Digital Commons Network^™

A History Of The Construction And Financing Of Division I Football Bowl Subdivision And Ivy League Stadia: An Ideal-Type On Financial Modernization, Tiffany E. Demiris

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to introduce financial modernization as a distinct subcategory of modernization and present practical applications for sport managers. Modernization literature has shown that, as society advances, levels of complexity increase. Modernization is generally concerned about the impact of technology, transportation, financial operations, and the reduction of risk in society (Seifried & Novicevic, 2017). These facets are not only important to established modernization subcategories, reflexive and ecological, but are also applicable to financial systems and demonstrate how financial modernization is both complementary and a distinct type of modernization. It is possible to take larger risks over time because so …

Ross Sea Ocean-Temperature Reconstruction And Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect Calibration From Modern And Pre-Modern Scleractinia, Colby Knight

LSU Master's Theses

Warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) upwelling in the Southern Ocean currently circulates underneath Antarctic ice shelves in many areas. The associated melting reduces the ice-shelf buttressing effect, which can subsequently accelerate flow and cause retreat of grounded and floating ice. Upwelled CDW may have also been a primary driver of post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) deglaciation, but there are few proxy data from which upwelling history and paleo-ocean temperatures can be reconstructed. Here we build on previous deep, cold-water coral studies (e.g., Stewart et al., 2020) to detect CDW intrusion on the western Ross Sea continental shelf using lithium-to-magnesium ratios (Li/Mg) …

Reconstruction Of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy-Computed Tomography, Chia-Lung Chien

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Purpose: Volumetric modulated arc therapy-computed tomography (VMAT-CT) was proposed in 2010 as the CBCT reconstruction technique using portal images collected during VMAT. Yet, its clinical applications were impeded by the poor image quality due to motion blurs from fast movements of multi-leaf collimator (MLC) and projection data deficiency due to truncations from MLC. The goal of this study is to develop systematic preprocessing methods, and a novel iterative reconstruction algorithm to generate quality VMAT-CT and lower the number of failure cases of VMAT-CT reconstruction.

Methods: Systematic image preprocessing methods, including Online region-based active contouring (ORACM), MLC motion modeling and outlier …

Ecological Validity Of Immersive Virtual Environment Experiments On Human Thermal State And Behavioral Intentions: Experimental Protocol Factors, Girish Rentala

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using immersive virtual environment (IVE) based experiments to investigate human thermal states and thermal adaptive behaviors during the building design phase could help identify potential comfort issues and enable designers to optimize building performance cost-effectively before the actual building construction. However, to effectively utilize IVEs to study thermal states/adaptive behaviors, it is crucial to ensure the ecological validity of IVE experiment protocols. This entails accurately representing in-situ (real) environments within IVEs and establishing comparability and generalizability of data collected under different thermal stimuli between IVE and in-situ environments. Existing thermal stimuli based IVE studies have not effectively evaluated the ecological …

Learning–Assisted Constraint Filtering To Enhance Power System Optimization Performance, Fouad Hasan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Machine learning (ML) is a powerful tool that provides meaningful insights for operators to make fast and efficient decisions by analyzing data from power systems. ML techniques have great potential to assist in solving optimization problems within a shorter time frame and with less computational burden. AC optimal power flow (ACOPF), dynamic economic dispatch (D-ED), and security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) are the three energy management optimization functions studied in this dissertation. ACOPF is solved every 5~15 minutes. Because of the nonconvex and complex nature of ACOPF, solving this problem for large systems is computationally expensive and time-consuming. Classification and regression …

Behavioral Comparison Of Fluorescent Tracer Sediment To Lightweight Polystyrene Sediment Of The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (Lmrpm), Julia C. Mudd

LSU Master's Theses

A lightweight, unexpanded polystyrene sediment with a specific gravity of 1.05 and a D10, D50 and D90 of 0.250 mm, 0.425mm, and 0.800 mm, respectively, is utilized in the Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM) at Louisiana State University to mimic the sand transport of the Lower Mississippi River. While the black model sediment is easily visible against the stark white of the LMRPM, the relative homogeneity of the sediment particles and the opaqueness of the model channel make it difficult to closely study sediment dynamics during an experiment. For this reason, a tracer sediment that is marked with fluorescence …

The Influence Of Selected Personal And Academic Demographic Characteristics On Retention From Fourth To Fifth Semester Of Enrollment Among Traditional-Age Undergraduate Students At A Research Extensive University In The Southern Portion Of The United States, Tammy R. Millican

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While many Americans may be questioning the value of a college degree due to rising costs, on virtually every measure of economic well-being and career attainment—from personal earnings to job satisfaction to the share employed full time—young college graduates are outperforming their peers with less education. Yet college dropout rates indicate that up to 32.9% of undergraduates do not complete their degree program, which has a financial impact on both students and the universities and colleges where they enroll (Hanson, 2022).

Historically, students who leave college before completing a baccalaureate degree are no better qualified than those with a high …

Maximum Likelihood Estimation Of Glandular Fraction For Mammography, Bryce Smith

LSU Master's Theses

Breast tissue is a mixture of adipose and fibro glandular tissue with a glandular fraction on average of 20%-30%. Previous studies have confirmed that there is a risk of undetected breast cancer related to the amount of glandular tissue present in the breast. Since a higher glandular fraction can lead to an increased cancer risk, it is important for radiologists to know quantitative glandular fraction when diagnosing a patient. Another increasingly popular protocol for mammography is to eliminate the anti-scatter grid and use software algorithms to reduce scatter. This work focuses on using a maximum likelihood algorithm to estimate the …

Androgynous Figures On Etruscan Cista Handles From Praeneste, Melanie Naples

LSU Master's Theses

Muscular women and effeminate men adorn the lids of Etruscan Cistae found in Praeneste (modern Palestrina, 23 miles southeast of Rome, Italy). Cistae (Latin plural of cista) are storage containers used by the Etruscans for women’s beauty items. This thesis focuses on the androgynous, mostly nude, figures that serve as handles and are often displayed in pairs. These pairs frequently depict a man and a woman together and androgynous qualities are usually emphasized on the female figures. Discussions of the androgynous body in the ancient world have centered around Greece and Rome. Only recently (Sandhoff 2007, 2009, 2011), scholarship has …

Plato's Republics: A Dramatic Interpretation Of The Early Cities In Plato's "Republic", Simeon Burns

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation will demonstrate a new methodological approach to reading Plato’s Republic. I develop and apply a dramatic, dynamic hermeneutic to Book II and part of Book III in the text. This method holds that each speech is the product of a preceding agreement or disagreement between two speakers. Agreements lead to the argument’s advancement and disagreements result in a regression to a previous agreement from which to restart the exchange. The focus section is largely on the early exchange Socrates has with Adeimantus. I argue that Socrates is an unwilling participant in the famous discussion on the meaning …

Foreign State Images And Popular Foreign Policy Constraints, Cana Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

When making equivalent foreign policy decisions, why do national leaders sometimes face stronger constraints from the mass public? A growing number of studies recognize the effect of public opinion on foreign policy decision-making. While not having the authority to formulate foreign policy, the mass public can hold national leaders accountable in formal and informal ways. However, public opinion does not function as an automatic constraint on national leaders. Instead, public opinion provides more powerful constraints on foreign policy decision-making conditional on the context shaping popular beliefs and social behavior.

In this dissertation, I delve into the public perceptions of domestic …

Exploring Machine Learning In Deep Foundation And Soil Classification Application, Mohammad Moontakim Shoaib

LSU Master's Theses

The applicability of several Machine Learning (ML) models was explored in this research to predict the ultimate capacity and load-settlement behavior of axially loaded single-driven piles from Cone Penetration Test (CPT) data. Additionally, a common CPT-based soil behavior type (SBT) classification system was reproduced using those ML models. Eighty static pile load tests and corresponding CPT data close to those pile locations were collected from 34 sites in Louisiana for the deep foundation application. On the other hand, 70 CPT soundings were taken in 14 different parishes across Louisiana for the soil classification application. Specifically, tree-based ML models such as …

Behavior Of Gas Influx In Riser And Considerations For Riser Gas Handling, Mahendra Kumar Kunju

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Conventional methods of managing Gas-in-Riser events are not optimal when the riser is isolated from the formation by a closed subsea blowout preventer (BOP) on rigs equipped with Mud-GasSeparator (MGS), Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD), or Riser Gas Handling (RGH) equipment. As the use of adaptive drilling processes like MPD facilitates drilling of otherwise non-drillable wells with faster corrective action, the drilling industry should include the effect of gas solubility, dispersion, bubble suspension, fluid compressibility as well as riser ballooning to avoid overestimation of riser pressure and produce more efficient well control methods. The IADC Deepwater Well Control Guideline recommends always …

An Evaluation Of Procedures To Increase Medical Device Compliance, Sarah Christian Holmes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Behavioral interventions have been implemented to increase compliance with medical devices across patient populations and target devices. Intervention to increase medical device compliance (MDC) can involve a variety of components, including different reinforcement, graduated exposure, extinction, and punishment with varying degrees of acceptability and feasibility. In the current study, we compared the effects of noncontingent (NCR) versus synchronous reinforcement schedules on the duration of MDC and latency to device removal with KN95 face masks with 2 patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Following an initial baseline phase demonstrating that both participants engaged in compliance for less than 5 min, we used …

Measurement Of The Β-Decay Properties Of A=105 Isotopes Using The Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer And The Development Of The Beta Spectrum Module, Thomas J. Ruland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nuclear reactors produce an extremely diverse population of beta-decaying isotopes. Accurate and precise knowledge of the beta-decay properties of these isotopes is vital to safe reactor operations as well as informing next-generation reactor design. These beta-decay properties not only impact the design and operation of nuclear reactors, but they influence the expected antineutrino flux and spectrum measured from nuclear reactors. Historical measurements of many of these isotopes are subject to a systematic bias referred to as the Pandemonium Effect, because the low-efficiency, high-precision detectors used to perform the measurements results in misinterpreting weak gamma cascades from high- energy levels as …

Active Transportation, Context, And Community Participation: Engaged Citizens And Destination-Based Walking And Biking, Jessica Stroope

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Active transportation is associated with many benefits, including improved health outcomes, higher commuting satisfaction, lower pollution, reduced traffic, and social capital. One understudied area of research on active transportation and social capital is the relationship between active transportation and community participation. Although prior work has established a connection, little is known about the contexts in which this relationship may occur, or about how active transportation may affect the relationship between a context and community participation.

The purpose of Chapter 3 is to examine how active transportation may mediate the relationship between perceptions of place and community participation. Significant work has …

Measuring Food Literacy Among Limited-Resourced Adults, Emelia Clement

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Food literacy is the interrelated knowledge, skills and behaviors needed to plan and manage, select, prepare, and eat healthy food. It is positively associated with improved consumption of nutritious diets, and can be beneficial to limited-resource adults, who are often at risk for chronic diet-related diseases. Valid instruments for measuring food literacy in this population are scarce but urgently needed. The Eating and Food Literacy Behavior Questionnaire (EFLBQ) can be used to measure food literacy among limited-resource audiences.

Part one of this study aimed to determine the fitness of the EFLBQ to measure food literacy in limited-resource adults. A convenience …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Porphyrin-Encapsulated Nanoparticles: Investigations With Scanning Probe Microscopy, Olajumoke Helen Olubowale

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) encompasses a family of surface measurements that use a sharp probe to “feel” a surface. The tip is scanned point-by-point to build a map of the sample topography, which can be correlated with local measurements of surface properties. This dissertation outlines the history of SPM and describes techniques, operational modes, and applications. A review of force volume mapping (FVM), a 3D characterization mode of SPM used to map material properties detailed. Force volume mapping can be achieved by measuring multiple force measurements point-by-point in a grid pattern. Local properties such as chemical forces, dielectric properties, nanomechanical …

Evaluating Abiotic And Biotic Factors Affecting Plant Succession Processes At Malheur Lake, Beth Boos, Sammy L. King

LSU Master's Theses

Arid wetlands are diverse systems that provide habitat for a variety of flora and fauna, including stopover and breeding habitat for migratory birds. In the western United States, these wetlands support a network of stopover sites on the Pacific Flyway, and due primarily to wetland loss and alterations, these areas are becoming more isolated. Malheur Lake is a shallow endorheic lake in eastern Oregon that supported a robust emergent marsh throughout most of the 20^th century. However, following large scale flooding in the 1980s, emergent vegetation was extirpated and has only reestablished in small patches. Our objective was to …

Jeff Scott’S "Startin’ Sumthin’, Composed For The Monmouth Winds," Transcribed For Full Wind Band, Trevor Butts

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this project is to create a wind band transcription of a work for a chamber music ensemble by Jeff Scott. Jeff Scott creates works that he considers “Urban Classical Music”. These works are rooted in European traditions and informed by his African American culture. His music is unapologetically influenced by the cultural experiences of his diverse, urban environment upbringing.

This project is intended to contribute to the overall body of wind band literature, specifically the body of wind band literature composed by underrepresented composers. There has been a lack of representation of African American composers throughout the …

Software-Defined Networking Security Techniques And The Digital Forensics Of The Sdn Control Plane, Abdullah Alshaya

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an efficient networking design that decouples the network's control plane from the data plane. When compared to the traditional network architecture, the SDN architecture shares many of the same security issues. The centralized SDN controller makes it easier to control, easier to program in real-time, and more flexible, but this comes at the cost of more security risks. An attack on the control plane layer of the SDN controller is a major security concern.

First, centralized design and the existence of a single point of failure in the control plane compromise the accessibility and availability of …

Angular Correlations In The Β Decay Of B 8: First Tensor-Current Limits From A Mirror-Nucleus Pair, A. T. Gallant, N. D. Scielzo, G. Savard, J. A. Clark, M. Brodeur, F. Buchinger, D. P. Burdette, M. T. Burkey, S. Caldwell, J. E. Crawford, A. Czeszumska, C. M. Deibel, J. Greene, D. Heslop, T. Y. Hirsh, A. F. Levand, B. Longfellow, G. E. Morgan, P. Mueller, R. Orford, S. Padgett, N. Paul, A. Pérez Galván, A. Reimer, R. Segel, K. S. Sharma, K. Siegl, L. Varriano, B. J. Zabransky

Faculty Publications

We present the first measurement of the α-β-ν angular correlation in the Gamow-Teller β+ decay of B8. This was accomplished using the Beta-decay Paul Trap, expanding on our previous work on the β- decay of Li8. The B8 result is consistent with the V-A electroweak interaction of the standard model and, on its own, provides a limit on the exotic right-handed tensor current relative to the axial-vector current of |CT/CA|2< 0.013 at the 95.5% confidence level. This represents the first high-precision angular correlation measurements in mirror decays and was made possible through the use of an ion trap. By combining this B8 result with our previous Li8 results, we demonstrate a new pathway for increased precision in searches for exotic currents.

A Descriptive Study Of Screening Practices And Outcomes Of Bilingual Spanish/English Children, Mariajose Bosanko

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to: 1) examine the screening practices and outcomes of Latinx bilingual Spanish/English-speaking children, 2) compare screening practices and outcomes to those of sex and age matched Black and white monolingual peers, and 3) extend and reflect on professional practices. I also explored variables that may affect screening outcomes, including the children’s race/ethnicity, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES).

The participants were 41 Spanish/English bilingual Latinx children aged two- to four-years-old (Latinx), 41 same sex and age monolingual Black children (Black), and 41 same sex and age monolingual white children (white) receiving speech/language screenings during a …

Don't Forget Me: A Discussion On Social Memory And Commemoration, Anfernee Murray

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between social memory and social identity development among groups who share contested interpretations of their shared social memory. With social memories being a collaborative process that requires consensus and compromise, there arises conflict when groups are divided in deciding on what event of their shared history is relevant to remember - for it is these memories that influence and shape how a group identifies itself.

For Black Americans, this contention arises in the conversations surrounding the difficult and traumatic histories of their enslaved ancestors by the ancestors of their white counterparts. This is further complicated …

Modelling Illiquid Stocks Using Quantum Stochastic Calculus: Asymptotic Methods, Will Hicks

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Atmospheric Impacts From The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Charles Philip Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

Although the ecological devastations induced by an oil spill are well studied, the hydrometeorological impacts from a long-term slick have gone unnoticed. The ocean-surface alterations stemming from the lasting oil footprint increase solar radiation absorption which in turn alters the surface pressure and moisture gradients and wind speeds thereby influencing precipitation surrounding the oil spill. Revealing the potential impacts from these could better aid in the safety of crews cleaning spills and provide a better understanding of how humans alter the landscape. This thesis examines the changes in local hydrometeorology brought on by the 2010 summer Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil …

Alcea, Autumn Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

This exhibition was created with the intent to investigate and celebrate gender fluidity in both nature and humanity by depicting one plant, the hollyhock, whose reproductive parts share a structure that changes from male to female as the plant matures. Alcea consists of prints, drawings, and installations that showcase the hollyhock in each stage of its transition.

Assessing The Preservation Of Black Cultural Heritage In Baton Rouge, Kirsten Lashay Campbell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project is an exploratory investigation into the current state of preservation of Black Cultural Heritage in Baton Rouge. Through interviews with stakeholders at local archives, institutions, and repositories about their collections, programs, and other initiatives, it aims to assess what resources and services are and are not currently available to the Black Community in Baton Rouge. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of community archiving, specifically how community archives can be used to fill the gaps missing as is the case in Baton Rouge. Additionally, this study provides the foundation for building a community archive dedicated to Black Cultural Heritage …

Errata: Continuous Lattices And Domains, Jimmie D. Lawson

Seminar on Continuity in Semilattices

No abstract provided.

Total Neutron Cross-Section Measurement On Ch With A Novel 3d-Projection Scintillator Detector, A. Agarwal, H. Budd, J. Capó, P. Chong, G. Christodoulou, M. Danilov, A. Dergacheva, A. De Roeck, N. Dokania, D. Douqa, K. Dugas, S. Fedotov, S. Gwon, R. Howell, K. Iwamoto, C. Jesús-Valls, C. K. Jung, S. P. Kasetti, M. Khabibullin, A. Khotjantsev, T. Kikawa, U. Kose, Y. Kudenko, S. Kuribayashi, T. Kutter, D. Last, L. S. Lin, S. Lin, T. Lux, S. Manly, D. A. Martinez Caicedo, S. Martynenko, T. Matsubara

Faculty Publications

In order to extract neutrino oscillation parameters, long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments rely on detailed models of neutrino interactions with nuclei. These models constitute an important source of systematic uncertainty, partially because detectors to date have been blind to final state neutrons. Three-dimensional projection scintillator trackers comprise components of the near detectors of the next generation long-baseline neutrino experiments. Due to the good timing resolution and fine granularity, this technology is capable of measuring neutron kinetic energy in neutrino interactions on an event-by-event basis and will provide valuable data for refining neutrino interaction models and ways to reconstruct neutrino energy. Two …