Digital Commons Network^™

Optimizing The Self-Healing Efficiency Of Hydrogel Encapsulated Bacteria In Concrete, Ricardo Hungria

LSU Master's Theses

Calcium carbonate precipitation through microbial means is a promising pathway for concrete self-healing technologies, mainly for its microcrack sealing attributes. The main goal of this project was to study and optimize the crack healing efficiency of hydrogel encapsulated bacteria in concrete. To achieve this purpose, Bacillus pseudiformus was implemented as the bacteria strain at a concentration of 10⁸ cells/ml. This bacterium strain along with yeast extract was combined along with three different mineral precursors corresponding to magnesium acetate, calcium lactate, and sodium lactate. All these three precursors were evaluated at two concentrations (67.76 mM/l and 75 mM/l). For each …

Examination Of Pre-Emergence Control Of Johnsongrass In Sugarcane Seedlings, Carleton Baucum

LSU Master's Theses

Sugarcane is susceptible to many diseases and insect pests; therefore, to maintain high sugar yield new varieties must be developed. Producing new varieties contributes to the overall crop success through enhanced yield, insect and/or disease resistance, cold tolerance, and ratooning ability. However, unlike conventional sugarcane, which is vegetatively propagated, new sugarcane varieties are produced from true seed. These seedlings are more susceptible to herbicidal injury and weed competition than conventional sugarcane. For sugarcane seedlings to succeed, weeds must be controlled therefore, the most effective herbicide program with regards to seedling safety must be implemented. The objectives of this research were …

Canopy Arthropod Responses To Catastrophic Wind Disturbances In Gulf Coast And Caribbean Forests, Manoj Pandey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hurricanes are major natural disturbances and integral components of forest disturbance regimes globally. The frequency and intensity of hurricanes are predicted to increase in the future due to global warming. The altered hurricane regime, along with direct effects of climate change on arthropod populations and communities, has the capacity to endanger the critical ecosystem processes and services provided by forest canopies. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the responses of forest fauna to disturbances such as hurricanes. This dissertation is aimed at understanding the short-term and long-term effects of hurricanes on canopy arthropods to improve predictions of the consequences of …

A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach With Prioritized Experience Replay And Importance Factor For Makespan Minimization In Manufacturing, Jose Napoleon Martinez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this research, we investigated the application of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to a common manufacturing scheduling optimization problem, max makespan minimization. In this application, tasks are scheduled to undergo processing in identical processing units (for instance, identical machines, machining centers, or cells). The optimization goal is to assign the jobs to be scheduled to units to minimize the maximum processing time (i.e., makespan) on any unit.

Machine learning methods have the potential to "learn" structures in the distribution of job times that could lead to improved optimization performance and time over traditional optimization methods, as well as to adapt …

Ysaye Sonata No.4 - A Sonata Of Past And Future, Naiyin Hou

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A golden age of violin playing arose during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Different violin schools were established, with their own beliefs concerning technique and interpretation. Some violinists displayed high virtuosity in their playing; whereas, others pursued establishing a noble and simple interpretation following the composer’s musical instruction. Different playing styles were developing, and people had their own preference on one or another. Eugène Ysaÿe was able to present qualities from different schools altogether in his playing, and developed a style of playing that was admired by the later generation. Many violinists in the late 19th century were …

Tuning Properties Of Topological Insulators: An Ab-Initio Approach, Karunya Shailesh Shirali

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis develops a first-principles based approach to explore the tuning of topological properties of the tetradymite topological insulators. We begin by setting up a framework to systematically obtain the bulk and surface properties of topological insulators, treating the structural and electronic properties on an equal footing. We determine a consistent method for including the van der Waals interactions, which are responsible for the weak coupling between sets of atomic layers in this family of layered materials, which is important in obtaining accurate structural properties. We obtain close agreement with experimental values for both the bulk and surface states.

To …

Assembly Of Nanostructures At Solid-Liquid And Liquid-Air Interfaces, Yingzhen Ma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Molecular and nanoscale colloids such as surfactant, fatty acid and metallic nanoparticles are widely used in numerous applications such as detergents, biomedicine, and catalyst. The assemblies of these colloids show different morphological behavior in aqueous solution due to the wide range of intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonding, van der Waals, and electrostatics. The morphology of these assemblies can be changed by environmental factors including temperature, ionic strength, and salinity. However, the guidance to direct assembled state of colloidal assemblies at heterogenous interfaces under various external stimuli remains poorly understand. In this Ph.D. dissertation, we show the adsorption and reconfiguration …

Black Students And The Fight For Racial Equity: Integrating Qualitative And Quantitative Methods, Relius Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black student enrollment at HWIs has continued to increase for several decades. However, their success at these institutions lags behind that of their White classmates and other student groups. This study explores the extent to which these students perceive that they confront issues of racial inequality on their campuses. This study is particularly relevant as the US confronts a legacy of racial inequality in society and is experiencing a new civil rights movement, known as Black Lives Matter. This study will provide the student’s perspective on the extent and manifestations of racial inequality and the impact of BLM on these …

Privilege, Power, And Patronage: Examining The Lives And Afterlives Of Three Tudor Noblewomen, Caroline Elizabeth Armbruster

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation uses the lives of Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk; Anne Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset; and Jane Guildford, Duchess of Northumberland to examine various aspects of their experiences as noblewomen and as members of privileged family groups. By focusing on these three women, whose lives and careers spanned eight decades, this dissertation demonstrates the centrality of such women to Tudor politics. Catherine, Anne, and Jane were born into powerful, landowning families. Their successful marriages allowed them to climb the ranks of the Tudor aristocracy and paved the way for their entry into the Tudor political arena. They served as …

World War Ii, Displacement, And The Making Of The Postwar Ukrainian Diaspora, 1939-1951, Jennifer Lauren Popowycz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As a result, in an effort to expand the literature on the Ukrainian DP experience, this dissertation will specifically examine how foreign occupation, forced labor, and displacement impacted the construction of Ukrainian cultural nationalism between 1939 and 1951. Using a variety of memoirs written by Ukrainian DPs, published primary sources, as well as archival material from the online Interview Archive of Forced Labor 1939-1945, Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, the United Nations Archive, and the online Archive of Ukrainian Periodicals it will argue that cultural nationalism not only served as a common link that united Ukrainians, but also served …

Anticipating Stochastic Integrals And Related Linear Stochastic Differential Equations, Sudip Sinha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Itô’s stochastic calculus revolutionized the field of stochastic analysis and has found numerous applications in a wide variety of disciplines. Itô’s theory, even though quite general, cannot handle anticipating stochastic processes as integrands. There have been considerable efforts within the mathematical community to extend Itô’s calculus to account for anticipation. The Ayed–Kuo integral — introduced in 2008 — is one of the most recent developments. It is arguably the most accessible among the theories extending Itô’s calculus — relying solely on probabilistic methods. In this dissertation, we look at the recent advances in this area, highlighting our contributions. First, we …

Improving Memory Forensics Capabilities On Apple M1 Computers, Raphaela Santos Mettig Rocha

LSU Master's Theses

Malware threats are rapidly evolving to use more sophisticated attacks. By abusing rich application APIs such as Objective-C’s, they are able to gather information about user activity, launch background processes without the user’s knowledge as well as perform other malicious activities. In some cases, memory forensics is the only way to recover artifacts related to this malicious activity, as is the case with memory-only execution. The introduction of the Rosetta 2 on the Apple M1 introduces a completely new attack surface by allowing binaries of both Intel x86 64 and ARM64 architecture to run in userland. For this reason it …

Smoking And Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms: The Impact Of Psychosocial Variables Among Individuals Receiving Medication Assisted Treatment For Opioid Detox, Cristina Abarno

LSU Master's Theses

Individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) endorse high rates of combustible smoking (Zale et al., 2015) which is associated with poorer outcomes (e.g., opioid craving and lower detoxification completion rates) among individuals receiving medication-assisted treatment (MAT; Mannelli, Wu, Peindl, & Gorelick, 2013) and lower smoking cessation rates in smoking cessation treatment (Okoli et al., 2010). The complex pharmacological relationship between opioids and nicotine may help explain these findings (Kohut, 2017), however little is known about psychosocial variables that influence MAT processes among combustible smokers with OUD. The present study sought to expand upon prior work (Mannelli et al., 2013) by …

Exploring Co-Planning Conversations As A Professional Development Activity For Mentors And Mentees At The Beginning Of A Yearlong Teacher Residency, Channing Parfait

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In order to prepare pre-service teachers for their roles in the classroom, it is important to examine the rigor and purpose of the mentoring experience. This study explored the aspects of co-planning conversations that helped experienced and novice teachers expand their expertise and develop a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship at the beginning of a yearlong teacher residency model. While research on co-planning during the student teaching/residency experience exists, this research illuminated the importance of mentoring conversations early on in the teacher residency experience. Using a single case study design, observations, one-on-one interviews, and artifacts from four mentor-mentee dyads, data were …

Our Stories Light The Way: A Phenomenological Study Exploring The Experiences Of Black Women Stem Graduates From Predominantly White Institutions, Raeshan Davis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Grounded in a conceptual framework informed by Social Cognitive Career Theory, Intersectionality, and Community Cultural Wealth, this study explored the experiences of 17 Black women who graduated from STEM undergraduate programs at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Utilizing a qualitative study approach provided rich, detailed insights into the internal and external contributors at play in the lives of the Black women who successfully navigated their STEM undergraduate programs at PWIs. Through the exploration of their individual and collective experiences, this study illuminated four major themes: (1) asserting one’s sense of belonging in the pursuit of a STEM career, (2) the value …

Seismic Inversion And Modeling For Improving Earthquake Hazard Assessment, Rasheed Ajala

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The substantial research and the uncertain timeline to achieve deterministic earthquake prediction make the ground-shaking estimation of realistic earthquake scenarios a helpful approach in seismic hazard assessment. The accuracy of these computations depends on having structural subsurface models with good representations of sedimentary basins, fault zones, and crustal heterogeneity. We develop higher resolution seismic models for the Coachella Valley in Southern California and Indo-Burma. These areas have rising populations, expanding infrastructure, and highly anticipated disruptive earthquakes. We utilize data from recent seismic deployments and newly developed seismic imaging algorithms and the techniques of travel time tomography, wave propagation simulation, and …

Marker-Trait Association Mapping Of Sorghum Mosaic Virus Resistance In Sugarcane, Chenie Zamora

LSU Master's Theses

Mosaic is a potentially devastating disease of sugarcane that had severe economic impact on Louisiana’s sugarcane industry in the 1920’s and has caused periodic problems ever since. The disease is vectored by migrating aphids that transmit Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) and Sorghum mosaic virus (SrMV) in a non-persistent manner. Mosaic in Louisiana is currently caused by strains of SrMV. Mosaic has been controlled primarily by developing resistant cultivars. Recently, mosaic was detected in some near-commercial clones in the cultivar selection program. This prompted extensive screening of breeding program parent populations that detected infiltration of susceptibility and revealed the need for …

Re-Evaluation Of Late Season Action Thresholds And The Effect Of Seed Treatments On Early Season Colonization Of Threecornered Alfalfa Hopper, Spissistilus Festinus (Say), In Louisiana Soybean, Glycine Max (L) Merr, Tyler Ray Tagle Musgrove

LSU Master's Theses

Soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr, is considered the most economically important oil and feed crop in the US and is grown on nearly 35,000,000 ha on an annual basis. Factors that limit yield include weed pressure, disease infection, and of particular interest to entomologists, insect herbivory. Soybean is targeted by a range of above and below ground pests which are primarily controlled by insecticides. Neonicotinoids are a recently popularized insecticide class that when applied as a seed treatment, can provide protection from early season pests. The most economically significant early season pest is threecornered alfalfa hopper, Spissistilus festinus (Say), whose …

Redox Transition Of Iron-Sulfur Clusters In Mitoneet, Homyra Tasnim

LSU Master's Theses

Iron-sulfur proteins are ubiquitous in nature, and they play a crucial role in multifarious biological processes such as electron transfer, enzymatic catalysis, and homeostatic regulation. MitoNEET is the first discovered iron-sulfur protein in the outer mitochondrial membrane. Previous studies have shown that the [2Fe-2S] clusters of mitoNEET can be reduced by FMNH₂ in the presence of NADH and Flavin reductase (Fre) under aerobic conditions suggesting that mitoNEET is novel redox enzyme catalyzing electron transfer from NADH via FMN to oxygen.

The molecular docking models suggest that mitoNEET has a specific binding site for FMN close to its [2Fe-2S] cluster …

Teachers' And Students' Perceptions Of Goal Orientation Theory In Secondary Instrumental Music Classrooms: A Case Study, Carlye Mcgregor

LSU Master's Theses

Goal orientation theory (Ames, 1992; Blumenfeld, 1992) is a cognitive theory that identifies how goals affect motivation in students. The benefits of mastery goal orientation — aspects of instruction which support the connection between effort and achievement — on student motivation and participation have been well-documented. Researchers (Ames & Archer, 1988; Patrick, et al., 2001) found students can pick up on goal cues and identify traits of each theory apparent in their classroom. Teachers communicate their values through goal structures, and student motivation can be improved by consistent goal structures, or negatively affected by misaligned goal structures (Ames & Archer, …

Implicit Bias In Speech-Language Pathology Students, Skyller Castello

LSU Master's Theses

Implicit racial biases have been documented across a variety of allied health professions. A systematic review conducted by FitzGerald and Hurst (2017) of implicit bias in healthcare professionals found that 20 out of 25 studies examined displayed bias against BIPOC in diagnosis, treatment recommendations, and other aspects of the medical care they received. A literature review completed by Hall et al. (2015) found similar results, stating that 9 of the 15 studies examined identified bias against Black clients. One allied healthcare profession, speech-language pathology, interacts with a diverse clientele in a clinical environment and yet have been excluded from much …

Development Of Alternative Materials And Strategies For Enhancing Rice Health, Jobelle S. Bruno

LSU Master's Theses

Bacterial panicle blight (BPB) and sheath blight (ShB) are economically important diseases of rice (Oryza sativa) in Louisiana and other rice-growing regions around the world. However, there are challenges in the current disease management practices for these diseases. Thus, the main goal of this study is to identify new materials and their application methods that effectively suppress BPB and ShB. To achieve this goal, we evaluated the effect of various materials and application methods against the rice diseases. In 2020 and 2021, various materials, such as ascorbic acid (AA), N-acetylcysteine, chitosan, the avirulent strain of Burkholderia glumae 257sh-1 …

The Early Lieder Of Josephine Lang: A Comparative Study, Rachel E. Cisneros

LSU Master's Theses

Josephine Lang's contribution to nineteenth-century song has been increasingly recognized in recent scholarship. This is largely because of Harald Krebs’s and Sharon Krebs's groundbreaking book, Josephine Lang: Her Life and Songs (2007). In their book, Krebs and Krebs draw information about Lang’s life from two early biographies, the first written during Lang’s lifetime by Ferdinand Hiller and the second written after her death by her son Heinrich Adolf Köstlin. Primary sources fill in the gaps that these two nineteenth-century biographies left open. For example, the letters between Lang and her correspondents also reveal much about her social reputation, financial hardships, …

"Man Of The Machine": Ernst Jünger's Philosophy Of Technology And The Spiritualization Of The ��������������������������������, Andrea L. Wisniewski

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines how conservative German war veterans, in particular author Ernst Jünger, granted meaning to the First World War by affirming the technological encounter. Instead of succumbing to the feelings of powerlessness and inferiority engendered by the domination of machinery on the Front, Jünger and other conservative veterans elevated the Materialschlacht into a spiritual event, a battle between the spirit and the material in which the human spirit emerged victorious. Strengthened by their confrontation with the machine, humans gained the spiritual skills which would enable them to master the machine and, therefore, meet the demands of the technological world. …

Las Voces Desde La Liminalidad Sino-Peruana: –Una Lectura Comparativa De Mongolia Y La Vida No Es Una Tómbola–, Jing Tan

LSU Master's Theses

Chinese immigrants first arrived in Peru in the mid-19th Century. Since then, the Sino-Peruvian community has lived through myriad vicissitudes. Today, despite its indisputable influence in Peru’s history, it is still largely invisible in society, just as the concept of an Asian Latin American identity remains elusive in the national consciousness. In the literary and academic world, the scarcity of a voice highlighting Chinese legacies in Peruvian literature is echoed by the dearth of such a voice in the criticism regarding works by Sino-Peruvian writers about Sino-Peruvian experiences.

This comparative analysis engages with two novels that evince deep parallelism with …

Distributed Control And Learning Of Connected And Autonomous Vehicles Approaching And Departing Signalized Intersections, Joshua Onyeka Ogbebor

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis outlines methods for achieving energy-optimal control policies for autonomous vehicles approaching and departing a signalized traffic intersection. Connected and autonomous vehicle technology has gained wide interest from both research institutions and government agencies because it offers immense promise in advancing efficient energy usage and abating hazards that beset the current transportation system. Energy minimization is itself crucial in reducing the greenhouse emissions from fossil-fuel-powered vehicles and extending the battery life of electric vehicles which are presently the major alternative to fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. Two major forms of fuel minimization are studied. First, the eco-driving problem is solved for a …

The Rise Of Rome, The Fall Of Spain: Classical Reception In Leopoldo Alas, Galdós, And José Díaz Fernández, Meghan E. Hodges

LSU Master's Theses

The turn of the century was a period of rapid change and modernization. Spain, unlike neighboring European nations, was collapsing as an imperial force. The ensuing crisis of national identity fueled existing political tensions from the early nineteenth century which would lead to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This thesis examines various national crises from 1890 and the decade preceding the loss of Spain’s final colonies to 1929 and the decade preceding the Civil War. Both of these periods saw substantial acceleration of modernization and incredible resistance to it. Despite the hyper-presence of modernity within contemporary literary movements, there is …

Rethinking The Design Of Online Professor Reputation Systems, Haley Tatum

LSU Master's Theses

Online Professor Reputation (OPR) systems, such as RateMyProfessors.com (RMP), are frequently used by college students to post and access peer evaluations of their pro- fessors. However, recent evidence has shown that these platforms suffer from major bias problems. Failing to address bias in online professor ratings not only leads to negative expectations and experiences in class, but also poor performance on exams. To address these concerns, in this thesis, we study bias in OPR systems from a software design point of view. At the first phase of our analysis, we conduct a systematic literature review of 23 interdisciplinary studies on …

Bassoon Concerto: Color & Light, Aaron Alonso Gonzalez

LSU Master's Theses

The Bassoon Concerto: Color & Light, is about light, color, childhood, introspection, and the sense of freedom that one may experience in the spectrum of life. The first movement is about the light in the goodness of all humanity. The second movement is about being lost in color, trying to find its path back to the light. The last movement is about finding the light again in the brushstrokes of an aurora. An aurora is a Spanish word that, according to the Royal Spanish Academy dictionary, is a rose-colored light that immediately precedes sunrise and the beginning or early stages …

Gps Observations Of Subsidence In South Louisiana Over Seasonal And Sub-Seasonal Timescales Associated With Hydrologic Loading, Nicholas Schuler

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana’s primary environmental concern is arguably coastal wetland loss due to high subsidence rates, previously estimated to range from 1-14 mm/yr across much of the coast. Spatially and temporally varying strong short-term and seasonal components of deformation associated with changes in hydrologic loading throughout the year can give information about the elastic properties of the shallow crust, having implications for better understanding long-term subsidence trends across the region. Therefore, we quantify and characterize vertical deformation that occurs on annual to sub-annual timescales across southeast Louisiana. Vertical deformation is evaluated using publicly available daily GPS positions from 2016–2020 at 16 stations …