Digital Commons Network^™

Advancing The Field Of Polypeptoids Through The Synthesis Of Novel Architectures And Thermoresponsive Polymers, Samuel Henry Lahasky

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Peptidomimetic polymers are an emerging class of polymers that are structurally related to polypeptides. Due to their structural similarities, these polymers can be used to study some of the physical aspects of polypeptides (for example, protein folding). They are also increasingly being used in the fields of biology and drug-delivery. Some members of peptidomimetic polymers include polyacrylamides, polyoxazolines and polypeptoids. Polymer synthesis and characterization has been performed for both polyacrylamides and polyoxazolines, with research dating back to the 1950s and 1980s respectively. Research in the field of polypeptoids has not been as extensive; however, emerging synthetic strategies are allowing for …

Deflection Based Condition Assessment For Rolling Wheel Deflectometer At Network Level, Karthik Venkatesh Dasari

LSU Master's Theses

The Rolling Wheel Deflectometer (RWD) is capable of measuring pavement deflection at high speeds without traffic interruption or compromising safety along tested road segments. To optimize the use of RWD at the network level, an assessment tool is needed to incorporate RWD data into current Pavement Management System (PMS) and to identify pavements in need of maintenance or rehabilitation. The objective of this study is to present the development of a screening tool, referred to as the pavement assessment triangular model, to predict pavement overall conditions based on RWD deflection, roughness measurements, and surface conditions as described by the Pavement …

Performing Folk Punk : Agonistic Performances Of Intersectionality, Benjamin D. Haas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The overarching goal of this project is to argue that folk punk performances offer spaces where a listening audience is exposed to a radical and intersectional politics, and enable that audience to identify with those views. By considering the performances of Inky Skulls, Pussy Riot!, and Against Me!, this study looks to the ways in which these folk punk exemplars highlight elements of the radical politics of the American left and in the history of folk and punk music. In particular, this project considers the intersections of race and class, women and nonhuman animals, and queerness and anarchism, as intersecting …

Sustainable Natural Resource Management In Regional Ecosystems : Case Studies In Semi-Arid And Humid Regions, Noura Bakr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sustainability calls for policies that meet current societal needs without compromising the needs of future generations; thus, a dual relationship between human and natural resources is required. The main goal of the current research was to introduce up-to-date environmental techniques for sustainable natural resource utilization in semiarid and humid ecosystems in short and long term. To achieve this goal, two studies were implemented. First, sustainable land use management was evaluated in a newly reclaimed, semiarid region in the Bustan 3 area (341.27 km2), Egypt. To achieve sustainable management in this agro-ecosystem; detection of land cover change, assessment of the most …

The Relationship Between Forgiveness, Imagined Interactions, Empathy And Relational Satisfaction Among Long-Distance Romantic Couples, Christopher Michael Mapp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Forgiveness is viewed as a major factor in maintaining healthy romantic relationships. But couples involved in long-distance relationships experience a different set of challenges than geographically-close couples when it comes to maintaining and enjoying satisfying and stable relationships. Many long-distance couples rely on increased empathy and intrapersonal communication – in the form of imagined interactions – to release tension, rehearse conversations, and review and analyze conflicts. While forgiveness has been studied extensively in a variety of interpersonal settings, it has not been explicitly studied in relation to the usage of imagined interactions or in maintaining long-distance relationships. Moreover, even though …

How Native American Women Perceive Their Unique Lived Experiences : Three Women Tell Their Stories, Marjorie Larson Kopacsi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Qualitative research that explores and further examines the lived experiences of Native American women is an important, yet a frequently neglected, part of the history of the United States (US). This is an important avenue of investigation, as historians have traditionally marginalized many groups within U.S. society, including women and groups that can be viewed as part of the fabric of U.S. culture, yet exist as subcultures. Native Americans (indigenous peoples, ‘Indians’) should share a special place within U.S. society as First Americans; however, qualitative studies of Native American women, offered through a feminist lens as keepers of tradition …

Tensions Between Abstraction And Replication In Early-Twentieth-Century Design : Norman Bel Geddes' Designs For Broadway's The Miracle, John Thomas-Hood Mabry

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I make a major contribution to American scenographic historiography with this revised account of Norman Bel Geddes’ set for Max Reinhardt’s 1924 Broadway production of The Miracle, a design theatre scholars have consistently used not only to define Geddes’ aesthetic “versatility,” but also as a prime exemplar of New Stagecraft style. Based on both secondary and primary research material, I contend that the cathedral setting was neither indicative of Geddes’ fundamental aesthetic principles, nor of the aesthetic principles of the New Stagecraft. I firmly establish the principles of the latter within the first definitive, concise demarcation of what constitutes New …

Simple And Fast Reconstruction Of 6 Mv Radiotherapy Doses To The Whole Body, Lydia Joyce Wilson

LSU Master's Theses

Background: State-of-the-art radiotherapy medical records include reliable estimates of the therapeutic radiation but are known to underestimate the stray radiation exposures by 40% away from the treatment field. Most commonly, stray radiation exposures are reconstructed using empirical formulas and/or lookup tables containing machine-specific dose measurements. The purpose of this study was to develop a physics-based model to calculate exposures to the whole body of patients who receive external beam photon radiotherapy. Methods: We developed a physics-based analytic algorithm to predict absorbed dose from therapeutic, scatter, and leakage radiation. The model includes separate terms to characterize photon production, attenuation, and scattering …

Toward Digitizing The Human Experience : A New Resource For Natural Language Processing, Jerry Scott Weltman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A long-standing goal of Artificial Intelligence is to program computers that understand natural language. A basic obstacle is that computers lack the common sense that even small children acquire simply by experiencing life, and no one has devised a way to program this experience into a computer. This dissertation presents a methodology and proof-of-concept software system that enables non-experts, with some training, to create simple experiences. For the purposes of this dissertation, an experience is a series of time-ordered comic frames, annotated with the changing intentional and physical states of the characters and objects in each frame. Each frame represents …

Proteomics-Based Study Of Host-Fungus Interaction Between Soybean And Phakopsora Pachyrhizi Using Recombinant Inbred Line (Ril) Derived Sister Lines, Mala Ganiger

LSU Master's Theses

Phakopsora pachyrhizi, the causal agent of Asian soybean rust (ASR), has the potential to cause severe yield losses as all United States commercial soybean varieties are susceptible. In this study, 10 soybean recombinant inbred line (RIL) derived sibling lines of two populations (RN06-32-2 and RN06-16-1) were evaluated for differences in response to infection by P. pachyrhizi. These lines, which had previously shown differential responses to Florida soybean rust isolates, were evaluated using Louisiana soybean rust isolates under both detached leaf assay and greenhouse in planta inoculation conditions. Sibling lines showed significant differences in response to P. pachyrhizi infection under both …

Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry For Identificaiton Of Shrimp, Venkatesulu Salla

LSU Master's Theses

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) time of flight mass spectrometry was used to identify shrimp at the species level using commercial mass spectral fingerprint matching software (Bruker Biotyper). In the first step, a mass spectrum reference database was constructed from the analysis of six shrimp species that are commercially important in the United States: L. setiferus, F. azticus, S. brevirostris, P. robustus, P. dispar and P. platyceros. In the second step, the reference database was tested using 74 unknown shrimp samples from these six species. Correct identification was achieved for 72 of the 74 samples (97 percent): 72 samples were …

Zoltán Kodály's Sonata For Unaccompanied Cello, Op. 8 : One Cellist's Path To Performance, Celeste Power

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My purpose in writing this document is to simply present my experience in learning and performing Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello, Op. 8. My intent is not to instruct cellists on the interpretation of this piece. Each musician must decide how to play it in a way that suits his or her own conception of the piece. Rather I intend to go through each movement and discuss the problems I faced and how I endeavored to solved them, why some solutions worked and others did not, how I prepared for a recital performance of the piece, and what I …

Investigating "Experimentalism" : A Case Study Of The Tuba And Its Repertoire, Andrew Brian Larson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The extant repertoire for the tuba serves as a landmark for how the tuba was perceived at that moment in time by that composer. This document contains a brief analysis of the tuba “experiment” that has been ongoing since its invention. In addition, it contains a brief parallel case study of the saxophone and how this instrument, invented at about the same time as the tuba, has embraced experimentalism and modern performance. This document contains five major sections. The first provides a brief history of the tuba and its predecessors. The second introduces numerical data representing the performance frequency of …

Instability Analysis And Suppression Of Instability In Low-Density Gas Jets, Sukanta Bhattacharjee

LSU Master's Theses

A numerical study is conducted to understand the global instability of very low-density jets (as encountered in thermal plasmas). The simulations have been carried out for different parameters of density ratios, S = ƒÏj /ƒÏ‡ ranging from 0.5 to 0.03, different Reynolds numbers ranging from 500 to 4000 and different momentum thickness obtained by different extension tube length ranging from 3 to 6 diameter long. The flow parameters and vortex structures has been visualized to understand the details of the evolution of the flow field. The axisymmetric shear layer rolls up in the near field of the jet forming vortex …

Nanoindentation Characterization Of Clay Minerals And Clay-Based Hybrid Bio-Geomaterials, Rohit Raj Pant

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Layered hydrous aluminosilicates are key constituent minerals in rocks, soils, and other parts of the Earth crust. Understanding mechanical properties of these aluminosilicates is crucial for seismic study, stability of parent rocks and geomaterials, and for geophysical subsurface exploration. Recently, growing prospects of clay based nanocomposites have renewed further interest in understanding the fundamental elastic and plastic properties of hydrous aluminosilicates. Their distinct, nanoscale layered crystal structure is known to result in anisotropic responses to loading, however, owing to their tiny sizes; it is a significant challenge to determine the anisotropic properties. There is a little data available in the …

Restoring Performance : Personal Story, Place, And Memory In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Anne-Liese Juge Fox

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Following the devastation of 80 percent of the city of New Orleans and the prolonged period of trauma due to levee failure and lack of effective emergency response in 2005, New Orleanian performing artists independently and along with national artists to create post-K performances as acts of restoration. This study explores post-disaster New Orleanian performances that engage with the interaction of personal story, place, and memory in response to disaster. How are these site-specific performances at significant sites of memory performative in the J.L. Austin sense? In the context of disaster, what are ethical implications of remembering? How may certain …

The Effect Of Frequent Quizzing On Student Learning In A High School Physical Science Classroom, Courtney Bailey Norton

LSU Master's Theses

This research explores the effects of frequent quizzing versus no quizzing in a high school Physical Science class. The study population included two freshman level Physical Science Honors classes. The content in this study included Classifying Matter, States of Matter, Atomic Bonding, Motion and Forces and Motion. For each chapter covered one class served as a control group, getting no quizzes, and the other class served as an experimental group, getting frequent quizzes. Prior to being taught information on the 5 chapters covered in this study, a 15-question pre-test was administered to the students. The information was delivered in the …

A Clay Mineral Provenance Study Of The Northern Pandora Trough Continental Margin, Gulf Of Papua, Ashley Len Howell

LSU Master's Theses

X-ray diffraction mineralogy of western-, central-, and eastern-derived fluvial sediments within the Gulf of Papua exhibits distinct and mixed clay mineral assemblages. These mineral assemblages allow for a better understanding of how a thick muddy continental margin shelf-edge depocenter in the eastern Gulf of Papua of latest Pleistocene/early Holocene age formed, as well as connections between terrestrial sediment delivery and evolution of deep-sea deposits in this region. Modern clay mineralogy reveals a high to low gradation of illite/smectite values from the western to eastern Gulf of Papua (Slingerland et al., 2008a), which is applied to the recent past for provenance …

Design Flood Elevations Beyond Code Requirements And Current Best Practices, Frank H. Bohn

LSU Master's Theses

In the United States, nearly 9 million people, 3.0% of the population, live in areas subject to the 1% annual chance (100-yr) coastal flood hazard. New construction and substantial improvements in coastal high hazard areas require structures to be elevated above the design flood elevation (DFE), without the use of fill (Bellomo et al. 1999). Building code requirements for flood elevation are linked to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) insurance policies, and represent the minimum requirement for building elevation. Current elevation procedures are limited to the 100-year base flood elevation with minimal guidance beyond the 100-year elevation in many …

Energy Spectra Comparisons For Matched Clinical Electron Beams On Elekta Linear Accelerators Using A Permanent Magnet Spectrometer, David Mclaughlin

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to use a permanent magnet electron energy spectrometer to measure and compare electron beam energy spectra from matched electron beams on Elekta radiotherapy accelerators at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center

Methods: Electron beamcollimation, X-ray background collimation, and irradiation geometry were developed to produce suitable latent images in computed radiography (CR) strips at the exit side of a 0.5-Tesla permanent magnet spectrometer.An analytical technique transformed CR strip images into energy spectra on central axis at 95-cm source-to-collimator distance.Electron energy spectra at 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, and 20 MeV for four accelerators, whose …

Reef Fish Demographics On Louisiana Artificial Reefs : The Effects Of Reef Size On Biomass Distribution And Foraging Dynamics, Kirsten A. Simonsen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the role that habitat plays in the life history of reef-associated fishes is particularly significant given the dramatic increase in the number of artificial reefs deployed in coastal ecosystems over the past 50 years. In the Gulf of Mexico, the oil and gas industry has added a significant amount of structure to the Louisiana continental shelf, creating the largest de facto artificial reef deployment area in the world. Noting their usefulness as fish habitat, the Louisiana Artificial Reef Program was established to convert decommissioned platforms into artificial reefs. However, very little quantitative information exists on how these habitats affect …

Economics And The Bible, Roger S. Nam

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

At its essence, economics is the study of how societies make decisions on the allocation of limited resources. Whether subsistence, capitalist, socialist, or totalitarian, each society faces complex choices regarding the distribution of goods and utilities. In making such choices, economics involves the study of the various allocation processes such as production, consumption, exchange, forecasting, scarcity, and risk. But in all of these activities, economics is observable only through human behavior. Consequently, efforts to isolate economic behavior from social spheres are heuristic at best, misleading at worst. Economic decisions reflect deeper ideological values, hierarchies, and positions of power, often revealed …

Facebook Policy And User Knowledge: Self-Inflicted Totalitarianism, Richard Rockelmann Jr

Theses

Facebook has become an integral part of digital natives lives. As the technology is used more often, trust in the service increases. The unfortunate reality: people misinterpret trust by assuming anything can be said and done on this popular social media outlet. The problem of course is the fact that Facebook is a business that is fueled by sharing information to both third parties and other people. Their business scheme, combined with users misunderstanding of what power the policies have over them has the potential to incriminate and destroy students future they are working so hard to obtain. Are people …

Effect Of Microwave Heating On The Migration Of Additives From Ps, Pp And Pet Container Into Food Simulants, Ruoyin Cai

Theses

Microwave food packaging has become a tremendous element in the food manufacturing process. The purpose of any food packaging regulations concerned with the safety of the food is to control and limit the migration of substances from the packaging into the food. The main objective of this thesis is to test three different microwaving packaging materials that are the most common material in the market, viz. polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), migrated into four food simulant solutions. Four different simulant solutions were used based on the food type and FDA recommendations and regulations. These food simulants include …

The Development And Validation Of The Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised (Pacs-R), Lauren M. Schaefer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Physical Appearance Comparison Scale (PACS; Thompson, Heinberg, & Tantleff, 1991) is a widely used 5-item measure that assesses an overall tendency to compare one's own appearance to the appearance of others in social situations. Research using the PACS and other measures of appearance comparison has shown this construct to be related to higher levels of body dissatisfaction and eating pathology. However, the measure is limited in that it only assesses comparison tendencies within a narrow range of social contexts and body sites. In the current investigation, the PACS was revised to examine a broader range of social contexts (e.g., …

Utilizing Habit Reversal And Contingency Contracting To Impact Eating Habits With Obese Individuals, Christopher Thomas Scull

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the most difficult set of behaviors for individuals to engage in is weight management. The United States boasts an astonishing 35% obesity rate in adults while children show almost a 20% obesity rate. These statistics identify the importance of developing effective methods to help change an individual's eating habits. There are many eating habits that may contribute to an individual gaining or losing weight over a period of time. Simplified habit reversal (SHR) has an impressive history in shaping desirable responses to compete with many different types of habitual behaviors. The present study extended the SHR procedure to …

Turning Water Into Wine: The Political Economy Of The Environment In Southern California's Wine Country, Jason Simms

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines questions of water sustainability in contexts of wine production and state-led neoliberal development in the Temecula Valley, southern California, where wine tourism is at present being harnessed as an engine of economic growth. Natural and anthropogenic forces, such as global climate change, desertification, urban development, and the marketization and commodification of natural resources, affect the distribution and availability of water throughout the globe. As a result, the use of water, and associated political and environmental processes and consequences, in the production of global commodities, including wheat, citrus, and coffee, recently have come under increased scrutiny. Given wine's …

Comparisons Of Acute Neuromuscular Fatigue And Recovery After Maximal Effort Strength Training Using Powerlifts, Nicholas Todd Theilen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

COMPARISONS OF ACUTE NEUROMUSCULAR FATIGUE IN MAXIMAL EFFORT STRENGTH TRAINING USING POWERLIFTS.

N. T. Theilen, B. I. Campbell, M. C. Zourdos2, J. M. Oliver3, J. O'Halloran1, N. Asher1, J. M. Wilson4

1University of South Florida, Exercise and Performance Nutrition Laboratory, Tampa, FL

2Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

3Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX

4University of Tampa, Tampa, FL

Neuromuscular fatigue is associated with a decrease in velocity. Following powerlift training, the extent to which fatigue affects the performance velocity of each lift after a specified recovery interval has not yet been investigated.

Purpose

To assess the level of acute …

Computational Approaches For Structure Based Drug Design And Protein Structure-Function Prediction, Sai Lakshmana Kumar Vankayala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation thesis consists of a series of chapters that are interwoven by solving interesting biological problems, employing various computational methodologies. These techniques provide meaningful physical insights to promote the scientific fields of interest. Focus of chapter 1 concerns, the importance of computational tools like docking studies in advancing structure based drug design processes. This chapter also addresses the prime concerns like scoring functions, sampling algorithms and flexible docking studies that hamper the docking successes. Information about the different kinds of flexible dockings in terms of accuracy, time limitations and success studies are presented. Later the importance of Induced fit …

Refiguring Indexicality: Remediation, Film, & Memory In Contemporary Japanese Visual Media, Janine Marie Villot

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through an analog between film and memory, I argue contemporary Japanese visual media constantly remediates this relationship in order to develop a more inclusive, plastic indexicality that allows media without direct material contiguity access to an indexicality not typically attributed to it. Amidst the early twenty-first century shift from old, mechanical media to new, electronic media, each Japanese text engages the West through intercultural discourses and intracultural responses, just as Japan has continually encountered the West since its forced opening by Commodore Perry in 1853. The plasticized indexicality figured by contemporary Japanese visual media implies the plastic nature of abstracted …