Digital Commons Network^™

Spatial Production And Nomadic Subjectivities In A Buddhist Learning Space, Chau Bao Le

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Space and place are an integral part in the geographies of education, therefore, knowledge about culturally complex and ethnically diverse transnational communities could inform curricular innovations that meet the needs of individual students. This year-long ethnographic study challenged the prevailing realities that U.S. schools continue to devalue the experiences and cultural backgrounds of immigrant youth, which caused students from ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and religious minority groups to feel structurally excluded and marginalized. Through examining the spatial production and nomadic subjectivities enacted over time in a transnational, diasporic space of a Buddhist temple in a U.S. southern state, the study …

Identifying Human Trafficking Networks In Louisiana By Using Authorship Attribution And Network Modeling, Hassan Marzoughi Ardakani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Human trafficking or modern slavery is a problem that has plagued every U.S. state, in both urban and rural areas. During the past decades, online advertisements for sex trafficking have rapidly increased in numbers. The advancement of the Internet and smart phones have made it easier for sex traffickers to contact and recruit their victims and advertise and sell them online. Also, they have made it more difficult for law enforcement to trace the victims and identify the traffickers. Sadly, more than fifty percent of the victims of sex trafficking are children, many of which are exploited through the Internet. …

A Conductor's Guide To Dale Trumbore's How To Go On, Stuart Dameron

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

How To Go On is a thirty-five minute work for a cappella choir composed by Dale Trumbore from 2015 to 2017. Since its premiere, How To Go On has been performed by notable choral ensembles including The Esoterics, the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists, and Webster University’s Chamber Singers. The work was awarded the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award in 2017.

This dissertation serves as an analysis and conductor’s guide for this work through the fulfillment of several purposes: a detailed and thorough investigation into the background and history behind the …

Investigating Geochemical Processes Of Fluid-Rock Interactions On Materials Related To Energy And Environment, Zelong Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the potential processes of radionuclides released from nuclear waste forms is essential to the safe disposal and containment of nuclear waste. Iodoapatite, a potential waste form for radioiodine, was chosen as a model system to examine the impact by common aqueous anions on iodine release processes. Four semi-dynamic leaching tests were performed using 0.1 mol/L NaCl, Na₂CO₃, Na₃PO₄, and Na₂SO₄ solutions respectively under 90 °C, 1 bar, fixed S/V ratio 5/m (sample surface area to solution volume), and with 24-hour replacement of the leaching solutions. Solution analysis and …

Insights Into Desiccation Tolerance: Properties Of Late Embryogenesis Abundant Proteins From Embryos Of Artemia Franciscana, Blase Matthew Leblanc

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

LEA proteins are a family of intrinsically disordered proteins that are expressed in various life stages of anhydrobiotic organisms and have been strongly associated with survival during water stress. The brine shrimp Artemia franciscana is the only known anhydrobiotic animal that expresses LEA proteins from Groups 1, 3, and 6. Here, I report that AfrLEA6, a novel Group 6 LEA protein, is most highly expressed in embryos during diapause and decreases throughout pre-emergence development. Notably, there is an acute drop in expression upon termination of the diapause state and the titer of AfrLEA6 during diapause is 10-fold lower than values …

Bernard Palissy: Early Career - Securing Patronage And Mimicking Nature In A Moment Of Crisis, Karissa Bailey

LSU Master's Theses

Early in 1562, France was experiencing a state of high religious tension between Protestants and Catholics that would precipitate the outbreak of the Religious Wars on March 1. A week before, Bernard Palissy, a Huguenot potter, wrote a letter to his Catholic patron from prison inBordeaux where he was being held on charges associated with an iconoclastic incident in his home city of Saintes. This letter would later be published as a dedication letter for the pamphlet Architecture et Ordonnance, which featured the description of a grotto commissioned by Anne de Montmorency, Palissy’s patron, seven years earlier. This thesis analyzes …

Yours Always, Always Yours, Emery Kate Tillman

LSU Master's Theses

The body of artwork discussed in this paper deals with the navigational process of the actualization of my own desires and needs in an intimate capacity specifically relating to my own queer identity. In this paper I will address the use of certain forms throughout the work as well as color and material choices. Yours Always, Always Yours is a thesis project produced as the final requirement of Louisiana State University’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art program.

Day Gone, Matthew D. Zorn

LSU Master's Theses

As an exploration of the natural world and the otherworldly, Day Gone seeks to define the relationships between disparate places. Through the use of ceramic and supporting materials, the objects serve as a portal to a terra incognita of color, texture, and language. The installation is a catalog of experiences and feelings I hold consciously or unconsciously.

The Road To The Presidency: A Case Study Of Hbcu Organizational Culture And Its Impact On The Career Progression Of Women Of Color, Akai Crystal Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The American workforce is currently experiencing an increased level of diversity in comparison to previous decades due to augmented representation of people of different races, socio-economic backgrounds and genders across sectors (Warner, 2014). However, there is one variable that has remained largely unchanged, the underrepresentation of African American women in executive positions in higher education institutions (Cook & Cordova (2007). Data suggests despite women’s advancement in areas of public life over the last thirty years, in higher education administration they still significantly lag behind their male counterparts. Researchers note that minority women face multiple barriers to their ability to obtain …

Neural Stimulator, Jose A. Parodi Amaya, Edward F. Austin, Jin-Woo Choi

Pennington Biomedical Research Center Patents

Methods and apparatus are disclosed relating to the stimulating of tissue including nerve tissue based on combinations of capacitors and resistors. Application and removal of voltage to an electrical circuit is taught as part of a method of creating voltage waveforms for nerve and other tissue with such waveforms creating neural signals. The electrical circuits taught may, include a first electrical node grounded through a first resistor; a second electrical node grounded through a second resistor; a first capacitor connected to both the first electrical node and the second electrical node; a second capacitor separating the second electrical node from …

A Case Study Of The Campus Climate For Diversity At A Hispanic-Serving Institution: Perspectives From Latinx Undergraduate Students, Ariana Vargas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate how Latinx students perceive the campus climate in curricular and cocurricular settings at a four-year public Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in Texas. In addition, the study examined Latinx students’ understanding of the HSI designation and how their expectations of institutional diversity and inclusion are shaped by this awareness. Specifically, the study explored elements of the climate for diversity, as related to the Multicontextual Model for Diverse Learning Environments (Hurtado et al., 2012), including classroom experiences, cocurricular experiences, and relationships with faculty, staff, and peers. The primary sources of data included interviews …

Analytical Setup Margin For Spinal Sbrt Based On Measured Errors, Audrey Copeland

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: No consensus currently exists in the radiotherapy community about the correct margin size to use for spinal SBRT. Margins have been proposed to account for various errors individually, but not with all errors combined to result in a single margin value. The purpose of this work was to determine a setup margin for spinal SBRT based on known and measurable errors during radiotherapy to achieve at least 90% coverage of the clinical target volume (CTV) with the prescription dose for at least 90% of patients and not exceed a 30 Gy point dose or 23 Gy to 10% of …

Emergent Formal Functions In Schubert's Piano Sonatas, Yiqing Ma

LSU Master's Theses

Drawing on the work of Janet Schmalfeldt and William Caplin, I explore the way in which emergent formal function determines our perception of form in four piano sonata movements by Schubert: D.840, D.845, D.850 and D.894. Janet Schmalfeldt adapts the notion of formal function to directly address the dialectic between “being” and “becoming,” approaching formal function from a phenomenological perspective. Building on her work, I define emergent formal function as a formal function that is conditioned by how the listener’s expectations change. It is an important analytical tool that helps us understand how and why Schubert’s sonata forms depart from …

A Process-Based, Fully Distributed Soil Erosion And Sediment Transport Model For Wrf-Hydro, Dongxiao Yin, Z. George Xue, David J. Gochis, Wei Yu, Mirce Morales, Arezoo Rafieeinasab

Faculty Publications

Asoil erosion and sediment transport model (WRF-Hydro-Sed) is introduced to WRF-Hydro. As a process-based, fully distributed soil erosion model, WRF-Hydro-Sed accounts for both overland and channel processes. Model performance is evaluated using observed rain gauge, streamflow, and sediment concentration data during rainfall events in the Goodwin Creek ExperimentalWatershed in Mississippi, USA. Both streamflow and sediment yield can be calibrated and validated successfully at a watershed scale during rainfall events. Further discussion reveals the model's uncertainty and the applicability of calibrated hydro-and sediment parameters to different events. While an intensive calibration over multiple events can improve the model's performance to a …

Evidence Of Pathogen-Induced Immunogenetic Selection Across The Large Geographic Range Of A Wild Seabird, Hila Levy, Stephen R. Fiddaman, Julianna A. Vianna, Daly Noll, Gemma Clucas, Jasmine K. H. Sidhu, Michael J. Polito, Charles A. Bost, Richard A. Phillips, Sarah Crofts, Gary D. Miller, Pierre Pistorius, Francesco Bonnadonna, Celine Le Bohec, Andres Barbosa, Phil Trathan, Andrea Raya Rey, Laurent A. F. Frantz, Tom Hart, Adrian L. Smith

Faculty Publications

Over evolutionary time, pathogen challenge shapes the immunepheno type of the host to better respond to an incipient threat. The extent and direction of this selection pressure depend on the local pathogen composition, which is in turn determined by biotic and abiotic features of the environment. However, little is known about adaptation to local pathogen threats in wild animals. The Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) is a species complex that lends itself to the study of immune adaptation because of its circumpolar distribution over a large latitudinal range, with little or no admixture between ''different clades. Inthis study, we examine the …

Effects Of A Tropical Cyclone On Salt Marsh Insect Communities And Post-Cyclone Reassembly Processes, Xuan Chen, Benjamin J. Adams, William J. Platt, Linda M. Hooper-Bùi

Faculty Publications

© 2020 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos Concepts regarding effects of recurrent natural disturbances and subsequent responses of communities are central to ecology and conservation biology. Tropical cyclones constitute major disturbances producing direct effects (damage, mortality) in many coastal communities worldwide. Subsequent reassembly involves changes in composition and abundance for which the underlying mechanisms (deterministic and stochastic processes) are still not clear, especially for mobile organisms. We examined tropical cyclone-induced changes in composition and reassembly of entire insect communities in 16 Louisiana coastal salt marshes before and after Hurricane …

Altered Gut Microbiota In Infants Is Associated With Respiratory Syncytial Virus Disease Severity, Jeffrey N. Harding, David Siefker, Luan Vu, Dahui You, John Devincenzo, J. F. Pierre, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

© 2020 The Author(s). Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the number one cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants. There are still no vaccines or specific antiviral therapies against RSV, mainly due to the inadequate understanding of RSV pathogenesis. Recent data suggest a role for gut microbiota community structure in determining RSV disease severity. Our objective was to determine the gut microbial profile associated with severe RSV patients, which could be used to help identify at-risk patients and develop therapeutically protective microbial assemblages that may stimulate immuno-protection. Results: We enrolled 95 infants from Le Bonheur during the 2014 …

Coherent Quantum Channel Discrimination, Mark M. Wilde

Faculty Publications

This paper introduces coherent quantum channel discrimination as a coherent version of conventional quantum channel discrimination. Coherent channel discrimination is phrased here as a quantum interactive proof system between a verifier and a prover, wherein the goal of the prover is to distinguish two channels called in superposition in order to distill a Bell state at the end. The key measure considered here is the success probability of distilling a Bell state, and I prove that this success probability does not increase under the action of a quantum super-channel, thus establishing this measure as a fundamental measure of channel distinguishability. …

Beta-Delayed Charged-Particle Spectroscopy Using Texat, J. Bishop, G. V. Rogachev, S. Ahn, E. Aboud, M. Barbui, P. Baron, A. Bosh, E. Delagnes, J. Hooker, C. Hunt, H. Jayatissa, E. Koshchiy, R. Malecek, S. T. Marley, R. O'Dwyer, E. C. Pollacco, C. Pruitt, B. T. Roeder, A. Saastamoinen, L. G. Sobotka, S. Upadhyayula

Faculty Publications

β-delayed charged-particle emission is a sensitive probe of three-body decays in light nuclei. Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) offer a significant advantage over traditional charged-particle spectroscopy techniques due to a low-energy threshold and a high-geometric efficiency (≈4π) which are essential for use with radioactive ion beams where the beam intensities are limited. The technique for high-sensitivity spectroscopy of β-delayed charged-particle emission is shown to be possible using the Texas Active Target (TexAT) TPC in conjunction with the General Electronics for TPCs (GET) system. The benchmark case studied was that of 12Nβ-decay to the first α-unbound state in 12C, the Hoyle state. …

Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Theory Of Trapped One-Dimensional Imbalanced Fermi Systems, Daniel E. Sheehy

Faculty Publications

Ground-state Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) theory is applied to imbalanced spin-1/2 one-dimensional (1D) Fermi systems that are spatially confined by either a harmonic or a hard-wall trapping potential. It has been hoped that such systems, which can be realized using ultracold atomic gases, would exhibit the long-sought-after Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superfluid phase. The HFB formalism generalizes the standard Bogoliubov quasiparticle transformation by allowing for Cooper pairing to exist between all possible single-particle states and accounts for the effects of the inhomogeneous trapping potential as well as the mean-field Hartree potential. This provides an unbiased framework to describe inhomogeneous densities and pairing correlations in …

A Simple Index To Quantify And Compare The Magnitude Of Intraspecific Geographic Plumage Colour Variation In Typical Antbirds (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae), R S. Marcondes, R T. Brumfield

Faculty Publications

Intraspecific geographic phenotypic variation is a crucial theme in evolutionary biology. Comparing its magnitude across species can provide insights into its ecological and genetic correlates. Here, we developed an index, which we dub the V index, to quantify intraspecific plumage colour variation in typical antbirds (Thamnophilidae), a family which has long interested ornithologists due to a high prevalence of intraspecific variation. The V index is based on a bivariate colour space defined by brightness and redness. Its value for each species equals the mean area occupied by each of its subspecies in that colour space, divided by the area of …

Identification Of Light Sources Using Machine Learning, Chenglong You, Mario A. Quiroz-Juárez, Aidan Lambert, Narayan Bhusal, Chao Dong, Armando Perez-Leija, Amir Javaid, Roberto De J. León-Montiel, Omar S. Magaña-Loaiza

Faculty Publications

The identification of light sources represents a task of utmost importance for the development of multiple photonic technologies. Over the last decades, the identification of light sources as diverse as sunlight, laser radiation, and molecule fluorescence has relied on the collection of photon statistics or the implementation of quantum state tomography. In general, this task requires an extensive number of measurements to unveil the characteristic statistical fluctuations and correlation properties of light, particularly in the low-photon flux regime. In this article, we exploit the self-learning features of artificial neural networks and the naive Bayes classifier to dramatically reduce the number …

Multiparticle Quantum Plasmonics, Chenglong You, Apurv Chaitanya Nellikka, Israel De Leon, Omar S. Magaña-Loaiza

Faculty Publications

A single photon can be coupled to collective charge oscillations at the interfaces between metals and dielectrics forming a single surface plasmon. The electromagnetic near-fields induced by single surface plasmons offer new degrees of freedom to perform an exquisite control of complex quantum dynamics. Remarkably, the control of quantum systems represents one of the most significant challenges in the field of quantum photonics. Recently, there has been an enormous interest in using plasmonic systems to control multiphoton dynamics in complex photonic circuits. In this review, we discuss recent advances that unveil novel routes to control multiparticle quantum systems composed of …

A Noble-Transition Alloy Excels At Hot-Carrier Generation In The Near Infrared, Sara K.F. Stofela, Orhan Kizilkaya, Benjamin T. Diroll, Tiago R. Leite, Mohammad M. Taheri, Daniel E. Willis, Jason B. Baxter, William A. Shelton, Phillip T. Sprunger, Kevin M. Mcpeak

Faculty Publications

Above-equilibrium “hot”-carrier generation in metals is a promising route to convert photons into electrical charge for efficient near-infrared optoelectronics. However, metals that offer both hot-carrier generation in the near-infrared and sufficient carrier lifetimes remain elusive. Alloys can offer emergent properties and new design strategies compared to pure metals. Here, it is shown that a noble-transition alloy, AuxPd1−x, outperforms its constituent metals concerning generation and lifetime of hot carriers when excited in the near-infrared. At optical fiber wavelengths (e.g., 1550 nm), Au50Pd50 provides a 20-fold increase in the number of ≈0.8 eV hot holes, compared to Au, and a threefold increase …

The Protodune-Sp Lartpc Electronics Production, Commissioning, And Performance, D. Adams, M. Bass, M. Bishai, C. Bromberg, J. Calcutt, H. Chen, J. Fried, I. Furic, S. Gao, D. Gastler, J. Hugon, J. Joshi, B. Kirby, F. Liu, K. Mahn, M. Mooney, C. Morris, C. Pereyra, X. Pons, V. Radeka, E. Raguzin, D. Shooltz, M. Spanu, A. Timilsina, S. Tufanli, M. Tzanov, B. Viren, W. Gu, Z. Williams, K. Wood, E. Worcester, M. Worcester, G. Yang

Faculty Publications

The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a large-scale prototype of the Single-Phase (SP) Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) design proposed for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). 15,360 LArTPC wires are instrumented with low electronic noise pre-amplifier and digitization ASICs integrated into Front End Motherboards (FEMBs) operating at cryogenic temperature within the cryostat. The large number of electronics channels and high performance specifications required a large-scale production electronics quality control effort, careful installation into Anode Plane Assemblies (APAs), and rigorous detector commissioning. This successful collaboration-wide effort achieved a working LArTPC electronics channel percentage of 99.7% (15,318 of 15,360 channels in total), …

Search For Magnetically-Induced Signatures In The Arrival Directions Of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Measured At The Pierre Auger Observatory, I. C. Maris, J. Pekala, R. Smda, J. Supk, A. Aab, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta, J. M. Albury, I. Allekotte, A. Almela, J. Alvarez Castillo, J. Alvarez-Muñiz, R. Alves Batista, G. A. Anastasi, L. Anchordoqui, B. Andrada, S. Andringa, C. Aramo, P. R.Araújo Ferreira, H. Asorey, P. Assis, G. Avila, A. M. Badescu, A. Bakalova, A. Balaceanu, F. Barbato, R. J.Barreira Luz, K. H. Becker, J. A. Bellido, C. Berat, M. E. Bertaina, X. Bertou, P. L. Biermann

Faculty Publications

We search for signals of magnetically-induced effects in the arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory. We apply two different methods. One is a search for sets of events that show a correlation between their arrival direction and the inverse of their energy, which would be expected if they come from the same point-like source, they have the same electric charge and their deflection is relatively small and coherent. We refer to these sets of events as "multiplets". The second method, called "thrust", is a principal axis analysis aimed to detect the elongated patterns in …

Simultaneous Measurement Of The Muon Neutrino Charged-Current Cross Section On Oxygen And Carbon Without Pions In The Final State At T2k, A. Zykova, K. Abe, N. Akhlaq, R. Akutsu, A. Ali, C. Alt, C. Andreopoulos, L. Anthony, M. Antonova, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, T. Arihara, Y. Asada, Y. Ashida, E. T. Atkin, Y. Awataguchi, S. Ban, M. Barbi, G. J. Barker, G. Barr, D. Barrow, M. Batkiewicz-Kwasniak, A. Beloshapkin, F. Bench, V. Berardi, L. Berns, S. Bhadra, S. Bienstock

Faculty Publications

This paper reports the first simultaneous measurement of the double differential muon neutrino charged-current cross section on oxygen and carbon without pions in the final state as a function of the outgoing muon kinematics, made at the ND280 off-axis near detector of the T2K experiment. The ratio of the oxygen and carbon cross sections is also provided to help validate various models' ability to extrapolate between carbon and oxygen nuclear targets, as is required in T2K oscillation analyses. The data are taken using a neutrino beam with an energy spectrum peaked at 0.6 GeV. The extracted measurement is compared with …

First Combined Measurement Of The Muon Neutrino And Antineutrino Charged-Current Cross Section Without Pions In The Final State At T2k, K. Abe, N. Akhlaq, R. Akutsu, A. Ali, C. Alt, C. Andreopoulos, L. Anthony, M. Antonova, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, T. Arihara, Y. Asada, Y. Ashida, E. T. Atkin, Y. Awataguchi, S. Ban, M. Barbi, G. J. Barker, G. Barr, D. Barrow, C. Barry, M. Batkiewicz-Kwasniak, A. Beloshapkin, F. Bench, V. Berardi, L. Berns, S. Bhadra, S. Bienstock

Faculty Publications

This paper presents the first combined measurement of the double-differential muon neutrino and antineutrino charged-current cross sections with no pions in the final state on hydrocarbon at the off-axis near detector of the T2K experiment. The data analyzed in this work comprise 5.8×1020 and 6.3×1020 protons on target in neutrino and antineutrino mode respectively, at a beam energy peak of 0.6 GeV. Using the two measured cross sections, the sum, difference, and asymmetry were calculated with the aim of better understanding the nuclear effects involved in such interactions. The extracted measurements have been compared with the prediction from different Monte …

Fine Structure Of Angular Distribution Of X-Ray Transition Radiation From Multilayered Radiator In Geant4, A. A. Savchenko, A. A. Tishchenko, D. Yu Sergeeva, N. Belyaev, M. Cherry, F. Dachs, S. Doronin, K. Filippov, P. Fusco, F. Gargano, S. Konovalov, F. Loparco, V. Mascagna, M. N. Mazziotta, S. Nechaeva, D. Ponomarenko, A. Romaniouk, E. J. Schioppa, S. Smirnov, Y. Smirnov, M. Soldani, P. Spinelli, M. N. Strikhanov, P. Teterin, V. O. Tikhomirov, K. Vorobev, K. Zhukov

Faculty Publications

The present version of the Transition Radiation (TR) simulation module implemented in the Geant4 toolkit describes very well experimental data for the TR energy distribution; however, it does not allow reproducing the details of angular distribution at small angles. In order to solve this problem, corrections to the existing x-ray TR module in Geant4 are proposed. With these corrections, the results of the simulations are in a good agreement with the angular TR distributions predicted by theory and obtained in the test beam measurements using a 480 um Si pixel detector and Mylar radiator.

Biomolecular Complex Viewed By Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Solid-State Nmr Spectroscopy, Arnab Chakraborty, Fabien Deligey, Jenny Quach, Frederic Mentink-Vigier, Ping Wang, Tuo Wang

Faculty Publications

© 2020 Portland Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) is an indispensable tool for elucidating the structure and dynamics of insoluble and non-crystalline biomolecules. The recent advances in the sensitivity-enhancing technique magic-angle spinning dynamic nuclear polarization (MAS-DNP) have substantially expanded the territory of ssNMR investigations and enabled the detection of polymer interfaces in a cellular environment. This article highlights the emerging MAS-DNP approaches and their applications to the analysis of biomolecular composites and intact cells to determine the folding pathway and ligand binding of proteins, the structural polymorphism of low-populated biopolymers, as well as the physical …