Digital Commons Network^™

The Extended Picture Group, With Applications To Line Arrangement Complements, Charles Richard Egedy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We obtain the picture group as the quotient with a torsion subgroup, of an extended picture group, which is isomorphic to the kernel of a precrossed module homomorphism. In addition to expanding the notion of a picture group, the new formulation gives a natural way to construct homomorphisms between picture groups by describing deformations of one-vertex subpictures. The extended picture group thus provides a convenient way to describe generators for the second homotopy group of line arrangement complements as well as homomorphisms between these groups. In particular, we show that the homomorphisms relate to a lattice structure corresponding roughly to …

Community Social Capital And Suicide Rates, Anna Cutlip

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The integrating capacity of social institutions on community organization and the consequential benefits of community cohesion are well-known, i.e. lower crime rates, better health outcomes, economic and social stability. Drawing on the civil society and civic community literatures, this study applies the theory of social capital to study of suicide. Rather than focus on individual level data, macro-level data are analyzed to determine the relationship between the social capital of an area and the prevalence of suicide. Negative binomial regression is used to examine U.S. counties of 100,000 residents or more (urban) and counties of 1,000 to 25,000 residents (rural) …

Anthropogenic And Natural Perturbations On Lower Barataria Bay, Louisiana: Detecting Responses Of Marsh-Edge Fishes And Decapod Crustaceans, Agatha-Marie Fuller Roth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Barataria Bay, Louisiana is a dynamic estuary with ongoing disturbances that is in need of restoration. Development and validation of a lower Barataria Bay index of biotic integrity (IBI) for the summer season was the focus of my research. This IBI was created using 2005 data and evaluated with 2006 and 2007 data to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach in coastal Louisiana. The IBI successfully distinguished sites with differing levels of degradation using nine fish metrics. While pursuing this effort, two serendipitous events occurred when an oil spill then a hurricane impacted the study area. This gave me opportunities …

Women And Science In Development: A Longitudinal Analysis Of Gender, Networks, And Information Technology In Ghana, Kenya, And India, Beverly Paige Miller

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the gendered nature of the scientific career for researchers in universities and national research institutes in Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala India. Employing panel data, I analyze three issues related to the diffusion of ICTs in the scientific communities of less developed areas: 1) access; 2) interaction; 3) and involvement. More specifically, I examine the way in which human capital, family structure, travel experiences, contextual factors, and technological antecedents interact with gender to influence access to and use of personal computers, email, and the Web. From there, I incorporate technological behavioral changes to predict interaction within professional networks. …

Multiple Dataset Visualization (Mdv) Framework For Scalar Volume Data, Gaurav Khanduja

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Many applications require comparative analysis of multiple datasets representing different samples, conditions, time instants, or views in order to develop a better understanding of the scientific problem/system under consideration. One effective approach for such analysis is visualization of the data. In this PhD thesis, we propose an innovative multiple dataset visualization (MDV) approach in which two or more datasets of a given type are rendered concurrently in the same visualization. MDV is an important concept for the cases where it is not possible to make an inference based on one dataset, and comparisons between many datasets are required to reveal …

"Why Do I Have Fifty Pairs Of Shoes?": Characterizing And Explaining Acquisitive Buying Behavior, Mousumi Bose Godbole

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Why do some of us have the fourteenth black shoe? Fifty pens? Thirty fishing rods? While some motivations relate to compulsive, impulsive or excessive buying, others relate to collecting, hoarding, fixated buying and stockpiling. However, there is a set of consumers who purchase recurrently, have an inventory far greater than that of a typical consumer and yet do not share the negative characteristics of the extreme buyers mentioned earlier. This set of consumers is termed ‘acquisitive buyers’ and little research exist to understand them. This dissertation establishes the significance of acquisitive buying as a new buying type in terms of …

Micro Characterization Of Deformations In Granular Materials During Shear, Alsidqi Hasan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

One of the greatest challenges in studying the engineering behavior of granular materials is the lack of tools for an unobstructed view of a large quantity of microscopic particles. This dissertation presents a thorough characterization of deformations in sheared granular materials. The investigation involves experimental programs, utilization of computed tomography (CT) techniques, and application of Distinct Element Method (DEM). The investigation was conducted at multi-scale (macroscopic, mesoscopic, and microscopic) to better understand the physical properties and constitutive behavior of granular materials during shear. The experiments include conducting a series of axisymmetric triaxial, miniature axisymmetric triaxial, and biaxial experiments. They were …

Computational Studies On Fatty Acid Synthesis: From Mechanisms To Drug Design, Matthew Edward Mckenzie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The first committed steps of the Fatty Acid synthesis pathway involves the de/carboxylation reactions of biotin. By understanding this step, potential novel antimicrobial agents could be discovered. The current tools of drug discovery can only help the research in finding and modifying potential hits. Finding a lead candidate from these programs are often equated to finding a needle in a haystack, which is due to the many assumptions used in molecular docking. The fundamental reaction kinetics can not be described by these techniques and a detailed study of the decarboxylation reaction is investigated using ab initio molecular dynamics. In this …

Compilation And Scheduling Techniques For Embedded Systems, Hassan Salamy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Embedded applications are constantly increasing in size, which has resulted in increasing demand on designers of digital signal processors (DSPs) to meet the tight memory, size and cost constraints. With this trend, memory requirement reduction through code compaction and variable coalescing techniques are gaining more ground. Also, as the current trend in complex embedded systems of using multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) grows, problems like mapping, memory management and scheduling are gaining more attention. The first part of the dissertation deals with problems related to digital signal processors. Most modern DSPs provide multiple address registers and a dedicated address generation unit (AGU) …

Factors Influencing The Perceived Usefulness Of An Information Delivery Website Among The United States Resident Viewership, Frederick Joseph Piazza

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the World Wide Web (Web) has become a major media outlet for disseminating information. Government and Higher Education institutions have both embraced Web technologies to serve the needs of their clientele. Thus, a method of developing targeted Web-based material that is optimized for the viewer to provide the greatest impact in terms of usefulness is needed. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected demographic characteristics on the perception of usefulness among United States resident viewers of an information delivery website. The accessible population for this study was all viewers …

The Informational Content Of Canonical Disjoint Np-Pairs, Christian Glaßer, Alan L. Selman, Liyu Zhang

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We investigate the connection between propositional proof systems and their canonical pairs. It is known that simulations between propositional proof systems translate to reductions between their canonical pairs. We focus on the opposite direction and study the following questions.

Q1: For which propositional proof systems f and g does the implication hold, and for which does it fail?

Q2: For which propositional proof systems of different strengths are the canonical pairs equivalent?

Q3: What do (non-)equivalent canonical pairs tell about the corresponding propositional proof systems?

Q4: Is every NP-pair (A, B), where A is NP-complete, strongly many-one equivalent to the …

A Divided-Attention Timed Stepping Accuracy Task As A Procedural Learning Intervention Improves Balance And Functional Performance In Healthy Older Adults, Susan Joy Leach

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For both healthy individuals and individuals at high risk of falling, certain environments, such as a dual-task situation, require more resources than others to prevent a loss of balance. Stepping assessment tasks can be used to predict falls, and it has been suggested that impaired voluntary stepping may be a contributing factor to falls (Lord & Fitzpatrick, 2001). In this research, a stepping task was used not as an assessment, but as a therapeutic intervention. The purpose of this research was to determine how training with a task that provides a procedural learning environment can affect balance and functional outcomes. …

Measuring The Impact Of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Intervention On Perceived Stress And Study Skills Of Social Work Graduate Students, Margot H. Hasha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This multi-component study incorporated the following: (1) an integrated study measuring the impact of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction intervention (MBSR) on potential stressors, appraised stress levels and adaptation to stress of MSW students enrolled in the Louisiana State University School of Social Work through a pretest posttest group design using time-series data to evaluate meditation practice; (2) a pretest posttest group design which examined changes in self-regulated learning skills; and (3) a cross-sectional survey which explored students self-reported reasons for not participating in the MBSR randomized control group study offered prior to the current study. Sample size for the integrated …

Effects Of Three Early Literacy Interventions In The Preschool Classroom: Comparing Phonological Awareness Training, Dialogic Reading, And A Combination Condition In Small Groups, Jennifer Koenig Longwell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Phonological awareness, oral language, alphabet knowledge, and print awareness are the building blocks for emergent literacy. These skills can be divided into embedded and explicit domains of early literacy interventions. Dialogic reading, a well-researched embedded method of reading intervention, incorporates oral language and print awareness through adult-child storybook reading. Phonological awareness interventions utilize explicit skills such as phonemic instruction and letter knowledge to increase early literacy. The current study examined three early literacy interventions, dialogic reading, phonological awareness, and a combination condition, in comparison with each other and a control condition. Thirty-seven preschool children were randomly assigned to a condition …

Quantum Nonlinear Optics: Applications To Quantum Metrology, Imaging, And Information, Ryan Glasser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The fields of quantum and nonlinear optics have given rise to a variety of nonclassical states of light that have been proven to surpass certain limitations set by classical physics. Namely, certain squeezed and entangled states have been shown to beat the shot-noise limit when making precision phase measurements in interferometry, as well as write lithographic patterns that are smaller than classically allowed by the Rayleigh diffraction limit. Additionally, single-photon sources and entangled photon pairs have given rise to provably secure quantum key distribution for cryptography. Producing these quantum states of light has proven a difficult task. Nonlinear crystals, when …

Factors That Influence Course Completion Of Individuals Enrolled In Craft-Training Courses Offered By A Large Organization Of Member Construction Companies, Alvin James Justelien, Iii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The construction industry is one of the largest providers of jobs in the United States. Between 2009 and 2013, approximately 20% of the 7.7 million Americans employed in construction related jobs (Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2009) would be eligible to retire. The industrial construction industry must attract, train, and retain a significant number of people to the construction industry. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected personal demographic characteristics and academic behaviors of individuals participating in craft training courses offered by a large organization of member construction companies who successfully completed or left …

Atom-Based Computer Simulation Studies Of Gas-To-Liquid Nucleation In Atmospherically Relevant Systems: Clarifying Discrepancies And Elucidating Mechanisms, Ricky Bendanillo Nellas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For over a century, nucleation for all systems was thought simplistically to be a process that advances through the formation of critical clusters with a well-defined composition. Our results show intriguing nucleation mechanisms that challenge the aforementioned notion. We employed the simple TraPPE-UA (transferable potential for phase equilibria – united atom) force field and the AVUS-HR approach (a combination of aggregation-volume-bias Monte Carlo, umbrella sampling, and histogram reweighting), to investigate the homogeneous vapor-to-liquid nucleation of various nucleating systems. We found out that these systems could nucleate through a variety of unique non-ideal mechanisms. Alongside existing experimental investigations, this dissertation presents …

Particle-Chemical Interactions And Environmental Chemodynamics Of Fine And Ultrafine Particles In A Natural Disaster Scenario, Nicholas A. Ashley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The interactions of fine and ultrafine particles with chemicals play a dominant role in determining the mobility and availability of pollutants in the environment. Fine particles in sediments can sequester chemicals from the water column, and release volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds to the gas phase upon exposure to air. Ultrafine particles which are photoreactive can degrade these vapor-phase contaminants, and may transform the molecules into species which are more toxic or hazardous than the parent. As the widespread, commercial use of ultrafine particles becomes more common, understanding the chemodynamics of these particles and their interactions with chemicals in the …

Examining The Influence Of Popular Music And Poetry Therapy On The Development Of Therapeutic Factors In Groups With At-Risk Adolsecents, Leah Olson-Mcbride

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, music and poetry were combined to form a client-centered therapeutic approach to group psychotherapy with at-risk youth that encourages connection, communication, and self-expression. This specialized poetry therapy intervention utilizes popular music and creative writing activities to facilitate group discussion about feelings, life experiences, goals, and values. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of such an intervention on group formation and development, with a specific focus on the development of factors, such as self-disclosure, which contribute to therapeutic change over the course of the intervention. A multiple embedded case study approach was utilized to …

Integrated Data-Driven Techniques For Environmental Pollution Monitoring, Swathi Pakalapati

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The adverse health e_x000B_ffects of tropospheric ozone around urban zones indicate a substantial risk for many segments of the population. This necessitates the short term forecast in order to take evasive action on days conducive to ozone formation. Therefore it is important to study the ozone formation mechanisms and predict the ozone levels in a geographic region. Multivariate statistical techniques provide a very e_x000B_ffective framework for the classifi_x000C_cation and monitoring of systems with multiple variables. Cluster analysis, sequence analysis and hidden Markov models (HMMs) are statistical methods which have been used in a wide range of studies to model the …

The Fate And Transport Of Light Petroleum Hydrocarbons In The Lower Mississippi River Delta, Samantha Nicole Danchuk

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Important processes governing the fate and transport of light petroleum hydrocarbons in the Lower Mississippi River and other river delta systems are not adequately represented in existing oil spill models. In response, three methods were introduced to include the effects of dynamic annual discharges and variation of shoreline type on shoreline retention and re-floatation and the potential of oil- mineral aggregate formation based contributing environmental factors. Parcel tracking was used, in conjunction with detailed shoreline types correlated to flow rate, to evaluate the benefits of using multiple shoreline re-floatation half lives correlated to shoreline type instead of a single half …

Task Scheduling And Placement For Reconfigurable Devices, Mostafa Elbidweihy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Partially reconfigurable devices allow the execution of different tasks at the same time, removing tasks when they finish and inserting new tasks when they arrive. This dissertation investigates scheduling and placing real-time tasks (tasks with deadline) on reconfigurable devices. One basic scheduler is the First-Fit scheduler. By allowing the First-Fit scheduler to retry tasks while they can satisfy their deadlines, we found that its performance can be enhanced to be better than other schedulers. We also proposed a placement idea based on partitioning the reconfigurable area into regions of various widths, assigning a task to a region based on its …

Size Controlled Metal Oxide Nanoparticles:Synthesis, Characterization, And Application To Catalysis, Hongyi Wu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The research in this dissertation focuses on the synthesis of size-controlled metal oxide nanoclusters (< 10 nm) on amorphous silica and their catalytic performance in thermal degradation of chlorinated benzenes with regard to the cluster size effect. Furthermore, with the concern that metal can condense as the nano-size nuclei core for particle growth in combustion process, a flow reactor was built to investigate the effect of metal oxide nanoparticles on the formation of soot in fuel-rich combustion. The synthesis of copper oxide nanoclusters was carried by calcination of silica impregnated with dendrimer-metal complexes. The 4th generation poly(propylene imine) dendrimer DAB-Am32 was used in this template-based method. The sizes of copper oxide nanoclusters were exquisitely controlled in the range of 1-5 nm with narrow size distribution by changing the stoichiometric ratio of metal ion to the terminal primary amines of dendrimer, the equivalent metal oxide loading on surface, and the impregnation procedure. XANES and XPS studies revealed that CuO was the dominant component of copper oxide nanoclusters. This method was also experimentally proven to be valid in the preparation of other metal oxide nanoparticles, e.g., Ni and Fe, and with other oxide substrates, e.g., titanium oxide. Chlorinated benzenes were selected as the model compound for studying the activity of metal (Cu and Fe) oxide catalysts with regard to their cluster sizes. Compared to the surrogate of coarse metal oxide samples, which was prepared by incipient wetness method, their nanosize analogues showed superior catalytic activity on the conversion of chlorinated benzenes under both pyrolytic and oxidative thermal condition. Furthermore, such catalytic size effect was also observed on the selectivity of products yields. Sooting combustion was performed using a two-zone flow reactor with precise control on experimental parameters. Gas suspended metal oxide nanoparticles were generated by burning off the organic backbone of the dendrimer-metal complexes in zone 1 and immediately transferred to zone 2, where the hydrocarbon combustion occurred. TEM results of the particulate sample collected at the outlet of reactor indicated that metal oxide nanoparticles promoted soot formation. GC/MS analysis of the extracted organic materials from soot samples suggested the formation of PAH was also promoted by metal addition as well.

The Noble Business Of Incumbentocracy: A Reply To ‘The Sordid Business Of Democracy’, Christopher J. Roederer

School of Law Faculty Publications

Note: This essay is a response to Daniel Tokaji, The Sordid Business of Democracy, 34 Ohio Northern University Law Review 341 (2008). The term "incumbantocracy" appears to have been coined by Jamin B. Raskin in The Supreme Court's Double Standard, where he argued that "voters don't really pick public officials on Election Day because public officials pick voters on redistricting day." THE NATION, Feb. 6, 1995, at I 67-68.

If democracy is a sordid business—a base, dirty, and ignoble business—then perhaps it is not too much of a stretch to say that there is something simple, clean, and noble about …

Toward Open Source Hardware, John R. Ackermann

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

Facilitation Of Learning Spatial Relations Among Goal Locations Does Not Require Visual Exposure To The Configuration Of Goal Locations, Bradley R. Sturz, Debbie M. Kelly, Michael F. Brown

Psychology: Faculty Presentations (2009-2022)

Human participants searched in a virtual-environment open-field search task for four hidden goal locations arranged in a diamond configuration located in a 5 x 5 matrix. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Pattern Only, Landmark + Pattern, or Cues + Pattern. All participants experienced a Training phase followed by a Testing phase. During Training, visual cues were coincident with goal locations for the Cues + Pattern group, and a single visual cue at a non-goal location maintained a consistent spatial relationship with the goal locations for the Landmark + Pattern group. All groups were then tested in …

The Acquisition Of Pragmatic Competence: Compliment Response Strategies In Learners Of Spanish, James Bryant Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The areas of Pragmatics and Second Language Acquisition have existed separately in the field of Linguistics for some time. Their connection, however, has more recently seen a great deal of study by researchers like Scarcella and Brunak (1981), Rintell (1981), Brown and Levinson (1987), Koike (1992, 1996), Saito, Beecken (1997), Félix-Brasdefer (2003, 2006) and Huth (2006). A common thread in these studies is the effect of language transfer or cross-linguistic influence that the first language has while learners are attempting to acquire the pragmatic and politeness principles that are central to the target language and culture. One speech act that …

Discovery Of The Energetic Pulsar J1747–2809 In The Supernova Remnant G0.9+0.1, F. Camilo, S. M. Ransom, B. M. Gaensler, D. R. Lorimer

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Identification Of Falls Risk Factors In Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Validation Of The Comprehensive Falls Risk Screening Instrument, Jennifer Marie Fabre

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Identifying risk factors and those at risk for falls is necessary. The first purpose of the dissertation was to validate the Comprehensive Falls Risk Screening Instrument (CFRSI) that weights falls risk factors and includes the subscale scores of history, physical, vision, medication, and environment, and a total falls risk score. The CFRSI total falls risk score was compared to subscale scores, physical activity, physical function, health-related quality of life (HRQL), and history of falls (Study 1). The second purpose of the dissertation was to determine associations between the CFRSI total falls risk score, race, education, and income (Study 2). Data …

A Modular Approach To Lung Nodule Detection From Computed Tomography Images Using Artificial Neural Networks And Content Based Image Representation, Omer Muhammet Soysal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Lung cancer is one of the most lethal cancer types. Research in computer aided detection (CAD) and diagnosis for lung cancer aims at providing effective tools to assist physicians in cancer diagnosis and treatment to save lives. In this dissertation, we focus on developing a CAD framework for automated lung cancer nodule detection from 3D lung computed tomography (CT) images. Nodule detection is a challenging task that no machine intelligence can surpass human capability to date. In contrast, human recognition power is limited by vision capacity and may suffer from work overload and fatigue, whereas automated nodule detection systems can …