Digital Commons Network^™

The Language Of Rats: Unwelcome Animals And Interspecies Connection In Contemporary Anglophone Fiction, Kieran Leigh Lyons

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Language of Rats: Unwelcome Animals and Interspecies Connection in Global Contemporary Fiction consists of three essays examining the representation of what I call unwelcome animals in contemporary Anglophone novels from the United States, Nigeria, and India. These animals often live alongside humans yet are perceived as threats or annoyances. Literary depictions of this fraught relationship reveal, and sometimes critique, the intellectual structures that shape how we understand and represent interspecies connections. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the interspecies dimensions of contemporary fiction by bringing together the fields of environmental criticism, animal studies, postcolonialism, and U.S. Southern studies. …

Evaluation Of Automated Fermi Gbm Localizations Of Gamma-Ray Bursts, A. Goldstein, C. Fletcher, P. Veres, M. S. Briggs, W. H. Cleveland, M. H. Gibby, C. M. Hui, E. Bissaldi, E. Burns, R. Hamburg, A. Von Kienlin, D. Kocevski, B. Mailyan, C. Malacaria, W. S. Paciesas, O. J. Roberts, C. A. Wilson-Hodge

Faculty Publications

The capability of the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) to localize gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is evaluated for two different automated algorithms: the GBM Team's RoboBA algorithm and the independently developed BALROG algorithm. Through a systematic study utilizing over 500 GRBs with known locations from instruments like Swift and the Fermi Large Area Telescope, we directly compare the effectiveness of, and accurately estimate the systematic uncertainty for, both algorithms. We show that simple adjustments to the GBM Team's RoboBA, in operation since early 2016, yield significant improvement in the systematic uncertainty, removing the long tail identified in the systematic, and improve …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Investigation Of Metal Ion Quenching In Fluorescent Carbon Dot Surrogates For Particulate Matter Black Carbon And Evaluation Of Cellular Health Effects Due To The Surrogate Materials, Christopher Lee Sumner Jr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black carbon (BC) is an environmental pollutant of particular concern to many international organizations for both its health effects and environmental effects. Probing health effects of BC as produced in the environment is difficult due to the complex nature of environmental pollutants found in their naturally occurring state. Fluorescent carbon dots (FCDs) were chosen to be used as a surrogate for BC. In the process of examining FCDs and their behavior as surrogates, information was gained on the health effects and behavior of FCDs as a class of nanomaterials for cell and tissue studies, which is outlined in this dissertation. …

Macroscale Drivers Of Atlantic And Gulf Menhaden Growth, Stephen R. Midway, Amy M. Schueller, Robert T. Leaf, Geneviève M. Nesslage, Raymond M. Mroch Iii

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Multilevel Analysis Of Gross Motor Coordination Of Children And Adolescents Living At Different Altitudes: The Peruvian Health And Optimist Growth Study, Carla Santos, Alcibíades Bustamante, Donald Hedeker, Olga Vasconcelos, Rui Garganta, Peter T. Katzmarzyk, José Maia

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Background: Gross motor coordination (GMC) is a potential correlate of lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes in childhood and adolescence. Aims: The aim of this study was to examine how sex, age, biological maturation, overweight, stunting, and physical fitness are associated with GMC in children and adolescents from Peru, and to examine associations between geographical area of residence, school-level characteristics, and GMC. Subjects and methods: The sample included 7408 subjects, aged 6–14 years, from sea level, Amazon and high-altitude regions of Peru. A composite marker of total coordination was derived by the sum of scores from each test (GMCT). Overweight was …

Patterns Of Physical Performance Spurts During Adolescence: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Canadian, Brazilian And Portuguese Boys, Eduardo Guimarães, Adam D.G. Baxter-Jones, Sara Pereira, Fernando Garbeloto, Duarte Freitas, Manuel A. Janeira, Go Tani, Peter T. Katzmarzyk, Simonete Silva, Donald A. Bailey, Robert L. Mirwald, José Maia

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Background: Data relating physical performance to the timing of the adolescent growth spurt are limited. Aim: This study identifies: (i) age-at-peak height velocity (APHV), (ii) physical performance spurt patterns aligned to APHV; and (iii) cross-cultural and time patterns in Canadian, Brazilian and Portuguese boys. Subjects and methods: A total of 512 boys (131 Canadian, 250 Portuguese and 131 Brazilian), 8–17 years of age were followed serially using longitudinal data. APHV was identified and five physical performance measures velocities [trunk extension (TE), trunk flexion (TF), standing long jump (SLJ), curl-ups (CU) and handgrip strength (HG)] were aligned at 6-month intervals, 4 …

Some Issues In The Ethics Of Food Waste, Brian E. Roe, Danyi Qi, Kathryn E. Bender

Faculty Publications

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. It is estimated that nearly one-third of food produced on the planet never meets its intended purpose of human nourishment. This represents a substantial stock of resources available for reallocation. Any potential reallocation of resources raises ethical issues – who should sacrifice (change current behaviors), who should benefit, and what methods are appropriate to induce the behavioral change required to invoke the reallocation? In this brief article, we will discuss several topics in the food waste literature that, in our opinion, raise ethical issues that warrant further thought and consideration. These include the emphasis on food …

Observation Of Sixfold Degenerate Fermions In Pds B2, Xiàn Yáng, Tyler A. Cochran, Ramakanta Chapai, Damien Tristant, Jia Xin Yin, Ilya Belopolski, Zajiā Chéng, Daniel Multer, Songtian S. Zhang, Nana Shumiya, Maksim Litskevich, Yuxiao Jiang, Guoqing Chang, Qi Zhang, Ilya Vekhter, William A. Shelton, Rongying Jin, Su Yang Xu, M. Zahid Hasan

Faculty Publications

Three types of fermions have been extensively studied in topological quantum materials: Dirac, Weyl, and Majorana fermions. Beyond the fundamental fermions in high energy physics, exotic fermions are allowed in condensed matter systems residing in three-, six-or eightfold degenerate band crossings. Here, we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to directly visualize three-doubly-degenerate bands in PdSb2. The ultrahigh energy resolution we are able to achieve allows for the confirmation of all the sixfold degenerate bands at the R point, in remarkable consistency with first-principles calculations. Moreover, we find that this sixfold degenerate crossing has quadratic dispersion as predicted by theory. Finally, we …

Estuarine Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Habitat Provides Organic Carbon Storage Across A Shifting Landscape, Eva R. Hillmann, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, J. Andrew Nyman, Megan K. La Peyre

Faculty Publications

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) thrives across the estuarine salinity gradient providing valuable ecosystem services. Within the saline portion of estuaries, seagrass areas are frequently cited as hotspots for their role in capturing and retaining organic carbon (Corg). Non-seagrass SAV, located in the fresh to brackish estuarine areas, may also retain significant soil Corg, yet their role remains unquantified. Given rapidly occurring landscape and salinity changes due to human and natural disturbances, landscape level carbon pool estimates from estuarine SAV habitat blue carbon estimates are needed. We assessed Corg stocks in SAV habitat soils from estuarine freshwater to saline habitats (interior …

Documenting Desire: Addressing The Educational Needs Of Undocumented English Learners, Alejandra Sofia Torres

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While research on motivation in second language acquisition is copious and the interest in undocumented youth within the education field is growing, there is a need to closely examine the intersection of being both undocumented and an English Learner (EL) and how this intersection often limits ELs, especially those in underserved schools. Using ethnographic methods, this dissertation documents the educational experiences of thirty-one Spanish-speaking ELs in a predominately of color, urban, working-class high school in the southeastern United States. EL participants were ages fourteen through twenty with varying non-citizen immigrant statuses. Semi-structured interviews and field notes were collected during the …

Nwchem: Past, Present, And Future, E. Aprà, E. J. Bylaska, W. A. De Jong, N. Govind, K. Kowalski, T. P. Straatsma, M. Valiev, H. J.J. Van Dam, Y. Alexeev, J. Anchell, V. Anisimov, F. W. Aquino, R. Atta-Fynn, J. Autschbach, N. P. Bauman, J. C. Becca, D. E. Bernholdt, K. Bhaskaran-Nair, S. Bogatko, P. Borowski, J. Boschen, J. Brabec, A. Bruner, E. Cauët, Y. Chen, G. N. Chuev, C. J. Cramer, J. Daily, M. J.O. Deegan, T. H. Dunning, M. Dupuis, K. G. Dyall, G. I. Fann

Faculty Publications

© 2020 U.S. Government. Specialized computational chemistry packages have permanently reshaped the landscape of chemical and materials science by providing tools to support and guide experimental efforts and for the prediction of atomistic and electronic properties. In this regard, electronic structure packages have played a special role by using first-principle-driven methodologies to model complex chemical and materials processes. Over the past few decades, the rapid development of computing technologies and the tremendous increase in computational power have offered a unique chance to study complex transformations using sophisticated and predictive many-body techniques that describe correlated behavior of electrons in molecular and …

Development Of A Surgical Procedure For Removal Of A Placentome From A Pregnant Ewe During Gestation, Colleen A. Lambo, Ashley K. Edwards, Fuller W. Bazer, Kathrin Dunlap, M. Carey Satterfield

Faculty Publications

Background: In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in the impact of insults during pregnancy on postnatal health and disease. It is known that changes in placental development can impact fetal growth and subsequent susceptibility to adult onset diseases; however, a method to collect sufficient placental tissues for both histological and gene expression analyses during gestation without compromising the pregnancy has not been described. The ewe is an established biomedical model for the study of fetal development. Due to its cotyledonary placental type, the sheep has potential for surgical removal of materno-fetal exchange tissues, i.e., placentomes. A novel …

Source Apportionment Of Ozone And Its Health Effects In North China Plain And Southeast U.S., Kaiyu Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ground-level ozone (O₃), as one of six common air pollutants set by National Ambient Air Quality Standards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is of great interest due to its health and economical effects. However, O₃ contributions from different emission sources are not well understood due to its complicated nonlinear reactions. In this study, O₃ source apportionment methods and the applications are firstly reviewed to provide a comprehensive understanding for O₃ formations. Application of High-order Decoupled Direct Method (HDDM), brute force method (BFM), O₃ source apportionment technology (OSAT) and source-oriented method in O …

Data For Wetlandscapes And Their Changes Around The World, Navid Ghajarnia, Georgia Destouni, Josefin Thorslund, Zahra Kalantari, Imenne Ahlén, Jesús A. Anaya-Acevedo, Juan F. Blanco-Libreros, Sonia Borja, Sergey Chalov, Aleksandra Chalova, Kwok P. Chun, Nicola Clerici, Amanda Desormeaux, Bethany B. Garfield, Pierre Girard, Olga Gorelits, Amy Hansen, Fernando Jaramillo, Jerker Jarsjö, Adnane Labbaci, John Livsey, Giorgos Maneas, Kathryn Mc Curley Pisarello, Sebastián Palomino-Ángel, Jan Pietroń, René M. Price, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Jorge Salgado, A. Britta, Samaneh Seifollahi-Aghmiuni, Ylva Sjöberg, Pavel Terskii, Guillaume Vigouroux

Faculty Publications

Geography and associated hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes determine the states and dynamics of wetlands and their ecosystem services. The influences of these controls are not limited to just the local scale of each individual wetland but extend over larger landscape areas that integrate multiple wetlands and their total hydrological catchment-the wetlandscape. However, the data and knowledge of conditions and changes over entire wetlandscapes are still scarce, limiting the capacity to accurately understand and manage critical wetland ecosystems and their services under global change. We present a new Wetlandscape Change Information Database (WetCID), consisting of geographic, hydrological, …

Evaluation Of Undrained Shear Strength Of Soil, Ultimate Pile Capacity And Pile Set-Up Parameter From Cone Penetration Test (Cpt) Using Artificial Neural Network (Ann), Md Ariful Hassan Mojumder

LSU Master's Theses

Over the years, numerous design methods were developed to evaluate the undrained shear strength, S_u, ultimate pile capacity and pile set-up parameter, A. In recent decades, the emphasis was given to the in-situ cone and piezocone penetration tests (CPT, PCPT) to estimate these parameters since CPT/PCPT has been proven to be fast, reliable and cost-effective soil investigation method. However, because of the paucity of a vivid comprehension of the physical problem, some of the developed methods incorporate correlation assumptions which might compromise the consistent accuracy. In this study, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was exerted using CPT data …

Predictive Modeling Of Asynchronous Event Sequence Data, Jin Shang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Large volumes of temporal event data, such as online check-ins and electronic records of hospital admissions, are becoming increasingly available in a wide variety of applications including healthcare analytics, smart cities, and social network analysis. Those temporal events are often asynchronous, interdependent, and exhibiting self-exciting properties. For example, in the patient's diagnosis events, the elevated risk exists for a patient that has been recently at risk. Machine learning that leverages event sequence data can improve the prediction accuracy of future events and provide valuable services. For example, in e-commerce and network traffic diagnosis, the analysis of user activities can be …

Engineering Ionomer Materials For Addressing Ohmic Resistances In Electrochemical Desalination And Waste Heat Recovery, Varada Menon Palakkal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Water scarcity and energy availability present important challenges that need to be addressed in the coming centuries. In the front of water technologies, desalting brackish water is of extreme importance for thermal electric power plants, chemical manufacturing plants, and other industrial operations that treat and reuse their water utilities. Membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) is an energy efficient desalination technique that has drawn attention from commercial entities. Most material research studies on MCDI focus on enhancing electrode performance while little emphasis is given to rationale design of ion-exchange membranes (IEMs). In this work, the ionic conductivity, permselectivity, and thickness for three …

Alternative Methods, Hunter Stabler

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

In the realm of precognitive artmaking, the artist’s role is that of an antenna. One must be receptive to the subtle, invisible flow of creative novelty in order to participate in the involuntary channeling of new ideas, new processes, and alternative methods of creative production. Carving out new territory within the realm of static art is a primary objective for my artistic process. By utilizing digital fabrication tools, paired with my affinity for intricate craft and optical metagrobolization, I have created a body of work that invents alternative processes and unique aesthetic languages.

Digital imaging, digital modeling and digital …

Disentangling Dust Components In Sn 2010jl: The First 1400 Days, A. M. Bevan, K. Krafton, R. Wesson, J. E. Andrews, E. Montiel, M. Niculescu-Duvaz, M. J. Barlow, I. De Looze, G. C. Clayton

Faculty Publications

The luminous Type IIn SN 2010jl shows strong signs of interaction between the SN ejecta and dense circumstellar material. Dust may be present in the unshocked ejecta; the cool, dense shell (CDS) between the shocks in the interaction region; or in the circumstellar medium (CSM). We present and model new optical and infrared photometry and spectroscopy of SN 2010jl from 82 to 1367 days since explosion. We evaluate the photometric and spectroscopic evolution using the radiative transfer codes mocassin and damocles, respectively. We propose an interaction scenario and investigate the resulting dust formation scenarios and dust masses. We find that …

Volkov-Pankratov States In Topological Superconductors, David J. Alspaugh, Daniel E. Sheehy, Mark O. Goerbig, Pascal Simon

Faculty Publications

We study the in-gap states that appear at the boundaries of both one- A nd two-dimensional topological superconductors. While the massless Majorana quasiparticles are guaranteed to arise by the bulk-edge correspondence we find that they could be accompanied by massive Volkov-Pankratov (VP) states which are present only when the interface is sufficiently smooth. These predictions can be tested in an s-wave superconductor with Rashba spin-orbit coupling placed on top of a magnetic domain wall. We calculate the spin-resolved local density of states of the VP states about the band inversion generated by a magnetic domain wall and find that they …

Combinatorial And Asymptotic Statistical Properties Of Partitions And Unimodal Sequences, Walter Mcfarland Bridges

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Our main results are asymptotic zero-one laws satisfied by the diagrams of unimodal sequences of positive integers. These diagrams consist of columns of squares in the plane; the upper boundary is called the shape. For various types of unimodal sequences, we show that, as the number of squares tends to infinity, 100% of shapes are near a certain curve---that is, there is a single limit shape. Similar phenomena have been well-studied for integer partitions, but several technical difficulties arise in the extension of such asymptotic statistical laws to unimodal sequences. We develop a widely applicable method for obtaining these limit …

New Synthetic Transformations Utilizing Silyloxyallyl Cations And Epoxonium Ions As Reactive Intermediates, Alexander Houston Cleveland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The development of new chemical transformations is of paramount importance in organic chemistry. In fact the study and creation of new reactions often uncovers new chemical reactivities and creates a new area of chemistry. The purpose of this dissertation is to present the development of new synthetic reactions that were uncovered through previous discoveries. Additionally the underlying theme of this work relies on the intermediacy of cationic reactive intermediates such as silyloxyallyl cations and epoxonium ions. Chapters 1 and 2 present the reactivity of novel silyloxyallyl cations. These cationic species are generated via the mild ionization of a-hydroxy silylenol ethers …

Synthesis Of Functionalized Tetrahydropyransviacascade Cycloaddition Involving Silyloxyallyl Cation Intermediates, Fatimat O. Badmus, Joshua A. Malone, Frank R. Fronczek, Rendy Kartika

Faculty Publications

© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2020. An expedient synthesis of highly substituted tetrahydrobenzofuranviaan unsymmetrical silyloxyallyl cation is reported. Conveniently generated under catalytic Brønsted acid conditions, nucleophilic capture of this reactive intermediate by silylenolate, followed by Paal-Knorr cascade cyclization in the presence of tosic acid monohydrate effectively constructed the tetrahydrobenzofuran core in a single synthetic step.

Behavior Of Iron Species And Free Radicals In Ambient Pm2.5 And Pm Surrogates, Cholena Russo Ren

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Air pollution, consisting of ambient particulate matter (PM), has been a rising health concern to the public. PM contains free radicals and have been known to damage human cells; however, their free radical chemistry is not well understood. This study utilized various vacuum and/or heat treatments to study free radical behavior in PM_2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 mm or less) and PM surrogates and simulated sunlight effects on PM_2.5. To mimic PM, iron-silica catalysts (i.e. PM surrogates) were synthesized and real-world ambient PM_2.5 was selected. The free radicals in PM_{2.5 …}

Cardiac Fibrosis And Cardiac Fibroblast Lineage-Tracing: Recent Advances, Xing Fu, Qianglin Liu, Chaoyang Li, Yuxia Li, Leshan Wang

Faculty Publications

© Copyright © 2020 Fu, Liu, Li, Li and Wang. Cardiac fibrosis is a common pathological change associated with cardiac injuries and diseases. Even though the accumulation of collagens and other extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins may have some protective effects in certain situations, prolonged fibrosis usually negatively affects cardiac function and often leads to deleterious consequences. While the development of cardiac fibrosis involves several cell types, the major source of ECM proteins is cardiac fibroblast. The high plasticity of cardiac fibroblasts enables them to quickly change their behaviors in response to injury and transition between several differentiation states. However, the …

Lignin-Graft-Poly(Lactic- Co-Glycolic) Acid Biopolymers For Polymeric Nanoparticle Synthesis, Carlos E. Astete, Judith U. De Mel, Sudipta Gupta, Ye Rim Noh, Markus Bleuel, Gerald J. Schneider, Cristina M. Sabliov

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society. A lignin-graft-poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) biopolymer was synthesized with two types of lignin (LGN), alkaline lignin (ALGN) and sodium lignosulfonate (SLGN), at different (A/S)LGN/PLGA ratios (1:2, 1:4, and 1:6 w/w). 1H NMR and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) confirmed the conjugation of PLGA to LGN. The (A/S)LGN-graft-PLGA biopolymers were used to form nanodelivery systems suitable for entrapment and delivery of drugs for disease treatment. The LGN-graft-PLGA NPs were generally small (100-200 nm), increased in size with the amount of PLGA added, monodisperse, and negatively charged (-48 to -60 mV). Small-angle scattering data showed that particles feature …

Rejuvenation Of Neutrophil Functions In Association With Reduced Diabetes Risk Following Ten Weeks Of Low-Volume High Intensity Interval Walking In Older Adults With Prediabetes – A Pilot Study, David B. Bartlett, Cris A. Slentz, Leslie H. Willis, Andrew Hoselton, Janet L. Huebner, Virginia B. Kraus, Jennifer Moss, Michael J. Muehlbauer, Guillaume Spielmann, Deborah M. Muoio, Timothy R. Koves, Helena Wu, Kim M. Huffman, Janet M. Lord, William E. Kraus

Faculty Publications

Neutrophil dysfunction is a common feature of aging, and is associated with the pathogenesis of many age-related diseases, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Although exercise training improves metabolic health, decreases risk of T2DM, and is associated with improving neutrophil functions, involvement in regular physical activity declines with age. The aim of this study was to determine if neutrophil functions could be improved in association with changes in fitness and metabolic parameters in older adults at risk for T2DM using 10-weeks of low volume high-intensity interval exercise training (HIIT). Ten older (71 ± 5 years) sedentary adults with prediabetes (HbA1c: …

Examining Relationships Between Early Childcare Teachers' Adult Attachment Orientations And Quality Of Interaction In The Infant Classroom, Alexandra Morris Benoit

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past several decades, women have entered the workforce in increasing numbers. This has led to the majority of infants and young children being cared for outside of the home by extra-familial caregivers. Research has shown the benefits that quality childcare can have on the developmental trajectories of children, as well as the detrimental effects that can be seen when children experience low quality care. Further, children are particularly vulnerable in the first year of life when they are establishing attachment bonds with their primary caregivers. With the long hours that many spend in the care of childcare workers, …

The Strange Death Of American Democracy: Judicial Supremacy And The New Constitutional Politics, 1910-1916, Logan Istre

LSU Master's Theses

American constitutional politics reached a crisis point during the Progressive Era. At the center of the crisis was the question as to what the Constitution meant and who had the final word in interpreting it: The Supreme Court or the People of the United States. That fundamental question came to a head in the presidential election of 1912. The result of that contest was the confirmation of judicial supremacy in constitutional interpretation and a mortal blow the nation’s traditional popular constitutional politics. The ensuring consensus of judicial supremacy has defined the nation’s constitutional politics since, which has resulted in the …

Legendrian Dga Representations And The Colored Kauffman Polynomial, Justin Murray, Dan Rutherford

Faculty Publications

For any Legendrian knot K in standard contact R-3 we relate counts of ungraded (1-graded) representations of the Legendrian contact homology DG-algebra (A(K), partial derivative) with the n-colored Kauffman polynomial. To do this, we introduce an ungraded n-colored ru-ling polynomial, R-n,K(1)(q), as a linear combination of reduced ruling polynomials of positive permutation braids and show that (i) R-n,K(1)(q) arises as a specialization F-n,F-K(a, q)vertical bar(a-1) = 0 of the n-colored Kauffman polynomial and (ii) when q is a power of two R-n,K(1)(q) agrees with the total ungraded representation number, Rep(1) (K, F-q(n)), which is a normalized count of n-dimensional representations …