learning algorithm. A machine learning model based on Variational Autoencoder (VAE), globally applicable, was used to estimate phytoplankton biomass via chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) from Sentinel 2-MSI and NASA's new hyperspectral mission, PACE-OCI, enabling the first direct comparison between the two sensors. The model performed well in this complex estuarine system, with higher accuracy from PACE-OCI (MAE: 1.48, RMSE: 10.40, slope: 0.87) than Sentinel 2-MSI (MAE: 1.57, RMSE: 11.08, slope: 0.83). This approach …

Measurement Of 18f(Alpha,P)21ne With The Array For Nuclear Astrophysics And Structure With Exotic Nuclei (Anasen), Keilah S. Davis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Certain (α,p) reactions on proton-rich nuclei are among the most important nuclear reactions occurring during Type I X-ray bursts, as well as being impactful in stellar explosions during the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase and on accreting white dwarfs (WD). However, large uncertainties remain for reaction rates on some radioactive nuclei due to the lack of direct measurements. The Array for Nuclear Astrophysics and Structure with Exotic Nuclei (ANASEN) is a gas target and charged-particle detector designed for direct measurements of (α,p) reactions. ANASEN was redesigned with two hexagonal barrels of 100-µm-thick silicon strip surrounding the beam axis over a …

L'Identité Linguistique Et Culturelle De La Jeune Génération Des Vietnamiens Américains En Louisiane, Lan Phuong Nguyen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cette thèse porte sur la construction de l’identité linguistique et culturelle chez les jeunes Vietnamiens américains de deuxième génération vivant à Bâton Rouge, aux États-Unis. Elle interroge les modalités de transmission, de transformation et de réappropriation de la culture et de la langue vietnamienne dans un contexte diasporique marqué par des tensions entre héritage familial et pression d’intégration dans la société américaine.

À partir d’une approche qualitative et narrative, cette recherche s’appuie sur huit entretiens approfondis menés auprès de jeunes adultes âgés de 18 à 25 ans. L’objectif est de comprendre comment ces jeunes construisent leur identité à travers leurs …

Metacommunity Coupled Epidemiological And Biophysical Modeling Of An Emergent Coral Disease, Benjamin Holmes Farmer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Emerging infectious diseases pose imminent risk to the marine realm and coral reefs in particular. Since its emergence in 2014, stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) has dramatically reduced living coral cover in Florida and charted a similar course in the Caribbean. SCTLD is by far the most severe coral disease in history and has driven highly susceptible species to local extinction, yet the mechanisms driving the regional epizootic are not well understood. Here, we developed reef-scale parameterizations of disease spread using model sites in the lower Florida Keys, developed extensive metacommunity habitat maps for the US Caribbean, and then …

Massive Marsh Loss By Failure Mechanism Due To Hurricane Ida Targets Stressed Spartina Patens, G. Mariotti, K. Boswell, N. Matherne, T. Elsey-Quirk

Faculty Publications

Hurricane Ida made landfall in 2021 as a category 4 over Louisiana (USA), causing massive marsh erosion (gross loss 280 km², net loss 260 km²) in Barataria Basin, equivalent to about 32 years of marsh loss without hurricanes. Hurricane Ida erosion occurred through whole-scale marsh removal (failure mechanism), as opposed to lateral edge erosion, mostly (56%) in intermediate marshes. When considering all salinity zones, 82% of the total marsh loss occurred in marshes dominated by Sporobolus pumilus (Spartina patens), likely because these marshes were composed of semi-floating blocks, which can be easily lifted and advected away …

Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics In Subtropical River Sediments: Impacts Of Dredging And Water Column Aeration Status, Lee Potter, John R. White

Faculty Publications

Excessive loading of phosphorus (P) in coastal systems has been a growing concern for watershed managers due to the link with harmful algal blooms. In particular, legacy P creates a persistent challenge for eutrophication management in a range of aquatic systems, including wetlands, lakes, and estuaries, as a source of indirect, internal P loading. Following reductions in external P loads, internal sediment sources have been known to release bioavailable P back into the water column, undermining nutrient restoration goals. This study investigates the flux dynamics and longevity of sediment legacy P in three subtropical rivers—Amite, Tangipahoa, and Tickfaw—draining into the …

Increasing Wave Heights In The Gulf Of Mexico Driven By Swell Waves, Jesbin George, Matthew Hiatt, Clinton S. Willson

Faculty Publications

This study analyzes the climatology, spatial and temporal trends of wind speeds and significant wave height (Hs) of combined wind-seas and swells and Hs of separated swells and wind-seas on annual and seasonal scales in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) using 50 years of atmospheric reanalysis data. The Hs data showed strong agreement with in-situ measurements, with minimal bias (+/-< 0.08 m) and high correlation (r > 0.9) across both deep and shallow regions, although a slight underestimation is noted for wind speed data. Wind speeds showed seasonal variability in the GoM, though they did not exhibit significant long-term increases, except for a notable decrease (~ -1.0 …

What Kids Have To Say About Math: Results From Focus Groups With Middle Schoolers, H. Colleen Sinclair, Kyle Wilson, Avery Ellis, Norma Martinez

Reports

Middle school mathematics achievement remains a critical concern in Louisiana. Despite notable recent gains in recovery and signs of resilience, students continue to perform below national averages (ranking 38th in the country). To better understand the factors that support or hinder student success, this report presents findings from six student focus groups conducted in spring 2025 with 39 middle school students at two urban schools in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The goal was to elevate students’ voices regarding their motivation, anxiety, classroom experiences, and ideas for improving math instruction. Overall, students expressed generally positive feelings toward math, and notably, a strong …

Rosenwald Rural School Libraries, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

The Rosenwald Rural School Libraries Program was created as an adjunct to the Rosenwald Rural Schools Program, which funded the construction of 4,977 rural Black school buildings in fifteen Southern states, 395 of them in Louisiana. However, it soon became apparent that providing textbooks was not enough to promote literacy and develop self-directed reading among students. The officers and agents of the Fund realized fairly early in the Rural Schools Program that there was a want of reading materials in the South in general. Beginning in 1927, the Rosenwald Fund began providing collections of graded fiction and non-fiction books to …

Supplemental Bibliographic Details. From 2001 Mars Odyssey To Earth’S Climate Crisis: Integrating Gamma Spectroscopy, Martian Soil Simulants, And Plant Genomes For Agroecology, Anchored In Sri Lanka’S Mars-Context Serpentinites, Suniti Karunatillake, Maheshi Dassanayake, Carlos Gary Bicas

Planetary Science Lab

Bibliographic details follow to supplement hyperlinked citations in the multinational GANGOTRI-supporting project conceived by Karunatillake, Dassanayake, and Gary-Bicas

Archicrochet: Failure Localization In Stitch-Based Structures, Skylar Vollmer, Farzaneh Oghazian

Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher Program

ArchiCrochet investigates crochet as a discrete, node-and-stitch-based structural system for architectural applications, integrating traditional handcraft with parametric design methodologies. Through comparative analysis of knit and crochet textiles, the research identifies crochet’s capacity for localized failure, distributed load paths, and structural redundancy. These properties are explored through a combination of parametric modeling in Grasshopper and full-scale physical construction, allowing digital structural logic to be tested against real material behavior.

Using a bottom-up approach to study stitch behavior and a top-down approach to generate overall form, the project translates simplified computational patterns into manually fabricated textile structures. The research culminates in a …

Understanding The Diagenetic History Of Vertebrate Teeth From A Key Permian Ecosystem, Anthony Chiasson

Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher Program

Rare earth elements (REE) have been recognized within the last decade as important markers of diagenetic activity in fossil apatite. However, little work has been done to explore the influence of diagenesis on bioapatite in continental red bed settings. This study analyzed the REE preserved in a set of preserved Dimetrodon and Eryops teeth from the Clear Fork Formation, a set of Permian red beds near Seymour, Texas. Both Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA) and Laser-Ablation – Inductively-Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) were used to identify the constituent elements of the teeth. Chemical data from the EPMA indicate that the …

Bragging Rights: How Women Candidates Use Endorsements In Strategic Messages, Eva Carter, Tyhlar Holliway

Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher Program

This research analyzes the methods and terminology employed by men and women candidates when they talk about their political endorsements in strategic campaign communication. While existing literature addresses topics such as educating uninformed voters, the influence of endorsements in political campaigns, messaging ethics, celebrity endorsements, and the correlation between money and endorsements, analyses of gender differences in the use and types of endorsements remain underdeveloped. We argue that women candidates, due to the unique vulnerabilities they face in campaigns (Bauer 2015; Lazarus and Steigerwaltz 2018), will be more likely than men to highlight their endorsements in campaign ads. We record …

Optimization Of Fucoxanthinol Production Using Michaelis-Menten Kinetics, Jennifer Cagnolatti, Naohiro Kato

Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher Program

Fucoxanthin, a carotenoid pigment found in algae, is known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Its active form, fucoxanthinol, has shown promise as a potential medicine for asthma. This study aims to optimize the enzymatic conversion of fucoxanthin to fucoxanthinol to enhance its bioavailability as a therapeutic compound, through modeling and validating of Michaelis-Menten kinetic parameters. The kinetic parameters include the forward and reverse rate constants (kf, kr), the catalytic rate constant (kcat), and the Michaelis constant (KM). To determine kinetic parameters, pure fucoxanthin was extracted from dried algae using solid-phase extraction. The enzymatic reaction was conducted using lipase and …

Communidades Vitales Pasadas, Presentes, Y Futuras: Comunicación Oral Nivel Intermedio, Andrea Morris

E-Textbooks

Comunidades vitales pasadas, presentes y futuras is an intermediate level oral communication course that serves as a bridge to the Spanish major and minor curriculum and provides exposure to the diverse Spanish-speaking cultures of the world while further developing language proficiency. Content-based activities will help students improve skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking with emphasis on oral proficiency to prepare them for engagement with Spanish-speaking communities and advanced coursework in Spanish. Students will expand topical vocabulary, review grammar, and practice communication skills in various ways while exploring the communities they belong to and those they could connect with in …

Operation-Level Smv (Standard Minute Values) Estimation In The Apparel Manufacturing Using Style-Aware Machine Learning Models, S.M. Rakifull Alam, Farhana Momotaz

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

From Counterfeit To Cultural Capital: Reconfiguring Luxury Dupe Consumption As Identity Work In The Algorithmic Fashionscape, Zhongjie Wang, Chuanlan Liu, Tu Huan

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Blooming Bayou: A Louisiana Wetland-Inspired Fashion Design Based On Native Floral Imagery, Rui Zhao, Chuanlan Liu

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Louisiana Swamp, Sujun Liu

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Blue, Zeyu Wu, Rongrong Cui, Jia Hu

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Ai-Driven Sensor-Fused Smart Textile System For Early Prediction Of Diabetic Foot Ulcers, Farhana Momotaz, Rachel Eike, Abdullah Mamun

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Designing Emg-Integrated Adaptive Sportswear For Sci Para-Athletes: An Hci-Informed Framework, S.M. Rakifull Alam, Farhana Momotaz, Zachary Gillen

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Track-Sock: An Ai-Enabled Smart Textile System For Foot Physiological Monitoring And Personalized Training Feedback, Farhana Momotaz, Md Rashedul Hasan, Juyoung Lee, S.M. Rakifull Alam

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Restoration, Interaction And Resonance: Factors Influencing Audience Identification In Ai-Enhanced Textile And Fashion Digital Exhibitions, Yu Huang, Tianyuan Deng, Xiaofen Ji, Baichao Chen

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Visitors’ Perception Of Ai-Generated Designs In A University Exhibition Guest Book, Cynthia Gentzel, Chanjuan Chen, Jeremy Bernardoni, Jeannine Vail

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Mapping Consumer Perceptions Of Ai-Enabled Smart Clothing On Twitter: A Social Network And Semantic Analysis, Farhana Momotaz, Juyoung Lee, Md Rashedul Hasan, Caroline Kobia

LSU Fashion and AI x Policy Symposium

No abstract provided.