Digital Commons Network^™

Peter Klatzow's Six Concert Etudes For Marimba : A Performer's Guide, Daniel Brian Heagney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Peter Klatzow has become one of the most prominent composers for keyboard percussion over the last thirty years. Several of his works have found their way into the standard repertoire for percussion. The primary purpose of this document is to serve as a performer’s guide to his Six Concert Etudes for Marimba. This document is intended to help percussionists become less intimidated by Klatzow’s music, and make it more approachable. By studying the technical and musical demands within the Concert Etudes, a percussionist will be better prepared to perform Klatzow’s other keyboard percussion compositions. Both technical and musical advice is …

Investigations On The Essentiality Of The Escherichia Coli Deda Membrane Protein Family, Lisa A. Boughner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The DedA protein family is a highly conserved family of membrane proteins, with members present throughout all domains of life: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Investigation of the DedA membrane protein family began with the isolation of BC202, an Escherichia coli mutant with in-frame deletions of two DedA proteins of unknown function (YqjA and YghB) that share 61% amino acid identity. BC202 demonstrates temperature sensitivity, inefficient cell division, an altered phospholipid composition, increased expression of extracytoplasmic stress response pathways, as well as an inability to maintain the cell membrane proton motive force (PMF). Additionally, Borrelia burgdorferi has a single DedA homolog …

Program Analysis : Termination Proofs For Linear Simple Loops, Hongyi Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Termination proof synthesis for simple loops, i.e., loops with only conjoined constraints in the loop guard and variable updates in the loop body, is the building block of termination analysis, as well as liveness analysis, for large complex imperative systems. In particular, we consider a subclass of simple loops which contain only linear constraints in the loop guard and linear updates in the loop body. We call them Linear Simple Loops (LSLs). LSLs are particularly interesting because most loops in practice are indeed linear; more importantly, since we allow the update statements to handle nondeterminism, LSLs are expressive enough to …

Gene Set Based Ensemble Methods For Cancer Classification, William Evans Duncan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Diagnosis of cancer very often depends on conclusions drawn after both clinical and microscopic examinations of tissues to study the manifestation of the disease in order to place tumors in known categories. One factor which determines the categorization of cancer is the tissue from which the tumor originates. Information gathered from clinical exams may be partial or not completely predictive of a specific category of cancer. Further complicating the problem of categorizing various tumors is that the histological classification of the cancer tissue and description of its course of development may be atypical. Gene expression data gleaned from micro-array analysis …

Utilizing Community Media To Facilitate Cross-Cultural Communication Between Lsu Agcenter Field And State Agents And Louisiana Agricultural Producers, Ava Denise Attaway

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine how Louisiana agricultural producers get information related to their crops. Specifically, this study examined how Louisiana agricultural producers used the Louisiana State University AgCenter’s website and other media sources so that it could be determined which form of community media could be used to facilitate cross-cultural communication between LSU AgCenter field and state agents and Louisiana agricultural producers. Data for this study were obtained from 187 usable surveys completed by Louisiana agricultural produceragricultural producers. The data were analyzed to determine if producers utilized the LSU AgCenter website, the frequency they utilized …

Rube Tube : Cbs, Rural Sitcoms, And The Image Of The South, 1957-1971, Sara K. Eskridge

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the factors that led to the creation of the CBS rural comedy boom in the 1960s, as well as the reasons for its demise. For years, historians have dismissed the rural comedy craze as the networks catering to the growing number of southern viewers in the late 1950s. However, there were not enough to southern viewers to dictate a network’s entire programming schedule for the better part of a decade. Also, rural comedy was the domain of a single network, CBS. Had it really been a major thematic trend, all networks would have at least attempted to …

The Musical Life Of Carmen Petra-Basacopol And Her Various Contributions To The Harp Literature, Gabriela Chihaescu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The compositions of Romanian composer Carmen Petra-Basacopol (b. 1926) encompass a variety of musical genres such as solo instrumental music, chamber ensembles, and symphonic concert works, as well as opera, vocal, and vocal-symphonic works. Although not a harpist herself, Carmen Petra-Basacopol demonstrates great knowledge and mastery of idiomatic harp technique, including in her works an assortment of original timbre combinations such as knocking on the wood of the harp, pedal slides (is the sound effect produced when the pedal is moved while the string still vibrates), and près de la table (is the French expression for playing as close as …

Gumbos And Nanogumbos: Applications As Photosensitizers In Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, Atiya Nicole Jordan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Renewable energy is a major concern due to increased world energy consumption. In particular, solar energy is a type of renewable energy source that uses devices known as solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity. Specifically, devices referred to as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) employ dyes to absorb solar energy. Dyes derived from ruthenium complexes have been typically used in DSSCs. Unfortunately, several disadvantages are associated with current ruthenium complex photosensitizers, which can be attributed to limited supply and expense of metals, as well as reduced absorption in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Accordingly, this dissertation is a …

Ain't I Cool: Investigating The Lived Experience Of Cool For Black Male Collegians, Kyle Nathaniel Boone

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the lived experiences of cool for Black male college students. Cool, defined as a means to navigate cross-cultural structures, serves as Black men’s acknowledgement of, and response to, the rules of their self-identified cultural group when confronted by dominant racial, gendered, and/or class hegemonies. Results of this study note that cool is a major part of the fabric in the identity development of Black males and is contextualized through environmental factors. For this study, four theoretical frameworks were used to understand Black male cool: Phinney’s (1989) Ethnic Development Model, 2) Performance Theory …

Metabolic Rate Limits The Effect Of Sperm Competition On Mammalian Spermatogenesis, Javier Delbarco-Trillo, Maximiliano Tourmente, Eduardo R. S. Roldan

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Sperm competition leads to increased sperm production in many taxa. This response may result from increases in testes size, changes in testicular architecture or changes in the kinetics of spermatogenesis, but the impact of each one of these processes on sperm production has not been studied in an integrated manner. Furthermore, such response may be limited in species with low mass-specific metabolic rate (MSMR), i.e., large-bodied species, because they cannot process energy and resources efficiently enough both at the organismic and cellular levels. Here we compare 99 mammalian species and show that higher levels of sperm competition correlated with a) …

The Baby And Infant Screen For Children With Autism Traits: Age-Based Scoring Procedures, Max Horovitz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As increasing interest and emphasis has been placed on early intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), the need for reliable and valid early assessment techniques has grown significantly. The Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits (BISCUIT) is a three-part battery designed to comprehensively assess for ASD in infants and toddlers aged 17 to 37 months. While studies of the measure’s psychometric properties have been promising, the measure’s scoring procedures do not take the child’s age into account. Given the significant amount of development that occurs in the first three years of life, the current paper …

Minding The Gap : A Rhetorical History Of The Achievement Gap, Laura Elizabeth Jones

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Minding the Gap: A Rhetorical History of the Achievement Gap arose as an inquiry into the rhetorical congestion around the phrase achievement gap in public discourse. Having been used in support of multiple, often competing, education agendas, the phrase seems versatile almost to the point of emptiness, and yet it seemingly retains its persuasive power. Examining the history of the phrase, I reveal that the notion of the achievement gap is rooted in the logic of segregation and the rhetoric of disability, and serves to construct students in ways that paradoxically undermine efforts to expand access to educational opportunity. Although …

Chemical Composition And Structure Study Of Surfaces And Ultrathin Films Of Complex Compounds, Yi Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Complex Materials, such as transition-metal oxides (TMOs) with exotic properties provide immense opportunities in condensed matter and materials science. The signature and challenge of these materials is the multitude of competing ground states that can be tuned or manipulated by doping, structural modification, strain induction, or the application of external stimulus. In the past few years, it is becoming increasingly clear that surfaces/interfaces, thin films, and heterostructures of TMOs, display a rich diversity of fascinating properties that are related to, but not identical to, the bulk phenomena. The fundamental issues for the understanding of these emergent phenomena include the structure …

Recovery Of Understory Bird Movement In Post-Pasture Amazonia, Luke L. Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I sought to understand how forest fragmentation and secondary growth affect avian movement at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) near Manaus, Brazil. When deforested areas are abandoned, secondary forests regenerate, allowing rainforest animals to gradually recovery their ability to use formerly inhospitable habitat. My colleagues and I captured 2773 understory birds of ten foraging guilds along the edges of primary forest fragments and variable secondary forest. Age of secondary forest along edges was the most important variable driving capture rates on primary/secondary edges. Mean recovery to pre-isolation capture rates was 26 years after abandonment, but terrestrial insectivores …

Searching For New Gamma-Ray Sources Using Earth Occultation Imaging With The Cgro/Burst And Transient Source Experiment, Yuan Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Earth occultation provides a means of monitoring gamma-ray sources over the entire sky. This technique has been demonstrated with the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) active from 1991 to 2000, and is now being used with the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) instrument on the Fermi mission. Although this approach provides a powerful wide field monitoring capability, the BATSE and GBM implementations of this technique have so far limited the analysis to a catalog of previously identified sources. In this dissertation, an indirect imaging method is described that permits searching for unknown sources …

Characterization Of The Effect Of Alcohol On Recombinant Proteins Derived From Mammalian Adenylyl Cyclase, Emily Qualls Creekmore

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research suggests that the cyclic AMP (cAMP) signaling pathway is implicated in the development of alcoholism. Previous work in our laboratory has demonstrated that alcohol enhances the activity of adenylyl cyclase (AC) in an isoform specific manner; human type 7 AC (AC7) is most enhanced by ethanol as measured by cAMP accumulation assay in whole cells. We hypothesize that alcohol enhances AC activity by directly interacting with the protein and that alcohol effects on AC can be studied using recombinant AC expressed in bacteria. Our objectives include: 1) design and optimization of the conditions for protein expression and protein purity …

Identification Of Genes Responsible For Maintenance Of Differentiation Capability In Dental Pulp Stem Cells, Michael B. Flanagan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Stem cells exist in various tissues, including dental follicles and dental pulps. Adult stem cells (ASC) can be isolated from patients for autologous transplantation, which eliminates the risk of immune rejection with low or no tumorigenesis. However, one of the challenges is that ASC progressively lose their differentiation ability when cultured in vitro. This prevents expansion of large quantities of high-potential stem cells for therapeutics, especially for stem cells with limited tissue source, such as dental pulp stem cells (DPSC). The goal of this study is to define possible molecular regulation causing loss of differentiation. To achieve this goal, we …

Alcohol Use And Trauma Exposure Among Male And Female Veterans Before, During, And After Military Service, Michelle L. Kelley, Jennifer Runnals, Matthew R. Pearson, Marinell Miller, John A. Fairbank, Va Mid-Atlantic Mirecc Women Veterans Workgroup

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: The present study examined lifespan and combat-related trauma exposure as predictors of alcohol use among male and female veterans. Posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms were examined as mediators of the effects of trauma exposure on alcohol use.

Methods: Data were examined from 1825 (1450 male, 375 female) veterans and active duty service members who took part in a multi-site research study conducted through the Department of Veterans Affairs Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (VISN 6 MIRECC).

Results: For both men and women, depressive symptoms significantly mediated the effects of non-combat trauma exposure experienced before, during and …

Predictive Effects Of Good Self-Control And Poor Regulation On Alcohol-Related Outcomes: Do Protective Behavioral Strategies Mediate?, Matthew R. Pearson, Benjamin A. Kite, James M. Henson

Psychology Faculty Publications

In the present study, we examined whether use of protective behavioral strategies mediated the relationship between self-control constructs and alcohol-related outcomes. According to the two-mode model of self-control, good self-control (planfulness; measured with Future Time Perspective, Problem Solving, and Self-Reinforcement) and poor regulation (impulsivity; measured with Present Time Perspective, Poor Delay of Gratification, Distractibility) are theorized to be relatively independent constructs rather than opposite ends of a single continuum. The analytic sample consisted of 278 college student drinkers (68% women) who responded to a battery of surveys at a single time point. Using a structural equation model based on the …

Unplanned Drinking And Alcohol-Related Problems: A Preliminary Test Of The Model Of Unplanned Drinking Behavior, Matthew R. Pearson, James M. Henson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Much research links impulsivity with alcohol use and problems. In 2 studies, unplanned (or impulsive) drinking is assessed directly to determine whether it has direct effects on alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. In Study 1, we examined whether unplanned drinking serves as a proximal mediator of the effects of impulsivity-like traits on alcohol-related outcomes. With a sample of 211 college student drinkers, we found that the Unplanned Drinking Scale was significantly related to alcohol use, and perhaps more important, had a direct effect on alcohol-related problems even after controlling for frequency and quantity of alcohol use. Furthermore, unplanned drinking partially …

"Give Me Something That Relates To My Life" : Exploring African American Adolescent Male Identities Through Young Adult Literature, Angelle Leblanc Hebert

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research suggests that when students realize a personal connection to their learning environment and feel their identities are supported, successful learning can take place (Nasir, 2012). Specifically, the use of texts that are meaningful to the lives of African American males can provide spaces for them to explore their unique identities (Tatum, 2009). Such texts can include young adult literature, which offers potential for motivating students to engage in reading, especially because of its themes relevant to teen readers. While much research exists about the various YAL books available, less is known about “what actually happens when teens read young …

Unconscious Awareness Of A Branded Life: Consumer Disillusionment And The Cultivated Commercialization Of Public Health, Laura H. Crosswell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

By unraveling the intricately powerful influences of pharmaceutical funding, this project examines ways in which product marketing infiltrates and contaminates public awareness efforts in the healthcare industry. Specifically, the following work deconstructs ways in which Merck Pharmaceuticals & Co. crafted a product endorsement through social marketing and nationwide lobbying efforts to most efficiently profit from the company’s Gardasil vaccination. Through means of textual analysis, interviews, focus groups, and eyetracking experimentation, I use Merck’s product endorsement efforts to illuminate the complex dynamics muddling direct-to-consumer marketing and social marketing campaigns. Social cognitive theory (SCT) offers a strong supportive foundation from which to …

Global Trends In Seasonality Of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (Ndvi), 1982-2011, J. Ronald Eastman, Florencia Sangermano, Elia A. Machado, John Rogan, Assaf Anyamba

Geography

A 30-year series of global monthly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imagery derived from the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) NDVI3g archive was analyzed for the presence of trends in changing seasonality. Using the Seasonal Trend Analysis (STA) procedure, over half (56.30%) of land surfaces were found to exhibit significant trends. Almost half (46.10%) of the significant trends belonged to three classes of seasonal trends (or changes). Class 1 consisted of areas that experienced a uniform increase in NDVI throughout the year, and was primarily associated with forested areas, particularly broadleaf forests. Class 2 consisted of areas experiencing …

Assessment And Management Of Foot Ulcers For People With Diabetes, Registered Nurses' Association Of Ontario

General Submissions: Community and Population-based Materials

This guideline has been developed to address the question of how to assess and manage people with established diagnosis of diabetic foot ulcer(s). It provides evidence-based recommendations to all nurses and the interprofessional team who provide care in all health-care settings to people (>15 years of age) with type 1 and/or type 2 diabetes and who have established diabetic foot ulcers.

Analysis Of Protein Aggregates And Synthetic Nanoparticles Using Capillary Electrophoresis With Light Scattering And Fluorescence Detection, Suresh Chandra Regmi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of the research presented in this dissertation is to develop capillary electrophoresis (CE) based analysis techniques for the characterization of individual particles including amyloid beta (Aâ) peptide aggregates and to apply these methods to study the aggregation of Aâ peptides. Protein self-assembly into ordered aggregates is a common and important process in normal biological function, but this process is also involved in several diseases. Amyloid beta peptide aggregation is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Thioflavin T (ThT) has been used as a fluorescent probe for the detection of Aâ aggregation. Based on previous observations of false positive fluorescent signals …

Skein Theory And Topological Quantum Field Theory, Xuanting Cai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Skein modules arise naturally when mathematicians try to generalize the Jones polynomial of knots. In the first part of this work, we study properties of skein modules. The Temperley-Lieb algebra and some of its generalizations are skein modules. We construct a bases for these skein modules. With this basis, we are able to compute some gram determinants of bilinear forms on these skein modules. Also we use this basis to prove that the Mahler measures of colored Jones polynomial of a sequence of knots converges to the Mahler measure of some two variable polynomial. The topological quantum field theory constructed …

Parental Perceptions Of Supportive And Non-Supportive Influences On The Development Of Leadership, Debra Jo Gifford Hailey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Research into young children’s leadership skills is sparse and focused on leadership in classroom contexts. Understanding of leadership development in young children can be expanded by studying parents’ perceptions of children’s leadership development as it is enacted in contexts outside of the school. The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide an examination of beliefs, practices, and contextual relationships of families with young children who were identified within their schools as having strong leadership skills. Student leaders were identified using the Leadership subscale of the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students--Third Edition (SRBCSS-III; Renzulli et …

Exploring The Underpinnings That Attribute To Low Performance On Standardized Tests By First Year University Freshmen At A Historically Black College And University, Jeffery Joseph Darby, Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to examine and determine what factors contribute to the prevention of first semester freshmen students not succeeding on high stakes tests based on their opinions, and what variables are important to their performance at the university. The Personal Educational Academic Survey (PEAS), a 65 item Likert-type scale was designed to measure the students’ opinions regarding their academic knowledge acquired during their first semester in college in Academic Achievement and other courses at Langston University. The final response count was 216 representing a 35.47% response rate. The target population in this research study was …

Blame : Marriage, Folklore, And The Victorian Novel, Corrie Kiesel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Blame: Marriage, Folklore, and the Victorian Novel contends that the intersection of folk and legal discourses of responsibility and culpability shapes the way the Victorian novel imagines blame. Recent studies have drawn attention to the importance of official legal discourses such as trial testimony and standards of evidence to the development of narrative form during the nineteenth century. However, by attending to folk modes for establishing blameworthiness in Victorian novels, I show that folk and legal standards of culpability are mutually constitutive. The legal system is designed to identify the culpable in a fixed process – codified in slow-changing statutes …

Signal Transduction And Rickettsial Infection Of Tick Cells, Natthida Petchampai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Spotted fever group (SFG) Rickettsia are obligate intracellular bacteria that are carried by ticks. One such tick, Dermacentor variabilis is a vector for the etiologic agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, R. rickettsii. These ticks also carry a non-pathogenic R. montanensis, the agent used in this study. Interestingly, field data collected from infected D. variabilis throughout the United States revealed that the majority of Rickettsia in ticks are non-pathogenic species such as R. montanensis. Although ticks serve as both vector and reservoir hosts for SFG Rickettsia, many questions regarding tick-Rickettsia interaction remain unresolved. Therefore, the overall goal of this research …