Digital Commons Network^™

Vegetation Influences Microbial Community Structure And Methane Emissions In Southeastern Louisiana Wetlands, Anthony Jason Rietl

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Methane has a warming potential 28 times that of carbon dioxide and has been increasing in the Earth’s atmosphere since 1750. An understanding of the dynamics of methane emissions from natural sources is becoming increasingly important as we may need to mitigate emissions from these sources in the future to help reduce the effects of climate change. Wetlands are the single largest natural source of methane; however, little attention has been given to how plant species, biota, and interactions between above and belowground communities and microbial communities may affect methane emissions. First, microbial community structure and function was assessed for …

21st Century Transformational Leadership: The Neo-Stereotypical Phenomenon Of A Black Female Principal, Terri Valentine Wallis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership perceptions of a Black female first year principal in a predominantly White private Christian school. For years, educational research and leadership models for school principals were theorized and constructed based on White men or those in the dominant group. This study is significant in that it sought to explore the perception of the leadership behaviors and dispositions of a Black female to determine if there was a correlation between the Transformational Leadership Theory and the emergent leadership style. In the qualitative tradition, this autoethnographic study used narrative inquiry to explore …

Mass Incarceration By Design: The Impacts Of Urban Renewal And Landscape Architecture's Absence On The Prison Industrial Complex And The Use Of Landscape Architecture As An Antidote To Mass Incarceration, Abigail P. Phillips

LSU Master's Theses

The work of landscape architects has both positive and negative social impacts and landscape architects can strive to intentionally design for positive social impact. This paper utilizes mass incarceration as a lens for discussing the social impact of landscape architecture. The crossroads of mass incarceration and design offer a unique opportunity for Landscape Architects to examine the impact of many urban renewal efforts on marginalized communities, the benefits of landscape architectural involvement in prison design, and the use of design as protest against inhumane structures. This paper is separated into three sections, one detailing the history of social justice and …

On The National White Coat “Die-In”: Colorblind Segregation, Mass Incarceration And Increasing Disparities, Cameron Moore

Quill & Scope

No abstract provided.

"I Listen To Their Story, They Listen To My Comments, And Then I Pocket My Fee:" Sherlock Holmes As Rhetorical Equipment For Living, Andrew Cessna Jones

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study argues that Sherlock Holmes serves as rhetorical equipment for living. Using Kenneth Burke’s theory of symbolic appeal and the critical tool proposed in the essay “Literature as Equipment for Living,” I explore how Holmes responds to the rhetorical situation of early nineteenth century England and consider why the Holmes symbol continues to appeal to audiences. I conclude that rhetoric is a necessary component of the Sherlock Holmes symbol and suggest that Holmes’s famous method is rhetorical rather than syllogistic.

Student Internalizing Behavior Screener And Student Externalizing Behavior Screener: An Analysis Of Reliability, Validity, And Usability In Elementary School Populations, Kelsey Lynn Hartman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Universal screening for emotional and behavioral risk in schools facilitates early identification and intervention for students as part of multitiered systems of support. Because early intervention has the potential to mitigate adverse outcomes of emotional and behavioral disorders and schools are prime locations to reach at-risk youth, research on the technical adequacy and usability of universal screeners to identify students for available school-based supports is vital. The purpose of this study was to extend existing research by Cook et al. (2011) and Cook, Volpe, and Gresham (2012) on the technical adequacy and usability of two universal screening measures, the Student …

The Effect Of The Use Of The Students' First Language In Grammar Instruction: A Report On Student Preferences And Performance In The Target Language, Katherine Mickel

LSU Master's Theses

This study explores the effect of the use of the target language (TL) and the first language (L1) during grammar instruction in the foreign language classroom. There is limited evidence regarding the effect of language of instruction on TL acquisition (Tian & Macaro, 2012; Viakinnou-Brinson, Herron, Cole, & Haight, 2012; Antón & DiCamilla, 1999). However, this area warrants further research. As such, the present study investigates teacher language use (Spanish-only, English-only, or no restriction) during the explicit instruction of Spanish object pronouns (direct, indirect, and both combined) to measure the effect of each language condition on students’ object pronoun performance. …

Feeding Ecology Of Red Snapper And Greater Amberjack At Standing Platforms In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico: Disentangling The Effects Of Artificial Light, Kristin Leanne Foss

LSU Master's Theses

Approximately 2,300 petroleum platforms are currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), and are estimated to provide an additional 4 to 12 km2 of artificial reef habitat. The ecological role of platforms has often been overlooked and little is known about the effect of artificial light from the active platforms on surrounding fish communities. This is the first study to address the potential impacts of artificial light on the trophic ecology of fish communities surrounding offshore platforms through gut content (GCA) and stable isotope (SIA) analyses. Red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) were collected quarterly from February 2014 to November 2015 …

Relative Resistance To Breaking Of Pinus Taeda L. And Pinus Palustris, Cory Glenn Garms

LSU Master's Theses

Patterns from hurricane damage give an indication that longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) is more windfirm than loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). Tree windfirmess has been attributed to many factors including species and material properties like wood strength and stiffness. Because longleaf pine wood is stronger and stiffer than loblolly pine wood, this study used static winching methodology to see if these properties account for differences in windfirmness by measuring bending force required to break stems (MMAX). Stress-strain diagrams were constructed for pulled trees to explore how they behave under increasing loads. Based on these diagrams, it appears that living trees can …

Optimal Configuration Of Inspection And Rework Stations In A Multistage Flexible Flowline, Md. Shahriar Jahan Hossain

LSU Master's Theses

Inspection and rework are two important issues of quality control. In this research, an N-stage flowline is considered to make decisions on these two issues. When defective items are detected at the inspection station the items are either scrapped or reworked. A reworkable item may be repaired at the regular defect-creating workstation or at a dedicated off-line rework station. Two problems (end-of-line and multistage inspections) are considered here to deal with this situation. The end-of-line inspection (ELI) problem considers an inspection station located at the end of the line while the multistage inspection (MSI) problem deals with multiple in-line inspection …

A Study Of Fpga Resource Utilization For Pipelined Windowed Image Computations, Aswin Vijaya Varma

LSU Master's Theses

In image processing operations, each pixel is often treated independently and operated upon by using values of other pixels in the neighborhood. These operations are often called windowed image computations (or neighborhood operations). In this thesis, we examine the implementation of a windowed computation pipeline in an FPGA-based environment. Typically, the image is generated outside the FPGA environment (such as through a camera) and the result of the windowed computation is consumed outside the FPGA environment (for example, in a screen for display or an engine for higher level analysis). The image is typically large (over a million pixels 1000×1000 …

Music In Virtual Space: Theories And Techniques For Sound Spatialization And Virtual Reality-Based Stage Performance, Zachary Andrew Berkowitz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research explores virtual reality as a medium for live concert performance. I have realized compositions in which the individual performing on stage uses a VR head-mounted display complemented by other performance controllers to explore a composed virtual space. Movements and objects within the space are used to influence and control sound spatialization and diffusion, musical form, and sonic content. Audience members observe this in real-time, watching the performer's journey through the virtual space on a screen while listening to spatialized audio on loudspeakers variable in number and position. The major artistic challenge I will explore through this activity is …

The Development Of A Reduced Glycemic Load/High Fiber Pasta Using Pulses, Christopher Ringuette

LSU Master's Theses

The use of beans in the human diet provides an excellent source of dietary fiber and has potential for lowering glycemic load. Prepared meals with high levels of dietary fiber and low glycemic loads were found to be rare in a market survey of nine stores with various price points in the greater Baton Rouge area. The majority of the prepared meals found fell into low or medium fiber categories with medium to high glycemic loads. This indicates a need to increase the fiber level and decrease the glycemic load in popular foods. The purpose of this research is to …

Louisiana School Leaders’ Perceptions Of K-12 Online Technology Readiness, Jeffery Andrew Hand

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive study was to gain perspective of Louisiana public school leaders’ perceptions of their levels of preparedness to effectively integrate technology into their schools as a major component of their educational program. This research was guided by two overarching questions: (1) What is the perceived technology leadership preparedness level of Louisiana public school leaders as measured by their responses to the 2009 ISTE NETS-A standards? (2) Are there significant differences in how school leaders’ self-report on NETS-A standards by BESE state region? Results of this study indicate that school leaders, throughout all eight Louisiana BESE …

The Price Of Silence: How The Griffin Roadblock And Protection Against Adverse Inference Condemn The Criminal Defendant, Kelsey Craig

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1965, the Supreme Court held in Griffin v. California that the Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination prohibits judges and prosecutors from pointing to a defendant's failure to testify as substantive evidence of guilt. This doctrine assumes that such a prosecutorial or judicial "adverse comment" compels a negative inference-that the defendant is hiding something. The Griffin Court held that this assumption amounts to an unfair penalty on a defendant's invocation of a constitutionally protected right. This doctrine, however, makes a dangerous misstep in additionally assuming that the prohibition of adverse comment and the administration of limiting instructions curtail a …

Constructions Of Arbitration's Informalism: Autonomy, Efficiency, And Justicesymposium, Hiro N. Aragaki

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In the wake of a recent three-part series by the New York Times, arbitration is now back in the eye of the storm. The leading critique of arbitration, especially in the consumer and employment space, is that it is unjust both in the sense that it does not comport with basic notions of procedural fairness and/or because it cannot be expected to produce outcomes we would consider substantively just. For example, procedure in arbitration is dictated largely by contract rather than by mandatory rules that have been vetted by public bodies entrusted with safeguarding procedural values. Arbitrators are not bound …

Delaware Chancery Disqualifies Lead Petitioners In Dell Appraisal Who Inadvertently Voted For Management Buyout, Robert S. Reder

Vanderbilt Law Review

No abstract provided.

Explaining Scotus Repeaters, Richard M. Re

Vanderbilt Law Review

No abstract provided.

Variability Of Optical Counterparts To X-Ray Sources Within The Galactic Bulge Survey, Christopher Bradley Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Chandra Galactic Bulge Survey (GBS) is a shallow, wide field survey to search for and classify X-ray sources in the Galactic Bulge. Specifically, we are looking for Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs): systems containing either a neutron star or black hole that is accreting matter from a roughly stellar mass companion via Roche-Lobe overflow. My research uses optical, time-series photometry from the DECam instrument on the Blanco 4.0 m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory to identify counterparts to new X-ray sources in the GBS. For the systems that are variable in brightness in the optical, I use …

Dispositions In Evolutionary Biology: A Metaphysically Realist Account, Daniel Glyn Swaim

LSU Master's Theses

In the last several decades, philosophers of biology have published countless books and articles on the causal mechanisms underlying evolutionary change. There has been scant effort devoted, however, to detailed analysis of what these mechanisms mean for the relationship between our best interpretations of evolutionary change and our metaphysical picture of the world. This thesis addresses some key aspects of that metaphysical picture. I argue for a metaphysically realist interpretation of dispositions as causally active in evolutionary biology. I address fitness and evolvability in particular, as they present two of the best possible case studies for a metaphysically realist interpretation …

The Influence Of Cultural And Contextual Factors On The Scoring Decisions Of Rural Louisiana Principals During The Implementation Of The Compass System For Teacher Evaluation, Keith Michael Courville

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As a result of the federal grant competition and policy initiative known as Race to the Top (RTTT), states began an examination and reform of the methods by which they evaluated teachers. Upon examination of the historical results of a multitude of evaluation systems, it was revealed that the majority of teachers score in the upper echelons of their performance reviews, in sharp contrast to the level of academic achievement or academic growth of students of US students. After many reforms and the implementation of new teacher evaluation systems, such as the Compass system in Louisiana, the same positive skew …

Arsenic Speciation And Phytoremediation Modeling For Environmental Management, Sidney Joseph Marlborough

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Arsenic has been used throughout recorded history but during the industrial revolution widespread use led to global environmental impact. The two forms that should be considered in environment management are arsenate and arsenite. The calculations of environmental risk for arsenic exposure relies the toxicity of arsenite however, in well aeriated surface soils arsenate may be the predominate form. Ecological risk assessments based on arsenite studies will lead to restrictive remediation requirements that do not adequately reflect the level of risk. Arsenate resembles phosphate and as such has a greater affinity for phytoremediation. Phytoremediation is one of the most viable and …

Il-15 Mediates Mitochondrial Activity Through A Ppar𝛿-Dependent-Ppar𝛼-Independent Mechanism In Skeletal Muscle Cells, Shantaé M. Thornton, James E. Krolopp, Marcia J. Abbott

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Molecular mediators of metabolic processes, to increase energy expenditure, have become a focus for therapies of obesity. The discovery of cytokines secreted from the skeletal muscle (SKM), termed “myokines,” has garnered attention due to their positive effects on metabolic processes. Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a myokine that has numerous positive metabolic effects and is linked to the PPAR family of mitochondrial regulators. Here, we aimed to determine the importance of PPAR𝛼 and/or PPAR𝛿 as targets of IL-15 signaling. C2C12 SKM cells were differentiated for 6 days and treated every other day with IL-15 (100 ng/mL), a PPAR𝛼 inhibitor (GW-6471), a PPAR𝛿 …

The Design, Fabrication, And Validation Of A Film Cooled Rotating Turbine Cascade With An Actively Cooled Shroud In A Closed Loop Wind Tunnel, Christopher Michael Drewes

LSU Master's Theses

To test shroud and blade cooling effectiveness, a closed loop, heated wind tunnel housing a film cooled rotating turbine cascade with prescribed blade and vane geometry surrounded by a fully cooled shroud with a leading edge gap were designed and assembled on Louisiana State University’s campus. Heat transfer coefficients and film cooling effectiveness results were computed using a 1-D semi-infinite solid conduction analysis of material temperatures obtained with liquid crystal thermography. Proper analysis required a step change in air temperature; so a bypass loop provided mainstream air heating while maintaining the shroud and blades at ambient temperature. Also, analysis required …

Hybrid Ant Colony Optimization For Fuzzy Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling Problems, Po An Su

LSU Master's Theses

This study extends the best hybrid ant colony optimization variant developed by Liao et al. (2014) for crisp unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems to solve fuzzy unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems in consideration of trapezoidal fuzzy processing times, trapezoidal fuzzy sequencing dependent setup times and trapezoidal fuzzy release times. The objective is to find the best schedule taking minimum fuzzy makespan in completing all jobs. In this study, fuzzy arithmetic is used to determine fuzzy completion times of jobs and defuzzification function is used to convert fuzzy numbers back to crisp numbers for ranking. Eight fuzzy ranking methods are tested …

A Novel Recurrent Convolutional Neural Network For Ocean And Weather Forecasting, Robert James Firth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Numerical weather prediction is a computationally expensive task that requires not only the numerical solution to a complex set of non-linear partial differential equations, but also the creation of a parameterization scheme to estimate sub-grid scale phenomenon. The proposed method is an alternative approach to developing a mesoscale meteorological model – a modified recurrent convolutional neural network that learns to simulate the solution to these equations. Along with an appropriate time integration scheme and learning algorithm, this method can be used to create multi-day forecasts for a large region. The learning method presented is an extended form of Backpropagation Through …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Procedural Fairness Perceptions In Personnel Selection: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study, Udo Konradt, Yvonne Garbers, Martina Böge, Berrin Erdogan, Talya N. Bauer

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drawing on Gilliland’s (1993) selection fairness framework, we examined antecedents and behavioral effects of applicant procedural fairness perceptions before, during, and after a personnel selection procedure using a six-wave longitudinal research design. Results showed that both perceived post-test fairness and pre-feedback fairness perceptions are related to job offer acceptance and job performance after 18 months, but not to job performance after 36 months. Pre-test and post-test procedural fairness perceptions were mainly related to formal characteristics and interpersonal treatment, whereas pre-feedback fairness perceptions were related to formal characteristics and explanations. The impact of fairness attributes of formal characteristics and interpersonal treatment …

Friends Of The Children: Strategies For Scaling Impact, Jacen Greene, Nicki Yechin Lee, Eric Nelsen

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Friends of the Children, a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, was founded in 1993 by retired entrepreneur Duncan Campbell to serve youth at the highest risk of teen parenting, incarceration, or dropping out of school. Each youth client was matched with a paid mentor from first grade through the end of high school. The costs of this intervention were high, but the outcomes were extremely impressive in each of the three risk areas. The total benefits to society of Friends of the Children’s intervention was estimated at $7 for every $1 spent on the program.

In the United States alone, …

Theory And Utility Of The Three Isotope Fractionation Relationship, Justin Alan Hayles

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The field of isotope geochemistry began with the study of oxygen isotope geothermometry, most famously for carbonates. Traditionally oxygen isotope studies are only concerned with the relationship between one rare isotope, oxygen-18, and the common isotope, oxygen-16. In these cases, the abundance of the third stable isotope, oxygen-17 is ignored because for almost all terrestrial processes the 17O-16O relationship roughly scales with the 18O-16O relationship through a fractionation processes and is thought to not provide any new information. However, the discovery of large “mass independent” isotope effects for ozone chemistry has driven a multitude of uses for triple isotope relationships. …

An Architecture For Configuring An Efficient Scan Path For A Subset Of Elements, Arash Ashrafi

LSU Master's Theses

LaTeX4Web 1.4 OUTPUT Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have many modern applications. A feature of FPGAs is that they can be reconfigured to suit the computation. One such form of reconfiguration, called partial reconfiguration (PR), allows part of the chip to be altered. The smallest part that can be reconfigured is called a frame. To reconfigure a frame, a fixed number of configuration bits are input (typically from outside) to the frame. Thus PR involves (a) selecting a subset C Í S of k out of n frames to configure and (b) inputting the configuration bits for these k frames. …