Digital Commons Network^™

Measurement Of Visual Cues And Their Effects On Online Users: An Image Mining Approach, Shuya Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Textual marketing communication is effective in various contexts such as print advertising, user-generated content, and social media (Diamond 1968; Ludwig et al. 2013; Nam and Kannan 2014). However, visual marketing communication studies are limited in the context of print advertising (e.g., Hagtvedt and Brasel 2017). This dissertation includes two essays to examine the visual communication effectiveness online.

Essay 1 develops a conceptual framework to examine the visual-based brand perception (VBBP) and related concepts on social media. We propose that the VBBP is a co-creational process between a company and its consumers and exhibits three characteristics: i) a two-way communication that …

Developing An Optomechanical Approach For Characterizing Mechanical Properties Of Single Adherent Cells, Ali Mehrnezhad

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mechanical properties of a cell reflect its biological and pathological conditions including cellular disorders and fundamental cellular processes such as cell division and differentiation. There have been active research efforts to develop high-throughput platforms to mechanically characterize single cells. Yet, many of these research efforts are focused on suspended cells and use a flow-through configuration. Therefore, adherent cells are detached prior to the characterization, which seriously perturbs the cellular conditions. Also, methods for adherent cells are limited in their throughput.

My study is aimed to fill the technical gap in the field of single cell analysis, which is a high-throughput …

Beyond The Transcript: A Narrative Analysis Of Students' Experiences With Academic Dismissal In A Baccalaureate Nursing Program, Angela Edwards Capello

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Re-defining different is the first step in addressing inequity in nursing education and the disparities that result in a high incidence of academic dismissal in baccalaureate nursing programs. What are the students' differences that contribute to one student’s ease of progression through a baccalaureate nursing program and those who struggle from the first semester?

This study provides a private look into the experiences of nine baccalaureate nursing students who were academically dismissed from their nursing program. Each story chronological from the time they decided to pursue nursing to their experiences during nursing school and to their lives after dismissal. …

Effective Use Of Systems Beyond The Firm’S Control: The Case Of Online Review Systems, Biagio Palese

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The world is changing, and companies are becoming more exposed to systems beyond their control (e.g., online review systems, social media, shopping comparisons websites). We define systems beyond the firm’s control as any information systems neither designed nor commissioned by a company, that the firm must use to compete. Despite their importance and increasing prevalence these types of systems are surprisingly understudied in Information Systems. We focus our attention on the effective use of a specific class of systems beyond the firm’s control: online review systems. Online reviews are virtualized and broadcasted customer service systems that affect customers’ decisions. Companies …

The Effects Of Collaboration On Harmonization In College Group Piano, Yining Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Current university-level group piano classes may not provide adequate training on functional keyboard skills needed by non-keyboard professional musicians. Innovative teaching strategies involving collaborative learning have been successfully demonstrated in other areas of education (e.g., math, science, and English) and might efficiently improve students’ functional keyboard skills. This dissertation examined the effects of collaborative learning on harmonization in college group piano classes. This study explored the differences between performance outcomes among students who collaborated to learn harmonization, as opposed to those who worked alone. It also investigated how collaborative work influenced students’ attitudes and confidence toward learning and performing harmonization. …

Chemical Approaches For Nanofabrication Based On Colloidal Lithography With Organosilanes, Nanoparticles And Nickel Films: The Role Of Water In Directing Surface Self-Assembly, Neepa Malsi Kumari Kuruppu Arachchige

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The capabilities for accomplishing fundamental surface studies with molecular systems are demonstrated in this dissertation using measurement and imaging modes of scanning probe microscopy. Model systems were chosen for investigations of surface self-assembly mechanisms, with an emphasis on understanding the role of interfacial water in surface reactivity. A key strategy for molecular level studies was to prepare nanostructures using protocols with colloidal lithography and scanning probe-based lithography (SPL). Nanofabricated samples were characterized ex situ with contact and tapping-mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) after key reaction steps, providing direct views of changes in surface morphology at the nanoscale. Magnetic sample modulation …

The Role Of Cognitive Vulnerabilities In The Severity Of Internalizing Symptoms In Children And Adolescents, Maysa Kaskas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Contemporary theories of psychopathology suggest that cognitive vulnerabilities play a key role in the development, severity, and maintenance of internalizing symptomology across the lifespan. The two primary cognitive vulnerabilities assessed in children and adolescents are anxiety sensitivity (i.e., negative beliefs about the consequences of physiological arousal; AS) and negative self-cognitions (i.e., negative self-referential thoughts; NS-C). These cognitive vulnerabilities are theorized to have transdiagnostic qualities, as both have been evaluated as predictors of symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, existing research in youth has largely examined AS in relation to anxiety alone and NS-C primarily in relation to depression. Additionally, the …

Designing And Composing For Interdependent Collaborative Performance With Physics-Based Virtual Instruments, Eric Sheffield

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Interdependent collaboration is a system of live musical performance in which performers can directly manipulate each other’s musical outcomes. While most collaborative musical systems implement electronic communication channels between players that allow for parameter mappings, remote transmissions of actions and intentions, or exchanges of musical fragments, they interrupt the energy continuum between gesture and sound, breaking our cognitive representation of gesture to sound dynamics.

Physics-based virtual instruments allow for acoustically and physically plausible behaviors that are related to (and can be extended beyond) our experience of the physical world. They inherently maintain and respect a representation of the gesture to …

An Experimental Study On The Impacts Of Using Multiple Pdc Cutters On Rock Cutting Process, Kian Sheikhrezaei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The ultimate goal in drilling in oil and gas applications is to improve the rate of penetration (ROP) and one important factor that affects the ROP enhancement is Drill Bit. Today, PDC bit plays a significant role in drilling all types of formations. Besides the material development, bit design or a way of cutters arrangements on a bit is a regular challenge for bit designers to improve the bit performance. This concept has been experimentally studied in this work.

Different sets of cutters arrangements containing three PDC cutters on a flat bit profile have been used to conduct a variety …

After-School Martial Arts: A History, Perceptions Of Academic Advantage, And Effects On Academic Performance, Rose Marie Kelley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

After-School Martial Arts utilizes mixed methods to further our understanding of (a) how martial arts became an established after-school activity for elementary school children, (b) how parents and participants perceive the value of martial arts, and (c) whether sustained participation in martial arts is associated with academic gains. I begin with a historical case study that examines how parents came to see martial arts as one of the viable after-school activities for their elementary school age children. Next, I employed qualitative observations and in-depth interviewing techniques to learn more about what parents and participants perceived as attractive in marital arts …

Voices From Within: Teacher Sensitivity In An Early Childhood Elementary School, Anjenette Victoria Holmes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using a qualitative case study approach, grounded in an ecological systems theory framework, this project sought to understand how a teacher describes her journey of becoming sensitive and uncover what helps or hinders a teacher’s ability to sensitive. This study collected and examined data from multiple data sources, which included direct and participant observations, collected documents and artifacts, semi-formal and informal interviews with school members, along with a focus-group. Data was evaluated for common codes and relevant emerging themes are discussed. Six early childhood teachers at an early childhood elementary school participated in the study. Results suggest that there are …

Mobile Music Development Tools For Creative Coders, Daniel Stuart Holmes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project is a body of work that facilitates the creation of musical mobile artworks. The project includes a code toolkit that enhances and simplifies the development of mobile music iOS applications, a flexible notation system designed for mobile musical interactions, and example apps and scored compositions to demonstrate the toolkit and notation system.

The code library is designed to simplify the technical aspect of user-centered design and development with a more direct connection between concept and deliverable. This sim- plification addresses learning problems (such as motivation, self-efficacy, and self-perceived understanding) by bridging the gap between idea and functional prototype …

A New Magnetic Topological Quantum Material Candidate By Design, Weiwei Xie, Xin Gui

Faculty Publications

Magnetism, when combined with an unconventional electronic band structure, can give rise to forefront electronic properties such as the quantum anomalous Hall effect, axion electrodynamics, and Majorana fermions. Here we report the characterization of high-quality crystals of EuSn2P2, a new quantum material specifically designed to engender unconventional electronic states plus magnetism. EuSn2P2 has a layered, Bi2Te3-type structure. Ferromagnetic interactions dominate the Curie-Weiss susceptibility, but a transition to antiferromagnetic ordering occurs near 30 K. Neutron diffraction reveals that this is due to two-dimensional ferromagnetic spin alignment within individual Eu layers and antiferromagnetic alignment between layers-this magnetic state surrounds the Sn-P layers …

Identification Of Particles With Lorentz Factor Up To 10 4 With Transition Radiation Detectors Based On Micro-Strip Silicon Detectors, J. Alozy, N. Belyaev, M. Campbell, M. Cherry, F. Dachs, S. Doronin, K. Filippov, P. Fusco, F. Gargano, E. Heijne, S. Konovalov, D. Krasnopevtsev, X. Llopart, F. Loparco, V. Mascagna, M. N. Mazziotta, H. Pernegger, D. Ponomarenko, M. Prest, D. Pyatiizbyantseva, R. Radomskii, C. Rembser, A. Romaniouk, A. A. Savchenko, D. Schaefer, E. J. Schioppa, D. Shchukin, D. Yu Sergeeva, E. Shulga, S. Smirnov, Y. Smirnov, M. Soldani, P. Spinelli

Faculty Publications

This work is dedicated to the study of a technique for hadron identification in the TeV momentum range, based on the simultaneous measurement of the energies and of the emission angles of the Transition Radiation (TR) X-rays with respect to the radiating particles. A detector setup has been built and tested with particles in a wide range of Lorentz factors (from about 10 3 to about 4×10 4 crossing different types of radiators. The measured double-differential (in energy and angle) spectra of the TR photons are in a reasonably good agreement with TR simulation predictions.

Geometric Problems In Robot Exploration, Wyatt Preston Clements

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Robots are increasingly utilized to perform tasks in today's world. This has varied from vacuuming to building advanced structures. With robots being used for tasks such as these, new challenges are introduced. Problems that have been previously researched to be performed, either theoretically or implemented, need to be redesigned to be able to better handle these challenges. In this thesis, I will discuss multiple problems that have previously been researched and I have redesigned to be possible to be implemented by robots or that I have developed a new way for the robots to solve the problem. I focus on …

Nonlinear Optical Studies Of Bulk And Thin Film Complex Materials, Joel E. Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nonlinear optical studies of bulk and thin film materials provide a vast playground for physical and dynamical characterization. In this thesis, we have implemented experimental methods to probe novel phase transitions in single crystals using rotational anisotropic second harmonic generation (RASHG) and carrier dynamics in thin films with time-resolved pump-probe reflectivity. Furthermore, a novel low temperature ultra-high vacuum system coupled to nonlinear optics has been developed to extend lab capabilities. Doping (Bi_1-xSb_x)₂Se₃ with antimony, the surface electronic reconstruction near x=80% was identified with RASHG by deviations in the six-fold and three-fold polarization anisotropic …

A Case-Study Approach To Investigate Transmission, Co-Infection, And Clinical Sequelae During Epidemics Of Dengue And Ebola Virus Disease, Jennifer Elizabeth Giovanni

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

From within their ecologic niches, zoonotic viruses emerge from animal reservoirs into the edges and centers of human habitation to exploit opportunities for unabated transmission within immunologically–naïve populations. Our understanding of where, in whom, and how these viruses emerge is under direct challenge, driving the evolution of modern infectious disease epidemiology within a rapidly-connected global community. The studies presented herein are based on analyses of both aggregate and case-level data, which, we argue, provide unique insight into the complexities of transmission, co-infection, and clinical sequelae occurring within, and arising from, epidemics of emerging zoonotic viruses. In Chapter II, we investigate …

Brønsted Acid-Catalyzed Formal [2 + 2 + 1] Annulation For The Modular Synthesis Of Tetrahydroindoles And Tetrahydrocyclopenta[ B]Pyrroles, Joshua A. Malone, Courtney E. Toussel, Frank R. Fronczek, Rendy Kartika

Faculty Publications

© 2019 American Chemical Society. An expedient synthesis of tetrahydroindoles and tetrahydrocyclopenta[b]pyrroles, highlighted by Brønsted acid catalyzed formal [2 + 2 + 1] annulation reaction, is reported. Using three readily accessible reaction components, i.e., an electrophilic species in silyloxyallyl cations and two distinct nucleophiles in silylenol ethers and amines, our chemistry enables the assembly and functionalization of these biologically important N-heterocycles in a highly modular manner.

Music Reading For Everybody: Notation For Laptop Music Making, Kathleen Alyse Winn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to document the creation of a new music notation called KeyMusic for the ASCII/QWERTY keyboard on any computer platform. This notation is designed to enable those without musical training the ability to participate in music making. Creation of the notation is traced from its conception to the application of HCI (Human Computer Interaction) usability criteria to establish its efficacy for users. All of the pieces notated in this format so far, are transcriptions from traditional folk song and arrangements of classical melodies. The development of a chromatic, polytonal, multitimbral laptop instrument which is designed …

Multiformat Communication Strategies: A Conceptual Framework And Empirical Investigation Of Video Formats, Jordan Worth Moffett

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Essay One was conducted to build a more complete view of bilateral, multiformat customer–firm communication. A review of communication theory builds a foundation for effective multiformat strategies across different exchange contexts (e.g., message complexity) and timing factors (e.g., relationship duration), while accounting for both positive and negative aspects of communication richness. Four perspectives on multiformat communication during exchange events suggest pertinent propositions and produce three parsimonious tenets. First, the authors propose a communication theory foundation for relationship marketing; second, they compile and synthesize extant research. Third, they identify six fundamental communication characteristics associated with different formats. Finally, they integrate insights …

Numerical Modeling Of Wave Dynamics And Sediment Transport Near The Mississippi Birdfoot Delta And Barataria Estuary, Soroush Sorourian

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Barataria Basin is a large estuarine system in Southeastern Louisiana, connected to the Gulf of Mexico through a number of inlets, the most important of which is the Barataria Pass. This research examines, during April-June 2010 including both cold front passage and calm summer-time wind regimes, the wave dynamics in this basin and in its major inlets, morphological evolution near the Barataria Pass, and the budgeting and dispersal of the Mississippi River sediment in the birdfoot delta region. An unstructured grid, terrain following, high resolution coupled FVCOM-SWAVE-SED model is employed and validated in this study. The numerical model results …

Photo-Physical Properties Of Novel Gumbos For Optoelectronic Applications, Thenahandi Prasanthi Deepthika De Silva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are predicted to revolutionize next generation consumer electronics by offering many advantageous device characteristics, including low power consumption, low heat dissipation, a tunable and wider color gamut, high resolution and contrast, light weight, flexibility, and semi-transparency. However, a major limiting factor for OLEDs to reach their full potential is that only a few known blue OLED emitters with substantial spectral purity and longevity are available to date. Therefore, focus of this research is on understanding and addressing limitations of OLED emitters, with an emphasis on improving the characteristics of blue emitters.

The work presented in …

Regional Pliocene Exhumation Of The Lesser Himalaya In The Indus Drainage, Peter D. Clift, Peng Zhou, Daniel F. Stockli, Jerzy Blusztajn

Faculty Publications

© Author(s) 2019. New bulk sediment Sr and Nd isotope data, coupled with U-Pb dating of detrital zircon grains from sediment cored by the International Ocean Discovery Program in the Arabian Sea, allow the reconstruction of erosion in the Indus catchment since ∼ 17 Ma. Increasing ϵNd values from 17 to 9.5 Ma imply relatively more erosion from the Karakoram and Kohistan, likely linked to slip on the Karakoram Fault and compression in the southern and eastern Karakoram. After a period of relative stability from 9.5 to 5.7 Ma, there is a long-term decrease in ϵNd values that corresponds with …

Effect Of Moisture On Dopant Segregation In Solid Hosts, Pragathi Darapaneni, Natalia S. Moura, Darrell Harry, David A. Cullen, Kerry M. Dooley, James A. Dorman

Faculty Publications

Transition metal-doped semiconductor materials are extensively employed for light harvesting and photocatalytic applications owing to their increased light absorption and charge mobility. In this work, spatial tailoring of the Ni dopant in TiO2 nanostructures is performed by varying the secondary processing parameters to engineer the resulting optoelectronic properties for select applications. Specifically, the aging of the dried Ti sol and the resulting Ni segregation are observed to be moisture-driven phenomena based on the infrared and time-resolved UV-vis spectroscopy measurements. While X-ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy coupled with electron energy-loss spectroscopy characterizations show a clear difference in the crystal …

Feeling The Heat: Developing A Psychological Needs-Based Theory Of Performance Pressure At Work, Jacob Henry Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The concept of performance pressure has been prevalent in management research for decades. Ranging from the impact of time constraints on productivity to the influence of social evaluation on the performance of individuals and teams, pressure is a ubiquitous phenomenon that has generated significant interest in the social sciences. Despite its substantive footprint within management research, there is a lack of agreement among scholars regarding what performance pressure actually is (i.e., an internal or external phenomenon). Further, research on the subject has proliferated without a coherent theoretical understanding of why and how performance pressure arises as well as why and …

Role Of The Drosophila Beaf Protein In Chromatin Domain Insulator And Promoter Function, Mukesh Maharjan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Proper folding of eukaryotic genomes is required to allow correct interactions between different parts of chromosomes. Precise and timely interactions among different parts of a chromosome allow proper functioning inside a nucleus, including gene regulation, DNA replication and DNA repair. Eukaryotic regulatory elements that facilitate folding and interactions include enhancers, promoters and insulator elements. Insulator elements and their binding proteins play an important role in regulating correct chromatin structure and function. The Drosophila melanogaster special chromatin structure (scs’) is one such insulator. The Boundary Element Associated Factor (BEAF) binds to scs’. BEAF is a 32 kDa protein that has two …

Role Of Tidal Wetland Stability In Lateral Fluxes Of Particulate Organic Matter And Carbon, Neil K. Ganju, Zafer Defne, Tracy Elsey‐Quirk, Julia M. Moriarty

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

All-Sky Search For Long-Duration Gravitational-Wave Transients In The Second Advanced Ligo Observing Run, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, R. X. Adhikari, V. B. Adya, C. Affeldt, M. Agathos, K. Agatsuma, N. Aggarwal, O. D. Aguiar, L. Aiello, A. Ain, P. Ajith, G. Allen, A. Allocca, M. A. Aloy, P. A. Altin, A. Amato, S. Anand, A. Ananyeva, S. B. Anderson, W. G. Anderson, S. V. Angelova, S. Antier, S. Appert, K. Arai, M. C. Araya, J. S. Areeda, M. Arène

Faculty Publications

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational-wave transients in the data from the Advanced LIGO second observation run; we search for gravitational-wave transients of 2-500 s duration in the 24-2048 Hz frequency band with minimal assumptions about signal properties such as waveform morphologies, polarization, sky location or time of occurrence. Signal families covered by these search algorithms include fallback accretion onto neutron stars, broadband chirps from innermost stable circular orbit waves around rotating black holes, eccentric inspiral-merger-ringdown compact binary coalescence waveforms, and other models. The second observation run totals about 118.3 days of coincident data between November …

Exploring The Sensitivity Of Gravitational Wave Detectors To Neutron Star Physics, Denis Martynov, Haixing Miao, Huan Yang, Francisco Hernandez Vivanco, Eric Thrane, Rory Smith, Paul Lasky, William E. East, Rana Adhikari, Andreas Bauswein, Aidan Brooks, Yanbei Chen, Thomas Corbitt, Andreas Freise, Hartmut Grote, Yuri Levin, Chunnong Zhao, Alberto Vecchio

Faculty Publications

The physics of neutron stars can be studied with gravitational waves emitted from coalescing binary systems. Tidal effects become significant during the last few orbits and can be visible in the gravitational wave spectrum above 500 Hz. After the merger, the neutron star remnant oscillates at frequencies above 1 kHz and can collapse into a black hole. Gravitational wave detectors with a sensitivity of ≃10-24 strain/Hz at 2-4 kHz can observe these oscillations from a source which is approximately 100 Mpc away. The current observatories, such as LIGO and Virgo, are limited by shot noise at high frequencies and have …

Social Plasticity In The Fish Brain: Neuroscientific And Ethological Aspects, Karen Maruska, Marta C. Soares, Monica Lima-Maximino, Diógenes Henrique De Siqueira-Silva, Caio Maximino

Faculty Publications

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Social plasticity, defined as the ability to adaptively change the expression of social behavior according to previous experience and to social context, is a key ecological performance trait that should be viewed as crucial for Darwinian fitness. The neural mechanisms for social plasticity are poorly understood, in part due to skewed reliance on rodent models. Fish model organisms are relevant in the field of social plasticity for at least two reasons: first, the diversity of social organization among fish species is staggering, increasing the breadth of evolutionary relevant questions that can be asked. Second, that diversity …