Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of River Flow Rates On Decomposition, Maddisen Paige Neuman

LSU Master's Theses

While the general biological processes of decomposition are known to forensic anthropologists, data on aquatic decomposition is in need of refinement. Water composition varies in mineral content, temperature, flow rate, and scavengers; each of these elements can have an effect on the rate of decomposition. This study specifically focuses on the effects of river flow rates on decomposition by comparing the rate of decay of three feral pigs (Sus scrofa) on land (control specimen), in faster flowing water, and in slower flowing water. The hypothesis states that the pig placed in the faster section of the river will decompose more …

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 …

The Relationship Between The Timing Of Hydrocarbon Generation Between The Bristol Bay Depositional Basin And The Port Moller Area And Southern Portion Of The Bristol Bay Basin Of The Alaska Peninsula, Claire Rochelle Jones

LSU Master's Theses

The Alaska Peninsula has been the target of oil and gas exploration throughout much of the 20th century. Although most exploration efforts have focused on the Cook Inlet area, the geological setting of the Alaskan Peninsula suggests that economically viable resources may be located further south on the northern side bordering Bristol Bay (Port Moller area). This study investigates the relation of petroleum system elements between the northern and southern section of the Alaskan Peninsula with a particular focus on the potential for petroleum accumulation on the southern section close to Herendeen Bay. The analysis included the integration of a …

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 …

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 …

Louisiana Birds Act As Reservoirs For Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Collin T. Brown

LSU Master's Theses

Wild birds carry diverse microbial communities, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB). With the ever-increasing use of antibiotics in agricultural and clinical settings, genes that code for antibiotic resistance in bacteria have been selected for. These bacteria persist in the environment in a culturable state, but little is understood about communities of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment. Birds with predictable behaviors may serve as useful indicators of these communities, and provide insights into how bacterial communities spread and evolve in the environment. To understand the utility of birds as indicators of the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment, we collected bacterial …

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.

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 …

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 …

"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 …

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 …

Small Business Valuation: Deviations From Textbook Methods, Paul Hampshire

University Honors Theses

This paper's purpose is to review existing literature from an undergraduate perspective on the process of small business valuation and the differences between the textbook valuation methods covered in typical undergraduate and graduate finance courses. Potential investors or buyers likely have more financial expertise and access to resources, so this information is largely geared towards owners of businesses with less than 20 employees who are interested in valuing their own business. To that end, a simple model for determining the discount rate in DCF analysis is proposed. A live example of adjustments from textbook methods also provides evidence of the …

Using Cultural Relevancy To Promote African American Brain Health, Miya Walker

University Honors Theses

African Americans are disproportionately more likely than older whites to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias (ADOD). Despite these disparities, there is difficulty in motivating African Americans to engage in activities suitable to maintaining cognitive health (walking, social engagement, physical activity). The Sharing History through Active Reminiscence and Photo-imagery (SHARP) walking program (Croff, PI) combines these proactive activities in a culturally relevant way to create a motivational force to preserve cognitive health. SHARP engaged 19 African Americans aged 55 and older on 72 themed, 1-mile walks over 6 months in Portland, Oregon’s historically Black neighborhoods. This study examines participant responses …

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 …

Lacking Legitimacy: Neoliberal Governance And The Erosion Of Local Democracy In The United States And Argentina, Adriane Ackerman

University Honors Theses

An extension of capitalism’s relentless growth, neoliberal globalization has characterized most of the policies and practices that have proliferated between nation-states since the late 1970's, producing a "flatter" world in which spheres of influence, both economically and politically, have become inextricably interdependent. Some prominent results of this interdependence include consolidation of wealth, extreme socioeconomic stratification, greater influence of money upon politics, and deepening ideological divide within the populace. Increased sharing of the roles and responsibilities of governing with the private sector, along with increased access to information and exposure to systemic nepotism, have together undermined the sovereignty and preeminence of …

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 …

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.

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 …

The Politics Of Gardening In J.M. Coetzee's Life & Times Of Michael K, Jessica F. Moore

University Honors Theses

This essay explores the role of gardening in J.M. Coetzee's novel Life & Times of Michael K. In the novel, the main character, Michael K (shortened to K), works and identifies as a gardener. K works in the city garden of Wynberg Park and also gardens pumpkins and mealies on his own throughout the novel. This thesis examines the gardening in Life & Times of Michael K and argues that K's gardening acts a form of political resistance to the oppressive governance of South Africa, both in the novel and in reality. To arrive at the conclusion of K's gardening …

Investigating The Sources Of Decadal-Scale Property Changes In Antarctic Bottom Water In The Southeast Indian Ocean (80-90°E), Kimberly Gottschalk

University Honors Theses

A recognizable warming and freshening of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) throughout much of the Southern Ocean is one of the major findings of the international long-line hydrographic programs of 1990’s and the 2000's. A 2016 GO-SHIP repeat of the I08S line (80-90ºE) in the southeast Indian Ocean found continued, but weaker, AABW warming and significantly stronger freshening in the Antarctic-Australian Basin (A-AB). It has been proposed that the 2010 B9b iceberg calving along the Adélie Land Coast may be linked to this pronounced freshening. The present study seeks to affirm or challenge this hypothesis through a quantitative investigation into the …