Blue and Gold Week set to begin April 16

Eight seniors to present Graduation with Distinction projects
Eight seniors will present their Graduation with Distinction projects as a part of Blue and Gold Week activities to be held April 16-21 at LSMSA.

Graduation with Distinction is one of the school’s highest honors. Each student has met strict grade point average requirements and successfully completed higher level course work in the area of distinction and completed individual and scholarly work.

The presentation during Blue and Gold Week is the final step, a public presentation of the student’s work with an opportunity for questions from the audience.

Angela Fang, of Mandeville, will present at 4:15 p.m. Monday, April 16, in the Recital Hall located in the Center for Performance and Technology. She will also present at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, in the Boardroom located in the High School Building.

Fang’s project is “Chronic Alcohol Decreases Muscle Fibers Size after Unilateral Hind Limb Immobilization in Rats.” Her study focused on the effects of immobilizations and chronic alcohol consumption on protein synthesis and degradation rates, as well as Type II muscle fiber atrophy and Type I muscle fiber size and amount.

Kerry Doyle, of Eros, will present at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 16, in the Recital Hall. She will present again at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, in the Recital Hall.

Her project is “The Synthesis of Water-Soluble Boron Dipyrromethene Dyes for Use in Detecting Chemical Nerve Agents.” Nerve gases such as sarin, soman and tabun are potent chemical species which pose a significant threat to human life when deployed in large quantities. Being able to detect the presence of these nerve agents before prolonged exposure is crucial.

Under the instruction of Dr. Walter Weare and the U.S. Army, Doyle synthesized water-soluble boron dipyrromethene dyes for the purpose of detecting these nerve agents. She will talk about the process of synthesis and why her product works.

Grayce Mores, of Harvey, will present at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 16, in the Recital Hall. She will also present at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 18, in the Recital Hall.

Her project is “Cancer Virus: Analysis of Strain Variation of the Oncogene LMP-1 of the Epstein-Barr Virus.” “Catch” mono and learn about the Epstein-Barr Virus, a human herpesvirus that infects more than 90 percent of the population and is linked to cancer’s such as Burkitt’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The project focuses on the evolutionary, genetic and transcriptional variation of the LMP-1 coding region to oberve if this variation contributes to the cancerous transformation ability of EBV.

Nathan Ward, of Anacoco, will present at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17, in the Recital Hall. He will present again at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, in the Boardroom.

His project is “Exact General Solutions to Maxwell’s Equations in the Far Field through Multipolar Expansion.” Those attending Ward’s presentation will solve Maxwell’s equations for an oscillating source in terms of spherical EM waves through a multipolar expansion. A quick discussion of wave scattering and diffraction will follow.

Ruby Kharod, of Opelousas, will present at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17, in the Recital Hall. She will present again at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, in CPT 234.

Her project is “Electronically Tuning N-Phenyglycine Derivatives for Use as Organometallic Catalysts.”

As chemistry is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, colleges are falling behind with many lab courses having little to no mixing between disciplines. The solution to this problem is to develop a laboratory course linking the main four areas of chemistry: organic, inorganic, analytical and physical chemistry. To this end, a series of electronically tuned coordination compounds (catalysts) were targeted.

Chelsea Franklin, of Crowley, will present at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, April 18, in the Recital Hall. She will present again at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, in CPT 234.

Her project is “Emotional Scars,” a creative collection of literary works with a critical preface. In two poems and several short stories, Franklin explores controversial issues such as domestic abuse, incest and rape. Her critical preface looks at the importance of empathy, trauma theory and the Gothic in literature to explore the idea of social harmony.

Mary Pace will present at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 18, in the Recital hall. She will present again at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, in CPT 231.

Her project is “Chaotic Motion in a Double Pendulum.” Pace used various mathematical methods to calculate the Lyapunov exponent in a physical double pendulum.

Clara Kolterman, of Sterlington, will present at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, in the Recital Hall. She will present again at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, in CPT 231.

Her project is “Modeling the Future of Vegan Activism Using the History of Tobacco Control Policy.” The project focused on the history of tobacco control activism and methods used to cut smoking by more than 50 percent. This research was then used to build a model demonstrating the methods vegan activism groups can employ to more effectively decrease animal product consumption.

Three seniors will present Capstone Research projects.

Olivia Gotte, of Iota, will present at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17, in the Recital Hall.

Her project is “Queer Liberation: Djuna Barnes’s “Nightwood” and Homosexuality.” The purpose of the research and analysis was to provide an understanding of two things: Djuna Barnes’s unintentional role in the movement toward accepting homosexuality and how her book “Nightwood” affected contemporary views toward homosexuality and queerness.

Emma Simpson, of Shreveport, will present at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, in the Recital Hall.

Her project is “Legal Outsiders.” The project focused on Native American families who have left reservations in search of different opportunities and how their removal from the reservations have impacted their varying levels of “acceptance” amongst other members of the same tribe, while also exploring the political and social history concerning Native Americans and their general acceptance (or lack thereof) by the rest of the United States and how certain policies and social views have evolved from the mid-19th century to modern day.

Nathaniel Campbell, of Prairieville, will present at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, in the Recital Hall.

His project is “Urbanization, Globalization and the Revitalization of the City.” Campbell researched why four billion people live in cities around the world, why that number will balloon to six billion by 2045 and how these future cities will either fail dramatically or succeed triumphantly.

All Graduation with Distinction and Capstone Research presentations are free and open to the public.
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