Narratives Of Vietnamese Teachers: Exploring Existential Givens Of Freedom, Meaning, And Isolation, Huy D. Nguyen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Drawing on Yalom’s framework of existential givens, this study explores how Vietnamese teachers experience existential freedom, existential isolation, and life meaningfulness. The notion of experience serves as the conceptual and interpretive foundation through which participants articulate these existential dimensions. Three participants were selected, and data were collected from online journal entries, vignette responses, and semi-structured interviews. Methodologically, it adopts intuitive inquiry as both conceptual lens and analytic process, integrating multiple modes of knowing and embodied understanding to explore how teachers imagine, experience, and interpret their work. To deepen interpretation, narrative structuring was incorporated to reveal the emotional and relational textures …

Computational Nanoscale Investigations Of Structure, Dynamics, And Reactivity At Solid–Liquid Interfaces, Golam Azom

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Interfaces where two or more condensed phases meet govern phenomena central to catalysis, electrochemical energy conversion, separations, and environmental remediation. Their structural heterogeneity and dynamic nature make them challenging to probe experimentally, but computer simulations provide molecular-level insights into processes that remain inaccessible to experiments. This dissertation employs ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD), classical molecular dynamics, and machine-learned interatomic potentials to investigate the structure, dynamics, and proton transport at graphene oxide (GO)–liquid interfaces.

The first project explores aqueous GO interfaces across a spectrum of oxidation states that extends from highly oxidized sheets to fully reduced graphene. Deep neural network force …

Functional Cellulose Nanomaterials In Value-Added Applications, Mohammad Shayan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cellulose nanomaterials (CNMs), including cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), offer potential value-added applications. This dissertation explores their versatility through three applications. In the first application, CNCs and CNFs were combined to create a pH-sensitive film by immobilizing anthocyanins from red cabbage extract (RCE). The addition of RCE altered the suspension's rheological, optical, and mechanical properties, with films containing 30 wt.% RCE exhibiting optimal performance and rapid pH responsiveness for seafood packaging. The second application addressed zinc dendrite growth and short circuits in aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) by fabricating a hybrid NFC/Al(OH)₃ /PTFE protective layer for zinc anodes. …

Modeling Nutrient Functions: Strengthening The Reliability And Applicability Of Ecosystem Service Models For Land Use Decision-Making, Mariam Gabriela Valladares Castellanos

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Effective water quality management requires a clear understanding of both the magnitude and spatial distribution of nutrient retention and export across dynamic landscapes, given their direct implications for drinking water supply, ecosystem integrity, fisheries, and recreational uses. Equally important is anticipating trade-offs from management actions, which can alter ecosystem functioning and the flow of services. Modeling tools provide a means to predict nutrient outcomes, evaluate these trade-offs, and support decision-making; however, their utility is often constrained by persistent challenges, including model uncertainty, limited applicability in data-scarce regions, and insufficient empirical foundations to inform scenario-driven decision-making. This dissertation addresses these gaps …

How The Inter-Nucleon Force Shapes Emergent Collectivity And Imparts Uncertainties In Ab Initio Nuclear Observables, Kevin Becker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The importance of collective motion in atomic nuclei has been well-established for many decades. Even before the advent of the nuclear shell model and its much-needed answers to surprising empirical phenomena, collectivity and surface deformation have played a vital role in broadening our knowledge. Reconciling the collective and single-particle camps into a unified description required tremendous strides in the application of group theory and advances in high-performance supercomputing, and thanks to these efforts the symmetry-adapted no-core shell model, or SA-NCSM, has developed into a reliable model for the study of deformed light and medium-mass nuclei. State-of-the-art calculations reveal remarkably simple …

Compound-Specific Isotope Records Of Dust Provenance And Hydroclimate In The North Pacific And Marginal Seas Of East Asia: Integrating N-Alkane Δ13c And Δd With Standardized Analytical Frameworks, Julian W. Traphagan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents advancements in compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) through methodological innovation and paleoclimate reconstruction in Central and East Asia. Utilizing plant wax n-alkanes from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) sediment cores, this research reconstructs atmospheric circulation shifts responding to tectonic evolution and climate transitions since the Late Miocene.

Chapter 1 investigates hydrogen isotope compositions (δD_wax) from IODP U1430 (Sea of Japan), ODP 886, and ODP 1208 (North Pacific) to trace dust provenance and hydroclimate changes since ~13 Ma. Results reveal persistently segmented source-to-sink systems: the Sea of Japan dominated by westerly …

Investigation Of Co-Current And Counter-Current Multiphase Flow In Upstream Drilling And Production Applications, Hazem Fleifel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the domain of upstream Petroleum Engineering, the dynamics of co-current and counter-current multiphase flows present huge challenges, significantly impacting the efficiency of associated processes. This study investigates two specific applications concerning these flow behaviors, involving both laboratory experiments and transient computer simulations. This work investigates two distinct well control and production enhancement processes, involving multiphase flow dynamics: the bullheading kill procedure and liquid-assisted gas lift (LAGL).

The first topic (Topic 1) explores the bullheading process, a type of well control methods, by challenging the traditional understanding that gas removal efficiency increases monotonically with injection pump flow rate. Through 1D …

Exploring Longitudinal Stability Of Spatiotemporal Sequential Patterns By Means Of Autoencoder Schemes For Eeg Based Personal Identification, Muhammed E. Oztemel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Robust personal identification remains a critical and challenging task in the digital era. Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a unique biometric modality that captures individual brain dynamics through complex neural signals. This dissertation proposes autoencoder (AE) based feature extraction and subject identification through these features. EEG recordings are first transformed into topographic maps to represent spatial brain activity. Consecutive topomaps are then concatenated to capture temporal transitions across frames. Convolutional autoencoders (CAEs) are used to learn spatial and temporal patterns, while domain-adaptive AEs are designed to model evoked potential based responses. Additionally, self-attention mechanism is incorporated to enhance feature representation. To analyze …

Essays On Stablecoins’ Stability, Ravi Joshi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present three independent essays that contribute to the literature on stablecoins, the run-on stablecoin (Terra), and the information narrative surrounding the run. The first essay offers a comprehensive overview of the stablecoin ecosystem, the structural frictions that challenge peg maintenance, and the evolving regulatory landscape governing stablecoin issuance and use. In the second essay, I investigate the collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin and provide evidence that the collapse mimicked a run by demonstrating liquidity shortages on centralized exchanges. I show that Terra’s arbitrage mechanism broke on May 7, 2022, and that sustained price deviations …

Patterns And Processes Behind Secretive Marshbird Movement, Abundance, And Distribution Across Southeastern Louisiana, Leah Moran

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Restoration and conservation of coastal Louisiana hinges on understanding the patterns and processes underlying habitat heterogeneity on the landscape and therefore the species that inhabits this region, including secretive marshbirds. Elusive in nature, this guild of birds has evolved under dynamic hydroperiods, and myriad plant communities present within wetlands. Only recently, however, has research focused on the role of hydrologic dynamics and vegetative structure and distribution on abundance, movement and detection of marshbirds, specifically within southeastern Louisiana. This study aimed to quantify the ecological patterns and processes, particularly hydrologic processes and landscape structure, driving breeding secretive marshbird movement, abundance and …

Quasistatic Peridynamics, Existence Of Unique Solution In The Presence Of Damage, Nuwanthi N. Samarawickrama

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A mathematical model for damage propagation based on nonlocal potentials is developed within the framework of peridynamics. This model is applied to simulate damage evolution in cyclically loaded structures. By neglecting inertial effects, a well-posed quasistatic formulation for cyclic loading is obtained.\\ The resulting equation is expressed as a nonlocal and nonlinear integral operator that couples damage evolution to the deformation field.\\ This coupling occurs through the product of a damage factor and the derivative of a force potential. The damage factor ranges between zero and one, where one represents undamaged material and zero indicates complete damage.\\ It serves to …

Towards Leveraging Social Media Data For Fostering Collaborations Among Non-Profits, Monazil Chowdhury

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nonprofit organizations serve a crucial role in tackling a wide range of significant social, environmental, and economic issues. But it is often hard to get a clear picture of their work because their information is spread out and it is difficult to see how they are collaborating. To address this issue we developed a web-based tool to collect scattered data—from a variety of sources, such as the IRS, social media, and the Census, into one easy-to-use resource. The tool begins by taking IRS records and geocoding each nonprofit’s physical address With its coordinates. It then retrieves census tract information from …

A Comparative Case Study Of Mentoring Practices By National Board Certified And Non-Certified Teacher Mentors, Bethany Mcclure

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As preservice teacher candidates engage in field experiences that shape their development of teacher identity, it is important to examine their perceptions of the mentoring process. This study explored how preservice teacher candidates construct their own knowledge about mentoring as a process, as well as explored the perceptions of mentor teachers, both National Board Certified, and non-National Board Certified, as they facilitated the learning and growth of their mentees. Many prior studies on the mentoring process exist, however, a gap in the literature that was identified and explored through this study included the impact that National Board Certified Teachers have …

Digital Forensics And Ai: Artifact Analysis And Using Ai In The Forensics Domain, Clinton Joel Walker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Digital Forensics (DF) is a field of forensic science focusing on the acquisition, authentication, and analysis of digital evidence while maintaining integrity of that data. DF analysts use forensic tools to parse large volumes of data for investigations and depend on them for identification of pertinent digital evidence in vast amounts of data. Keeping up with innovations and ever-expanding data volumes is a constant challenge for these investigators. The prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in everyday computing is rapidly expanding, with the use of Machine Learning (ML) and Large Language Models (LLM)s becoming increasingly commonplace. Innovations in technology bring new …

A Performance Guide To Christos Hatzis’ Songs On Poems By Sappho, Maria E. Thomas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

Christos Hatzis’ Three Songs of Poems by Sappho (1999) represents a compelling yet understudied contribution to contemporary art song repertoire. This study examines Hatzis’ settings of Sappho’s Fragments 1, 16, and 44, offering both scholarly analysis and practical performance guidance to make the cycle more accessible to singers and scholars. Through musical and textual analysis, this project reveals how Hatzis bridges ancient Greek lyric poetry with modern compositional techniques. The study demonstrates his innovative approach to word painting, rhythmic flexibility, and extended tonality, showing how these elements honor Sappho’s intimate first-person voice while creating a distinctive 20th-century art song …

The Design And Effect Of Continuum Robot Compliance On Locomotion, Parsa Molaei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Continuum robots, due to their compliant structures and ability to navigate through constrained environments, offer significant advantages in applications requiring safe physical interaction and dexterous motion. However, challenges related to limited structural stiffness, payload capacity, and precise control remain open problems in the field. This dissertation presents novel contributions aimed at addressing these limitations through two main actuation units of continuum robots: tendon-driven continuum robots (TDCRs) and concentric tube robots (CTRs). In the first part, we focus on methods to improve the stability and modify the stiffness of the TDCR. A tendon decoupling strategy is introduced for planar TDCRs. The …

Gain Threshold Optimization Using Fano Resonance, Alina Oktiabrskaia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The study of resonances in electromagnetics plays a critical role in the design of optical systems. This dissertation investigates the interaction between resonance and gain in optical structures to establish a universal principle for achieving ultra-low-threshold lasing. Through the analysis of geometric symmetries, material properties, and coupling mechanisms, this research develops prototype structures applicable to a wide range of optical and electromagnetic systems. A range of models is considered, starting from a simple onedimensional string-resonator system (based on the model of H. Lamb), then advancing to two- and three-dimensional waveguide models, and culminating with a realistic high-contrast model in open …

Quantitative Boundary Doubling Estimates For Elliptic Equations, Jack Dalberg

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We present an approach for obtaining quantitative boundary doubling inequalities for elliptic equations with Neumann boundary conditions. Carleman estimates are used to prove three-ball inequalities, which are then used to prove quantitative doubling inequalities, with bootstrapping from the interior to the boundary. This approach is illustrated by its application to the Laplace eigenvalue problem with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions, where sharp doubling inequalities are recovered.

When then consider a equation with non homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions. By following the approach, we are able to obtain potentially sharp results. Finally, we are able to get an improvement on previously obtained results …

The Search For Magnetar Giant Flares In Archival Gamma-Ray Burst Data To Constrain Their Rates And Energetics, Aaron Trigg

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Magnetar giant flares are rare, extremely bright bursts of gamma-rays from highly magnetized neutron stars. These events are difficult to identify because, at extragalactic distances, they can appear similar to other astrophysical phenomena. Only a handful have been confidently identified to date, limiting our understanding of their origin and physical properties. This dissertation focuses on expanding the sample of known events and enabling a more detailed characterization of their observational features. We report on two newly identified examples, GRB 180128A and GRB 231115A, that are consistent with a magnetar origin based on their spectral properties and association with nearby star-forming …

Investigation Of Subcellular Damage And Long-Term Non-Cancerous Cardiovascular Effects Following Whole-Body Photon Irradiation, Nousha Afshari

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Current radiobiological models focus primarily on nuclear DNA damage and fail to fully explain radiation-induced noncancerous health effects. This dissertation investigates whether non-nuclear subcellular structures contribute to radiation-induced biological damage through experimental biomarker analysis and computational microdosimetry. The central hypothesis posits that whole-body photon irradiation results in subcellular non-nuclear damage, specifically increased circulating mitochondrial DNA concentrations, that correlates with radiation dose and long-term noncancerous effects such as cardiovascular disease.

Specific Aim 1 measured mitochondrial and nuclear DNA concentrations in banked blood samples from 72 Chinese rhesus macaques that previously received whole-body photon irradiation ($0-10$ Gy) from Cobalt-60 or LINAC sources. …

A Theory Of Fundamental Strata For Twisted Formal Connections, Sorawit Viwanthananut

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Let $G$ be a complex reductive group. A fundamental stratum for $G$ is a triple $(x,r,\beta)$ where $x$ is a point in the Bruhat-Tits building of $G$, $r$ is a nonnegative real number called depth of the stratum, and $\beta$ is a semistable functional on the Moy-Prasad filtration of $\fg$ associated to $x$ at level $r$. Fundamental strata were first introduced to classify admissible representations of a $p$-adic reductive group. More recently, Bremer and Sage have shown that fundamental strata play an important role in the geometric Langlands program and developed a theory of fundamental strata for $G$-connections. In this …

Strichartz Estimates For Many Particle Dispersive Equations, Tristan Reynoso

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Dispersive equations are useful for describing a wide variety of phenomena in which solutions disperse through the space as time progresses. These equations show up frequently in physics, especially when studying quantum mechanical and fluid related systems. The single particle variants of equations such as the Schr\"{o}dinger and Wave equations have been studied at great length throughout modern history. Over the last couple decades progress has been made toward extending single particle dispersive equations to cover their many body counterparts. Space-time Strichartz estimates for the homogenous $N$-particle Schr\"{o}dinger equation with small interacting potentials was recently established on both $\mathbb{R}^d$ and …

Predictive Indicators For Graduation Upon Acceptance Into A Naacls-Approved Medical Laboratory Science Program, Warren Hovis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected academic and personal demographic characteristics on student success at a NAACLS-accredited medical laboratory science program in the southern portion of the United States.

Both academic and demographic categories were selected on students who entered the medical laboratory science program from 2014 to 2019 (pre-COVID). The sanitized, archived data set was provided by the MLS department and the registrar and student affairs office at the participating school. The extant data set contained academic and demographic variables, collected over a five-year period, of initially over 170 accepted MLS students. …

Interfacial Phenomena Of Plastics: From Surface Modifications To Environmental Impacts, Kennedy Guillot

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Plastic is a ubiquitous part of everyday life since its introduction in the previous century. Global production continues to exponentially increase, establishing plastics as one of the most dominant materials in modern manufacturing. Within the scope of academia, plastic is essential due to its low cost and sterility, particularly for minimizing contamination. Beyond the laboratory, plastic use spans numerous industries, and its use and disposal has since raised many environmental concerns. Once valued for its durability, plastics now pollute the environment in landfills and natural ecosystems. In recent decades, the consequences of this pollution have been investigated, yet the full …

Investigating The Role Of Aerosols In Extreme Precipitation Events Along The Gulf Coast Of The U.S.A., Wenjia Cao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Atmospheric aerosols have been found to influence tropical cyclone (TC) and flood event development. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting model is applied to investigate specific microphysical impacts and aerosol sensitivity to heavy precipitation and TC events in the U.S. Gulf Coastal area. The Thompson aerosol-aware scheme with regular and adjusted aerosol concentration scenarios is used to quantify precipitation, wind field, horizontal/vertical structures, and track variations, by aerosol mixing ratio. In general, results for the three storms analyzed (the 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, flood event (Chapter 2); Hurricane Harvey in 2017 (Chapter 3); and an idealized storm event …

The Application Of Syncopated Rhythms In The Development Of Sight-Reading Skills For Non-Keyboard Music Majors, Ronald David Rodriguez Herrera

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of integrating syncopated rhythms into the group piano curriculum for undergraduate music students with varied levels of piano proficiency. Participants (N=76) enrolled in Group Piano II and IV were assigned control and experimental groups across multiple class sections. Three research questions guided the study: (1) How does the introduction of syncopated rhythm patterns affect group piano students’ sight-reading performance? (2) How does consistent practice of syncopated rhythms influence students' ability to sustain a steady pulse? (3) Do students consider exposure to syncopated rhythms a valuable component in their future careers as music educators …

Memory-Augmented Llm Agent For Predicting Locomotion Modes In Construction Activities, Ehsan Ahmadi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The construction industry faces significant challenges, including labor shortages, high physical demands, and safety risks, necessitating advanced assistive technologies like exoskeletons to enhance worker efficiency and reduce injuries. However, effective exoskeleton control in dynamic construction environments requires accurate locomotion prediction, a task complicated by the diversity of activities and reliance on supervised learning methods that struggle to generalize. This study investigates a multimodal approach to locomotion prediction, leveraging speech commands and visual data from smart glasses to enable adaptive and safe human-exoskeleton interaction. The research unfolds in two stages: the first develops a framework to evaluate the zero-shot capability and …

Advanced Manufacturing Of Multifunctional Shape Memory Polymer Composites And Self-Healing Systems, John B. Konlan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The need for multifunctional light weight structures for engineering applications is on the rise. Multifunctional composites are desired because of their ability to combine multiple functionalities into one structure. The advantages of a high strength-to-weight ratio of multifunctional composites make them desirable and suitable for use in energy-efficient applications. Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) have attracted interest over the past several decades because of their multifunctional nature. They have found use in many applications such as aerospace, satellites, automobiles, textiles, and biomedical devices, where lightweight and multifunctionality are key. The self-healing nature of most SMPs makes them suitable for use in lightweight …

Multiparticle Quantum Plasmonics: Fundamentals And Applications, Mingyuan Hong

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Quantum plasmonics explores the interaction between light and collective charge oscillations at metal-dielectric interfaces, enabling strong light confinement and enhanced quantum effects at the nanoscale. While traditional quantum optics has primarily focused on single-photon systems, an intermediate regime exists between classical and single-photon optics - multiparticle (or multiphoton) quantum optics. In this regime, classical light sources, when analyzed through techniques such as photon-number-resolving (PNR) detection and projective measurement, can reveal nontrivial quantum correlations. This thesis investigates how multiparticle quantum plasmonics harnesses these correlations to control quantum statistical properties, enhance coherence, and enable novel applications in quantum technologies.

In this thesis, …

Decadal To Millennial-Scale Morphodynamic Evolution Of Microtidal Marshes, Samuel Mason Zapp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Tidal marshes are susceptible to rapidly converting to open water due to their low elevations within the tidal frame. A continuous supply of externally supplied mineral sediment and in situ organic material production is necessary to offset elevation losses from relative sea level rise and erosion. Complex feedbacks between hydrodynamics, the erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment, and physical modification of the landscape by the establishment of intertidal vegetation govern the spatial and temporal patterns of elevation response. This dissertation focuses on modeling how these dynamics drive marsh landscape evolution in the past, present, and into the future under changing …