Digital Commons Network^™

The First Rule Of Improv, John M. Gilder

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The First Rule of Improv is a collection of fictional short stories concerned with loss, life’s unfairness, the weight of the past, and how people succeed or fail in coping. Each story explores these notions through its characters, who vary wildly in terms of both dramatic severity and success in the face of adversity, with the first rule of improv—to accept and build—being suggested by the author as the healthiest manner of approach, if not necessarily the easiest.

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Academic Success In The First Year Of A Physical Therapist Program, Thuha Hoang

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

With a growing and more diverse population nationally, physical therapist programs have evolved to meet the demands for physical therapists in our healthcare system. Despite the substantial efforts to increase student populations to meet workforce shortage, 5-35% will depart in the early years of their program. Current evidence suggests the association of measurable factors with students’ academic success in physical therapist education. However, these measurable factors have accounted for a small variance in explaining the experiences of academic success. In order to sustain the current healthcare system, physical therapist programs need to ensure that students persist and graduate.

The purposes …

Do We Make A Sound? An American Morality Play, Bennett A. Kirschner

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Detection Of Sand Boils From Images Using Machine Learning Approaches, Aditi S. Kuchi

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Levees provide protection for vast amounts of commercial and residential properties. However, these structures degrade over time, due to the impact of severe weather, sand boils, subsidence of land, seepage, etc. In this research, we focus on detecting sand boils. Sand boils occur when water under pressure wells up to the surface through a bed of sand. These make levees especially vulnerable. Object detection is a good approach to confirm the presence of sand boils from satellite or drone imagery, which can be utilized to assist in the automated levee monitoring methodology. Since sand boils have distinct features, applying object …

Coastal Fortresses: A Cross-Case Analysis Of Water, Policy, And Tourism Development In Three Gulf Coast Communities, Kimberly A. Krupa

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

As a result of development pressures and water resource struggles, once rural, spatially segregated coastal commercial fishing villages along the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico are increasingly tourist frontiers for elites and the emergent businesses that cater to them. Over the course of the twentieth century, water events, from coastal land loss to hurricane destruction to natural disaster, have fast-tracked development projects that have allowed for the expansion of the tourism sector, and relaxed policies to encourage bold new economic development initiatives that often put poor coastal communities and their environment in jeopardy. This outcome is not universal …

"Not Tea And Crumpets": The 1976 Louisiana Governor's Conference On Women And The Formation Of A New Women's Platform, 1972-1982, Vickie A. Lacoste

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The success of three Louisiana feminists in the 1970s, Fran Bussie, Clarence Marie Collier, and Pat Evans stemmed from their professional expertise in labor rights, education, and politics, respectively. By joining and maintaining memberships in a variety of social, civic, and activists groups, these feminist leaders via the 1976 Louisiana Governor’s Conference on Women created a unique network that allowed for the formation of a new women’s platform. This conference advanced women’s rights, established a working platform for reform, and helped usher in second-wave feminism in Louisiana. Using conference booklets, archived video and audio interviews, and newspaper articles, this thesis …

Examining The Development Of Career Identity Within A College Preparatory School: A Case Study, Michele R. Margavio

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Recent college graduates are clearly facing significant labor market challenges and statistics show that college graduates will more likely find themselves unemployed or underemployed rather than gainfully employed in the current job market. The purpose of this study was to examine the career identity development of non-public high school seniors taking a career preparation program involving internships within all career pathways, not just those requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher. Individual interviews were conducted with ten students, the program director, and four site coordinators to gain the insight from their experiences with the career development course. Results from this study …

Amalgamations, Brennan Probst

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I explore time, memory, and the artist’s ability to convey experience through autobiographical photographs and drawings. In my compositions, I provide an intimate look into my life, while making wider observations about how my mind processes the world. My work is concerned with circumventing the objective, static qualities of photography. I attempt to create images that convey how experiences feel, instead of how they look through the lens of an optical apparatus. With my work, I do not wish to take from the world around me, but rather to create from the world within me. By utilizing multiple exposures and …

Darwin Or Frankenstein?, Sylvia S. Santamaria

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Through sculpture and drawing, I create my own versions of natural specimens primarily based upon the visual unity of disparate organisms. Invented specimens are composed using a variety of processes employing a mixture of atypical materials following the (20^th, 21^st century) Postmodern shift away from formalist and traditional uses of any singular medium. As well as a variety of art materials, the specimens are hybrids of organic and biomorphic elements, blurring boundaries between botanical, animal, fungal, metal, and mineral. Is my approach perhaps like Charles Darwin, observant and studious naturalist, or am I more like Dr. Frankenstein, …

Scalable Community Detection Using Distributed Louvain Algorithm, Naw Safrin Sattar

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Community detection (or clustering) in large-scale graph is an important problem in graph mining. Communities reveal interesting characteristics of a network. Louvain is an efficient sequential algorithm but fails to scale emerging large-scale data. Developing distributed-memory parallel algorithms is challenging because of inter-process communication and load-balancing issues. In this work, we design a shared memory-based algorithm using OpenMP, which shows a 4-fold speedup but is limited to available physical cores. Our second algorithm is an MPI-based parallel algorithm that scales to a moderate number of processors. We also implement a hybrid algorithm combining both. Finally, we incorporate dynamic load-balancing in …

Amending The Record: Proofreading American Naval War Diaries Written In The Pontus, 1921-1922, Toria Smith

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Enlarged Hind Wings Of The Neotropical Butterfly Pierella Helvina (Nymphalidae) Enhance Gliding Flight Performance In Ground Effect., Marc Stylman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Flight is a vital component of butterfly natural history, and flight-associated morphology is thought to be under strong selection for the performance of critical behaviors such as patrolling, courtship and oviposition. However, while different behaviors require different proportions of flapping versus gliding flight, few studies actually quantify butterfly flight behavior. Moreover, as butterfly flight is anteromotoric, no prior study has measured the role of hind wing allometry in flight. Using high-speed videography, this study compares the flight of two species of Haeterini (Nymphalidae) that regularly employ gliding flight. We also employ stereo videography and experimental hind wing area reduction to …

Herman L. Midlo: Social Ally In Louisiana Religious Civil Rights, Kenneth William-Moran Taylor

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The study of social allies in the field of American Civil Rights and Liberties History is largely an underappreciated aspect of this historical era. This work argues that social allies and their stories are worthwhile histories that are beneficial to the study of American Civil Rights and Liberties using Louisiana lawyer Herman Lazard Midlo as a case study. Midlo worked as a Louisiana lawyer from the 1930s to 1960s and fought tirelessly for the religious liberties of the Jehovah’s Witness community in the state. His story shows how beneficial and consequential the actions of social allies have had and can …

Killing Silence: A Path To Increasing Homicide Solvability In Urban Communities, Dennis Thornton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Relatively low rates of homicide solvability results in law-abiding citizens being forced to co-exist with known murderers, which is detrimental to a community’s psyche. This condition happens disproportionately in neighborhoods where crime is high, cohesiveness among its members is weak, and the citizen/police relationship is little or non-existent. This research sought to understand this phenomenon by asking,” How can murder solvability rates improve in marginalized communities?” and employing four theoretical lenses. Using the city of New Orleans as a case study and holding Social Disorganization Theory constant, Spiral of Silence, Habitus, and Dramaturgy were utilized in an attempt to understand …

Geomorphic And Temporal Evolution Of A Mississippi Delta Flanking Barrier Island: Grand Isle, La, Julie A. Torres

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating beach ridge sediments is one method for resolving barrier island growth at intermediate scales (decades-centuries), information that is lacking for Louisiana. This research combines OSL, GPR, aerial imagery, and cores to document temporal and spatial evolution of a Louisiana barrier island.

Grand Isle is composed of beach ridges organized in distinct, unconformable sets that began forming 0.75 ka until 0.575 ka when deposition ceased, the ridges were partially eroded, and deposition resumed in a more eastward direction. The central ridges formed between 370±30 and 170±10 years ago at a rate of one ridge every 11.6 …

The Color Of Invisibility, Bryan A. Vanmeter

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an analysis of Ralph Ellison’s use of color terminology in his novel, Invisible Man. By taking an in depth look at the circumstances in which Ellison uses specific color terms, the reader can ascertain the author’s thoughts on various historical events, as well as the differences between characters in the novel such as Ras, Dr. Bledsoe, and Rinehart.

Proposed New Military Live Load For Highway Bridges In The United States, Walter P. Parker

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the results of a mathematical analysis of various live load combinations on highway bridge spans up to 304.8 meters (1,000 feet) total lengths. The analysis included continuous beams, but only the results for simple beams is presented. The analysis was performed using an independently developed Microsoft EXCEL spreadsheet computation, based on superposition and classical mechanics.

In this thesis, several actual bridge live loadings and several hypothetical live loadings were analyzed and compared to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Load and Resistance Factor Design method. Also considered was the new bridge design method adopted …

Past The Darkness, Kathleen M. Vieira

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper will discuss the making of my thesis film, Past the Darkness. I will describe the entire process including story conception, film production, and post-production stages. I will also evaluate the merits, flaws, and outcome of this project.

Seamless Lidar Surveys Reveal Rates And Patterns Of Subsidence In The Mississippi River Delta, Celeste E. Woock

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) data are used to report the temporal and spatial patterns of subsidence as well as the potential contributors to subsidence within the Barataria and Terrebonne Bays. In recent decades, subsidence in southeast Louisiana has become a topic of substantial and growing concern to the scientific community, the local residents, and all those invested in the region. Lidar data were acquired from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the LSU Center for Geoinformatics. The data has been manipulated to map the differenced Lidar, complete an instantaneous slope analysis, and determine the thickness of the Holocene …

Impact Of Relative Liquidity Of Stocks And Bonds On The Financing And Investment Decisions Of A Firm, Sohale Altamimi

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay investigates if market illiquidity is a significant determinant of capital structure decisions. We hypothesize that firms would likely compare the illiquidity of two sources of external funding at a given point in time and issue the one with lower illiquidity. Therefore, if the level of illiquidity is a key driver of firms’ capital structure decisions in that year, the higher the level of stocks illiquidity, the more of its financing needs are satisfied by the issuance of debt, and the higher the level of bonds illiquidity, the less of its financing …

A Space Of Their Own Color: Black Greek Letter Organizations At The University Of New Orleans, August J. Darbonne

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Every semester across the United States, countless students join Greek letter organizations. While some may recognize the Greek letters, many Americans do not know the racial divide within the Greek life system, and the difference of purpose those organizations hold. This study focuses on eight historically Black fraternities and sororities and more specifically, their chapters at the University of New Orleans, a university that throughout its history has had a predominantly White student body, and often fostered an environment overtly and subtly hostile to African-American students.

Using oral histories, university yearbooks, and university newspapers this study demonstrates how Black fraternities …

Stackcbpred: A Stacking Based Prediction Of Protein-Carbohydrate Binding Sites From Sequence, Suraj Gattani

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Carbohydrate-binding proteins play vital roles in many vital biological processes and study of these interactions, at residue level, are useful in treating many critical diseases. Analyzing the local sequential environments of the binding and non-binding regions to predict the protein-carbohydrate binding sites is one of the challenging problems in molecular and computational biology. Prediction of such binding sites, directly from sequences, using computational methods, can be useful to fast annotate the binding sites and guide the experimental process. Because the number of carbohydrate-binding residues is significantly lower than non-carbohydrate-binding residues, most of the methods developed are biased towards over predicting …

Incorporation Of Gold Nanowires Into Photovoltaic Devices, Scott W. Gordon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

To this day, fossil fuels still make up over 80% of the earth’s energy production. Many sources of renewable energy are available, but photovoltaics is the only source with the capacity proven to meet the increasing world energy needs. Third generation devices such as dye-sensitized and organic solar cells have gained much interest due to their cost effectiveness and flexibility but have yet to become commercially viable. Here methods have been studied to improve these devices with the use of Gold nanowire arrays. These additions provide plasmonic and light scattering enhancements in dye-sensitized solar cells. Different TiO2 deposition methods have …

Modeling The Effect Of A Compartment Fire On Spaces Adjacent To A Bulkhead With And Without Attachments, Carl E. Hendrickson Ii

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Structural fire protection is an integral component of shipboard fire safety. There are national and international regulations that delineate requirements for the insulation placed throughout ships. The attachments that penetrate the insulation for hanging wires and pipes can disrupt the integrity of the division, and cause a failure to adhere to the regulations. This problem will be analyzed by using a simplified lumped capacitance model and ANSYS FLUENT CFD. A standard time-temperature fire curve is applied to the fire side of the enclosure. The thermal conductivity of the insulation and steel are made to be temperature dependent. The density of …

Undertow, Adam Karlin

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A short story collection that explores themes of culture, history, race, movement, stagnancy, and freedom. All stories are connected by elements of water, swimming, rivers, or wetlands. All contain characters seeking to escape their circumstances, with varying degrees of success. For some characters, the arc of their development lays in their movement; for others, it lays in their learning to live with a lack of movement.

Lost And Found, Ambata K. Kazi-Nance

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Inside The Black Box Of Mentoring: African-American Adolescents, Youth Mentoring, And Stereotype Threat Conditions, David F. Laviscount

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Despite a narrowing trend over the past forty years, the racial academic performance gap between non-Asian-American minority students and European-American students remains an overarching issue in K-12 schooling according to the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis (2017). Du Bois’s (1903) theory of double consciousness is implicated in the performance gap phenomenon. Though not explicitly connected, Steele and Aronson’s 1995 study revealed stereotype threat (STT) to be an empirical explanation of the negative impact of double consciousness. Steele et al.’s study revealed a psycho-social contributor to the racial academic performance gap, STT. STT is characterized by performance suppression caused …

A Phenomenological Study On The Mentoring Experiences Of Teachers Of Color In New Orleans, Ingrid Alvarado Nichols

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring has been used for centuries as a way for a person to pass on knowledge, skills, or support to a less experienced person. Mentoring in the workplace, however, was not studied until the early 1980s, and then more than a decade later, mentoring was studied in the context of the K-12 teacher workforce. Mentoring has improved teacher effectiveness (Yuan, 2015; Koedel, 2009; Campbell and Malkus, 2011); increased teachers’ self-efficacy (Ingersoll & May, 2011; Saffold, 2005; Louis, 2016); and contributed to teacher retention (Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004; Cohen & Fuller, 2006). Most mentoring studies and theories, however, have been developed …

When I Wake, Summer Pierce

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper sets out to detail the making of When I Wake with specific attention being paid to the mental processes of, the author, Summer Pierce throughout the undertaking. The paper, much like the filmmaking process, will discuss in succession the inspirations for the film, pre-production formulations, production of the film, post-production procedures, and analysis thereof.

Re-Positioning A School District To Embrace Equity And Change: A Qualitative Examination Of Central Office Leaders’ Experiences With Implementing A Desegregation Plan, Tamara L. Warner

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Leadership at the district level is a contributing factor to student achievement and the overall success of individual schools and school districts. However, with respect to leading equity-oriented transformations, most research has centered on the work of leaders and administrators at the school-building level. Considering their direct involvement in formulating and executing equity-framed change initiatives, understanding the role and influence of central office-based leaders is paramount. Designed as an instrumental case study, the process of executing a court-ordered desegregation plan was utilized to assist in deepening the understanding of the role of school district-based leadership as it relates to developing …