Digital Commons Network^™

Video Based Intervention And Backward Chaining: Teaching Children With Autism, Philip Ross Richard

LSU Master's Theses

As we move further and further into the digital age, interventions that make use of advances in technology will become increasingly relevant. One example of the application of technology is Video Based Interventions (VBI). VBIs include interventions that utilize pre-recorded video footage to assist acquisition of functional life skills, social and play skills, and adaptive behaviors, among others (Rayner, Denholm, & Sigafoos, 2009). Due to the breadth of the term, there are many different types of VBIs that have been examined in research and practice. This study examined one type of VBI, video prompting, and its effectiveness when combined with …

Cold Tolerance And Overwintering Physiology Of The Salvinia Weevil (Cyrtobagous Salviniae): Improving The Biological Control Of Giant Salvinia In Temperate Louisiana, Alana D. Russell

LSU Master's Theses

Cyrtobagous salviniae is widely used for biological control of Salvinia molesta. Despite success in tropical and subtropical regions, the effectiveness of C. salviniae on S. molesta is inconsistent in temperate regions, indicating the need for a better understanding of the thermal biology of this agent. The objectives of this study were to compare cold tolerance of C. salviniae populations from the temperate native range and Louisiana, and characterize the overwintering physiology and population dynamics of C. salviniae in Louisiana. Surveys of the Lower Paraná-Uruguay Delta resulted in the first record of C. salviniae in Uruguay, and revealed the most southern …

Estimation Of Rfid Tag Population Size By Gaussian Estimator, Md Mahmudul Hasan

LSU Master's Theses

Radio Frequency IDenti cation (RFID) systems are prevalent in all sorts of daily life endeavors. In this thesis we propose a new method to estimate RFID tag population size. We have named our algorithm "Gaussian Estimation of RFID Tags,"namely, GERT. We present GERT under both {0,1} and {0,1,e} channel models, and in both cases the estimator we use is a well justi ed Gaussian random variable for large enough frame size based on Central Limit Theorem for triangular arrays. The most prominent feature of GERT is the quality with which it estimates a tag population size. We support all the …

Sediment Infilling Of Louisiana Continental-Shelf Dredge Pits: A Record Of Sedimentary Processes In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Meg Cathlin O'Connor

LSU Master's Theses

Sediment cores were collected at continental-shelf sites of the Northern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana to develop a better understanding of post-dredging evolution of mud-capped dredge pits. The two pits studied were Sandy Point (SP) and Raccoon Island (RI) (both with water depths of ~10m and dredged to ~ 15-20 m below water surface), which were dredged in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Vibracores and multicores were collected in 2015. Preliminary radiochemistry analyses identified Beryllium-7 distribution in multicore samples from both sites. SP1, the northwestern site in the Sandy Point dredge pit, showed 26 cm of 7Be penetration. …

Social Media And Discourse: A Comparative Study Of English And Spanish Apologies, Adam Logan Majors

LSU Master's Theses

This research is based on the combination of the age-old discussion between written and oral discourse with the emergence of using multimedia to publish apologies for widespread audiences. Because social media applications like Twitter and YouTube give instant publication access to its users, the continuum between written and oral discourse is continuing to shorten not just amongst Americans, but numerous cultures. The aim of this thesis is to observe a number of tweets and videos to determine whether or not multimedia is aiding this movement, as well as whether English and Spanish speech act-making strategies (specifically for apologies) are affected. …

Nealley's Sprangletop (Leptochloa Nealleyi Vasey) Management And Interference In Rice Production, Eric Allen Bergeron

LSU Master's Theses

A glasshouse study was conducted on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge to evaluate herbicide activity on Nealley's sprangletop. Herbicides were applied to Nealley’s sprangletop plants in the one-two tiller stage with height of 20-30 cm. Nealley's sprangletop control, leaf number, height, tiller number, and fresh weight biomass were evaluated. Nealley's sprangletop treated with glyphosate, quizalofop, fenoxaprop, and clethodim was controlled 89 to 99%. A field study was conducted at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station (RRS) and a grower location (GL) to evaluate herbicide rates and timings for control of Nealley's sprangletop in drill-seeded rice. Herbicide treatments …

The Slow Evolution Of A Chimeric Field: Perceptions Of Chymistry Through Early Learned Journals, 1665-1743, Amanda J. Arceneaux

LSU Master's Theses

Scholars have made the argument that during the eighteenth century “alchemy” came increasingly to be seen as a fraudulent science or a science for charlatans, while chemistry retained its intellectual prestige. Around the same time "alchemy" and "chemistry" began their divergence, the legitimacy of science came increasingly to depend on public demonstrations. The term chymistry has become accepted amongst scholars of the field when discussing this etymologically complicated period when the terms alchemy and chemistry were both used by contemporaries to describe the field of knowledge without the distinctions that are placed on the terms today.

This study examines 1,029 …

Analyzing User Comments On Youtube Coding Tutorial Videos, Elizabeth Heidi Poche

LSU Master's Theses

Video coding tutorials enable expert and novice programmers to visually observe real developers write, debug, and execute code. Previous research in this domain has focused on helping programmers find relevant content in coding tutorial videos as well as understanding the motivation and needs of content creators. In this thesis, we focus on the link connecting programmers creating coding videos with their audience. More specifically, we analyze user comments on YouTube coding tutorial videos. Our main objective is to help content creators to effectively understand the needs and concerns of their viewers, thus respond faster to these concerns and deliver higher-quality …

Coasteering, Adam James Meistrell

LSU Master's Theses

Coasteering: (noun) An adventure sport tasked with defining and exploring boundaries and coastlines. Adam Meistrell’s artwork is an invitation to interpret evidence and inspiration through making, investigation, and utility. He utilizes a variety of working methods to interpret evidence and share his understanding.

Creating A Research Footprint: Introducing An Institutional Repository To Scholars, Carrie B. Levinson, Melissa Spangenberg, Jovy O'Grady

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

Touro Scholar, the institutional repository (IR) of the Touro College and University System (TCUS) and New York Medical College (NYMC), officially launched in April 2016, utilizing bepress’s Digital Commons repository platform.The IR is an online archive of scholarly output of an institution –in this case TCUS and NYMC. After assessing institutional knowledge of the scholarly benefits of depositing work in the repository, the libraries planned to create a concrete game plan to establish buy-in to Touro Scholar. Handouts, presentations, customized guides, liaison outreach, tutorials, and webinars were proposed methods of advertising the repository.

Proving Non-Deterministic Computations In Agda, Sergio Antoy, Michael Hanus, Steven Libby

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigate proving properties of Curry programs using Agda. First, we address the functional correctness of Curry functions that, apart from some syntactic and semantic differences, are in the intersection of the two languages. Second, we use Agda to model non-deterministic functions with two distinct and competitive approaches incorporating the non-determinism. The first approach eliminates non-determinism by considering the set of all non-deterministic values produced by an application. The second approach encodes every non-deterministic choice that the application could perform. We consider our initial experiment a success. Although proving properties of programs is a notoriously difficult task, the functional logic …

The Assessment Of Online Degree Programs: Lessons From Recent Alumni, Yoram Neumann, Edith F. Neumann, Shelia Lewis

Touro University Worldwide Publications and Research

The main focus of this study was the assessment performed by recent alumni as an important component of online degree program outcomes assessment. A model of components of the online learning environment was developed and tested to predictive various levels of educational outcomes of online degree programs separately for bachelor and master degree programs' alumni. The educational outcomes include direct educational outcomes and attributed educational outcomes. The model was then validated in predicting summative outcomes assessment. The model played an important role in understanding degree program's online educational outcomes and its predictive validity across all outcomes and degree levels is …

The Robust Learning Model With A Spiral Curriculum: Implications For The Educational Effectiveness Of Online Master Degree Programs, Yoram Neumann, Edith F. Neumann, Shelia Lewis

Touro University Worldwide Publications and Research

This study integrated the Spiral Curriculum approach into the Robust Learning Model as part of a continuous improvement process that was designed to improve educational effectiveness and then assessed the differences between the initial and integrated models as well as the predictability of the first course in the integrated learning model on a wide range of educational effectiveness indicators for online master degree programs.

Meaningful improvement in educational effectiveness was validated by the study. The importance of the first course's predictors in predicting and explaining the various degree program educational effectiveness indicators was also very instrumental.

The theoretical and practical …

Medical Student Burnout: A Social Cognitive Learning Perspective On Medical Student Mental Health And Wellness, Robert Lubin, Michael Hamlin

Touro University Worldwide Publications and Research

Medical students' mental health is a topic of great interest as it has implications not only for medical students but also for the patients of these future doctors. Medical students face many academic pressures and burnout is one possible consequence of these stressors with some studies suggesting that burnout affects up to 50% of medical students. Our own study of American students in a medical programme located outside of the U.S. showed that student perceptions of the medical learning environment were linked with burnout suggesting that reducing burnout requires a pedagogical approach that addresses academically related stress factors. This chapter …

Evaluation Of A Course To Prepare International Students For The United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 Clinical Skills Exam, Rachel B. Levine, Andrew P. Levy, Robert Lubin, Sarah Halevi, Rebeca Rios, Danelle Cayea

Touro University Worldwide Publications and Research

Purpose: United States (US) and Canadian citizens attending medical school abroad often desire to return to the US for residency, and therefore must pass US licensing exams. We describe a 2-day United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) step 2 clinical skills (CS) preparation course for students in the Technion American Medical School program (Haifa, Israel) between 2012 and 2016. Methods: Students completed pre- and post-course questionnaires. The paired t-test was used to measure students’ perceptions of knowledge, preparation, confidence, and competence in CS pre- and post-course. To test for differences by gender or country of birth, analysis of …

An Exploration Of The Effects Of Cattle Grazing, Prairie Dog Activity, And Ecological Site On Plant Community Composition And Western Wheatgrass Vegetative Reproduction In Northern Mixed Grass Prairie, Aaron Lee Field

Range Science

Modern range scientists and managers are tasked with feeding more people than ever before while maintaining or improving the ecological function of over half of the world’s land surface. Often, these tasks are in conflict. This disparity is evident in the relationship between rangeland livestock producers and black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludoviciana). Prairie dogs are considered a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer, but they also reduce available forage for livestock. In this disquisition we investigated the dynamic relationship between prairie dog activities and cattle grazing in respect to their combined and separate influences on plant community composition and western …

"To Be Novelized": An Investigation Of Autofiction & How It Operates In Gwenaelle Aubry's No One, Ava Dean

University Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to identify and understand the neologism "autofiction" through literary theory and the employment of this genre in Gwenaelle Aubry's No One.

Volunteering To Colonize: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of The Impacts Of Voluntourism, Yetta Rose Stein

University Honors Theses

This paper examines the positive and negative implications of voluntourism, defined as a short-term trip (less than three months) of paid travel combining the vacation aspects with volunteer work externally organized. This paper compares the motivations of both the voluntourist and the voluntourism organizations. Ultimately, this paper seeks to ask: is voluntourism more negative or more positive? This paper compiles past ethnographic literature within the tourism and voluntourism community. This paper finds that voluntourism is neocolonial in nature, creates economic relationships built on aid reliance, does not help to form long-lasting social relationships and is irresponsible in its management of …

A Biological Comparison Of Two Sites: An Ecological Approach Using Community Ecology Metrics Based On Insect Faunal Composition, Kennedy J. Martin

University Honors Theses

Two natural sites in the Portland urban area, River View Natural Area (RVNA) and Powers Marine Park (PMP), were sampled to assess their insect faunal composition with the intention of determining whether the areas are sufficiently similar ecologically that they could potentially be managed as a single unit. The two areas were compared using community ecology metrics based on their respective invertebrate fauna. The results suggested that RVNA and PMP had statistically different ecological communities. The Shannon Diversity Index for PMP was 0.303, and 0.819 for RVNA. The Horn Index of Community Overlap suggested a 93.46% overlap based on these …

How Do Acts Of Terror Affect Public Discourse Concerning Immigration? A Media Analysis Surrounding The Pulse Nightclub Shooting, Braedon Lehman

University Honors Theses

This article aims to examine how terrorist attacks influence public discourse concerning immigration, both in bias and in overall amount of discussion by conducting a quantitative and qualitative content analysis study on the Pulse Nightclub shooting. I will ultimately try to contribute to the research question: how do acts of terror affect public discourse concerning immigration? I will draw from a wealth of other content analysis articles with particular reference to studies on the effect of differing terms for immigrants affecting public opinion such as Merolla, Karthick Ramakrishnan, and Haynes 2013. This study is split into two parts and specifically …

How Does The 12-Step Model Of Recovery Benefit And Complicate Harm Reduction Strategies For Substance Abusing Adolescent Youth?, Matthew Matteini

University Honors Theses

Alongside harm reduction strategies, the abstinence-based 12-step model of recovery has become an increasingly prominent means of addressing substance abuse among American adolescent youth. These two different models of recovery are commonly being implemented in tandem with one another as a means of treating substance abuse for adolescent youth. Despite the common occurrence of dual implementation, there has been limited research into the impact these modalities have upon one another. Using a narrative review, this study utilizes existing literature to highlight key means through which the 12-step model of recovery works as both an asset and a hindrance to harm …

Innovator Or Butcher?: Herophilean Research Methods In Early Ptolemaic Alexandria, Annastasia C. Conner

University Honors Theses

In a period of Ptolemaic Alexandria that has been referred to by modern scholars as a "frontier environment" for scientific achievement and discoveries, Herophilus of Chalcedon was a leader of innovation. Religious and cultural boundaries and the presence of taboos and death-based pollution should perhaps have limited his research capabilities, but under the patronage of the ruling Ptolemaic kings (Ptolemy I Soter, and Ptolemy II Philadelphus both reigned during Herophilus' lifetime), he and his contemporaries were able to dissect and vivisect human cadavers within the pursuit of their studies. Although Herophilus' therapeutic practices largely fell within the scope of the …

Aerobic And Anaerobic Exercise: Analyzing The Benefits Of Different Forms Of Exercise For Adults Diagnosed With Type 2 Diabetes, Mark A. Yakubovich

University Honors Theses

This paper explores multiple published articles that will consider the effects of aerobic and anaerobic exercise performed by adult individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It will also explore the benefits of combining both forms of exercise and how each compare in terms of glycemic control. This paper will specifically be looking at the benefits of exercise on type 2 diabetes mellitus. I acknowledge that a combination of both exercise and nutrition is optimal for individuals with type 2 diabetes, but this paper is solely looking at the effects of exercise. I will be analyzing the methods used in …

Relationship Between Social Anxiety & Facebook Surveillance, Jordan J. Rasmussen

University Honors Theses

The advent of social media has created a new type of information seeking to reduce uncertainty: extractive information seeking, which refers to when people seek information about their target by perusing their online social media profiles. The social compensation hypothesis suggests that those who suffer from social anxiety in face-to-face contexts might use a computer-mediated communication context (such as Facebook) to mitigate their face-to-face anxiety. The goal of this study is to find a relationship between general social anxiety (GSA) and interpersonal electronic surveillance (IES), a type of extractive information seeking. Results from this study indicate that while there is …

Predictive Policing On Portland State University's Campus, Kiley D. Enger

University Honors Theses

Although many want to believe that campuses are safe and free of crime acts, there is a reason for the campus public safety department. Reed College, Lewis and Clark College, and University of Portland all rank as safer schools than Portland State University (PSU) (Niche, 2017). The parking garages and lots in particular have a large number of crimes (Enger, 2016). Using predictive analytics to forecast crime is becoming very popular with large police departments within the last few years. It emphasizes the importance of collecting crime data and created a use for past incident reports. The goal of the …

Cooperative Learning Through Storytelling And The Plant World, Emma Hathaway

University Honors Theses

At a time when young people are disengaging in school, how do we begin to acknowledge that we, as a nation have failed them and how might we look at storytelling and the plant world to establish more inclusive practices in education? Data from a 2015 American Community Survey suggests that in the state of Hawai'i, 40% of public school 8^th graders do not meet the Department of Education (DOE) standards in mathematics. This fall, the National Center for Educational Statistics noted that over half of the country’s public schools reported incidents of criminal activity. As a way to …

Women And The Wilderness: A Review Of Barriers To Participation, Current Coping Strategies, And Guidance For Future Programs, Naiyear Khajavei

University Honors Theses

This literature review discusses the obstacles that women face in participating in outdoor recreation, the ways in which they are currently navigating these obstacles, and discusses how the currently literature (and the gaps within it) can inform our future research and policy making. The obstacles women currently face in wilderness recreation surround gender roles and social expectations, lack of early skill-development and confidence, and a gendered geographic fear. Currently, women are navigating these obstacles by either conforming or rejecting gender roles in their participation, choosing to develop skills in female-only environments, and taking means to increase perceived safety such as …

The Relationship Between Concentrations Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Moss And Tree Cover In Portland Or, Andrew S. Mautz

University Honors Theses

This study is a spatial analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) across the Portland Metro area using data collected from samples of moss tissue (Orthotrichum spp.), and an exploration of the relationship between PAH deposition and urban tree canopy in Portland Oregon. PAH are a class of common environmental pollutants created by the incomplete combustion of organic materials; largely via anthropocentric activity. Species of lichens and mosses have been shown to be suitable bioindicators of air pollutants (including PAH contamination) in other studies. Urban tree canopy is known to mitigate other environmental pollutants, as well as provide numerous …

Executive Control Mechanisms In Bilingualism: Beyond Speed Of Processing, Klara Marton, Mira Goral, Luca Campanelli, Jungmee Yoon, Loraine K. Obler

Publications and Research

The question of interest in this study was whether bilingual individuals show superior executive control compared to monolingual participants. Findings are mixed, with studies showing advantage, disadvantage, or no difference between bilingual and monolingual speakers. In this study, we used different experimental conditions to examine implicit learning, resistance to interference, monitoring, and switching, independently. In addition, we matched our monolingual and bilingual participants on baseline response time. Bilingual participants demonstrated faster implicit learning, greater resistance to interference, more efficient switching compared to monolingual participants. The groups did not differ in monitoring. In conclusion, depending on task complexity and on the …

Open Access And The Graduate Author: A Dissertation Anxiety Manual, Jill Cirasella, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

The process of completing a dissertation is stressful—deadlines are scary, editing is hard, formatting is tricky, and defending is terrifying. (And, of course, postgraduate employment is often uncertain.) Now that dissertations are deposited and distributed electronically, students must perform yet another anxiety-inducing task: deciding whether they want to make their dissertations immediately open access (OA) or, at universities that require OA, coming to terms with openness. For some students, mostly in the humanities and some of the social sciences, who hope to transform their dissertations into books, OA has become a bogeyman, a supposed saboteur of book contracts and destroyer …