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Ultimate Concern And Finitude: Schelling’S Philosophy Of Religion And Paul Tillich’S Systematic Theology, Michael Vater

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

This paper explores Paul Tillich’s use of the Friedrich Schelling’s philosophy in his explorations of the relevance of historical forms of Christian belief to contemporary culture, where human experience is marked by anxiety and guilt, and where the search for ultimate meanings seems to dead-end in meaninglessness. For Tillich as for Schelling, religion points to metaphysics. The only literal or nonsymbolic truth about God is that God is the affirmation of being over against the possibility of nonbeing, a divine Yes that is an overcoming of a prior No or self-inclusion. The ambiguity of existence as current human beings experience …

Subpopulations Of Dopamine Transporters Show Enrichment In Phosphorylation Or Palmitoylation, Michael Storandt

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Sediment Transport And Channel Morphology Dynamics Of Highly Regulated Alluvial Rivers - A Case Study Of The Lowermost Mississippi River., Sanjeev Joshi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi River delta is facing severe land loss. An urgent need exists to examine sediment transport and channel morphology dynamics along this highly engineered alluvial river that has shaped and will continue to shape its delta. This dissertation research focuses on investigating channel morphology dynamics and sediment transport in the recent three decades along a 327-km reach (from about 492 to 167 km upstream from the river’s outlet in the Gulf of Mexico) of the Lowermost Mississippi River (LmMR). The specific objectives of this research were to: 1) analyze riverbed adjustment, i.e., channel-bed aggradation or channel erosion at seven …

Chamber Ensembles And Web Presence: Best Practices For Creating And Presenting Online Content, Arisia Amalie Gilmore

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study is about creating an online presence for a chamber ensemble. The study takes recommendations from notable books on music entrepreneurship, articles written for classical musicians on the importance of online content for musicians, and articles from select music industry websites. The author compares and combines these recommendations with interviews from members of seven different professional chamber ensembles, and the online presence of seventeen professional chamber ensembles that are based in the United States. The purpose of this study is to introduce to newly formed chamber ensembles how current chamber ensembles are using online media, what content is being …

The Effect Of Demographic And Clinical Factors On The Performance Of The Abbreviated Scoring Algorithm For The Baby And Infant Screen For Children With Autism Traits, Paige Elizabeth Cervantes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social interaction and social communication as well as the presence of restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, or activities (RRBIs; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). Individuals with ASD experience lifelong and pervasive impairments across many domains of functioning. Early identification of ASD is imperative as earlier intervention is associated with greater gains in numerous areas. In regards to early identification efforts, routine screening is important. However, screening often fails to be conducted within early childhood care settings. To encourage greater rates of screening by offering a …

The Dark Side Of Self-Regulation, Benjamin P. Edwards

Scholarly Works

The financial services industry indirectly regulates itself through little discussed, scandal-prone, and structurally-entrenched self-regulatory organizations. FINRA, the most prominent of these self-regulatory organizations, makes regulations and sets enforcement policy that directly affect public welfare. As with other self-regulatory organizations, FINRA's structure poses a continual risk that industry members will subvert its processes to act like a cartel, promoting industry interests at the expense of the public and contributing to the excessive rents collected by financial intermediaries. Although this dark side to self-regulation poses a constant danger, structural reforms may increase the likelihood that FINRA and other self-regulatory organizations will take …

The Effects Of Chemical Reagents And Physical Environment On The In Vitro And In Vivo Properties Of Adipose-Derived Multipotent Stromal Cells Isolated From Different Species, Wei Duan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Adult adipose derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ASCs) have been characterized in various species. Many factors may affect ASC fate and ASCs from different species may have different response to these factors. The first study was to identify the differences of the canine ASCs isolated from subcutaneous and infrapatellar adipose tissues, and evaluate the impact of cryopreservation on the cells. Based on paired comparisons of fresh and cryopreserved ASCs, cryopreserved ASCs had lower CD29 and CD44 protein expression and lower proliferation rates. The cryopreserved ASCs had relative lower mitochondria in the cytoplasm compared to the fresh ASCs regardless of tissue sources. …

Reduced Order Models For Beam-Wave Interaction In High Power Microwave Sources, Lokendra Singh Thakur

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We apply an asymptotic analysis to show that corrugated waveguides can be represented as cylindrical waveguides with smooth metamaterial coatings when the corrugtions are subwavelength. Here the metamaterial delivers an effective anisotropic surface impedance, effective dielectric constant, and imparts novel dispersive effects on signals traveling inside the waveguide. These properties arise from the subwavelength resonances of the metamaterial. For sufficiently deep corrugations, the waveguide exhibits backward wave propagation, which can be understood in the present context as a multi-scale phenomenon resulting from local resonances inside the subwavelength geometry. Our approach is well suited to numerical computation and we provide a …

Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 Is A Novel Protein Sensor In Pregnancy, Elizabeth Frost Sutton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The twenty-first century has experienced a shift in cause of death worldwide from communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases. Interestingly, many of these implicated chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, have been shown to be programmed in the womb. As first posited by the Barker Hypothesis, adverse exposures in utero can increase an individual’s risk for chronic disease later in life. Therefore, pregnancy is an opportune time for intervention to improve the health of future generations. Studies of exposures known to negatively impact infant health, e.g. states of overnutrition (obesity, diabetes, excess gestational weight gain) and undernutrition (starvation, …

From Products To Politics: Understanding The Effectiveness Of A Celebrity Political Endorsement, Melissa Sanati

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

From Scott Baio’s endorsement of Donald Trump to Sarah Silverman’s endorsement of Bernie Sanders and subsequent rejection of the “Bernie or Bust” crowd at the DNC, celebrities have habitually inserted themselves into the political sphere, however, there has been little empirical research on celebrity endorsements of political candidates. Rooted in branding theory, this study seeks to understand the effectiveness of celebrity political endorsements by utilizing advertising effectiveness models. The primary model, derived from work done by Amos, Holmes, and Strutton (2008), translates source factors of a celebrity product endorser to those of a celebrity candidate endorser, such as credibility, attractiveness, …

Audere Est Facere: Reconsidering Proactivity And Examining Its Impact On Teams, Erik C. Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Proactivity has become one of the most prominent phenomena in organizational behavior over the last twenty-five years. Scholars have established several different methods of assessing proactivity as a dispositional trait, and identified numerous different types of proactive behaviors. Further, interest in proactivity as a phenomenon within and among teams has been an area of growing recent interest. However, the literature is plagued with a number of problems that limit our understanding of proactivity and impede the growth of the field. At the conceptual level, scholars frequently lament the lack of theoretical unity and the proliferation of overlapping constructs that results …

Human Gut Microbiota And Obesity: How Is Gut Microbiota Associated With Obesity Improvement Induced By Bariatric Surgeries Or Low-Calorie Diet Treatment?, Rui Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

An increasing number of studies suggest that the complex microbial community of the human gut may have an important role in human health and disease conditions such as obesity and diabetes. However, the causal relationship among gut microbiota, obesity, weight loss, and the influence of bariatric surgery remains largely unknown. This study investigated the correlation between human gut microbiota and obesity via determining how gut microbiota is associated with obesity improvement induced by bariatric surgeries (BRS) and low-calorie diet (LCD) treatment. Specifically, we investigated the effects of various bariatric surgery (BRS) procedures and a low-calorie diet (LCD) treatment on the …

Public Policy And Workers’ Rights: Wrongful Discharge Discipline Actions And Reasonable Good Faith Beliefs, Ann C. Mcginley, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Scholarly Works

In this paper, Professor Ann McGinley responds to Chapter 5 of the ALI's Restatement of the Law: Employment Law ("Restatement of Employment Law"), concerning "The Tort of Wrongful Discharge in Violation of Public Policy."' It proceeds in five parts. Following an introduction in Part I, Part II summarizes generally the provisions of Chapter 5, the Working Group's objections to the earlier version and recommendations for changes, and explains (when appropriate) where the final version deviated from the prior version. Part III argues that this chapter should have kept the prior version's protection against wrongful discipline instead of protecting only against …

Mining Social Media Data For Improved Understanding Of Disaster Resilience, Lei Zou

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Disaster resilience is the capacity of a community to ‘bounce back’ from disastrous events, by effecting resilience building activities through the four phases of emergency management – preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. However, data describing a community’s behaviors in each phase are difficult to access in traditional databases. Social media data provide an innovative data source to better understand communities’ responses and behaviors in each phase of emergency management during disasters, and thus could ultimately monitor and enhance disaster resilience. This study analyzes the spatial-temporal patterns of Twitter activities during Hurricane Sandy, which struck the northeastern United States on October …

A Narrative Of A Teacher's Perspective Of Over-Age Students Who Are Out-Of-Grade In The Middle School Classroom, Melissa J. Porter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research sought to understand the impact on the middle school classroom environment of over-age students who are out-of-grade. A qualitative study utilizing a narrative lens examined the stories of the lived experiences of the teachers of these students; a social constructivism theoretical approach explored the teaching and best practices in their classrooms. These teachers provided an insight into the complexity of teaching and gave voice to managing a classroom where emotionally and physically mature students often pose a significant challenge to the classroom environment; moreover, their positive influence on the teaching space in which they inhabit also was explored …

The Viola In The Twenty-First Century: A Sound Recording And Performance Guide Of Peter Dayton’S "Fantasy For Viola And Piano," Christopher Hallum’S "A Day In Monroe County," And Christopher Lowry’S "Milestone Miniatures For Solo Viola" And "Suite For Viola And Piano", Christopher Daniel Lowry

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The standard repertoire of the viola is quite small when compared to that of the rest of the string family; the instrument came of age in the twentieth century, which brought about the first important virtuosos and compositions for the instrument. In the twenty-first century, the repertoire of the viola continues to grow, and the author, being both a violist and composer, feels it is important to continue contributing quality music to the instrument, both through his own compositions and through working with other living composers. The purpose of this research was to record a full-length CD of new works …

Vibration Control In Wind Turbines For Multi Hazards, Milad Rezaee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The increasing demand for reliable and clean energy with a low running cost, has developed wind energy harvesting industry in a fast rate during the past two decades, and has led to wind farms’ spreading in various regions with larger and taller wind turbines. Consequently, it is more likely that wind turbines are installed or planned to be installed in areas with higher possibility of natural multihazard. Therefore, flexible modern wind turbines are subjected to severe dynamic environmental loads. Generated excessive vibrations in the wind turbine’s structure due to these loads can have detrimental effects on energy production, structural lifecycle …

Conflicts & Capital Allocation, Benjamin P. Edwards

Scholarly Works

The regulatory structure for financial advice now tolerates incentives motivating financial advisors to manipulate and deceive retail investors. While scholars thus far have argued for ways to improve investor protections, the literature has largely ignored how these flawed incentives affect the economy.

This Article contends that these flawed incentives cause financial advisors to negatively affect capital allocation throughout the overall economy.

This Article draws on literature about manipulation and deception in principal-agent relationships to show how conflicts of interest cause the market for financial advisor services to generate excessive intermediation, driving harms to the real economy. This Article uses case …

Functional And Structural Analyses Of A Bacterial Antifreeze Protein, Chen Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are a class of ice binding proteins (IBPs) that are expressed by different cold-adapted organisms to increase their freezing tolerance. AFPs have two major properties: thermal hysteresis and ice recrystallization inhibition. Here we report the functional and structural analyses of a bacterial AFP, IBPv. IBPv was originally secreted by a bacterium recovered from a deep glacial ice core drilled at Vostok Station, Antarctica. Our study showed that the recombinant protein rIBPv exhibited a thermal hysteresis of 2°C at concentrations higher than 50 µM, effectively inhibited ice recrystallization, and enhanced bacterial viability during freeze-thaw cycling. Circular dichroism scans …

Decentralized Scheduling For Many-Task Applications In The Hybrid Cloud, Brian Lyle Peterson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While Cloud Computing has transformed how we solve many computing tasks, some scientific and many-task applications are not efficiently executed on cloud resources. Decentralized scheduling, as studied in grid computing, can provide a scalable system to organize cloud resources and schedule a variety of work. By measuring simulations of two algorithms, the fully decentralized Organic Grid, and the partially decentralized Air Traffic Controller from IBM, we establish that decentralization is a workable approach, and that there are bottlenecks that can impact partially centralized algorithms. Through measurements in the cloud, we verify that our simulation approach is sound, and assess the …

Characterization Of Dehalogenimonas Strains From A Louisiana Superfund Site That Reductively Dehalogenate Polychlorinated Alkanes, Trent Anthony Key

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The research described in this dissertation was aimed at expanding understanding of the diversity and functional roles of microorganisms able to anaerobically transform chlorinated compounds. During the course of the research, a novel strictly anaerobic bacterial isolate originating from chlorinated solvent contaminated groundwater at a Superfund Site in south Louisiana (USA) was characterized. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing placed the newly isolated strain, designated as NSZ-14 T, within the genus Dehalogenimonas but within a separate lineage from previously described species. Like previously described species within the genus Dehalogenimonas (i.e., D. lykanthroporepellens and D. alkenigignens), strain NSZ-14T was …

Manifestations Of Symmetry In Polynomial Link Invariants, Kyle Istvan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The use and detection of symmetry is ubiquitous throughout modern mathematics. In the realm of low-dimensional topology, symmetry plays an increasingly significant role due to the fact that many of the modern invariants being developed are computationally expensive to calculate. If information is known about the symmetries of a link, this can be incorporated to greatly reduce the computation time. This manuscript will consider graphical techniques that are amenable to such methods. First, we discuss an obstruction to links being periodic, developed jointly with Dr. Khaled Qazaqzeh at Kuwait University, using a model developed by Caprau and Tipton. We will …