Digital Commons Network^™

C-Metalated Nitriles: Diastereoselective Alkylations And Arylations, Robert John Mycka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Development of an sp³ hybridized halogen-magnesium exchange route to Grignard reagents, chelation-controlled asymmetric induction of γ- and δ-hydroxynitriles as well as a diastereoselective arylation procedure for C-zincated nitriles have been explored. Sequential addition of i-PrMgCl and n-BuLi to 3- and 4-carbon iodoalcohols triggers a facile halogen-metal exchange to generate cyclic magnesium alkoxides capable of intercepting electrophiles to produce a diverse range of substituted alcohols. This work advances progress toward the synthesis of highly desirable chiral Grignard reagents.

Double deprotonation of γ- and δ-acyclic hydroxynitriles with i-PrMgCl effects highly diastereoselective alkylations via a singly-chelated magnesiated nitriles. …

Characterization Of The Effect Of Exercise Dose And Integrative Nonpharmacological Therapies In The Treatment Of Chronic Pain, Anna M. Polaski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chronic pain includes debilitating conditions affecting large populations of people throughout the world. These diseases are further complicated by comorbid psychological disorders which make chronic pain conditions difficult to treat. Nonpharmacological treatment options have more recently become an important mainstay of effective therapies and are currently being used to supplement or replace traditional pharmacological treatment methods. Exercise-based therapies in particular are of interest due to their demonstrated success in reducing pain symptoms as well as improving psychological outcomes. Dose is an important factor in being able to effectively prescribe treatments in the context of specific exercise interventions and specific pain …

Troubling The Water: Dismantling The Ideology Of Separate Spheres, Lisa Weddell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines nineteenth century U.S. women’s maritime writings to re-evaluate and more accurately represent the roles women played in society. I contend that the nineteenth century ship is a microcosm of the United States and women’s sea experiences and maritime writings reveal their lived experiences and the visible roles they played in their relationships and in public politics. Women’s maritime writings, I argue, challenge ideologies of “True Womanhood” that define women as submissive and passive. Instead, these texts demonstrate how women equally contributed to establishing national identity in the United States by defining appropriate gender performance for men and …

Parental Experiences Participating In The Positive Behavior Intervention And Support Process In Schools, Siddiq Meer Siddiq Ahmed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of parents of children with challenging behavior regarding their involvement with, and interest in, the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) process within school systems. The overarching research question was what are the lived (perceived) experiences of parents of children with challenging behavior regarding their involvement in the PBIS process? From this main question, there were five subsidiary questions that were addressed: How do parents of children with challenging behavior involved in the PBIS process describe their lived experiences? In what ways have parents made meaning out of their experiences …

A Case Study Of An Online Teacher Study Group As A Digital Professional Development Tool, Jessica Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there appears to have been a shift in professional development approaches for teachers from short-term workshops to teacher communities of professional practice, which extend over a while and focus on the expert knowledge teachers need to use in their setting (Goya, 2014). A supportive approach to teacher learning communities is a teacher study group. An even more promising and flexible approach to teacher learning communities in a global aspect is an online teacher study group. An online teacher study group provided a universal and flexible venue to engage in collaborative discussion between general education and special education …

Examining The Moderating Role Of Promotive Factors On The Relationship Between Bullying Victimization And Suicidal Behavior, Rachel Simonds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bullying is one of the most common challenges that youth in the United States face that can often have negative impacts on children’s lives and mental health. One potential negative outcome of bullying victimization is increased risk for suicidal behavior, including suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Implementing interventions and supports for youth involved in bullying has the ability to decrease risk for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.

Previous literature supports that those involved in bullying are at an increased risk for both suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. Evidence supports promotive factors that help minimize negative outcomes those who are involved …

Females In Stem: Self-Efficacy Within Women Who Pursue Stem Majors, Lori Grata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While many efforts have been made within the United States, women are still underrepresented within STEM. Research within this document shows that women and men score similarly on STEM-related standardized tests. The question remains, why are there still large quantities of men outnumbering women in college majors and career fields of STEM? Looking at female STEM self-efficacy and gender role in culture could provide insight to the problem at hand. A survey was given to investigate self-efficacy and students’ STEM backgrounds of undergraduate female students who are currently in a 4-year STEM-related major within one university.

Determining Nurse Practitioner Core Competencies Utilizing A Delphi Approach, Tracey Chan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Competency-based education (CBE) has been recommended for nurse practitioner (NP) education. To implement CBE, existing NP core competencies need to be reduced in number and refined.

Purpose: This study refined and reduced redundancy in the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) and American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) NP core competencies through the consensus of experts in NP practice. This study used the current NP Core Competencies (NONPF, 2017), the Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice (AACN, 2006), and the Common Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Doctoral-Level Competencies,(AACN, 2017a) …

The Effects Of A Virtual Wellness Community Upon Participants’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Ashly Locklin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the effects of a virtual wellness community on the self-efficacy of participants to attain their wellness goals through a mixed-methods design. Eight female participants between the ages of 25-38 completed a pre- and post-survey with 5-point Likert scale questions and open-ended questions before and after participating in a 28-day virtual wellness community. Instruments were developed for this study based off Bandura’s (2006) Self-Efficacy to Regulate Exercise and Bandura’s (2006) Self-Efficacy to Regulate Eating Habits surveys. Quantitative data were analyzed by summing item level scores and calculating percentages to examine the distribution across the scales, through paired-samples t-tests, …

The Mediating Role Of Differentiation In The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Working Alliance, Caleb P. Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study involved a mediation analysis exploring the relationship of counselor’s perceptions of mindfulness and working alliance through differentiation of self. Sample data (N=80) was collected and analyzed using the PROCESS mediation model to quantitatively determine the indirect effect of counselor’s perceptions of mindfulness and their perceptions of working alliance through the variable of differentiation of self. This indirect effect was not statistically significant, b = .08, 95% CI [-.11, .25], therefore no mediating effect was demonstrated for differentiation. A follow-up moderation analysis was also conducted on these same three variables. Results revealed that at low levels of …

The Ethical Justification Of Increasing Awareness Of Preventive Medicine Among Healthcare Professionals, Patients And The General Public In The United States, Karishma Ether Moazzam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While practiced for centuries, preventive medicine has received increased attention during the recent times. Preventive medicine has a distinct mission to protect, promote, and maintain health as well as to prevent diseases, disabilities, and premature deaths. It aims to fulfill its mission through the combined form of clinical intervention and health promotion. In the recent years, preventive medicine has begun to lean more towards the clinical interventions, taking away from the health promotion. This imbalance has caused preventive medicine to lose its effectiveness in fulfilling its mission. One of the leading causes for such imbalance is the lack of proper …

An Exploration Of Motivational Interviewing And Strengths-Based Supervision To Improve Client Session Attendance, Jeremy Abel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Clients missing outpatient psychotherapy sessions is a problem that impacts clients, clinicians, and clinics. Scholarly research has shown that clinicians’ use of Motivational Interviewing (MI) may help to increase attendance rates and that most often MI training is done through a single training or workshop, which may not be a sufficient means to adequately prepare clinicians to effectively use MI. The purpose of this study was to determine whether using every other week, MI-focused, strength-based group supervision after an initial MI training can increase client attendance in two community outpatient substance use disorder and mental health treatment clinics. This study …

A Study Of Chloride Levels In Pine Creek, Allegheny County, Pa, Selina Prettner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pine Creek is a 22.8-mile long tributary to the Allegheny River draining over 67 square miles of northern Allegheny County, PA. The main stem runs along Route 8 and receives extensive runoff from road salt from deicing. A site near Etna, PA sampled biweekly in 2013 consistently showed elevated conductivity that correlated with increased chloride levels. Winter road deicing runoff produced acute chloride concentrations up to 678 mg/L. Chloride fluctuated in the summer and autumn months but did not exceed the USEPA Secondary Drinking Water Standard (250 mg/L) or the aquatic life criterion for chronic concentrations (230 mg/L). Sampling throughout …

A Transcriptomic Exploration Of Hawaiian Drosophilid Development And Evolution, Madeline M. Chenevert

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

One in four known species of fruit flies inhabit the Hawaiian Islands. From a small number of colonizing flies, a wide range of species evolved, some of which managed to reverse-colonize other continental environments. In order to explore the developmental pathways, which separate the Hawaiian Drosophila proper and the Scaptomyza group that contains reverse-colonized species, the transcriptomes of two better-known species in each group, Scaptomyza anomala and Drosophila grimshawi, were analyzed to find changes in gene expression between the two groups. This study describes a novel transcriptome for S. anomala studies as well as unusual changes in gene expression …

The Vezo Communities And Fisheries Of The Coral Reef Ecosystem In The Bay Of Ranobe, Madagascar, Shane Abeare

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Madagascar, a country whose extraordinary levels of endemism and biodiversity are celebrated globally by scientists and laymen alike, yet historically has received surprisingly little research attention, is the setting of the present dissertation. Here, I contribute to the need for applied research by: 1) focusing on the most intensely fished section of the Toliara Barrier Reef, the Bay of Ranobe; 2) characterizing the marine environment, the human population, and the fisheries; and 3) collecting the longest known time-series of data on fisheries of Madagascar, thereby providing a useful baseline for future analyses. In Chapter 1, the bathymetry of the Bay …

The Effects Of Automated Grading On Computer Science Courses At The University Of New Orleans, Jerod F A Dunbar

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This is a study of the impacts of the incorporation, into certain points of the Computer Science degree program at the University of New Orleans, of Course Management software with an Autograding component. The software in question, developed at Carnegie Mellon University, is called “Autolab.” We begin by dissecting Autolab in order to gain an understanding of its inner workings. We can then take out understanding of its functionality and apply that to an examination of fundamental changes to courses in the time since they incorporated the software. With that, we then compare Drop, Failure, Withdrawal rate data from before …

The Role Of Individual Difference In Predicting Psychopathology Following Peer Victimization, Miranda Evans

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

eer victimization is a common experience that is associated with later psychopathology. However, there is inconsistency in the strength and statistical significance of this effect. The current study used two methods to try to understand this inconsistency. First, co-occurring internalizing and externalizing symptoms were considered dimensionally. Second, the present study considered temperament as a potential moderator to explain the multifinality of outcomes that occur following peer victimization. A community sample (N = 387; 52% female) of early adolescents (11-15) from a longitudinal study of risk and resilience factors for psychopathology was utilized to test hypotheses. Cross-lagged examinations between victimization and …

Multi-Agent Narrative Experience Management As Story Graph Pruning, Edward T. Garcia

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I describe a method where an experience manager chooses actions for non-player characters (NPCs) in intelligent interactive narratives through story graph representation and pruning. The space of all stories can be represented as a story graph where nodes are states and edges are actions. By shaping the domain as a story graph, experience manager decisions can be made by pruning edges. Starting with a full graph, I apply a set of pruning strategies that will allow the narrative to be finishable, NPCs to act believably, and the player to be responsible for how the story unfolds. By …

Working Memory Deficits Are Associated With Altered Regional Brain Volume And Structural Connectivity In Children With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome., Diana Hobbs

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Background: Children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) exhibit nonverbal learning disability that may manifest in part because of working memory (WM) deficits. 22q11.2DS is a complex developmental disorder with serious physical, learning, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms including a risk of developing schizophrenia 30 times that of the general population. WM impairment likely contributes to and exacerbates learning difficulties, school problems, existing neuropsychological disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and a poor WM may be a biological risk marker for future mental illness. WM impairment is established in this population, but less is known about its neurological origins. …

Scorched Earth: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Shakespeare's Greatest Villain, Iago In Othello, Christopher P. Hunter Jr

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis is an in-depth actor analysis chronicling my approach to the role of Iago in TheatreUNO’s 2019 production of Othello by William Shakespeare. This thesis will include analysis of the text, character objectives, techniques used, observations about the application of contemporary realistic acting technique to classical verse text, self-evaluation and personal reflection. This thesis will be supported by production materials including a fully scored script.

This play was directed by David W. Hoover, and performed April 25- May 4, 2019,as part of the TheatreUNO 2018-2019 academic season, presented by the Department of Film and Theatre in the School …

Expanding The Definition Of Liminality: Speculative Fiction As An Exploration Of New Boundaries, Dianna C. Lacy

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Speculative fiction allows an expanded view of literature and so allows scholars to explore new boundaries in the way words and ideas work. In the titular character of The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, the reader sees an expansion of self through liminality while A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick explores its collapse. In order to portray each of these the character examined must move though one seems to move upward and the other downward. This idea of movement is only part of what expands the idea of liminality past the traditional idea of a doorway to create …

Bringing The Theory Of Street-Level Bureaucrats Into The 21st Century: A Study Of Social Workers In Louisiana, Quian J. Lewis

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the applicability of Michael Lipsky’s (1980) concept of “street-level bureaucracy” to the profession of social work in 2019. Street-level bureaucrats are public service workers “who interact with citizens in the regular course of their jobs; have significant independence in decision making, and potentially have extensive impact on the lives of their citizens” (Lipsky, 1980:3). They are faced with uncertainties in their work related to inadequate resources, unclear policies, and caseloads/workloads that defy what may be possible to achieve by any one worker. Workers develop routines and “coping mechanisms,” to manage their environments. The routines that they develop …

How To Get A Job In Book Publishing, Grecia Medina

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

There are many different doorways into the world of book publishing and it can be challenging, but there are choices that can make it easier. Aspiring publishers often have a hard time breaking into this world because they have no guide. This thesis will be a guide to traversing the different avenues into the world of publishing. Prospective publishers, editors, and writers will be provided with a landscape of what it’s like to work in book publishing. It will also cover the two different ways that people become publishers, an overview of the basic requirements that publishing houses look for …

An Experimental And Numerical Study Of High Temperature Gaseous Flow Through An Open Cell Silicon Carbide Foam Heater, Denis Pansolin

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Domain Specific Language For Digital Forensics And Incident Response Analysis, Christopher D. Stelly

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

One of the longstanding conceptual problems in digital forensics is the dichotomy between the need for verifiable and reproducible forensic investigations, and the lack of practical mechanisms to accomplish them. With nearly four decades of professional digital forensic practice, investigator notes are still the primary source of reproducibility information, and much of it is tied to the functions of specific, often proprietary, tools.

The lack of a formal means of specification for digital forensic operations results in three major problems. Specifically, there is a critical lack of:

a) standardized and automated means to scientifically verify accuracy of digital forensic tools; …

Vertical Acoustic Propagation In The Non-Homogeneous Layered Atmosphere For A Time-Harmonic, Compact Source, Edward J. Yoerger Jr

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this work we study vertical, acoustic propagation in a non-homogeneous media for a spatially-compact, time-harmonic source. An analytical, 2-layer model is developed representing the acoustic pressure disturbance propagating in the atmosphere. The validity of the model spans the distance from the Earth's surface to 30,000 meters. This includes the troposphere (adiabatic), ozone layer (isothermal), and part of the stratosphere (isothermal). The results of the model derivation in the adiabatic region yield pressure solutions as Bessel functions of the First (J) and Second (Y) Kind of order $-\frac{7}{2}$ with an argument of $2 \Omega \tau$ (where $\Omega$ represents a dimensionless …

All Trails Lead To Sterling: How Sterling Brown Fathered The Field Of Black Literary And Cultural Studies, 1936-1969, Amber E. Zu-Bolton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Poet and professor Sterling A. Brown (1901-1989) played a significant role in the birth of black literary and cultural studies through his literary and academic careers. Brown helped to establish a new wave of black cultural and folklore studies during his time as the “Director of Negro Affairs” for the Federal Writers’ Project. As a professor at Howard University, Brown influenced black literary studies through his literary criticisms and seminars and his role as a mentor to literary figures of the next generations. Through letters to and from Sterling Brown and manuscripts, this thesis argues that Brown’s poetry, publications and …

In Search Of Meaning, Fabiano Sarra

Theses

When I came across the book Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Appalachia, I felt a deep reverence for the craft of basketry that marked the beginning of my thesis research. What started as a new discovery for generating volume led to a search for an intangible essence that emanated from these objects. The baskets in that book had a certain feel to them, they had a soul, a proof of existence and a life of utility. Their honest radiance transports the viewer to a different time and place, drawing visual connections with the maker who crafted the object with …

Caregiver Perspectives On Telehealth: A Service Delivery For Occupational Therapy, Rebecca Johnston

Student Capstone Papers

Telehealth; also known as telerehabilitation, telecare, telemedicine, teletherapy, and telepractice; is an emerging healthcare service that is utilized in various healthcare facilities with a span of ages, conditions, and locations (World Federation of Occupational Therapy [WFOT], 2014). Telehealth utilizes information and communication technologies to deliver services to a patient when the healthcare provider is not in the same location (WFOT, 2014). Telehealth can provide an online platform for evaluations, consultations, monitoring, supervision, and intervention with patients and other professionals (WFOT, 2014).

Telehealth is an emerging method of delivering occupational therapy (OT) services to various populations, including: children and youth; productive …

Blaschke Decompositions On Weighted Hardy Spaces And The Unwinding Series, Stephen D. Farnham

Dissertations - ALL

Recently, several authors have considered a nonlinear analogue of Fourier series in signal analysis, referred to as either the unwinding series or adaptive Fourier decomposition. In these processes, a signal is represented as the real component of the boundary value of an analytic function F : ∂D → C, and by performing an iterative method to obtain a sequence of Blaschke decompositions, the signal can be efficiently approximated using only a few terms. To better understand the convergence of these methods, the study of Blaschke decompositions on weighted Hardy spaces was initiated by Coifman and Steinerberger, under the assumption that …