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Albert Camus's Meditative Ascent: A Search For Foundations In The Plague, Brian James Blanchard Jan 2006

Albert Camus's Meditative Ascent: A Search For Foundations In The Plague, Brian James Blanchard

LSU Master's Theses

Albert Camus's concept of absurdity states that human existence is fundamentally chaotic and meaningless. Despite this appraisal of existence, Camus tirelessly campaigned for human rights at a time when many intellectuals ignored the atrocities perpetrated by ideological compatriots. Scholars admire Camus's courage and foresight, but few have attempted to systematically examine Camus's philosophical development of values. Eric Voegelin argues that Camus's writings take the form of a philosophical meditation in which Camus conducted an analysis of existence through the medium of fictional creation. This meditation, which Voegelin likens to a Platonic periagoge, allowed Camus to establish a foundation of values …


Salt Marsh Restoration With Sediment-Slurry Amendments Following A Drought-Induced, Large-Scale Disturbance, Angela Marie Schrift Jan 2006

Salt Marsh Restoration With Sediment-Slurry Amendments Following A Drought-Induced, Large-Scale Disturbance, Angela Marie Schrift

LSU Master's Theses

A large-scale, drought-induced disturbance occurred in Louisiana during the spring and summer of 2000. Approximately 100,000 acres of Spartina dominated marshes died-back and turned brown. This die-off caused considerable concern because in the absence of recovery dieback marshes can transform to mudflats, which can subside leading to open ponds. The state of Louisiana is attempting to restore some of the dieback marshes through the addition of sediment-slurries. The sediment-slurry generated significantly different marsh elevations: high elevation (mean and 95 % confidence interval: 29, 26 to 32 cm above ambient marsh), medium elevation (21, 19 to 24 cm), low elevation (14, …


Links Between Environmental Mercury, Special Education, And Autism In Louisiana, Jessica Rury Jan 2006

Links Between Environmental Mercury, Special Education, And Autism In Louisiana, Jessica Rury

LSU Master's Theses

The number of children born every year with neurological disorders is increasing and some of this increase may be attributed to mercury exposure. Pregnant women ingest contaminated fish, which transfers high mercury concentrations to the unborn fetus. This exposure may result in methyl mercury buildup in the brain of the unborn fetus. Symptoms ranging from minor to severe may be observed as special educational needs in school systems. These include learning disorders, developmental delays, and autism. Louisianans are especially susceptible to mercury contamination because fish and shellfish are a major portion of their cultural diet. This study, through the use …


Evaluation Of Tcp Based Congestion Control Algorithms Over High-Speed Networks, Yaaser Ahmed Mohammed Jan 2006

Evaluation Of Tcp Based Congestion Control Algorithms Over High-Speed Networks, Yaaser Ahmed Mohammed

LSU Master's Theses

The Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) algorithm of the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) had worked remarkably well over low speed networks and had guaranteed fairness to the users all over these years, but at present, the demands for transferring large quantities of data over very high-speed networks are increasing at a tremendous rate. Because of its AIMD algorithm to control its window growth function accompanied by a slow response function which is inadequate over high-speed links, TCP has been proven to underutilize the available network bandwidth and leave a considerable amount of unused bandwidth. To overcome this limitation of TCP, …


Coastal Marsh Restoration Using Terraces: Effects On Waterbird Habitat In Louisiana's Chenier Plain, Jessica L. O'Connell Jan 2006

Coastal Marsh Restoration Using Terraces: Effects On Waterbird Habitat In Louisiana's Chenier Plain, Jessica L. O'Connell

LSU Master's Theses

Terracing is a novel technique used to combat coastal marsh loss in Louisiana and Texas. Terraces are assumed to slow marsh erosion, decrease pond depth, and encourage vegetation expansion. Terraced ponds have never been evaluated as habitat for waterbirds, which heavily depend on Louisiana�s coastal marshes. From April 2005 to April 2006, I monitored waterbird species richness and density through time to estimate effects that terracing has on habitat quality. Water quality (turbidity, salinity, conductivity, water temperature, and water depth) also was measured. Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) biomass and nekton density were measured from April 2005 to September 2005. I …


On Being There, Donald Lawrence Simmons Jan 2006

On Being There, Donald Lawrence Simmons

LSU Master's Theses

ON BEING THERE is the physical embodiment of an emotional experience. The works are responses to stories told and memories of my two grandfathers, being made of images from their possessions and sketchbooks. The object was to explore the experience of loss and to create a record of that experience. The work is an investigation of the self through the history of my grandfathers’ lives and experiences told in the media of printmaking.


Performance Of A Three-Phase Permanent Magnet Motor Operating As A Synchronous Motor And A Brushless Dc Motor, Sophie Sekalala Jan 2006

Performance Of A Three-Phase Permanent Magnet Motor Operating As A Synchronous Motor And A Brushless Dc Motor, Sophie Sekalala

LSU Master's Theses

The performance of a three-phase permanent magnet (PM) motor operating as a synchronous motor and brushless DC (BLDC) motor is discussed. The PM motor, when operating as a synchronous machine, is supplied with constant frequency, meaning constant rotor speed operation. When operating as a BLDC motor, the supply frequency changes according to the actual rotor speed. It means the speed signal is fed back to the controller, which generates the appropriate frequency to supply the stator winding. This means the BLDC motor cannot operate without a position sensor. The objective of the project was to analyze and compare the performance …


Playing At Command: Midshipmen And Quarterdeck Boys In The Royal Navy, 1793-1815, Samantha A. Cavell Jan 2006

Playing At Command: Midshipmen And Quarterdeck Boys In The Royal Navy, 1793-1815, Samantha A. Cavell

LSU Master's Theses

The golden age of the Royal Navy, which saw its apotheosis at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, also presented one of the great paradoxes of modern naval organization. "Young gentlemen," some as young as eight or nine, were placed in positions of authority aboard His Majesty's ships and expected to command veteran mariners with decades of sea experience. The effectiveness of this system, and the continued success of the Royal Navy as an institution, tended to belie the obvious disadvantages of placing adolescent recruits on the quarterdecks of active men-of-war. This study examines two aspects of the process that …


Design Of Cmos Lc Voltage Controlled Oscillators, Chetan Shambhulinga Salimath Jan 2006

Design Of Cmos Lc Voltage Controlled Oscillators, Chetan Shambhulinga Salimath

LSU Master's Theses

This work presents the design and implementation of CMOS LC voltage controlled oscillators. On-chip planar spiral inductors and PMOS inversion mode varactors were utilized to implement the resonator. Two voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) were realized as a part of this work, one designed to operate at 1.1 GHz while the second at 1.8 GHz. Both VCOs were implemented in a scalable digital CMOS process, with the former in a 1.5 micron CMOS process and the latter in a 0.5 micron technology. A simulation based methodology was adopted to arrive at a simple pi model used to model the metal and …


Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds In Wood Soot Extracts From Henan, China, Robyn Joy Cabrido Alcanzare Jan 2006

Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds In Wood Soot Extracts From Henan, China, Robyn Joy Cabrido Alcanzare

LSU Master's Theses

Polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC) are organic compounds composed of two or more fused benzene rings. These compounds are ubiquitous in the environment and some are found to be mutagenic and carcinogenic. High rates of esophageal cancer in the Henan Province of China had led to the suspicion that PAC from domestic coal and wood combustion are the main cause. Extraction of PAC from wood soot was done with a Soxhlet apparatus using dichloromethane as the solvent and concentration of the solution using a Kuderna Danish apparatus. Analysis of the different PAC was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with …


Distribution And Biogeography Of Central American Howling Monkeys (Alouatta Pigra And A. Palliata), Amrei Baumgarten Jan 2006

Distribution And Biogeography Of Central American Howling Monkeys (Alouatta Pigra And A. Palliata), Amrei Baumgarten

LSU Master's Theses

Central America has two howling monkey species: the widespread mantled howling monkey (Alouatta palliata) and the endemic and endangered black howling monkey (A. pigra) limited to southeastern Mexico, northern Guatemala and Belize. Studies that verify the distribution of these species are needed, especially in their contact zones where sympatry is reported. Their evolutionary history remains controversial. My study examines their distribution at a local scale in a potential contact zone in eastern Guatemala through direct observations and interviews and at a regional scale across the entire isthmus using data from museum specimen localities, study sites, historic records and field surveys. …


Genetically Modified Ifn-Alpha For Gene Therapy Treatment Of Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Ryan Craig Jan 2006

Genetically Modified Ifn-Alpha For Gene Therapy Treatment Of Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Ryan Craig

LSU Master's Theses

In the last twenty years, interferon-α (IFN-α) has gained success as an immunotherapy for treating such cancers as hairy cell leukemia, malignant melanoma, and renal cell cancer. Our goal was to improve the effectiveness of IFN-α therapy by genetically modified the IFN-α gene to encode a tumor-targeting peptide fused to a functional IFN-α protein. To ensure the targeting peptide worked, a genetically modified reporter gene encoding a secreted alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) gene and different mini-peptides were used to determine distribution and targeting ability. The DNA fragment encoding the most effective peptide was selected to modify the IFN-α gene construct for …


Interrelationships Between Mitochondrial Function, Maximal Oxygen Consumption, Running Economy, And Diet In Elite Male And Female Runners, Ryan Peyton Mcmillan Jan 2006

Interrelationships Between Mitochondrial Function, Maximal Oxygen Consumption, Running Economy, And Diet In Elite Male And Female Runners, Ryan Peyton Mcmillan

LSU Master's Theses

The relationships between maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), mitochondrial function and running economy were investigated in a population of twenty-one endurance trained males and females (range=18-54 yrs). The purposes of this study were: 1) to determine whether mitochondrial oxidative capacity, as defined by the maximal activities of citrate synthase (CS), cytochrome c oxidase (COX), and beta-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (BHAD), is a significant determinant of maximal oxygen consumption in endurance trained men and women, and 2) to observe the relationship between maximal oxygen uptake and running economy in the same population. Muscle biopsy samples were taken from the vastus lateralis prior to a …