Digital Commons Network^™

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Seizures And Autism Symptomology In Young Children, Claire O. Burns

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a condition that consists of deficits in social communication as well as restricted, repetitive interests or behaviors. Individuals with ASD also often have comorbid psychiatric and medical disorders. One such concern is high rates of seizures and epilepsy. Researchers have found that rates of seizures tend to be higher in individuals with ASD who also have more impaired functioning. However, few studies have examined how the presence of seizures is related to symptoms of ASD. The current study aimed to expand the extant literature by investigating whether a history of seizures is associated with ASD …

The Effectiveness Of Isco Injection Methods For Remediation Of Groundwater, Matthew Ryan Vidrine

LSU Master's Theses

In-Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO) injections were performed at Petro Stopping Centers # 10 (Petro) in December 2013 and June 2015. The methodology was direct injection of a heavy oxidizer, RegenOx®, followed by a time-release oxygen compound, ORC Advanced®, into a plume of gasoline sitting on top of the water in the aquifer in hope that this remediate the aquifer. Both chemicals are registered trademarks of the Regenesis® Company. The levels of contaminates have dropped considerably. However, Petro has not achieved closure criteria according to RECAP standards. The site is classified as a GW-1B, subject to the most stringent of remediation …

Evaluation Of Broad Anti-Herpesviral Activity With Α-Hydroxytropolones, Shannon David Dehghanpir

LSU Master's Theses

Herpesviruses are ubiquitous in animals and cause economic losses concomitant with many diseases, including upper respiratory disease, keratitis, abortion, neonatal death, and neurologic disease. The majority of the domestic animal herpesviruses are within the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae, along with the prototypical human herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1). Suppression of HSV-1 replication has been reported with α-hydroxytropolones (αHTs), which are aromatic ring compounds that have broad bioactivity due to potent chelating activity. It is postulated that αHTs inhibit enzymes within the nucleotidyltransferase superfamily (NTS), similarly structured enzymes that require divalent cations for nucleic acid cleavage activity. One potential herpesviral target includes the …

End Of The Racial Age: Reflections On The Changing Racial And Ethnic Ancestry Of Blacks On Affirmative Action, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Constructing Citizenship Through War In The Human Rights Era, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

War's historical relationship to the creation of territorial nation-states is well known, but what empirical and normative role does war play in creating the citizen in a modern democracy? Although contemporary theories of citizenship and human rights do not readily acknowledge a legitimate, generative function for war - as evidenced by restrictions on aggression, annexation of occupied territory, expulsions, denationalization, or derogation of fundamental rights - an empirical assessment of state practice, including the interpretation of international legal obligations, suggests that war plays a powerfully transformative role in the construction of citizenship, and that international law and norms implicitly accept …

Evaluation Of Estrous Response Patches As A Tool To Determine Optimum Timing For Artificial Insemination And If Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Is Needed At Timed-Ai In Beef Cattle, Danilo Demeterco

LSU Master's Theses

Two experiments evaluated using an estrous-detection patch to identify animals that are in standing estrus at split-timed AI (STAI) and the necessity of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) injection at STAI on a 7-Day CO-Synch + CIDR protocol. In experiment 1 (n=216) and in experiment 2 (n=101), multiparous lactating crossbred beef cows were stratified by age, BW, BCS, and post-partum interval to 2 treatment groups: CTRL=timed-AI (TAI) at 72h post CIDR removal, or TRT=STAI at 72 or 84h post CIDR removal. All females received GnRH plus a CIDR on d0, prostaglandin-F2α, CIDR removal, and an Estrotect estrous-detector patch on d7. At …

Denis Diderot's Anglophilia And Its Impact Upon His Salons, William Judson

LSU Master's Theses

The work of Enlightenment philosophe Denis Diderot went largely unpublished during his lifetime, and upon its discovery in the nineteenth century, his originality was overlooked because of the perceived quaintness of his tastes. Thankfully, as his body of work became better understood and more accessible, his reputation steadily improved. The discipline of literary art criticism is now thought of as having its origins in Diderot’s Salons, a series of letters containing his thoughts on the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture’s biennial exhibitions in the Palace of the Louvre. These were circulated among an elite clientele who were not …

Shallow Shear-Wave Seismic Analysis Of Point Bar Deposits Of False River, Louisiana, Martial James Morrison

LSU Master's Theses

Current point-bar complex models do not include subsurface unit bars as a normal feature. This study provides evidence for a potential buried unit bar amongst point-bar sediments of the large-scale, modern-day False River point-bar complex of the Mississippi River. We collect, process and interpret a two-dimensional, 150-m-long CMP seismic reflection profile that cuts perpendicularly across a major discontinuity surface in the False River point bar complex. The seismic source consists of a ground recoil device that fires a shotgun shell horizontally, producing shear waves. Multiple field experiments demonstrated which type of source and receiver provided the least amount of noise, …

Development Of Laboratory Scale Conical Spouted Bed Reactors, James Blake Gegenheimer

LSU Master's Theses

Conical spouted beds (CSBs) are a form of a fluidized bed that is characteristic of its spouting behaviors. The conical spouted bed has a small inlet that diverges through a conical section towards a larger fixed-diameter column which is filled with static spouting media. By injecting a fluid at a sufficient velocity, a small spout will form in which the spouting media will become entrained by the fluid particles and carried to the top of the system where it will circulate back into the system. It has been shown that CSB reactors have the potential for increasing the heat circulation …

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 …

Development And Application Of A Modis Inorganic Sediment Model During The 2016 Mississippi River Diversion In Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, Robert Lee Iles Iv

LSU Master's Theses

The Bonnet Carré Spillway (BCS) is a Mississippi River diversion located on the southwestern coastline of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. The discharge of potentially high amounts of Mississippi River nutrients and sediments during BCS diversion events has a noted ecological impact on the Lake Pontchartrain estuary. Projected river flooding prompted the opening of the Spillway from 10 January to 1 February 2016. MODIS satellite images were aerosol-corrected and then compared to in-situ measurements of inorganic sediment concentration (ISC) to derive a predictive algorithm for estimating ISC (in mg L^-1) in Lake Pontchartrain for satellite images in January and February. The …

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 …

Effects Of Timing Of Local Anesthesia On Physiological Responses In Calves After Dehorning, Amanda Jane Mathias

LSU Master's Theses

The American Veterinary Medical Association has stated the importance of minimizing pain associated with dehorning to limit the amount of distress and changes in the animal’s behavior and physiological states (AVMA, 2014b). The following studies aim to determine the effect of timing of lidocaine administration on physiological responses in calves after dehorning. The first study compared cortisol and substance P levels in calves dehorned immediately after administration of lidocaine and meloxicam, calves dehorned 10 minutes after the administration of lidocaine and meloxicam, and calves that were administered lidocaine and meloxicam and not dehorned. It was concluded waiting 10 minutes after …

Development Of A Low-Energy Monoenergetic Electron Separator, Sergio Martín López Cáceres

LSU Master's Theses

The aim of this project is to build a prototype device that can select electrons of certain energy in order to have a monoenergetic beam suitable for the characterization of radiation detectors. Current options for sources of electrons are either from radioisotopes or accelerator facilities. Radioisotope sources are not tunable in energy since they depend on the nuclear and atomic structures of the daughter nucleus. On the other hand, even though accelerators offer the feature of a variable energy beam, they have limited availability and are not typically run at low intensities. Therefore, the motivation for this thesis is the …

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 …

Modelling And Observational Evidence For The Igneous Evolution Of The Elysium Volcanic Province On Mars, David Andrew Susko

LSU Master's Theses

A major knowledge gap exists on how eruptive compositions of a single martian volcanic province change over time. The Elysium Volcanic Province is a location of great geologic interest on Mars. Its predominantly Amazonian surface age (beginning 3.3 Ga), and its isolation in the northern hemisphere of Mars away from other volcano-tectonic regions, make it an ideal locale to investigate igneous compositions erupted during the most recent geologic period on Mars. Here, this work seeks to fill that gap by assessing the compositional evolution of Elysium as a major martian volcanic province in two related projects. The first project seeks …

Grace's Inheritance, James Noble, Andrew P. Black, Kim B. Bruce, Michael Homer, Timothy Jones

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article is an apologia for the design of inheritance in the Grace educational programming language: it explains how the design of Grace’s inheritance draws from inheritance mechanisms in predecessor languages, and defends that design as the best of the available alternatives. For simplicity, Grace objects are generated from object constructors, like those of Emerald, Lua, and Javascript; for familiarity, the language also provides classes and inheritance, like Simula, Smalltalk and Java. The design question we address is whether or not object constructors can provide an inheritance semantics similar to classes.

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 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 …

Reclaiming The Streets: Black Urban Insurgency And Antisocial Security In Twenty-First-Century Philadelphia, Jeff Maskovsky

Publications and Research

This article focuses on the emergence of a new pattern of black urban insurgency emerging in major US metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia. I locate this pattern in the context of a new securitization regime that I call “antisocial security.” This regime works by establishing a decentered system of high-tech forms of surveillance and monitory techniques. I highlight the dialectic between the extension of antisocial security apparatuses and techniques into new political and social domains on the one hand and the adoption of these same techniques by those contesting racialized exclusions from urban public space on the other. I end …

Shaping The Body Of Grief: Converging The Personal, Academic, And Visual In Memoir To Create A Broader Way Of Mourning, Hilarie Ashton

Publications and Research

I have been writing a memoir of my mother’s death since before she died. It began with a piece I started after she moved to hospice care, on the cusp of 2013. I began at my grief’s beginning: writing about the spring of her diagnosis the previous year. I currently have over 100,000 words that trace her life, her illness, her death, my grief, and my (ongoing) healing; the first chapter begins with that first piece, which I will excerpt later on. As I edit, I’m shaping the body of the text, as though it’s a person, as though it’s …

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 …

Implications Of Psychotherapy And Low-Dose Medication Following First-Episode Psychosis, Alyssa Woolley

University Honors Theses

Schizophrenia, a mental disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thoughts and speech, is typically treated using antipsychotic medication and therapy. Randomized trials focusing on schizophrenia have provided evidence that early intervention, which entails talk therapy combined with low-dose antipsychotic medication directly following onset of psychosis, is most effective in treating symptoms. The literature review detailed in this paper is intended to help better understand the relationship between low-dosage antipsychotic medication, pair with regular psychotherapy, and how that relationship can help patients to adhere to treatment for long-term remission.

Bulk Viscous Corrections To Screening And Damping In Qcd At High Temperatures, Qianqian Du, Adrian Dumitru, Yun Guo, Michael Strickland

Publications and Research

Non-equilibrium corrections to the distribution functions of quarks and gluons in a hot and dense QCD medium modify the “hard thermal loops” (HTL). The HTLs determine the retarded, advanced, and symmetric (time-ordered) propagators for gluons with soft momenta as well as the Debye screening and Landau damping mass scales. We compute such corrections to a thermal as well as to a non-thermal fixed point. The screening and damping mass scales are sensitive to the bulk pressure and hence to (pseudo-) critical dynamical scaling of the bulk viscosity in the vicinity of a second-order critical point. This could be reflected in …

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 …

Why Is The Journal Of Critical Library And Information Studies Needed Today?, Andrew J. Lau, Alycia Sellie, Ronald E. Day

Publications and Research

The editors’ introduction to the first issue of the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, which was established in response to a perceived need in the landscape of library and information studies scholarship for an open platform and venue for critical discourse and inquiry.

Schrödinger Theory Of Electrons In Electromagnetic Fields: New Perspectives, Viraht Sahni, Xiao-Yin Pan

Publications and Research

The Schrödinger theory of electrons in an external electromagnetic field is described from the new perspective of the individual electron. The perspective is arrived at via the time-dependent "Quantal Newtonian" law (or differential virial theorem). (The time-independent law, a special case, provides a similar description of stationary-state theory). These laws are in terms of "classical" fields whose sources are quantal expectations of Hermitian operators taken with respect to the wave function. The laws reveal the following physics: (a) in addition to the external field, each electron experiences an internal field whose components are representative of a specific property of the …

Rules And Mechanisms For Efficient Two-Stage Learning In Neural Circuits, Tiberiu Teşileanu, Bence Ölveczky, Vijay Balasubramanian

Publications and Research

Trial-and-error learning requires evaluating variable actions and reinforcing successful variants. In songbirds, vocal exploration is induced by LMAN, the output of a basal ganglia-related circuit that also contributes a corrective bias to the vocal output. This bias is gradually consolidated in RA, a motor cortex analogue downstream of LMAN. We develop a new model of such two-stage learning. Using stochastic gradient descent, we derive how the activity in ‘tutor’ circuits (e.g., LMAN) should match plasticity mechanisms in ‘student’ circuits (e.g., RA) to achieve efficient learning. We further describe a reinforcement learning framework through which the tutor can build its teaching …