Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 53

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Comparative Analysis Of The Deterioration Rates Of Textiles And Their Role In Determining Postmortem Interval, Kellie Marie Gordon Jan 2003

A Comparative Analysis Of The Deterioration Rates Of Textiles And Their Role In Determining Postmortem Interval, Kellie Marie Gordon

LSU Master's Theses

A predominant problem that must be solved in the medico-legal field of forensic science is when death occurred. Accurate determination of postmortem interval (PMI) enables investigators to narrow the time frame of events for a case, a crucial step for law enforcement in forensic analysis. Multiple taphonomic variables affect the decay rate of the human body and the subsequent formation of PMI estimates. Employing a two-phased strategy, this study seeks to analyze the correlation between the deterioration rates of various fabric types in relation to determining the PMI of a forensic case. First, an analysis was completed based on a …


Bombarding The City Of The Dead: Who Has A Right To The Past?, Corey David Hotard Jan 2003

Bombarding The City Of The Dead: Who Has A Right To The Past?, Corey David Hotard

LSU Master's Theses

This study focuses on the relationship between tourism and archaeology at Saint Louis Cemetery Number One in New Orleans. In the past two decades, the discipline of archaeology has been thrust into the gaze of the public. The Information Age has led to the increased accessibility of archaeological sites to anyone who may have an interest. Due to this increased accessibility, professional archaeologists have turned to public archaeology in order to satiate the public’s curiosity. Although public archaeology is a growing field, a good bit of the subject still deals mainly with legislation and preservation rather than direct contact with …


Revisiting The 1992 Los Angeles Riots: An Analysis Of Geographical Perspectives, Paul Watts Jan 2003

Revisiting The 1992 Los Angeles Riots: An Analysis Of Geographical Perspectives, Paul Watts

LSU Master's Theses

The intent of this thesis is to investigate the complexities of the 1992 Los Angeles riots from a spatial perspective. To study the 1992 Los Angeles riots is an attempt to understand dynamic and unpredictable events, events that can result in multiple deaths, vast property damage, and leave irrevocable scars on a community for years. It is these reasons that should call geographers to the challenges of studying riots. Part of this thesis is to critically evaluate previous quantitative work on the 1992 Los Angeles riots and to argue for a new investigative approach in understanding riots in general. My …


A Convergence Of Modes: Present Status Of Online News Sites A Content Analysis Of 100 Online Newspaper Web Sites, Renee Chantal Duplessis Jan 2003

A Convergence Of Modes: Present Status Of Online News Sites A Content Analysis Of 100 Online Newspaper Web Sites, Renee Chantal Duplessis

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the current status of online news sites in terms of their level of convergence, and how they are affected by different organizational factors such as organizational influence, cross media partnerships and circulation size. A content analysis of the top 100 circulated newspaper dailies in the United States was conducted to provide understanding as to the current status of these online newspaper sites. A number of categories were examined including newspaper circulation size, updatedness, cross media partnership/ ownership, and level of convergence. Results showed that the majority of the Internet newspaper sites examined shared a media partnership on …


Major And Minor Life Events As Predictors Of Medical Utilization, Gareth R. Dutton Jan 2003

Major And Minor Life Events As Predictors Of Medical Utilization, Gareth R. Dutton

LSU Master's Theses

Research suggests stressful life events can negatively influence physical and mental health in a number of ways. While previous research indicates both major and minor life events contribute unique variance to the prediction of physical and mental symptoms, little research has examined the relationships of both major and minor life events with medical utilization. The current study included a predominantly African American, low-income sample of adults (N = 207) attending two primary care outpatient clinics and assessed their experience of both major and minor life events over the course of one year. Medical utilization data were collected over a subsequent …


Feathers And Tuxedos: An Analysis Of Political Cartoons About Indian Gaming, Michael Stephan Nasirov Jan 2003

Feathers And Tuxedos: An Analysis Of Political Cartoons About Indian Gaming, Michael Stephan Nasirov

LSU Master's Theses

Feathers and Tuxedos: An Analysis of Political Cartoons About Indian Gaming is an exploration into the changing stereotypes of Indians in illustrated media. Beginning with general issues such as poverty and media coverage, this thesis continues to cover chronologically the origins of modern Indian gaming and the resulting expenditure of profits into social welfare of the tribes and the continuous three-way battle between state, federal, and Indian sovereign rights. Normative U.S. societal reactions to Indian gaming are contrasted with their Indian counterpoints. Cartoons allow for a visual representation of contested relationships, including recent imagery of well-to-do entrepreneurs profiting at the …


Swimming Versus Voluntary Running Exercise On Bone Health In Ovariectomized Retired Breeder Rats, Shelly Ann Duhe Jan 2003

Swimming Versus Voluntary Running Exercise On Bone Health In Ovariectomized Retired Breeder Rats, Shelly Ann Duhe

LSU Master's Theses

Physical activity may increase long bone calcium (Ca) content to preserve bone strength in postmenopausal women. This study determined the effect of compulsory swimming and voluntary running exercise on bone mineral density, bone Ca and phosphorus (P) content, and femoral neck and tibia strength in ovariectomized (OVX) retired breeder rats, as a model for postmenopausal women. Thirty-seven nine-month old Sprague Dawley rats were assigned randomly into one of four treatment groups for the nine-week study: OVX + running (OR; n=9); OVX + swimming (OS; n=10); OVX + no exercise (O; n=9); sham-surgery + no exercise (Sh; n=9). OR rats had …


Dialogic Dogs And Phatic Felines: Speaking To And Through Our Pets, Nicole M. Dufour Jan 2003

Dialogic Dogs And Phatic Felines: Speaking To And Through Our Pets, Nicole M. Dufour

LSU Master's Theses

While many pet owners acknowledge that they speak to their pet, Pet Communication has remained mostly overlooked by researchers. Through discourse analysis, this thesis is an attempt to analyze Pet Communication, which deals with human speech to a pet, about a pet, or through a pet. I analyze data which I transcribed in the waiting room of the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine Small Animal Clinic. Data were collected from conversations that took place between pet owners, between pet owners and the Clinic's staff, pet owners and their pets, and between staff and pets. These data were then …


Measuring Fear Of Crime On Campus: A Study Of An Urban University, Cheryl Papa Bedenbaugh Jan 2003

Measuring Fear Of Crime On Campus: A Study Of An Urban University, Cheryl Papa Bedenbaugh

LSU Master's Theses

Since 1990, five federal laws and many state laws have been created to increase security on university campuses (Security on Campus 2000). These laws, which include provisions that require university police and administrations to accurately and openly report the school's crime statistics (Hudge 2000), have fueled an increased focus about crime committed on university campuses. The philosophy behind the open reporting laws is twofold: parents and students have the information necessary to help them make the best decisions on which college to attend, and students are armed with information so they can take necessary precautions to enhance their level of …


Relative Efficacy Of School-Home Notes With And Without Response Cost In Impoverished Elementary School Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Andrea Nichole Jurbergs Jan 2003

Relative Efficacy Of School-Home Notes With And Without Response Cost In Impoverished Elementary School Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Andrea Nichole Jurbergs

LSU Master's Theses

Daily report cards and punishment have proven to be effective methods of classroom behavior management. However, treatment effectiveness studies have not been designed to adequately compare the effects of rewarding and punishing consequences on behavior through a school-home note. The study of school-home note treatment effectiveness has focused on middle-class students with behavior problems; both ADHD and disadvantaged populations have been underresearched. Using a reversal, alternating treatments design, the present study will examine the effectiveness of a response-cost system added to school-home notes for increasing classwork completion and appropriate classroom behavior in several disadvantaged elementary school children with ADHD.


Print Media Impact On State Legislative Policy Agendas, Abby Kral Jan 2003

Print Media Impact On State Legislative Policy Agendas, Abby Kral

LSU Master's Theses

Using a survey of Louisiana’s State Legislature, this study examined the role media have in developing state legislators’ policy agendas by exploring the function of news media in the public policy process. The study also tested whether there was a correlation between media use, years of legislative service, and education level. This thesis was also able to establish a correlation between media use and gender, with results suggesting that female state legislators rely on newspapers more than their male counterparts. The results suggest that legislators do seek out issues in newspapers that affect the communities and constituents they serve and …


Freedom As The Ends And Means Of Development: An Examination Of Garrison Communities And Their Effects In Kingston, Jamaica, Shemona Renae Simpson Jan 2003

Freedom As The Ends And Means Of Development: An Examination Of Garrison Communities And Their Effects In Kingston, Jamaica, Shemona Renae Simpson

LSU Master's Theses

This study applies and expands Sen’s concept of development as freedom using Jamaica as a case study. Using quantitative data acquired from the Center for Migration and Development’s case study on Urbanization During the Years of Crisis in the Caribbean (1993), this research analyzes the impact of the entrenchment of garrison communities on Jamaica’s overall development in terms of the freedoms allotted to individuals within society. The methodology used for testing the hypothesis that garrison entrenchment has constrained individual level freedom presents findings from a quantitative analysis of the relationship between garrison entrenchment at the community level and individual level …


Toward Validation Of The Sports Behavior Checklist: A Comparison Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And Control Group Children In A Sports Environment, Aaron Clendenin Jan 2003

Toward Validation Of The Sports Behavior Checklist: A Comparison Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And Control Group Children In A Sports Environment, Aaron Clendenin

LSU Master's Theses

Data from participants (N = 124) was entered into a principal components analysis to test the factor structure of the Sports Behavior Checklist ([SBC] Johnson & Rosen, 2000). The subscales of the SBC were correlated with relevant subscales of the Conners'- Revised Parent Form ( Conners, 1997) and Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990). Both of these analyses were conducted to determine the construct validity of the instrument. Additionally, a subsample (N = 92) of low socioeconomic status individuals was used to compare groups of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (n = 49) and non-clinical (n = 43) children on the …


The Influence Of Alcohol Advertising In A Campus Newspaper On Students' Consumption Of Alcohol, Gwendolyn Anne Taylor Jan 2003

The Influence Of Alcohol Advertising In A Campus Newspaper On Students' Consumption Of Alcohol, Gwendolyn Anne Taylor

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose this study was to investigate the relationship between alcohol advertising policies in the campus newspaper, The Reveille, and students’ reported consumption of alcohol. Students’ reported consumption of alcohol was assessed using the Harvard School of Public Health’s College Alcohol Study (CAS) for the years 1997, 1999, and 2000. Five variables were used: (a) How many times have you had five or more drinks in a row? (b) During the last two weeks, how many times have you had four drinks in row, (but no more than that?) (c) The last you had four or more drinks in row, …


Stereotyping Of Women In Television Advertisement, Vaishali Shrikhande Jan 2003

Stereotyping Of Women In Television Advertisement, Vaishali Shrikhande

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the portrayal of women in television commercials and documented the stereotypes associated with women in today’s television commercials. Content analysis was chosen as a method of inquiry for this study. Two hundred and twenty six advertisements were recorded from the three chosen networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. No local advertisements or public service announcements were included in the sample. Each advertisement was initially coded for the central figure, whether the central figure was a male or a female. In addition, each central figure in the advertisement was coded for the following categories: 1) age; 2) product use; …


Continuity And Revolution: The Basis Of The American Revolution In The Common Law And The Ancient Constitution, As Explicated By John Dickinson, Joseph Leland Feeney Jan 2003

Continuity And Revolution: The Basis Of The American Revolution In The Common Law And The Ancient Constitution, As Explicated By John Dickinson, Joseph Leland Feeney

LSU Master's Theses

How revolutionary was the American Revolutionary War? My thesis is that, for a broad cross section of Americans, the political scientific rationale of the American Revolutionary era was based on the Common Law and the Ancient Constitution. In this paper I have investigated the life and writings of John Dickinson so as to provide a standpoint from which the continuity of the Ancient Constitutional and Common Law ethos can be seen as a subtext of the American "Revolutionary" War.


Graceful Death: The Use Of Victorian Elements In Grace Episcopal Churchyard, St. Francisville, Louisiana And St. Helena's Churchyard, Beaufort, South Carolina, Marian Patricia Colquette Jan 2003

Graceful Death: The Use Of Victorian Elements In Grace Episcopal Churchyard, St. Francisville, Louisiana And St. Helena's Churchyard, Beaufort, South Carolina, Marian Patricia Colquette

LSU Master's Theses

In 1966 James Deetz and Edwin Dethlefsen illustrated how changes in tombstone iconography could be correlated to the spread of changing Puritan beliefs about death. This thesis addresses the possibilities that the adoption of Victorian tombstone style and iconography can be used to trace the spread of Victorian ideas. The theoretical arguments on funerary behavior and attitudes toward death as well as the development of the Victorian cemetery and its association to the rural cemetery movement are discussed. In addition, Victorian styles in funerary architecture and iconography are defined. As originally addressed, the problem involved establishing that adoption of Victorian …


Perceptions Of Social Support Within The Context Of Religious Homophily: A Social Network Analysis, Sally Robicheaux Jan 2003

Perceptions Of Social Support Within The Context Of Religious Homophily: A Social Network Analysis, Sally Robicheaux

LSU Master's Theses

Recent studies have documented (1) the direct effects of social network context on perceived adequacy of social support and (2) the indirect effects of social network context, through social support, on psychological well-being. This thesis extends that research by asking how religious homophily in social networks affects individual perceptions of support and, through that, psychological well-being (depression). Results indicate that being embedded in a network with greater religious homophily increases perceived support, but this relationship holds only for instrumental support. Additionally, both instrumental and expressive support exert significant affects on psychological well-being: greater perceived adequacy of support (both instrumental and …


Monitoring In Event-Based Prospective Memory Tasks, Dale Watkins Cockman Jan 2003

Monitoring In Event-Based Prospective Memory Tasks, Dale Watkins Cockman

LSU Master's Theses

Event based prospective memory (PM) refers to remembering to perform a particular action upon the presentation of a particular cue in the environment. Until recently, most models of event-based PM performance have suggested that the realization of the target event occurs automatically. The DARC model (Smith, 2000) is among the first to suggest that monitoring is required to notice the target event, in the form of a consistent, non-strategic dedication of resources. The predictions of the DARC model are contrasted with those of Einstein & McDaniel (Noticing + Search, 1996), Goschke & Kuhl (1996), Ellis (1996). The pilot study and …


How Should Sports Organizations Handle A Crisis?: A Focus On Collegiate Institutions, Jamie Mabile Delatte Jan 2003

How Should Sports Organizations Handle A Crisis?: A Focus On Collegiate Institutions, Jamie Mabile Delatte

LSU Master's Theses

The sports industry is big business just like any other big business. Sports organizations face various crises just as corporate America does. A survey of 345 professional and college level sports organizations revealed that 70% of them experienced a crisis in 1997, while the Los Angeles Times reported that 220 college athletes were the focus of criminal charges in 1995. "Sports crises are clearly more frequent today than ever before," said Kathleen Hessert. Mike Paul agrees with that trend based on his research, attributing the trend to poor life choices away from the sport. What is a crisis? A crisis …


Media Ownership And Objectivity, Xinkun Wang Jan 2003

Media Ownership And Objectivity, Xinkun Wang

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the different type of ownership will affect the degree of objectivity of newspaper coverage of 2000 presidential election. It is predicted by Shoemaker’s news content theory that publicly-owned newspaper is more objective than privately-owned newspaper. The findings of this study support this theory. A content analysis of 238 news stories and eight editorials from publicly-owned the Boston Globe and privately-owned the Boston Herald showed that not only does the ownership affect the objectivity of the coverage of these two newspapers on 2000 presidential election, the endorsements also affect the degree of …


Heavy Smokers Choose Large, Immediate Rewards With Large Penalties On A Simulated Task Of Gambling, Michael Shawn Businelle Jan 2003

Heavy Smokers Choose Large, Immediate Rewards With Large Penalties On A Simulated Task Of Gambling, Michael Shawn Businelle

LSU Master's Theses

The Gambling Task is a complex neuropsychological test (in the form of a card game) that examines the ability of individuals to assess potential immediate gains over long-term losses. Gambling Task performance has been examined in previous studies with individuals who are dependent on alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamine. These studies have shown that those who are dependent on the aforementioned substances perform more poorly on the Gambling Task than controls. Specifically, in relation to controls, drug/alcohol dependent individuals show impairment by tending to pick more cards that have large immediate gains and very large delayed punishers. The delayed punisher …


"You Stupid, Lazy Kid": Perceptions Of Verbal Aggressiveness In Older Adults, Jon M. Croghan Jan 2003

"You Stupid, Lazy Kid": Perceptions Of Verbal Aggressiveness In Older Adults, Jon M. Croghan

LSU Master's Theses

Young adults' stereotypes of older adults has been well-documented in communication literature, however, there has been a lack of research on the impact of message strategy on intergenerational interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among three factors that previous research suggests should influence the activation of stereotypes toward a target: age, relational level, and message strategy. This study examines the role that message strategy, in this case, verbal aggressiveness, plays in activating young adults' (n = 186) negative stereotypes of older adults. The young adults' self-reported levels of trait verbal aggressiveness was positively correlated with …


Characterizing Spatially Explicit Patterns Of Antibiotic Resistance In The Marine Environment Using Top-Level Marine Predators, Jason Kenna Blackburn Jan 2003

Characterizing Spatially Explicit Patterns Of Antibiotic Resistance In The Marine Environment Using Top-Level Marine Predators, Jason Kenna Blackburn

LSU Master's Theses

This research is the first known study to characterize spatially explicit patterns of Antibiotic Resistance (ABR) in top-level marine predators. A total of 134 viable bacteria samples were isolated from cloacal swabs of seven shark species and one teleost species and then stratified by geographic location. Samples were collected using sterile rayon-tipped culturettes and transported to the LSU-SVM for classification and antibiotic resistance analyses using the Kirby-Bauer method. Samples were characterized by Gram-stain and morphology and placed into three groups: 1) Gram-negative rods, 2) Gram-positive cocci, or 3) Gram-positive rods. Prevalence rates were calculated for each study site as the …


An Integrated Approach To Judicial Decision Making: The Death Penalty In South Africa, Stephenie E. Franks Jan 2003

An Integrated Approach To Judicial Decision Making: The Death Penalty In South Africa, Stephenie E. Franks

LSU Master's Theses

Existing judicial research has firmly established the role of the law and the courts in the political system of the United States. Yet very little systematic empirical research has been conducted to fully explore the extent to which theories of judicial behavior based upon the American judicial system are applicable to other legal systems. As a result, these theories lack generalizability and, moreover, have failed to determine if the U.S. judiciary is comparable to other court systems or simply an anomaly within a broader comparative framework. Given this void within the existing literature, this study extends several theories of judicial …


Goal Orientation And Feedback Sign As Predictors Of Changes In Motivation And Performance, Erin Michele Richard Jan 2003

Goal Orientation And Feedback Sign As Predictors Of Changes In Motivation And Performance, Erin Michele Richard

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the dimensions of goal orientation as moderators of the effects of feedback sign on changes in self-efficacy, effort, and performance over time. In general, the effect of feedback sign on changes in self-efficacy, effort, and performance was hypothesized to be strong for individuals high on performance goal orientation (PGO) and weak for individuals high on learning goal orientation (LGO). Participants completed several performance blocks of an implicit learning task that required individuals to control the temperature of a simulated chemical reactor. Participants were given manipulated normative feedback after each trial. Self-efficacy, effort, and performance were assessed at …


Evaluation Of Computerized Reading Intervention, Jennifer Lynne Koenig Jan 2003

Evaluation Of Computerized Reading Intervention, Jennifer Lynne Koenig

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer-based reading intervention with eight elementary school children. This program, called the Reading Center, utilizes repeated reading, listening passage preview, word drills, and comprehension questions. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the intervention effects on oral reading fluency. Results indicated growth in all eight children, with increases between 8.7 and 20 words per week for intervention passages. The implications of the results for the use of computer-delivered interventions are discussed.


Who Helps In A Crisis: Differentiating Among Adult Children As Sources Of Support For Their Caregiving Mothers, Michael J. Patterson Jan 2003

Who Helps In A Crisis: Differentiating Among Adult Children As Sources Of Support For Their Caregiving Mothers, Michael J. Patterson

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative data collected from 134 mothers about their relationships with 381 adult children during the first few months after the mothers began caring for a spouse or older parent. Building on a framework that draws on theories of social structural similarity, I anticipated that adult children who shared more social statuses with their parents would be more likely to be sources of emotional and instrumental support and less likely to be sources of interpersonal stress to their caregiving mothers. Multivariate analyses revealed no effects of structural similarity and few effects of other …


Improvement Of Kenaf Yarn For Apparel Applications, Ting Zhang Jan 2003

Improvement Of Kenaf Yarn For Apparel Applications, Ting Zhang

LSU Master's Theses

The objectives of the research are to determine the impact of the retting methods and blending percentage on the properties of kenaf fiber as well as the yarns and fabrics that contain kenaf, and to analyze and characterize kenaf fiber and yarns and fabrics that contain kenaf in terms of physical properties, such as tensile strength, elongation, evenness, absorbency and surface characteristics. In this research, kenaf fiber bundles were treated by chemical methods and softened to improve fiber properties. The treated fibers then were blended with cotton having 0, 10%, 25%, and 50% blending ratio and spun into yarns with …


Making The Internet Transition: Assessing The Needs Of Secondary Public School Teachers, Nancy Matt Jan 2003

Making The Internet Transition: Assessing The Needs Of Secondary Public School Teachers, Nancy Matt

LSU Master's Theses

Since the introduction of Internet technology in public schools, teachers who are enthusiastic about computer and Internet training have responded to school districts’ offers of off-site training and take part in grant-based programs to promote the use of technology. The first phase of promotion by attraction has been completed. The remaining teachers are not as enthusiastic and look to the school district to provide them with the type of training they require in order to incorporate Internet technology. Access to the Internet is just one of many elements involved in the overall problems that public high school teachers face using …