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LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Theses/Dissertations

2005

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Techniques For Low Power Analog, Digital And Mixed Signal Cmos Integrated Circuit Design, Chuang Zhang Jan 2005

Techniques For Low Power Analog, Digital And Mixed Signal Cmos Integrated Circuit Design, Chuang Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With the continuously expanding of market for portable devices such as wireless communication devices, portable computers, consumer electronics and implantable medical devices, low power is becoming increasingly important in integrated circuits. The low power design can increase operation time and/or utilize a smaller size and lighter-weight battery. In this dissertation, several low power complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit design techniques are investigated. A metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) can be operated at a lower voltage by forward-biasing the source-substrate junction. This approach has been investigated in detail and used to designing an ultra-low power CMOS operational amplifier for operation at …

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Wealth And Deprivation In The Delta: A Landscape Of Subsidization, Jacqueline Warren Mills Jan 2005

Wealth And Deprivation In The Delta: A Landscape Of Subsidization, Jacqueline Warren Mills

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi Delta, as defined by the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), is an area of historical and present deprivation. Persistent poverty, lackluster economic development opportunities, and the associated ills of this environment exist alongside large-scale, subsidized agriculture. These federal subsidy payments are criticized for increasing the wealth of corporate enterprises rather than stabilizing the family farmer for whom they were created. This dissertation examines the geography of agristructure, subsidies, and socio-economic characteristics in the Delta with the purpose of identifying spatial relationships among these three variables. Drawing from the Goldschmidt Hypothesis, this research proposes that areas of large-scale agristructure will …

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Constructing A Math Applications, Curriculum-Based Assessment: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Apllications [Sic] Problems, Computation Problems And Criterion-Referenced Assessments, James E. Connell, Jr. Jan 2005

Constructing A Math Applications, Curriculum-Based Assessment: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Apllications [Sic] Problems, Computation Problems And Criterion-Referenced Assessments, James E. Connell, Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a well established tool for formative assessment. CBM has also been used for prediction of state test scores. However, validity coefficients between math-CBM and state tests have been moderate at best (Skiba, Magnusson, Martson, and Erickson, 1986; Martson, 1989; Putnam, 1989). The purpose of the present investigation was to develop and evaluate a set of math assessments designed to measure the type of application and problem-solving objectives required on state tests. The "application" type assessments constructed for this study combined characteristics of CBM, accuracy-based curriculum-based assessment (CBA) and criterion-referenced assessment (CRA). Theses assessments were derived from …

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Automatic Segmentation Of Magnetic Resonance Images Of The Brain, Kirk V. N. Spence Jan 2005

Automatic Segmentation Of Magnetic Resonance Images Of The Brain, Kirk V. N. Spence

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique used primarily in medical settings to produce high quality images of the human body’s internal anatomy. Each image is of a thin slice through the body, with the typical distance between slices being a few millimeters. Brain segmentation is the delineation of one or more anatomical structures within images of the brain. It promotes greater understanding of spatial relationships to aid in such tasks as surgical planning and clinical diagnoses, particularly when the segmented outlines from each image slice are displayed together as a surface in three-dimensions. A review of the literature indicates …

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Economic Valuation Of Natural Resource Management: A Case Study Of The Benuaq Dayak Tribe In Kalimantan, Indonesia, Indah D. Kusuma Jan 2005

Economic Valuation Of Natural Resource Management: A Case Study Of The Benuaq Dayak Tribe In Kalimantan, Indonesia, Indah D. Kusuma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The unavailability of total economic values of indigenous people in Indonesia, both in the short and long term, has created the rejection of their existences in the forest area. The purpose of this study is to estimate the total economic value of sustainable forest management conducted by indigenous tribes in Indonesia using total economic value concepts. The tribe’s total economic value is expressed by estimating the use value, indirect use value and non-use value. The study used benefit transfer and survey methods using questionnaires to estimate the tribe’s total economic value. The estimated total economic value of the Benuaq Dayak …

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Revision Of Pocadius Erichson (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), Andrew R. Cline Jan 2005

Revision Of Pocadius Erichson (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), Andrew R. Cline

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A revision of Pocadius Erichson (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) was completed. A total of 46 species were (re)described, including 25 new species, a key to species constructed, and phylogenetic analysis performed. Taxonomic changes, including nomenclatural emendations, reinstatement of species, and description of new taxa, within this dissertation do not constitute formal changes as defined by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Illustrations of the genitalia, key characters, and dorsal habitus of species are provided. The phylogeny demonstrates a monophyletic Pocadius. The phylogeny suggests a Palearctic origin of the genus with subsequent speciation into the Old World tropics and New World. Host specialization …

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Responsibilities And Leadership Styles Of Radiologic Technology Program Directors: Implications For Leadership Development, Laura S. Aaron Jan 2005

Responsibilities And Leadership Styles Of Radiologic Technology Program Directors: Implications For Leadership Development, Laura S. Aaron

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Leaders in higher education serve in a variety of roles and many times have very little administrative experience for the positions in which they serve. Radiologic technology program directors are the types of leaders who need strong leadership skills to meet the challenges of their role as program chairs. This study examined the responsibilities of program directors and their satisfaction with their leadership skills in relation to the responsibilities. In addition, the leadership styles of program directors were investigated to determine how those styles are related to the responsibilities and their satisfaction with their leadership skills. This study utilized a …

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Cultural Performance Of Roadside Shrines: A Poststructural Postmodern Ethnography, Rebecca Marie Kennerly Jan 2005

Cultural Performance Of Roadside Shrines: A Poststructural Postmodern Ethnography, Rebecca Marie Kennerly

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Marking the site of death on the road with a shrine, an increasingly popular cultural practice in the United States, is a deeply personal, private affair, however, because shrines are placed in the public right-of-way, they attract attention and invite participation, comment, and criticism. These sites, the materials that mark them, how people come to build them, the messages that those who build them hope to convey, and the accumulative force these sites bring to bear in various contexts offer unique insights into our complex, fragmented, and often confounding relationships with death, living memory, and selective forgetting. This project takes …

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The Stable Isotope Stratigraphy And Paleosols Of North America's Most Southern Exposure Of Late Paleocene/Early Eocene Fossiliferous Continental Deposits: Documenting The Initial Eocene Thermal Maximum In Big Bend National Park, Texas, Paul David White Jan 2005

The Stable Isotope Stratigraphy And Paleosols Of North America's Most Southern Exposure Of Late Paleocene/Early Eocene Fossiliferous Continental Deposits: Documenting The Initial Eocene Thermal Maximum In Big Bend National Park, Texas, Paul David White

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A chemostratigraphic section across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, using the stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen, has been developed for North America's most southern exposure of early Paleogene continental deposits in which the boundary is constrained by fossil mammals. A negative carbon excursion has been identified within C24r. The range in d13C values is from -8.1 to -13.2‰. Until the development of the chemostratigraphic section it was uncertain if the earliest Eocene was recorded in Big Bend. An early Wasatchian (Wa1) fossil site occurs stratigraphically higher than the carbon excursion and has yielded the stratigraphically lowest Hyracotherium in the …

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Exile As Severance, Alexandru Boldor Jan 2005

Exile As Severance, Alexandru Boldor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Exile is a phenomenon probably as ancient as humanity itself, and one of the oldest topics in universal literature. The great majority of its variants (political, economical, social,) are founded on the idea of "forced displacement." Consequently, most often exile is reflected in literary creations in discourses dominated by a sentiment of loss. However, in some cases exile is not seen as a tragic event, but rather as an opportunity for intellectual growth - as attested by a number of authors who have chosen voluntarily to exile themselves. The rationale behind this occurrence is a mental process I called "severance." …

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Spatial And Temporal Estimation Of Pumping And Recharge In Groundwater System Analysis, Sherly Hartono Jan 2005

Spatial And Temporal Estimation Of Pumping And Recharge In Groundwater System Analysis, Sherly Hartono

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In many parts of the U.S., groundwater is used as the primary or secondary source of water for the public supply, agricultural, and industrial sectors. In southwestern Louisiana, a majority of the water demand is supplied by the Chicot aquifer. Numerical flow models are useful for managing and optimizing groundwater systems. However, many important model parameters are difficult to quantify, exhibit a certain degree of uncertainty, and may vary both spatially and temporally. Two of the most important and sensitive parameters for a regional groundwater model of the Chicot aquifer are pumping rates and recharge. The use of GIS-based methods …

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Public Sexuality: A Contemporary History Of Gay Images And Identity, Shaun Erwin Sewell Jan 2005

Public Sexuality: A Contemporary History Of Gay Images And Identity, Shaun Erwin Sewell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study is an examination of the public imaging of gay men and lesbians during the latter part of the twentieth and early part of the twenty-first centuries. The study looks at public imaging as it is performed in the service of the political aims of gay people, with an eye towards the kinds of tensions and erasures that occur when one monolithic identity is promoted. Through these examinations, I create a kind of contemporary history of the gay political rights movement. In the study, I examine theoretical approaches to identity from several postmodern theorists and then use these approaches …

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Characterization Of Aged Polymer Modified Asphalt Cements For Recycling Purposes, Codrin Daranga Jan 2005

Characterization Of Aged Polymer Modified Asphalt Cements For Recycling Purposes, Codrin Daranga

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since polymer modified asphalt cement (PMAC) has been employed for a decade, the lifetime and wear on some of these pavements is reaching a stage where resurfacing is necessary. This research focuses on the characterization of aged polymer modified asphalt cements (PMAC) to evaluate their potential for recycling. A styrene-butadiene-styrene tri-block (SBS) polymer modified asphalt cement was selected and characterized using standard asphalt binder qualification techniques, i.e., the Superpave PG protocol. We developed a procedure to characterize the relative concentration of polymer in asphalt cements by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Infrared spectrographic, thermogravimetric and rheological techniques were used to identify …

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Medical Image Enhancement, Alina Monica Trifas Jan 2005

Medical Image Enhancement, Alina Monica Trifas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Each image acquired from a medical imaging system is often part of a two-dimensional (2-D) image set whose total presents a three-dimensional (3-D) object for diagnosis. Unfortunately, sometimes these images are of poor quality. These distortions cause an inadequate object-of-interest presentation, which can result in inaccurate image analysis. Blurring is considered a serious problem. Therefore, “deblurring” an image to obtain better quality is an important issue in medical image processing. In our research, the image is initially decomposed. Contrast improvement is achieved by modifying the coefficients obtained from the decomposed image. Small coefficient values represent subtle details and are amplified …

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Public Relations Ethics: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Paul Stuart Lieber Jan 2005

Public Relations Ethics: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Paul Stuart Lieber

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This two-part study employed 11 qualitative interviews, the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and a quantitative version of the five-factor TARES test to complete the first cross-cultural analysis of the ethical decision-making patterns of public relations practitioners. The DIT is an instrument based on Kohlberg’s (1969) moral development theory, the TARES test composed of 14 self-enforced, ethical consideration statements derived from the research of Baker and Martinson (2001). Results indicate no statistically significant difference in levels of moral development and ethical consideration between sampled practitioners in Australia, New Zealand and the United States (Lieber, 2003). This finding argues for a vocational …

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Photocatalysis In A Novel Semiconducting Optical Fiber Monolithic Reactor For Wastewater Treatment, Hongfei Lin Jan 2005

Photocatalysis In A Novel Semiconducting Optical Fiber Monolithic Reactor For Wastewater Treatment, Hongfei Lin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The development of photocatalytic reactors is essential for the successful exploitation of heterogeneous photocatalysis on semiconductor particles, which has been shown to be an effective means of removing organic pollutants from wastewater streams. In this dissertation, a novel photocatalytic optical fiber monolith reactor (OFMR), which employed a ceramic multi-channel monolith as a support for TiO2 and quartz fibers inserted inside the monolithic channels as both a light-transmitting conductor and a support for TiO2, was developed for wastewater treatment by investigating the photocatalytic degradation of o-dichlorobenzene (DCB) and phenanthrene (PHE). This configuration provides a high surface area for catalyst coating per …

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Power, Money, And Sex(Uality): The Black Masculine Paradigm, Kendric Coleman Jan 2005

Power, Money, And Sex(Uality): The Black Masculine Paradigm, Kendric Coleman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study develops the Black Masculine Paradigm (BMP), a construct used to trace historically specific components that inform black masculinity and explores the physical and psychological defensive strategies employed by black men in Richard Wright's Black Boy, Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promisedland, Nathan McCall's Make Me Wanna Holler, and James Earl Hardy's B-Boy Blues. Specifically, this project offers that power, money, and sex(uality) are located at the core of the BMP, and these social objectives are negotiated through politicization, prescribed masculinity, and heterosexuality. This project reads the politicization of the black male body through its presence in literature and …

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The Lived Experience Of New Graduate Baccalaureate-Prepared Registered Nurses Working In An Acute Care Hospital Setting, Jeannie Ricks Harper Jan 2005

The Lived Experience Of New Graduate Baccalaureate-Prepared Registered Nurses Working In An Acute Care Hospital Setting, Jeannie Ricks Harper

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of new graduate baccalaureate prepared Registered Nurses (RNs) who work in an acute care hospital setting. The study was a phenomenological qualitative research design, with researcher-developed guiding questions to help direct the interviews. Participants had passed the National Council for Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN), and had been practicing from three months to one year. Eight RNs participated in the study, with seven usable interviews. Results found that new graduate RNs experience multiple stressors as they acclimate to their new roles. The primary stressors that were identified by …

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Effects Of Gender Role On The Judgment Of Masculine Signs, Joseph C. Mitchell Jan 2005

Effects Of Gender Role On The Judgment Of Masculine Signs, Joseph C. Mitchell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Masculinity is a multi-dimensional, fairly pliable construct that some scholars approach from a biological perspective, others approach from a social constructionist perspective, and others approach from a unifying perspective. Part of the environment that informs the meaning of masculinity to a given culture is the mass media. This study takes the constructivist theoretical perspective, which attempts to explain the activation of schemata. The schematic process for this study concerns how people perceive, process, and judge masculine signs. This study seeks to explain gender role orientation’s influences on the development of schemata for masculinity as evidenced by differences in assessments of …

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The Effects Of Sex And Context On Student's Interpretation Of Teachers' High Immediacy Messages, Carolyn Hornsby Rester Jan 2005

The Effects Of Sex And Context On Student's Interpretation Of Teachers' High Immediacy Messages, Carolyn Hornsby Rester

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Teacher immediacy has been positively associated with many desirable academic outcomes, including quality student-teacher relationships, student participation in the classroom and in extra-class interaction, and increased student learning. Thus, scholars have consistently encouraged educators to increase their use of immediacy in contacts with students. However, some previous research found that high levels of teacher immediacy can be problematic in relationships and detrimental to desirable educational outcomes. Immediacy behavior tends to promote personal relationships and inclusion. However, excessive immediacy may change the meaning that students receive from the behavior. Using a message interpretation perspective, this study examined how sex of the …

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"We Are No Preacher" [Electronic Resource] : Margaret Oliphant's Textual Authority, Shannon Landry Brown Jan 2005

"We Are No Preacher" [Electronic Resource] : Margaret Oliphant's Textual Authority, Shannon Landry Brown

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine four of Margaret Oliphant's novels, her supernatural fiction, and her literary reviews, revealing how she relies on her knowledge of the cultural sign system, domesticity, and women's value to show how women may successfully navigate middle-class Victorian society. She accomplishes this by identifying the places where women's strengths lie: the boundaries between work and family, between the spiritual and material, amid the everyday details that she herself realizes reveal the workings of society. She sets herself up as a voice of authority within the system itself, not as a distant, all-knowing sage but as someone …

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Population Dynamics Of Clausocalanus Furcatus (Copepoda, Calanoida) In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Hongsheng Bi Jan 2005

Population Dynamics Of Clausocalanus Furcatus (Copepoda, Calanoida) In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Hongsheng Bi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Copepods are important components of marine ecosystems. Understanding copepod population dynamics can help interpret variations in both primary producers and higher trophic levels. Egg production, stage duration, and stage-specific mortality rates are key parameters describing copepod population dynamics. Estimation of stage-specific mortality is complicated due to a complex life history, patchiness, and sampling biases. This study was undertaken to quantify the population dynamics of the copepod Clausocalanus furcatus in the northern Gulf of Mexico and to assess the utility of available mortality estimation methods in a highly advective environment. Zooplankton samples were taken every 12h from March 18-April 6, and …

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After Scotland: Irvine Welsh And The Ethic Of Emergence, Benjamin George Lanier-Nabors Jan 2005

After Scotland: Irvine Welsh And The Ethic Of Emergence, Benjamin George Lanier-Nabors

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In “After Scotland: Irvine Welsh and the Ethic of Emergence,” the author’s objective is to mirror what he argues is the Scottish writer Irvine Welsh’s objective: to chart out a future Scotland guided by a generative life ethic. In order to achieve this objective, the author lays open and reengages Scotland’s past, discovers and commits to neglected or submerged materials and energies in its past, demonstrates how Welsh’s work is faithful to those and newly produced materials and energies, and suggests that Welsh’s use of those materials and energies enables readers to envision a new Scotland that will be integral …

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Speciation, Equilibria And Kinetics For Rainfall-Runoff Metals In Adsorptive-Filtration Unit Operations And Processes, Tianpeng Guo Jan 2005

Speciation, Equilibria And Kinetics For Rainfall-Runoff Metals In Adsorptive-Filtration Unit Operations And Processes, Tianpeng Guo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Populations transferred by rainfall runoff can have many adverse effects livings and people. Treatment of rainfall-runoff continues to pose unique challenges due to the unsteady nature of processes including mobilization, partitioning and transport of heavy metals as well as other constituent loads. BMPs that incorporate heavy metal removal are generating more attention as the nature of stormwater is better understood. This dissertation focused on metal partitioning and speciation in rainfall-runoff through the in-situ Partial Exfiltration Reactor (PER) and exposed to various redox circumstances, and metal removal by sorptive engineered manganese oxides coated media. Adsorption capacity of three manganese oxides coated …

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Denitrification And Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Cultivated And Wetland Alluvial Soils, Sami Ullah Jan 2005

Denitrification And Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Cultivated And Wetland Alluvial Soils, Sami Ullah

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Agricultural development in the Mississippi River Basin has contributed to an 3-fold increase in NO3 loading of the river. Increased NO3 loading is a primary cause of eutrophication in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Identification of best management practices (BMPs) to reduce NO3 loss and wetlands restoration to remove NO3 through denitrification are critically needed. The objectives of this research were to determine factors controlling denitrification potential of different landscape units in an agricultural watershed and quantify the effects of BMPs and organic C amendments on denitrification rates of cultivated lands and restored forested wetlands. N2O, CH4 and CO2 emissions …

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Lost In Transition: Welfare To Work In Louisiana, Theresa C. Davidson Jan 2005

Lost In Transition: Welfare To Work In Louisiana, Theresa C. Davidson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The decline in welfare rolls coupled with the increase in work activity among former recipients since the mid-nineties might indicate that welfare reform legislation has been a success. This is only part of the story describing the impact of welfare reform. Although many have exited the rolls, a significant number still have not found work, others remain on aid, and some struggle through the transition relying on a combination of welfare and work. Even those who fit the narrow definition of "success" and have left welfare for formal employment experience significant hardship. Overall, regardless of work and welfare status, most …

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A Conductor's Study Of Villa-Lobos's Magnificat-Alleluia And Bendita Sabedoria, Hoffmann Urquiza Pereira Jan 2005

A Conductor's Study Of Villa-Lobos's Magnificat-Alleluia And Bendita Sabedoria, Hoffmann Urquiza Pereira

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Heitor Villa-Lobos is one of the most important names in South American music and probably the most important name in Brazilian music. His musical output includes symphonies, symphonic poems, operas, chamber music, concertos, and choral music, among other genres. His choral music output is significant and includes pieces in which the chorus seems to be used for color and rhythm in a primarily instrumental texture, educational music, folk and secular pieces, large scale choral pieces, and sacred music. This document provides a brief survey of his choral music and a conductor's study of his last two choral works, Bendita Sabedoria …

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Biofiltration For Treatment Of Gas-Phase Voc Mixtures, Bing Qi Jan 2005

Biofiltration For Treatment Of Gas-Phase Voc Mixtures, Bing Qi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Biological processes are increasingly used for treatment of air streams contaminated by biodegradable volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The research described in this dissertation involves systematic investigation of various facets of applying biological processes dominated by fungi to remove mixtures of VOCs representative of emissions from paint application and manufacturing. Screening studies were first conducted to assess the ability of multiple fungal species to degrade various industrially important VOCs. In the following phases of the research, studies were conducted to evaluate performance of laboratory-scale bioreactors inoculated with fungi for treatment of mixtures of VOCs representative of emissions from paint spray booths …

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An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Teaching Perspectives And Faculty Development Activities Among Faculty In Higher Education, David M. Deggs Jan 2005

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Teaching Perspectives And Faculty Development Activities Among Faculty In Higher Education, David M. Deggs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the teaching perspectives, teaching preparation, previous teaching experiences and involvement in faculty development activities among faculty from a research extensive university in the southern United States. A simple random sample of 536 was drawn from the institution's faculty and total of n=131 (24.4%) responded to the survey. Respondents were asked to complete the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) via the internet and complete a survey which included questions regarding demographic variables, teaching preparation, previous teaching experience, and involvement in faculty development activities. The majority of respondents were male (n=91, 70.0%), held a doctoral degree (n=119, …

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Common Sense Philosophy And Politics In America: John Witherspoon, James Mccosh, And William James, Scott Philip Segrest Jan 2005

Common Sense Philosophy And Politics In America: John Witherspoon, James Mccosh, And William James, Scott Philip Segrest

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the political significance of the two leading strains of common sense thought in the history of American philosophy—Scottish Common Sense and Pragmatism—as suggested in the writings of John Witherspoon and James McCosh in the Scottish Common Sense line, and of the more famous co-founder of Pragmatism, William James. These two strains of American common sense are placed in context of the larger Western common sense tradition. Each is shown to aim at finding a solid middle ground epistemologically between skeptical doubt and idealistic certitude that could serve as a stable basis for moral and political life. Witherspoon, …

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