Digital Commons Network^™

Choreographing The Rhythms Of Observation: Dynamics For Ranged Observer Bipartite-Unipartite Spatiotemporal (Robust) Networks, Edward A. Holmberg Iv

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Existing network analysis methods struggle to optimize observer placements in dynamic environments with limited visibility. This dissertation introduces the novel ROBUST (Ranged Observer Bipartite-Unipartite SpatioTemporal) framework, offering a significant advancement in modeling, analyzing, and optimizing observer networks within complex spatiotemporal domains. ROBUST leverages a unique bipartite-unipartite approach, distinguishing between observer and observable entities while incorporating spatial constraints and temporal dynamics.

This research extends spatiotemporal network theory by introducing novel graph-based measures, including myopic degree, spatial closeness centrality, and edge length proportion. These measures, coupled with advanced clustering techniques like Proximal Recurrence, provide insights into network structure, resilience, and the effectiveness …

Modification, Transport, And Sources Of Hydrocarbon Oxidation Products From Groundwater At Crude Oil And Diesel Spill Sites In Minnesota: Unveiling Common “Theems” Via Spectroscopy & Chromatography, Eduardo E. Turcios Valle

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, petroleum-contaminated groundwater from three spill-affected Minnesota sites—two contaminated with crude oil; one with diesel—is investigated to elucidate whether differences in degradation products from different parent oils exist. After spill events, parent molecules from the leaked oil seep underground and undergo microbial degradation over time, transforming into hydrocarbon oxidation products (HOPs), water-soluble contaminants that infiltrate groundwater aquifers, flowing into nearby environments and towns while exhibiting environmental persistence, toxicity to aquatic biota, and potential risks to humans that become exposed. Spectroscopic and chromatographic study of the structural themes and spatial distributions of HOPs reveals preferential degradation of aliphatic (biolabile) …

Imperialism Unawareness: The Case Of Citizenship Construction Among Mexican Transnational Students, David Martinez-Prieto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This study analyzes the impact that U.S. curricula have on Mexican transnational returnees. Specifically, this article focuses on the ideological development of the army and imperialism promoted in U.S. schools among Mexican populations. Using a framework that combines critical literacies, transnationalism, and Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and doxa, this study draws on data from 24 interviews to Mexican transnational returnee students (n = 4), Mexican national professors (n = 4), and Mexican national students (n = 4) during their concurrence in a program of English language teaching in central Mexico. Findings suggest that, before returning to …

Persistence And Evolution Of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Following Initiation Of Highly Effective Modulator Therapy In Cystic Fibrosis, Catherine R. Armbruster, Yasmin K. Hilliam, Anna C. Zemke, Samar Atteih, Christopher Marshall, John Moore, Junu Koirala, Leah Krainz, Jordan R. Gaston, Stella E. Lee, Vaughn S. Cooper, Jennifer M. Bomberger

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Today, more than 90% of people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF) are eligible for the highly effective cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) modulator therapy called elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) and its use is widespread. Given the drastic respiratory symptom improvement experienced by many post-ETI, clinical studies are already underway to reduce the number of respiratory therapies, including antibiotic regimens, that pwCF historically relied on to combat lung disease progression. Early studies suggest that bacterial burden in the lungs is reduced post-ETI, yet it is unknown how chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations are impacted by ETI. We found that pwCF remain infected throughout their …

Evaluation Of Late Season Potassium Applications To Arkansas Soybean, Carrie Ortel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Potassium (K) deficiency is one of the most important yield limiting factors in Arkansas soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) production, although there are recently improved diagnostic and management opportunities available. However, several questions regarding the successful implementation of in-season K management in soybean production remain. Therefore, the research objectives were to (a) delineate the relationship between drought stress and K deficiency on soybean vigor, (b) identify the spatial dependencies of leaf-K concentrations at the production scale, (c) develop a leaf sampling protocol, (d) calibrate the fertilizer-K rate needed to correct varying levels of K deficiency at 15, 30, and …

Risky Business: Creating A Process To Review Accuracy Of American Society Of Anesthesia (Asa) Classification And To Improve Overall Quality Risk Adjustment Of Surgical Patients, Jane Kinney, Sonja Orff, Robyn Begin, Nicholas Flavin, Eira Hyrkas, Christopher Adams, Ian Neilson

Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat 2024

Through interdisciplinary education and the creation of an audit process, we have observed a 30.6% reduction in the number of ASA assignment misclassifications.

Reproducibility Of Maine Ongoing Outreach Simulation Education (Moose) Program In Level I Rural Delivery Hospitals, Allison Zanno, Jeffrey Holmes, Micheline Chipman, Anya K. Cutler, Leah M. Seften, Mary Ottolini, Alexa Craig, Leah Mallory, Misty Melendi

Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat 2024

Introduction

• Simulation provides an opportunity to practice neonatal resuscitation program (NRP®) guidelines with high acuity, low occurrence events

• Rural hospitals with low birth volumes have infrequent opportunities to maintain skills needed to adequately perform neonatal resuscitation

• With limited clinical opportunities, it is essential to provide ongoing training and education that allow teams to practice these skills

• Training environment includes a facilitated debrief allowing for feedback on performance and areas of improvement

Improving And Standardizing Pediatric Asthma Care Across Mainehealth Using The Validated Hospital Asthma Severity Scoring (Hass) Tool, Sean Patterson, Leah Marie Seften, Anya Cutler, Alexa Craig, Anne Coates, Noah Diminick

Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat 2024

Objective: To assess if an inter-professional educational intervention can improve the accuracy and inter-rater reliability of the HASS.

Ancient Shakespeare: Examining Classical Influence Upon Shakespeare's Plays, John Fritch

University Honors College

The enduring position of William Shakespeare as the greatest playwright in the English language stems in part from the classical world. This relationship with ancient Greek and Roman literature has sparked scholarly curiosity and conflict in the centuries after his death. The minimal details that are known about Shakespeare’s personal life and experiences make this topic a challenging one. This essay embarks on an exploration of Shakespeare’s engagement with classical themes, characters, and storytelling techniques, as well as the thematic resonances between ancient Greek plays and his own works. Through an examination of key characteristics and themes prevalent in ancient …

Service-Learning And Cross-Cultural Impact: Preparing Underrepresented Students For An International Service-Learning Trip, Kalene Dean

University Honors College

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Using Machine Translators On The Performance Of Second Language Learners, Kasey Myer

University Honors College

With the rise of technology has also come the development of various online language translators and artificial intelligence that are often utilized by individuals learning a second language. However, there is a wide range of quality between the different machine translation tools, and many people tend to be under the impression that it is inferior to the quality of interpretations provided by human translators. This paper considers the positives and negatives of machine translation as a tool for second language learning. Variations between the input and output languages on a grammatical and cultural level are analyzed. Machine translation is compared …

An Examination Of Benefits Between Massage Therapy And Mental Health, Alexis Fears

University Honors College

Mental health affects millions of people every year, which is why finding effective treatment methods are important. This paper goes into a deep dive into the practice of massage therapy and its promising intervention for treated mental health disorders. Studies on the physiology of psychiatric disorders on the mental and physical states of the body will be reviewed. Following the examination of the effect the disorders have on the body, an examination of the effects of massage therapy on the physical and mental aspects of a psychiatric disorder will be provided. The findings show that massage therapy works to reduce …

The Power Of Marketing: Data Analytics, Consumer Behaviors, And Marketing Strategies In Current Times, Alivia Vincent

University Honors College

Marketing today is about understanding consumers deeply, using data to guide decisions, and crafting smart strategies that resonate with target markets. This thesis explores how businesses can harness these principles to gain an edge in the marketplace. Data is the fuel that powers modern marketing. By analyzing information about customer preferences, trends, and behaviors, companies can make informed decisions about how to reach and engage their target audiences. This means understanding what consumers want and how people may make decisions. Knowing consumers' behaviors is crucial. Understanding what is being bought, how customers shop, and what influences their decisions is key …

Nursing Burnout: Decreasing Burnout And Increasing Job Satisfaction, Andrew Miller

University Honors College

The field of nursing is facing a crisis of suffering from a major shortage due to the rising incidences of burnout among nurses. Nurses are important to the world of healthcare, and patients cannot receive the care that they need without nurses. Burnout has been an issue within nursing for a long time now, and it is getting worse with a decrease in new graduates going into nursing and current nurses leaving after years of working in the field. After a deeper dive into the issue, there are a lot of factors that contribute to burnout, and it seems to …

The Marketplace Of Ideas Quenched: Examination Of Christological Conflicts, And Their Outcomes, In The Early Christian Church, Brent Monnett

University Honors College

The first four centuries of church history were largely dominated by a diverse mix of philosophical arguments, theological debates, and seemingly intractable conflicts over the nature of Christ and his person. The paper presented here will endeavor to examine these through multiple lenses of understanding, historical, political, geographical, and theological. Perhaps the most defining conflicts of this period of upheaval were the gnostic controversy of the 2nd century, followed by the Arian controversy of the 4th century A.D (Pagels, 1974, & Haas, 1993). The theological kerfuffle's over Christ and his humanity considered against his deity were every bit as sociopolitical …

The Effects Of High And Low Corporate Income Tax: Comparing And Contrasting, Catherine Petit

University Honors College

As the first federal tax was created in 1861 leading to the corporate tax rate being put in place, it is important to understand where the corporate income tax comes from and how it is used within corporations is a common matter that Americans may have now analyzed closely. From how the government spends the additional revenue after the corporate income tax is paid to how large corporations prepare for the upcoming financial period. This is a topic that is used in one's everyday life. This paper will analyze what the government does with the extra revenue when the corporate …

From Classroom To Cell: A Call To Action For Educational Reform, Draylen Akers

University Honors College

The “school-to-prison pipeline” (SPP) refers to the policies, practices, and attitudes that push the United States’ most vulnerable schoolchildren out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system. This correlation shows a disturbing trend of incarceration CLASSROOM TO CELL: CALL FOR REFORM AKERS 3 instead of education (ACLU, 2008). The link between school and incarceration is present in most physical and social institutions, creating a widespread and intersectional injustice. To create more targeted and holistic reform, this paper will concentrate on the education institution and crucial social structures like socioeconomic status (SES), family stability, and community support. Additionally, reviewing …

Investigating Outcomes Of Emerging Treatments For Cerebral Palsy, Hannah Halt

University Honors College

Cerebral palsy presents a complex neurological challenge affecting movement and posture, with significant implications for individuals' quality of life. This essay provides a thorough examination of cerebral palsy, covering its prevalence, types, and associated health conditions. It explores current treatment modalities, including constraint-induced therapy, gaitfocused physical therapy, and cell-based therapies, highlighting their effectiveness and cost considerations. Ethical dilemmas in stem cell research for cerebral palsy are being discussed, alongside ongoing clinical trials and their potential impact. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this essay sheds light on the evolving landscape of cerebral palsy treatment, emphasizing the importance of early detection and intervention …

States’ Obligation To Provide For Trans Youth: How Medicaid Requires (Most) States To Provide Access To Puberty Blockers, Grace Worcester

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

Over the last few years, many states have endeavored to strip minor access to gender-affirming healthcare, and these efforts have seen considerable success. By the end of 2023, twenty-two states had enacted legislation that limits youth access to genderaffirming healthcare. In line with these efforts, many states have created policies that exclude Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming puberty blockers--medications that delay the physical changes to one's body that occur with sexual maturity. These efforts contravene guidance from the medical community, which pronounces the importance of access to gender-affirming puberty blockers for transgender and gender-diverse youth, and often considers them medically necessary …

Police-Made Law, Brenner M. Fissell

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

This Article presents evidence that police are writing laws that they enforce. This newly discovered phenomenon compounds the existing understanding of police “making” law through the exercise of discretion. They make law in a far more direct way, functioning as quasi-legislators at the local level-- identifying a social problem, drafting an offense to address it, and directly proposing their offense for enactment. The conduct targeted, and the reasons for doing so, are diverse. For example, in one city a police chief successfully criminalized public intoxication so that intoxicated people would go to jails instead of hospitals; in another, a chief …

Athletic Identity Association And Prospective Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Predict Attitudes Of Collegiate Athletes Toward Seeking Help From The Athletic Department, Allie Zerr

Master's Theses

There is an epidemic of mental health issues that has begun to be more openly talked about in college athletics. In 2022, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has found that college student-athletes are now 1.5-2 times more likely to report struggling with mental health than ever before. Previous research has shown a significant association with basic psychological needs satisfaction and overall psychological well-being. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the possible ways that reported of autonomy, competence, and relatedness need satisfaction predicted whether athletes would seek mental health services and identify how athletic identity plays into this …

Natural Language Processing Methods For Parks, Conservation, And Outdoor Recreation Research, Danielle Dagan

All Dissertations

Recent advances in technology have increased the ability to access and manipulate large textual datasets. Natural language processing (NLP), the category of machine learning related to analyzing text data, is often used to understand humans. As with any tool or technology, it is important to critically examine how NLP approaches can support scientific advancement. This dissertation critically evaluates the use of NLP and machine learning in the domain of parks, conservation, and outdoor recreation. The dissertation begins with a novel conceptual chapter, which includes a scoping review of big data methods in outdoor recreation and introduces methodological concepts, best practices, …

Identification Of Rnai-Related Genes And Transcriptome Assembly Of Loblolly Pine (Pinus Taeda, L.) Seedlings Exposed To Insect-Specific Dsrna, Zachary Bragg, Lynne K. Rieske

Entomology Faculty Publications

Considerable research has focused on gene silencing in tree-feeding insects, but how trees recognize and process double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) engineered to target plant pests is unknown. We performed transcriptomic assembly, preliminary differential expression analysis, and in silico annotation on loblolly pine (Pinus taeda, L.) seedlings exposed to southern pine beetle-specific dsRNA. This pilot study sought to elucidate the baseline response of seedlings challenged with insect-specific dsRNA. Treated and untreated seedlings were sequenced and following transcriptome assembly 20 RNAi-related proteins (RRPs) were annotated. Differential gene expression analysis conducted using DESeq2 followed by pathway enrichment revealed 7131 differentially expressed transcripts, of which …

Analyzing The Relationship Between Cannabis Use And Hearing Loss, Ashley Howe

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

The purpose of this study was to assess the cross-sectional relationship between cannabis use and hearing thresholds to determine if cannabis use is associated with poorer hearing sensitivity while controlling for covariates and other risk factors in a large population-based data set. To answer this question, we analyzed audiometric hearing threshold data, drug use data, and covariate data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles. A total of 5,140 participants from 2009–2012 and 2015–2016 aged 20–59 years were included in the analyses. Univariable and multivariable main effects logistic regression models were used to compare cannabis use …

Cooperating Teacher Mentorship Behaviors And Job Satisfaction As Predictors Of Agricultural Education Interns’ Intent To Teach, Sarah Frances James

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Almost a quarter of agricultural education graduates do not teach SBAE upon graduating (Foster et al., 2024), however, this attrition has not been widely studied and reasons for this decision have not been identified. To increase the number of qualified teachers entering the classroom, the reasons for this attrition must be identified and addressed by universities. This study was conducted to investigate possible relationships between cooperating teacher mentorship behaviors, job satisfaction, and intent to teach in spring 2024 agricultural education interns. A survey, which combined the student teacher view part of Nesbitt and Barry’s (2023) cooperating teacher best practices instrument …

The Benefits Of Increasing Access To Theatre Education In K-12 Schools, Jaden Partain

Honors Theses

Theatre has been a part of education in the United States since the nineteenth century, when Horace Mann launched the public-school movement, and educators introduced the children of immigrants to American language and culture. The use of theatre in education has gradually evolved along with K-12 curriculums in the United States. However, during this time, theatre has not been used as well or much as it could be, even though participation in theatre can improve students’ educational achievements while simultaneously teaching important life skills. In my research, I look at how theatre can be a vital part of education in …

Smart Cities And How They Affect Those With Disabilities, Kassie Dover

Honors Theses

This study investigates how to further improve the lives of people with Autism and Cerebral Palsy when it comes to the development of Smart Cities. This is an effort to provide a glimpse into the perspective of those with these disabilities when it comes to technological advancement. The focus of this study was Chattanooga,Tennessee and Los Angeles, California. These two cities are respectively on the East and West side of the country. Thus, there is of course a difference when how these two cities function. This was done through research under the guise of a question and answer methodology. The …

Contemplative Constructions, Katharine Greenwell

Honors Theses

This text serves as a backdrop written in support of a body of paintings. The series of paintings revolve around the relationship between mechanical and human reproduction in mapping. The text challenges the Benjaminian notion that an artwork contains one unique aura and replication of the artwork damages the aura. It argues that by displacing surrounding references from the original map, the symbols made by the cartographers hand can be seen as aesthetic marks through an unlearning of their original purpose as a tool. Using the Jakobsonian axis of selection and axis of combination I remove and gain a sense …

Here (Toma): Translations Between Me And My Mother, Seth Courtad

Honors Theses

The lyric mode can be thought of as the engine of a piece, what drives its thinking and structure forward. Memoir writing most often refers to writing based on an author's own memories. For these two reasons, I've labeled my Honors thesis a lyric memoir. The memoir consists of poems, translated into Spanish by my mother, dual essays in which I share the page with another writer, and "after" essays which consider a wide variety of topics on identity, death, religion, and language. Critically, what makes the memoir lyric is its lack of direct narrative, instead relying on the layering, …

Multidisciplinary Literary Review: The Relationship Between Social Media And Empathy, Mayra E. Salgado

Honors Theses

This literary review examines the different psychological perspectives on the relationship between social media usage and empathy. Specifically, it discusses the association by expanding on the fields of cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, clinical psychology, and some evolutionary psychology. I define empathy and discuss its developmental journey, its cognitive functions, its neurobiological processes, its possible damage caused by social media usage, and its effects on physical and mental health. Lastly, I argue that research focusing on high levels of social media usage and its relationship with levels of empathy should focus on creating an elaborate longitudinal study to gain more information on …