Digital Commons Network^™

A Case Study Of Two Preservice Elementary Music Teachers As Culture-Bearers, Julius Kyakuwa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The integration of music from unfamiliar cultures in music classrooms is part of education curriculums around the world. International music education organizations also have goals for using a variety of musics in music education programs as one way of educating students to meet the 21st century global education targets. In the American education practice, the concept and principles of multiculturalism have been prominent in classroom subjects for over 50 years. In music education, multicultural approaches continue to be included in music standards and curriculum guides across the United States. Music educators, likewise, often use culture-bearers to expose their students to …

Phytosampling Of Ambient Air Particulate Matter (Pm) -New Method Of Pm-Associated Pollution Characterization, Chuqi Guo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ambient air particulate matter (PM) has been documented to be a contributor to a lot of pollution-related health effects. Due to the common anthropogenic origin, PM could be an effective vehicle to carry and deliver many toxic materials, including environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) into the human body, thus significantly raise the health risk of PM exposure. Studies of ambient air PM potentially bear artifacts stemming from the collection methods. We investigated the effects of collection methods on the ambient air PM composition and developed a static collection method relying on the particle entrapment by …

Internals In Gas-Liquid Systems, Sai Sankar Ganesan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this study is to model gas-liquid contact and separation problems (using Euler-Euler based Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) models) at different scales. We have explored process intensive solutions, design optimizations by introducing internals in these gas-liquid operations.

A 500L pilot plant scale and a 7000L industrial scale novel down-flow bubble column problems were modeled. Methodologies used to overcome challenges on large-bubble micro-bubble dynamics are discussed and the resulting fluid dynamic solutions were studied. These solutions were further modified and tailored toward intensification, by exploring horizontal plate internals. We then modeled mass transfer and reaction kinetics on this system …

The Long-Term Outlook Of The Mississippi-Atchafalaya Bifurcation: A Convergence Of Engineering, Economics, And Deltaic Evolution, Thomas Mitchell Andrus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The most recent and currently active delta lobe of the Mississippi River (MR) is the Atchafalaya-Wax Lake lobe, which was initiated approximately 400 years ago as a result of MR stream capture by the Atchafalaya River (AR). This capture process accelerated in the early to mid-1900s but further progress was prevented by construction and operation of the Old River Control Structure (ORCS) Complex. Many recent studies indicate that MR system below the ORCS is on a retreating geologic trajectory due to contributing factors such as sea level rise, subsidence, faulting, and declining hydraulic stream power. Diversions along the Lower MR …

Study Of Fundamental Tradeoff Between Deliverable And Private Information In Statistical Inference, Farhang Bayat

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My primary objective in this dissertation is to establish a framework under which I launch a systematic study of the fundamental tradeoff between deliverable and private information in statistical inference. My research was partly motivated by arising and prevailing privacy concerns of users in many machine learning problems.

In this dissertation, I begin by introducing examples where I am concerned of privacy leakage versus decision utility in statistical inference problems. I then go into further details about what I have achieved in formulating and solving such problems using information theory related metrics in a variety of settings. Both related works …

An Ecopath With Ecosim Analysis On Offshore Petroleum Platform Influences On Gulf Of Mexico Red Snapper, Valentin Gomez

LSU Master's Theses

Offshore oil and gas platforms have had a significant presence in the Gulf of Mexico since the 1950s. An important secondary function of these structures is that they provide artificial habitat to fisheries, most notably Red snapper. Policy changes intended to reduce the risk associated with aging infrastructure have reduced the number of standing platforms from 4044 to 1867 from 2001 to 2018. The effect this loss of habitat has on Red snapper was tested by creating three scenarios of platform changes and modeling the perturbation from 2005 to 2050. The simulation was accomplished using the ecological model Ecopath with …

Teacher Attitudes Toward Addressing Mental Health In Schools (Tatams): Development And Initial Validation Of An Attitude Scale, Jacob Landon Deboer

LSU Master's Theses

The mental health of students continues to be an overlooked topic. Although research surrounding school-based mental health has increased, this increase in research has yet to translate effectively to practice. Past studies have questioned teachers regarding their perceptions of mental health and school-based mental health services. A significant limitation to past research is the absence of a consistent scale used to measure teacher perception. This inconsistency across studies in terms of the measurement tools used (e.g., surveys versus focus groups) limits the ability to compare the findings across research. The purpose of the current study was to develop and establish …

Acoustic Changes During Passage Reading In Speakers With Parkinson's Disease, Kimberly C. Grubbs

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate speech changes in Parkinson’s disease (PD) while reading a passage, using both local (i.e., segment level) and global (i.e., utterance level) acoustic measures.

Methods: 20 speakers participated in the study (10 PD, 10 neurologically healthy controls). The speakers were asked to read The Caterpillar passage in a conversational mode. A total of five acoustic measures were included (local: vowel duration, Euclidean distance between corner vowels and schwa; global: articulation rate, F0/intensity range). These acoustic measures were compared between two sentences located in the two positions within the paragraph, initial and final. …

There's No Place Like Home: Arlene Francis And Domesticity In Doubt, Caroline Argrave

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the life and career of stage, film, and television personality Arlene Francis, in order to add nuance to the understanding of how women broke into the entertainment industry. Francis, rather than brazenly flouting norms, wooed her employers and audience into acceptance by combining her prominent new “power” with comforting old-fashioned norms. The result was a woman doing something patently new while speaking in a way disarmingly familiar. In this way, Francis is reminiscent of other female pioneers, who used a traditionally feminine persona to charm their male colleagues into supporting their leadership, and as a result has …

The Relationship Between The Development Of Communicative Functions In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Isabelle Bankston

LSU Master's Theses

In regard to the assessment of language, it is difficult to determine exact communicative functions that are exhibited early in development that could indicate a prognostic value of verbal abilities and outcomes of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Verbal Behavioral Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP, Sundberg, 2008) is frequently used in Applied Behavior Analysis for standard assessment procedures to measure development over time. The current study was designed to use the VB-MAPP to determine a relationship between certain communicative functions (i.e., mand, tact, listener responding, echoic, and intraverbal) that may suggest a correlation in growth in each …

Estimation Of Age From The Auricular Surface Of The Ilium Through The Utilization Of 3d Scanning And Gis, Krista Bennett

LSU Master's Theses

The ability to produce age estimations for adult skeletons has been a focus of forensic anthropologists for decades. Most age estimation methods for adult remains provide age ranges that are too narrow, too broad, or too vague. This project sought to combine 3D scans with GIS to produce morphological maps of the auricular surface of the os coxa in order to identify quantifiable characteristics for age assessment that could be used for generating narrower age range estimates for older adult remains.

A NextEngine ™ HD Desktop 3D scanner was used to scan the auricular surfaces of 384 os coxae from …

The Effects Of Skeletal Muscle Specific Cpt1b Knock Out On Genetically Obese Ay Mice, Allison Stone

LSU Master's Theses

Fatty acid oxidation inhibition is one approach to reducing blood glucose levels in type II diabetes. Skeletal muscle specific Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase 1b knockout mice (Cpt1b^m-/-) cannot transport long-chain fatty acids into the mitochondria to be oxidized in order to produce energy. Cpt1b^m-/- mice have debilitated fat oxidation, less fat mass and improved glucose utilization compared to control C57BL/6 mice fed a 25% fat diet.

We hypothesized that CPT1b inhibition could reduce fat mass and lower blood glucose levels in a genetic mouse model of obesity and diabetes. To test this, we bred Cpt1b^m-/- mice to A …

A Data-Driven Model For Multiphase Flow In Pipes, Francisco Bruno Xavier Teles

LSU Master's Theses

Steady-state models commonly used to determine pressure gradient in wells are either empirical correlations or are dependent on empirical parameters correlated to specific flow conditions such as pressures, temperatures, fluid types, and pipe inclinations. The empirical nature of these models leads to limitations in predicting cases in a wide range of conditions. Established models may be delivering inaccurate results when applied at conditions beyond those which they were derived from. For instance, models available in the literature have shown to have limitations when used in large diameter pipes and high-velocity scenarios.

This work aims to evaluate different flow models with …

Limitations On Protecting Information Against Quantum Adversaries, Eneet Kaur

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to understand the fundamental limitations on secret key distillation in various settings of quantum key distribution. We first consider quantum steering, which is a resource for one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution. We introduce a conditional mutual information based quantifier for quantum steering, which we call intrinsic steerability. Next, we consider quantum non-locality, which is a resource for device-independent quantum key distribution. In this context, we introduce a quantifier, intrinsic non-locality, which is a monotone in the resource theory of Bell non-locality. Both these quantities are inspired by intrinsic information and squashed entanglement and are …

Theater Of The Obsessed, Cynthia Sampson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Theater of the Obsessed uses fandom to illustrate how audiencing can be a form of queer worldmaking. I begin by establishing that audiencing is a process that takes place over time and is not confined to the seat you’re sitting in while consuming various media. Because audiencing is a nearly invisible process, I turn to fandom and fanworks to demonstrate what some of the other parts look like. From there, I take a mystorical approach. That is, I use mystory to braid my personal audiencing, popular culture examples, and professional scholarship together to create a wide image. What becomes apparent …

Between The Judean Desert And Gaza: Asceticism And The Monastic Communities Of Palestine In The Sixth Century, Austin Mccray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation focuses on the religious culture of Christian monasticism in sixth-century Palestine. Rather than see the monastic communities of the Judean Desert, just to the east of Jerusalem, and those around Gaza as two independent monastic regions, as much scholarship has done, the dissertation focuses on the common threads that can be seen in the monastic teachings and idealized ascetic practices in the literature of the area. This dissertation reveals ways to redefine the boundaries between the monastic communities of Palestine during the sixth century as well as emphasizes the continuities between the monks of the Judean Desert and …

X-Ray Interferometry Without Analyzer For Breast Ct Application, A Simulation Study, Jingzhu Xu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We investigated a novel analyzer-less X-ray interferometer with a spatially modulated phase-grating (MPG) which produces three types of images (attenuation image, phase image and scatter image) for Breast computed tomography (CT). The system provides the three complimentary X-ray images with the goals of limiting the dose to the object and achieving similar attenuation image sensitivity as a standard absorption-only Breast CT. The MPG system features an X-ray source, a source-grating, a single phase-grating, and a detector. No analyzer grating is necessary, compared to other geometries such as Talbot-Lau X-ray interferometry (TLXI). Thus, there is a ~2 times improvement in X-ray …

Geometric Visual Illusion Effects On Visual Perception And Visuomotor Control: Emphasis On The Vertical-Horizontal Illusion, Shijun Yan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation was to explore the effects of potential vertical-horizontal (V-H) illusory influences on perceptuomotor control. As part of this focus, we examined the potential use of separate cortical visual streams: the ventral visual stream for perception and the dorsal visual stream for action. Three studies were conducted to determine the effects of the V-H illusion influences on length estimations using upper limb point-to-point movements and lower limb stepping movements, involving various illusory configurations, movement directions, gaze directions. After a short introduction (Chapter 1) and a more detailed review of existing literature (Chapter 2), we present manuscripts …

Modeling The Dynamics Of Phospholipids In The Fluid Phase Of Liposomes, Sudipta Gupta, Gerald J. Schneider

Faculty Publications

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry. We present the derivation of a new model to describe neutron spin echo spectroscopy and quasi-elastic neutron scattering data on liposomes. We compare the new model with existing approaches and benchmark it with experimental data. The analysis indicates the importance of including all major contributions in the modeling of the intermediate scattering function. Simultaneous analysis of the experimental data on lipids with full contrast and tail contrast matched samples reveals highly confined lipid tail motion. A comparison of their dynamics demonstrates the statistical independence of tail-motion and height-height correlation of the …

Characterization Of Drosophila Boundary Element Associated Factor Beaf-32b Interactions With Transcription Factors And Chromatin Remodeling Complexes., Yuankai Dong

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

BEAF (Boundary Element-Associated Factor) was originally identified as a chromatin domain insulator binding protein, suggesting that it might play a role in linking gene regulation to chromatin organization and dynamics. Genome-wide mapping found that BEAF is usually found near transcription start sites, often of housekeeping genes, suggesting that it might play a role in promoter function. This would be a nontraditional role for an insulator binding protein. To gain insight into molecular mechanisms of BEAF function, we identified proteins that interact with BEAF using yeast 2-hybrid assays. Here we focus on three identified transcription factors: Bcd, Scr and Sry-δ. Interactions …

Impacts Of Commercial Biopesticides On Crapemyrtle Bark Scale (Acanthococcus Lagerstroemiae) And Beneficial Insects, Giovana Matos Franco

LSU Master's Theses

The crapemyrtle bark scale (CMBS), Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae (Kuwana) (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae), is an important pest of crapemyrtles, Lagerstromia spp. (Myrtales: Lythraceae) since its damage results in an unpleasant aesthetic. Current CMBS management methods depend heavily on pesticides which impact on beneficial insects. Biopesticides show potential for pest control, host specificity, and low impact towards non-target organisms. The objectives of my thesis were to determine (1) if biopesticides are effective against CMBS infestations when applied in different seasons, and (2) their effects towards coccinellids known to attack CMBS.

To test the efficacy of selected biopesticides, treatments were delivered to potted plants or …

Not All Fun And Gaymes: Technology, Transgression, And Representation Among Gaymers, Kyle Bikowski

LSU Master's Theses

Over the past decade, a new identity has emerged within gaming and gay communities. This identity, Gaymer (Gay-gamer), incorporates elements from both gaming and gay communities, but is accepted by neither. This thesis asks how the interplay of actual and virtual worlds have shaped Gaymer identities, and further asks what the relationship between Gaymers and both the gay and gaming communities are; what elements are conducive to the formation of Gaymer communities; how Gaymers work with or around affordances to assert their identities in virtual and actual spaces; and to what degree representation, either within games as playable characters or …

The Influence Of Long-Term Memory On Working Memory Accuracy, Stephanie M. Saltzmann

LSU Master's Theses

The current research examined if representations in LTM necessarily aid working memory (WM) performance and if increasing interference in LTM limits facilitation from LTM on WM. Remembering multiple objects from the same semantic category can create interference in LTM that may decreases the accessibility of LTM representations during a WM task. In two experiments, participants completed an initial study phase in which objects were categorically (i.e., semantically) related or unrelated. Participants then completed a change detection task that included both previously studied and unstudied objects. In Experiment 1, an object changed into another object from a novel category. We found …

The Relationship Between Working Memory, Procedural Learning, And Declarative Memory In Children With Specific Language Impairment, Allison Grace Herring

LSU Master's Theses

Background: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have recently been suggested to have subclinical deficits in executive function skills. The current study seeks to better understand these deficits by exploring the role of nonverbal working memory in word learning and statistical learning in this population. Method: Participants included typically developing children along with children with SLI ranging from ages 8-12 years old. Word learning was assessed using a fast-mapping task, statistical learning was measured using a word-segmentation task, and nonverbal working memory was measured using an N-back task. Results: A significant difference was found between children’s segmentation accuracy scores. …

Larval Survival And Movement Of The Fall Armyworm And Corn Earworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) In Seed Blends Of Non-Bt And Pyramided Bt Corn: Implications For Resistance Management, Marcelo Dimase

LSU Master's Theses

A seed blend refuge has been used in the U.S. Corn Belt for Bt corn insect resistance management (IRM). The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (F.), and corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) are major target pests of Bt corn in the Americas. One major concern for the use of a seed blend refuge is that larval movement of insects among non-Bt and Bt plants could affect its efficacy for resistance management. To address this concern, field and greenhouse trials were conducted to determine 1) if seed blend refugia could provide comparable levels of susceptible S. frugiperda (aabb) as structured refugia and …

Investing In Local Communities: Examining The Community Relations Practices Of Louisiana’S Chemical Industry, Jillian Washington

LSU Master's Theses

In today’s society, businesses are tasked with fulfilling their corporate objectives while acting responsibly on behalf of the communities where they operate. This is often achieved through the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, which includes community relations. This qualitative study examines the extent that the chemical industry in south Louisiana executes community relations among the residents living in the shadows of its facilities. Perspectives from area residents of the chemical industry and its community relations practices are also analyzed to provide insight from the stakeholder view. Specific focus is given to companies found within Louisiana’s industrial corridor, also …

Estimation Of The Axial And Lateral Capacity Of Driven Piles From The Results Of Cone Penetration Test And Finite Element Analysis, Mohsen Amirmojahedi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Piles play an important role in transportation and bridges. They are used to resist axial and lateral loads transferred to them from structures, earth pressures, incline loads, vehicles, etc. In this study, the capacity of piles for axial and lateral loads is investigated.

The ultimate axial capacity of piles can be estimated using different approaches including static pile load tests, dynamic load tests, statnamic load tests, and static analysis based on laboratory tests (effective and total stress approaches) or in-situ tests (SPT, CPT, etc.). For each approach, different researchers have proposed different solutions for different soils and different piles. Mostly, …

Spatial Distribution Of Lycorma Delicatula (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae) Egg Masses On Tree-Of-Heaven, Black Walnut, And Siberian Elm In North America, Houping Liu, Richard J. Hartlieb, Timothy Schowalter

Faculty Publications

The spatial distribution of Lycorma delicatula (White) egg masses on three species of trees were studied in Pennsylvania. Five tree-of-heaven, five black walnut, and one Siberian elm trees were felled in early spring 2019 to sample for egg masses. Each egg mass was marked for its cardinal direction, position in the tree, height above ground, and spread from the bole. A total of 214 egg masses were found on tree-of-heaven and black walnut, with 38.3, 29.4, 22.0, and 10.3% on the north, west, south, and east quadrant, respectively. No significant difference in cardinal direction was found for either species. Equal …

Spinosad And Mixtures Of An Entomopathogenic Fungus And Pyrethrins For Control Of Sitona Lineatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) In Field Peas, Govinda Shrestha, Sindhura Mettupalli, Ramadevi Gadi, Debra A. Miller, Gadi V.P. Reddy, Fred Musser

Faculty Publications

The pea leaf weevil, Sitona lineatus L., is an important pest of field peas and faba beans in most temperate regions. As no information is currently available on efficacy of biopesticides for S. lineatus control, laboratory bioassays were performed to evaluate the impact of biopesticides (spinosad, Beauveria bassiana strain GHA, pyrethrins, B. bassiana GHA + pyrethrins, and B. bassiana GHA + azadirachtin) against adults of this pest. The concentrations used in this bioassay were 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 times the lowest labeled application rate of each product. Results were further verified in cage experiments by assessing biopesticide effects on …

Ranked Document Selection, J. Ian Munro, Gonzalo Navarro, Rahul Shah, Sharma V. Thankachan

Faculty Publications

Let D be a collection of string documents of n characters in total. The top-k document retrieval problem is to preprocess D into a data structure that, given a query (P,k), can return the k documents of D most relevant to pattern P. The relevance of a document d for a pattern P is given by a predefined ranking function w(P,d). Linear space and optimal query time solutions already exist for this problem. In this paper we consider a novel problem, document selection, in which a query (P,k) aims to report the kth document most relevant to P (instead of …