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Ayahuasca Characterization, Metabolism In Humans, And Relevance To Endogenous N,N-Dimethyltryptamines, Ethan Hamilton Mcilhenny

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ayahuasca denotes an Amazonian psychotropic plant tea obtained from Banisteriopsis caapi, which contains beta-carboline (b-carboline) alkaloids, chiefly harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine. The tea usually incorporates the leaves of Psychotria viridis, which are rich in N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychoactive 5-HT2A agonist. The beta-carbolines reversibly inhibit monoamine-oxidase (MAO), effectively preventing oxidative deamination of the orally inactive DMT and allowing its absorption and access to the central nervous system. Despite increased use of the tea worldwide, easy to perform and validated methods for its characterization do not exist and the metabolism and excretion of DMT and the b-carbolines has not been studied systematically …

"Faith Is Life": A Qualitative Study Of Christian Faith And Chinese Immigrant Families, Yaxin Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on religion and family in the United States has increased in the last two decades. With the increasing immigrant population, studies on minorities including Chinese immigrant families are also important. Religious faith has significant influences on some Chinese immigrant families. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between Christianity and Chinese immigrant families. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-two highly religious Chinese Christian couples in the Southern United States. Twenty-two open-ended questions were asked to understand their conversion processes and how the Christian faith influenced the participants’ marriage and family life. Most of the participants …

Simmering In The Tombs: The Role Of The Zombie In Patrick Chamoiseau's Chronique Des Sept Misères And Simone Schwarz-Bart's Ti Jean L'Horizon, Andrew Walton Hill

LSU Master's Theses

The figure of the zombie is a recurring trope for writers in the French Antilles. Two of the most influential and popular authors in modern French-Antillean literature are Patrick Chamoiseau from Martinique and Simone Schwarz-Bart from Guadeloupe. Both of these authors use the figure of the zombie as representations of colonization and the lingering trauma of slavery in Antillean society. In this thesis, I examine two of the most well-known works by these authors, Chamoiseau’s Chronique des Sept Misères (1986) and Schwarz-Bart’s Ti Jean L’horizon (1979), and how these texts use the nature of the zombie in an effort to …

Effect Of Electrical Vehicles On Residential Distribution Systems, Paul Haley

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the present state of electrical vehicles (EVs) in the market and the effects that these vehicles could have on residential distribution systems. The current EVs available on the market and the current level of market penetration were investigated. Advantages and disadvantages of EVs from a consumer and governmental perspective were identified. The efficiencies of the whole energy delivery process of electrical vehicles and gasoline vehicles were estimated. Efficiency estimation was used to estimate the impact of EVs on the consumption of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases. Measurement of an EV battery charging cycle and …

The Problem And Possibility Of Animal Minds In Brandom's Work: Revisiting Heidegger, Rationality And Normativity, Joel David Musser

LSU Master's Theses

Robert Brandom denies animals implicit reasoning by emphasizing their inability to make inferences explicit, and in so doing, denigrates animals by likening their behavior to that of machines and artifacts. I contest, however, that animals are paradigmatically more than any similarity or analogy to mechanical processing, just as humans are paradigmatically more than any reductive analogy to animals. The human/animal distinction need not come at the cost of ignoring the difference between animals and artifacts, and I believe we can largely subscribe to Brandom’s differentiation of the human in terms of expressionism if we allow that animals can make implicit …

A Study Of Turnaround Efforts In High-Poverty Schools: Characteristics Of High Reliability Organizations That Determine Why Some Efforts Succeed And Others Fail, Angela Renee Lee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The inception of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has focused national attention on improving the academic achievement of all students. In response to this federal legislation, educators, policymakers and others have sought remedies to turnaround chronically low-performing schools. The academic achievement outcomes of implementing such strategies have been mixed. Some schools have experienced clear, unambiguous growth. Others have remained stagnant. Others have regressed. Because of these mixed results, the research was designed to ascertain the factors that determine what makes these strategies succeed or fail. The researcher took a qualitative approach, the multiple case study design. Using the characteristics of …

Principals Matter- Principal Technology Proficiency: Creating A Culture Of Technology Competence, Tiffanye Renee' Mccoy-Thomas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the role of leadership in developing a culture of technology competence within a school. Additionally, because research identifies the significance instructional leadership has on school performance, as defined by student achievement, the study sought to examine the impact principal technology proficiency has on school performance. To examine the associations amongst variables regression analyses were conducted. Quantitative study was conducted with 150 school principals and their faculties. Results indicated a strong correlation between principals that were technologically proficient, as defined by the Louisiana Department of Education’s Administrator Self-Assessment, and the percentage of …

Monitoring The Molecular Weight Of Poly(Lactic Acid) During Fiber Spinning And Coloration, Ashley Nicole Jacobs

LSU Master's Theses

One fiber that is being researched as a possible alternative to the petroleum based polyester fibers currently being used is polylactic acid (PLA). Being aware of the low heat resistance and degradation of PLA during processing is a concern for practical production and the performance of the polymer. Disperse dyed PLA film and solution dyed PLA film, along with un-dyed film and the original PLA pellets have been investigated to determine molecular weight. Infrared analysis has been conducted to examine the compounds found in the PLA samples at different steps in the polymer processing. Un-dyed PLA samples have been subjected …

High-Throughput Sperm Cryopreservation Of Aquatic Species, E Hu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation was to integrate multiple disciplines for application of high-throughput sperm cryopreservation to aquatic species. The blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus was selected for research due to its role in production of hybrid catfish with eggs from channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. A high-throughput cryopreservation pathway was developed by systematically evaluating each process factor and using automated processing systems. Large quantities of cryopreserved sperm produced from this protocol were evaluated in commercial-scale hatcheries in cooperation with aquaculture producers. To develop production for commercial requirements, quality characteristics of materials and products were identified and recorded during processing and analyzed …

Examining The Use Of Social Media Among Four-H Alumni In Louisiana, Kali Boudreaux Zammit

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the use and determine the preferred method of social media among 4-H alumni in Louisiana. Based on a review of literature, communicating with youth through social media has become a major trend and necessity, especially among 4-H Youth Development and Cooperative Extension Service professionals. The Zammit Social Media Questionnaire, a 24-item instrument that includes multiple choice, multiple answer, open-ended, ranking, and Likert scale questions, was developed and administered online to 161 Louisiana 4-H alumni who received the 2011 Louisiana 4-H Senior Honor Cord and provided usable e-mails. The final response count was …

Deductive Formal Verification Of Embedded Systems, Zheng Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We combine static analysis techniques with model-based deductive verification using SMT solvers to provide a framework that, given an analysis aspect of the source code, automatically generates an analyzer capable of inferring information about that aspect.

The analyzer is generated by translating the collecting semantics of a program to a formula in first order logic over multiple underlying theories. We import the semantics of the API invocations as first order logic assertions. These assertions constitute the models used by the analyzer. Logical specification of the desired program behavior is incorporated as a first order logic formula. An SMT-LIB solver treats …

Performance, Preference, Promotion: Political Mobility Of Chinese Regional Leaders, Liang Qiao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As a study exclusively on the political elites, the dissertation studies the Chinese regional leaders and their political career mobility controlled by the central government from 1949 to 2010. The Chinese Communist Party controls its regional leaders by controlling their career movement (political mobility). This study explains why some regional leaders were promoted while some others were demoted or dismissed while most of them shared similar personal background and career experience. By providing empirical evidence with quantitative analysis, this study shows that in post-Deng Chinese politics (1997-2010) there are certain patterns and manipulated by the CCP center in demoting and …

Inside And Outside, Joshua Harry George

LSU Master's Theses

The boxing paintings and drawings are not about fighting as much as they are about the fighter’s existence. Many of the images show the boxer training or in an isolated environment in order to show how methodical their lives become. I see boxers as sacrificial athletes, not only because their health is at risk, but also because they must separate themselves from loved ones during training, as well as abstain from certain foods in order to maintain a certain weight. Every boxer is an underdog, in a sense. They are all at risk of losing something, whether it is their …

A Performance Comparison Of The Nonword Repetition Task (Nrt) In Typically Developing Children And Children With Speech Sound Disorders, Anna Gaspar

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Literary Expressions Of Creole Identity In Alfred Mercier's L'Habitation Saint-Ybars And Johnelle, Mary Florence Cashell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines nineteenth-century Louisianan author Alfred Mercier’s novels and their roles as emblems of Francophone Creole cultural identity. During the nineteenth century following the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent anglophone influx, the French-speaking Creole population faced a cultural upheaval. Unable to completely identify as either French or American, Creoles occupied an uncertain space. This study demonstrates that Alfred Mercier’s works articulate a hybrid identity that is neither French nor American but rather a multicultural construct. The first chapter examines the nineteenth-century Creole community’s problematic positioning between French and American cultures. Chapters two, three, and four center on two of Mercier’s …

An Exploratory Case Study Of Racial Climate In An Academic Unit At A Predominantly White, Southern Institution, Mark A. Dochterman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research describes faculty of color as a key to an equitable future for higher education. However, this approach problematically places the responsibility for multiculturalism on the shoulders of these individuals. This embedded, critical case study explored the racial climate of an academic unit in a southern, predominantly white institution. Through the lens of critical race theory I examined how the racial climate of the unit impacted the perceptions, roles, and relationships differently for faculty of color, doctoral students of color, white faculty, and white doctoral students and how the case in question exemplified Rankin and Reason’s (2008) six dimensions of …

Teacher Insights On High-Stakes Standardized Assessments: The Impact Of School Reform Policy On The Classroom, Jennifer Timmer

LSU Master's Theses

Education reform policies have focused on high-stakes assessments primarily utilizing standardized tests for accountability purposes. As testing practices have evolved due to a variety of factors throughout the past century or so, they have become fully integrated into public schooling in the United States. These tests are having a marked impact on teachers and education, as teachers feel pressure to produce exceptional student results and modify their instructional practices, often “teaching to the test” and narrowing the curriculum in order to focus on the requirements of the mandates. This study examines a survey of public school teachers to ascertain their …

A Performer's Guide To Stephen Paulus' Mad Book, Shadow Book: Songs Of Michael Morley, Jin Hin Yap

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Stephen Paulus is a prolific American composer of the twenty-first century. Together with his primary collaborator Michael Dennis Browne, an English born, American poet, he has produced numerous compositions ranging from choral works to operatic. This document introduces Paulus’ early song cycle for tenor "Mad Book, Shadow Book: Songs of Michael Morley" (“Michael Morley Creaked,” “Falling Asleep in the Afternoon,” “I Feel Good Running,” “Morley’s Root Song,” “Calm, Calm,” and “Et in Arcadia, Morley”). Included is biographical and stylistic information about the composer and the poet, general information about the song cycle, and a performer’s guide to the songs, followed …

Improving Discourse Structure Identification, Jamie Allison Guidry

LSU Master's Theses

Rhetorical Structure Theory (Mann et al. 1988), a popular approach for analyzing discourse coherence, suggests that coherent text can be placed into a hierarchical organization of clauses. Identification of a text’s rhetorical structure through automatic discourse analysis is a crucial element for many of today’s Natural Language Processing tasks, but no sufficient tool is available. The current state-of -the-art discourse parser, SPADE (Soricut et al. 2003), is limited to parsing discourse within a single sentence. HILDA (Hernault et al. 2010) extends the parsing abilities of SPADE to the document level, but with a decrease in performance. This study achieved document-level …

A Single-Subject Study Examining The Effects Of A Behavioral Intervention For Verbal Recurrent Perserveration, Jenifer Juengling-Sudkamp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

BACKGROUND: Approximately 1 million people in the United States suffer from aphasia and > 50% of those people may demonstrate recurrent perseverations. No consensus has been forthcoming on whether (1) a therapy that directly confronts clients with imminent pre-articulatory automatisms (the perseverations) or (2) a more typical neuropsychological therapy that eschews any direct confrontation with automatic behaviors works best. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the treatment efficacy of a non-confrontational picture naming intervention on naming ability in individuals with aphasia and recurrent perseverations. METHODS: This is a prospective single-subject ABAB multiple baseline design replicated across 3 right-handed …

I Saw Life, David Clayton Williams

LSU Master's Theses

My thesis embodies the uncertainties and reservations that surround one’s mortality. Dealing with the loss of my father who suddenly passed away two and a half years ago has sparked an emotionally driven artistic process. The abruptness of my Dad being alive one second and with little or no warning deceased the next has impacted my work tremendously. My goal has been to evoke and share the very human emotions that occur during the erratic stages of grief. This research acknowledges the ‘black and white’ absolutes of living and dying, yet those ideas are juxtaposed with the many gray areas …

Pregnancy And The Relationship To Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Ann Hardin Shaw

LSU Master's Theses

The Macular Study was a case control study that evaluated if parity and other participant characteristics predicted the diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Women, compared to men, are at higher risk for AMD. AMD is one of the leading causes of blindness in the elderly population [1]. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) is a long-chain fatty acid that is essential for the structure and function of the eye. During pregnancy the growing fetus depletes the maternal stores of DHA through placental transfer. The fetus needs an ample supply of DHA for proper retinal and central nervous system development. To date …

Hidden Music: Vowel Formant Theory And The Languages Of Verdi's Don Carolos, Justin Andrew Owen

LSU Master's Theses

Don Carlos, Giuseppe Verdi’s third French opera, was first performed at the Paris Opéra in 1867; today, it is commonly performed in its Italian translation. This translation is problematic, however, because it departs from the original French in more than language: as a translation to be sung, it often conveys a different meaning, places key words on different sections of the melody, and consists of a different sound. This latter aspect and its relationship to notated melody is the focus of this study. For the purpose of this study, the sound of a language is defined by the overtones of …

The Role Of Music-Making In The Identity Construction Of Members Of An Adult Community Concert Band, Pamela G. Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to ascertain how music-making and band membership contributed to the identities of members of the New Orleans Concert Band and how their identities influenced their behaviors. The musician role identity of members of the New Orleans Concert Band, an adult community band, was examined through the lens of identity theory using ethnographic methods. Findings were based upon interviews with 37 band members, observations of rehearsals and concerts, and an examination of the organization’s documents. Results indicated that members valued individual and group music-making, literature played by the band, and social aspects of …

Examination Of The Reliability And Validity Of A New Observation Measure For Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Autism Spectrum Disorder Observation For Children, Daniene Neal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With increasing attention being drawn to autism spectrum disorders (ASD), specifically with regard to early and accurate diagnosis and treatment, researchers and clinicians alike have placed emphasis on finding assessment tools that can aid in this goal. The purpose of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of a new observation measure for ASD, the Autism Spectrum Disorders-Observation for Children (ASD-OC). The ASD-OC was found to have good to excellent interrater reliability, and excellent internal consistency (ƒÑ = .96). As a result of these initial reliability analyses, nine items were removed from the scale. The resulting 45 item ASD-OC …

The Lived Experience Of Discovery Of Purpose In Student Affairs Among Emerging Professionals, Nicholas Anthony Clegorne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Clegorne, Nicholas Anthony, B.M. University of Florida, 2002, M.M. University of Florida, 2004 Doctor of Philosophy Major: Educational Leadership and Research The Lived Experience of Discovery of Purpose in Student Affairs among Emerging Professionals Dissertation directed by Associate Professor Roland Mitchell Pages in dissertation, 146. Words in abstract, 297. ABSTRACT Some researchers estimate that as many as three out of five new professionals will leave the field of student affairs within the first five years. Furthermore low job satisfaction has been cited heavily among new professionals in student affairs. The alarming recognition that so many young professionals are unhappy and …

Reflections On En-Teaching: Dewey, Heidegger And Lao Tzu, Jie Yu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Reflecting on my past two unsettling journeys of teaching in China and America produces questions about the teaching of truth in chapter one. The question of truth as it relates to the teacher’s role in the classroom raises not only issues of what and how we should teach, but challenges the very purpose of teaching. When I explored Martin Heidegger’s phenomenological perspective on (un)truth for insights into taken-for-granted assumptions about education and the purposes of teaching and learning, I noticed a strong resonance between his notion of “clearing” and the essential spirit of Taoism, “the Tao of inaction.” This led …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Functioning, And Social Skills In Children, Kimberly Tureck

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are the focus of a vast amount of research due to their recent rise in prevalence. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research looking at how ASD and IQ scores impact social skills. The present study aimed to extend the literature in this area by evaluating how ASD and IQ scores are related to ratings on a measure of appropriate and inappropriate social skills. Two groups of individuals participated: children without ASD and children with ASD. Two dependent measures of social skills (adaptive/appropriate social skills and hostile/inappropriately assertive social skills) were obtained using the Matson Evaluation …

Country Of Illusion: Imagined Geographies And Transnational Connections In F. Scott Fitzgerald's America, Charles Mitchell Frye Iii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The two decades between World Wars I and II were a remarkably isolationist, xenophobic period in the history of American politics and culture. In the era’s literature, however, some US authors repurposed regional writing as a medium for rethinking conservative nationalism and for imagining their country’s place in the emerging global community. F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose career successes and failures mirrored the parabolic national pattern of Boom and Bust, was one such author. Though his works have seldom been interpreted through a regionalist lens, Fitzgerald lived in and wrote about every major American section, often planting tropes of transregional and …

Regulating The Republic: Violence And Order In The Cherokee-Georgia Borderlands, 1820-1840, Adam Jeffrey Pratt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the two decades prior to Cherokee Removal, Georgians discussed removal as a way for the state to create and maintain order, a cluster of ideas that revolved around a social system that championed white superiority, a political system that adhered to republican thinking, and a legal system that prevented lawlessness. To create a well-ordered society, Georgia’s leaders believed that authority flowed from white settlers to civil institutions, which benignly administered over the idealized society. In the Cherokee-Georgia borderlands, no single political entity could claim sovereignty, so the Cherokee Nation, federal government, and state of Georgia each sought to impose …