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Performing Citizenship: Tensions In The Creation Of The Citizen Image On Stage And Screen, John William Wright Jan 2006

Performing Citizenship: Tensions In The Creation Of The Citizen Image On Stage And Screen, John William Wright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

What does it mean to be a “citizen” of the United States? In the simplest of terms, citizenship is a limited position of identity, relegated to a narrow definition of legal and geographical position for an individual. But to be a “citizen” in America means far more than that – it becomes an accepted image of our collective identity which seeks an historical and political supremacy that allows America, and its citizens, to claim ideological status over anyone who is not a part of that nationalistic frame. The citizen has, for us, become a set of understood rights and privileges, …

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The Body Politic: Splitting Gender Medically In Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia, Sarah Sally Carraher Jan 2006

The Body Politic: Splitting Gender Medically In Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia, Sarah Sally Carraher

LSU Master's Theses

Before the rise of clinical medicine, Western medicine was undergoing several prerequisite shifts in epistemology and methodology - moving from an eighteenth-century practice of spaces and classes, wherein the symptom is synonymous with the disease, toward a nineteenth-century science of signs and cases, in which symptoms are symbols, or products, of a deeper disease (Foucault 1973). During the former age of classes, about mid-century, a particular shift in the medical perception of sex differences appears in the literature, without any great advances or revisions in human anatomical knowledge or treatment methods. This thesis looks at hospitalization of in-patients at Pennsylvania …

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Separation Anxieties: Representations Of Separatist Communities In Late Twentieth Century Fiction And Film, Brett Alan Riley Jan 2006

Separation Anxieties: Representations Of Separatist Communities In Late Twentieth Century Fiction And Film, Brett Alan Riley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the late 20th century and beyond, American social movements advocating equality have increased national attention to issues of exclusion, inclusion, and multiculturalism within communities. As a result, studying the nature of communities—how the term "community" might be defined, who belongs to a given group or social structure, who does not belong, and why—has become increasingly important. American artists have responded by exploring these sites of social, political, and personal change in their works. Separation Anxieties: Representations of Separatist Communities in Late Twentieth Century Fiction and Film analyzes seven fictional works in which some group is philosophically and/or geographically isolated—sometimes …

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Entering The Academy: Exploring The Socialization Experiences Of African American Male, Dorian L. Mccoy Jan 2006

Entering The Academy: Exploring The Socialization Experiences Of African American Male, Dorian L. Mccoy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored the socialization experiences of African American male faculty at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominately White institutions (PWIs). Rosch and Reich’s Enculturation Model was used as the theoretical framework. To gain a better understanding of the socialization experiences of African American male faculty, a group that has traditionally been underrepresented and marginalized in academia, Critical Race Theory (CRT) was incorporated into the study. More specifically, counter-storytelling, a basic tenet of CRT, was used to learn the stories that African American male faculty tell about their socialization experiences. A mixed methodology research design was utilized. Interviews …

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New Programs In The Old Asylum: The Deinstitutionalization Of Long-Term Psychiatric Hospital Patients In Argentina, Erica Dillon Jan 2006

New Programs In The Old Asylum: The Deinstitutionalization Of Long-Term Psychiatric Hospital Patients In Argentina, Erica Dillon

LSU Master's Theses

Large psychiatric hospitals with inpatients interned for decades are still the norm in Argentina, where deinstitutionalization and community-based mental health care is almost inexistent. This thesis focuses on some changes taking place in a centenary psychiatric hospital in Buenos Aires province: the externación of long-term psychiatric patients through new programs planned and run from inside the institution by health professionals compromised in making a change in the old asylum. Can long-term inpatients with serious mental illness such as schizophrenia leave the asylum and integrate in the society having a recovered life? Do the new externación programs make this possible? What …

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Datum Is Only Skin Deep: In Vivo Measurements Of Facial Tissue Thickness In Chimpanzees, Julia Rose Hanebrink Jan 2006

Datum Is Only Skin Deep: In Vivo Measurements Of Facial Tissue Thickness In Chimpanzees, Julia Rose Hanebrink

LSU Master's Theses

This study is an ultrasonic investigation of chimpanzee (Pan troglodyte) facial tissue depth variability as well as a comparison between chimpanzee tissue depth standards and modern human (Homo sapiens) tissue depth standards. This research intends to broaden the extent of knowledge available regarding nonhuman primate anatomy. In addition, this research hopes to provide valuable information regarding facial reconstructions of early hominins. The subjects utilized for this study were 44 male and female chimpanzees between the ages of two to forty-five years. The chimpanzees were made available by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in New …

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Influence Of Controlled Density Arrays Of Natural And Artificial Vegetation On Flow Field Characteristics, Jennifer Lynn Booth Jan 2006

Influence Of Controlled Density Arrays Of Natural And Artificial Vegetation On Flow Field Characteristics, Jennifer Lynn Booth

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the ideal planting density for trapping sediment as a means for determining the most economic and efficient means of foredune development. Research was conducted along the Texas Gulf Coast, within Padre Island National Seashore over a two week period. Four pegboards were aligned perpendicular to oncoming wind direction. Artificial and natural vegetation were plugged into the pegboard at incremental increases in 5% vegetation cover using volumetric measures of both plant types. Both natural and artificial vegetation reduce wind speed proportionately higher between 30% and 50% vegetation density. Natural vegetation has a higher …

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Vegetational Change And Land Degradation In The Lake Baringo Area, Kenya, During The Late Holocene: Evidence From The Paleorecord And Remote Sensing, Lawrence Morara Kiage Jan 2006

Vegetational Change And Land Degradation In The Lake Baringo Area, Kenya, During The Late Holocene: Evidence From The Paleorecord And Remote Sensing, Lawrence Morara Kiage

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the history of vegetational changes and land degradation in the Lake Baringo area, Kenya, East Africa, during the Late Holocene. It uses 14C -and 210Pb-dated fossil pollen, fungal spores, microscopic charcoal, and stratigraphic record from lake-sediment cores to reconstruct the paleoenvironment in the East African region. More recent changes in the Lake Baringo are examined using remote sensing imagery. These data provide one the first high-resolution late Holocene pollen records from the semi-arid region of Kenya (and one of only a handful from East Africa in general). Lake Baringo records a sedimentation rate of 1 cm yr-1, …

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A Comparative Study Of Household Demand For Meats By U.S. Hispanics, Carlos Ignacio Garcia Jan 2006

A Comparative Study Of Household Demand For Meats By U.S. Hispanics, Carlos Ignacio Garcia

LSU Master's Theses

The general objective of this research project was to study the consumption behavior of U.S. Hispanics for meat products. A comprehensive review of literature on the studies of U.S. Hispanic consumers was performed by means of a systematic survey; different sources of information useful in studying Hispanic consumers were documented. The simultaneous increase in population and income of Hispanics in the United States is attractive to food companies, and makes more relevant the study of their consumer behavior patterns for discovering future market opportunities. Censored incomplete demand systems of the LinQuad form were used for recognizing the consumption patterns by …

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Spatial Characteristics Of The Remotely-Sensed Surface Urban Heat Island In Baton Rouge, La: 1988-2003, Lynn Copeland Hardegree Jan 2006

Spatial Characteristics Of The Remotely-Sensed Surface Urban Heat Island In Baton Rouge, La: 1988-2003, Lynn Copeland Hardegree

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Our understanding of urban effects on local climate remains unsatisfactory due to several difficulties: 1) the inherent complexity of the city-atmosphere system, 2) lack of a clear conceptual theoretical framework for inquiry, and 3) the high expense and enormous difficulties of acquiring a sufficient quantity of high-quality, high-resolution (both spatially and temporally) observations in cities. Using remotely-sensed data, this study analyzes urban heat islands (UHI) that are manifested through an elevation in the surface thermal emissions within urban regions known as surface heat islands (SHI). The study area for this research endeavor is Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Whereas the surface air …

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Green Hydrogen: Site Selection Analysis For Potential Biomass Hydrogen Production Facility In The Texas-Louisiana Coastal Region, Bryan Michael Landry Jan 2006

Green Hydrogen: Site Selection Analysis For Potential Biomass Hydrogen Production Facility In The Texas-Louisiana Coastal Region, Bryan Michael Landry

LSU Master's Theses

Hydrogen and the “Hydrogen Economy” are increasingly becoming buzzwords in discussions regarding future U.S. energy scenarios. Hydrogen energy offers a multitude of economic and environmental advantages over the current world energy structure. Despite this attention, there have been very few geographical studies of a possible transition to a hydrogen system. Even these studies have been limited in scope to demand-side analyses. This thesis attempts to rectify this situation by broadening the scope of geographical studies of hydrogen through the analysis of supply-side scenario. This study is a site selection model for a biomass hydrogen facility in the Gulf Coast of …

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Companion Animals As Being-Objects: The Role Of The Self/Other Binary In The Human-Animal Bond, Amanda Kelly Reed Jan 2006

Companion Animals As Being-Objects: The Role Of The Self/Other Binary In The Human-Animal Bond, Amanda Kelly Reed

LSU Master's Theses

This research project is an investigation into the human-dog bond and the practice of pet adoption and pet surrender at the East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control Center. The human-dog bond is an excellent vehicle for an investigation into how we create categories of other because it is a highly complex and intersubjective relationship with deep evolutionary roots that is often reduced to a relationship between possessor and possessed in which cultural, historical, and biological contexts are not considered. It is a relationship in which constructed meaning is taken for fact. This thesis explores how animal control centers both resist …

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Racial Disparities, Birth Outcomes, And Changing Demographics Of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Misty D. Richard Jan 2006

Racial Disparities, Birth Outcomes, And Changing Demographics Of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Misty D. Richard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Racial and socioeconomic disparities persist throughout the country regardless of which specific disparity is studied; however, some geographic regions experience more significant racial disparities. East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana has a large racial disparity among birth outcomes. Many factors impact the degree of racial disparities, some of which include racial segregation, isolation, or centralization, access to and quality of medical care, and factors of the neighborhood environment. EBRP has undergone dramatic shifts in the demographics of its residents. The purpose of this dissertation was to study the demographic changes in the population; as well as to study the disparities among …

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Spectral Analysis Of Total Suspended Solids Mixtures For Solids Composition Determination, Curtis W. Sutherland Jan 2006

Spectral Analysis Of Total Suspended Solids Mixtures For Solids Composition Determination, Curtis W. Sutherland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Total Suspended Solids (TSS) analysis provides an initial and very basic measure for study and characterization of water quality. The present tedious procedures used for the identification of different solids constituents present in TSS and for the classification or insight into the origins of those solids are time-consuming and expensive. The research reported herein investigates the use of instrumental analysis using reflectance spectra of TSS as an attractive alternative to sufficiently characterize and identify TSS in a more rapid and economical method that could be used to study TSS transport and to identity TSS points of origin. For this investigative …

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Once Proud Princes: Planters And Plantation Culture In Louisiana's Northeast Delta, From The First World War Through The Great Depression, James Matthew Reonas Jan 2006

Once Proud Princes: Planters And Plantation Culture In Louisiana's Northeast Delta, From The First World War Through The Great Depression, James Matthew Reonas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Delta country of northeast Louisiana is a richly productive alluvial region stretching south from the Arkansas line to the confluence of the Red and Mississippi Rivers below Natchez. As the source of great cotton fortunes made during antebellum times, it reflected the Old South ideal and, for several decades after the end of the Civil War, remained firmly grounded in this old plantation culture. The economic depression of the 1890s and the coming of the boll weevil in the early 1900s, however, signaled a gradual decline that turned into full-blown dissolution in the years following the First World War. …

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Two-Dimensional Penalized Signal Regression For Hand Written Digit Recognition, Qing Tang Jan 2006

Two-Dimensional Penalized Signal Regression For Hand Written Digit Recognition, Qing Tang

LSU Master's Theses

Many attempts have been made to achieve successful recognition of handwritten digits. We report our results of using statistical method on handwritten digit recognition. A digitized handwritten numeral can be represented by an image with grayscales. The image includes features that are mapped into two-dimensional space with row and column coordinates. Based on this structure, two-dimensional penalized signal logistic regression (PSR) is applied to the recognition of handwritten digits. The data set is taken from the USPS zip code database that contains 7219 training images and 2007 test images. All the images have been deslanted and normalized into 16 x …

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Aristotelian-Liberal Autonomy, Geoffrey Allan Plauche Jan 2006

Aristotelian-Liberal Autonomy, Geoffrey Allan Plauche

LSU Master's Theses

Written in the burgeoning tradition of Aristotelian liberalism, my thesis seeks to enrich this tradition by developing a liberal theory of autonomy based on a broadly Aristotelian foundation. Chapter One summarizes and critiques the major contemporary theories of autonomy developed by Kant and analytic philosophers. Chapter Two explicates the Aristotelian conception of autonomy, drawing on recent work by Fred Miller and Roderick Long. Aristotle is chided for not being liberal enough and so Chapter Three develops an Aristotelian-liberal theory of autonomy based in part on recent work by Douglas Rasmussen, Douglas Den Uyl and Roderick Long. Global and local individual …

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An Analysis Of Public Transit Accessibility Using The Distance Constrained P-Median Problem Approach: Bus Stop Consolidation For The Capital Area Transit System Of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Sainath Challuri Jan 2006

An Analysis Of Public Transit Accessibility Using The Distance Constrained P-Median Problem Approach: Bus Stop Consolidation For The Capital Area Transit System Of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Sainath Challuri

LSU Master's Theses

Over the past four decades public transit usage has declined in the United States. Transit Planners have suggested that public transit usage should be encouraged because public transit can account for greater travel demand than cars and would reduce pollution, traffic congestion and energy consumption. Easy access to public transit stops is important because research has found that usage of public transit and access are inversely proportional. U.S. transit systems have a relatively high density of stops resulting in high accessibility levels at the cost of increased travel times. In this study access distance to transit stops and bus stop …

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Burn Scar Mapping In The Sabine National Wildlife Refuge Using Landsat Tm And Etm+ Imagery, Chris Pennington Jan 2006

Burn Scar Mapping In The Sabine National Wildlife Refuge Using Landsat Tm And Etm+ Imagery, Chris Pennington

LSU Master's Theses

Marsh fires burn on a regular basis on the Southwestern Louisiana Coast from both natural and anthropogenic ignitions. Remote sensing based studies of these fires are scarce. Several burn scar mapping techniques have been developed and implemented for study of forest fires in the American West but have not been applied to marsh fires. Erdas Imagine and ArcGIS Software was used to process Landsat imagery of the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge in accordance with the most commonly used burn scar mapping spectral indices and tested for accuracy against manually digitized burn scar maps. Indices tested included the Normalize Burn Ratio …

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Writing As A Cultural Negotiation: A Study Of Mariama Bâ, Marie Ndiaye And Ama Ata Aidoo, Catherine Afua Kapi Jan 2006

Writing As A Cultural Negotiation: A Study Of Mariama Bâ, Marie Ndiaye And Ama Ata Aidoo, Catherine Afua Kapi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Critical review of the existing literature on African women writers clearly shows that nowhere is the question of writing as a cultural negotiation posed, discussed or much less addressed. This is a lacuna that this dissertation addresses for the first time by proposing a re-reading of the selected works of Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Bâ and Marie NDiaye through the new prism of writing as part of cultural negotiation. In doing so, the dissertation goes beyond the paradigm of binary oppositions that undergirds the critical literature on writing by Sub-Saharan women in favor of the innovative concept of negotiation. In …

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Between Representation And Practice: Contesting Public Space In New Orleans' Jackson Square, Rebecca A. Sheehan Jan 2006

Between Representation And Practice: Contesting Public Space In New Orleans' Jackson Square, Rebecca A. Sheehan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recent geographic research on public space focuses largely on either the past or present. Using historical and ethnographic methods, I contribute to understanding public space over time from an everyday point of view, a variety of social scales. Further, departing from a generally political-protest focus that much geographic literature centers on, my study explores the multifaceted areas of the political, cultural, and economic in public space. Thus, I show that the need for public space expands beyond protest voices into other realms that form and inform identity. Through New Orleans’ Jackson Square, these prospects of public space demonstrate “a world …

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Communicating The Modern Entrepreneurial University In The 21st Century: A Case Study Of Academic Capitalism And Media Messaging In The Pursuit Of Revenues And National Prominence At Louisiana State University, Charles F. Zewe Jan 2006

Communicating The Modern Entrepreneurial University In The 21st Century: A Case Study Of Academic Capitalism And Media Messaging In The Pursuit Of Revenues And National Prominence At Louisiana State University, Charles F. Zewe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

American public universities have passed through three stages of development: the religious, the philanthropic/land-grant, and the federal research university. Squeezed by government budget cuts and demands for more money to pay for research and faculty raises, U.S. higher education has entered a fourth phase, the entrepreneurial university. Public universities are increasingly capitalizing on the intellectual property of their faculty and students to sustain themselves and expand. Administrators spout free-market rhetoric as faculty attempt to commercialize research by creating spin-off companies. Using Louisiana State University as a case study, this dissertation, applies a combination of organizational knowledge creation and resource dependence …

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Underground In The Confederate Capital: Punk Subculture In Richmond, Virginia, Christopher J. Dalbom Jan 2006

Underground In The Confederate Capital: Punk Subculture In Richmond, Virginia, Christopher J. Dalbom

LSU Master's Theses

The intent of this thesis is to investigate the role of the punk subculture in Richmond, Virginia from an ethnographic perspective. Through participant observation and open-ended interviews, it seeks an understanding of the role of the subculture in the lives of those who embrace it and how it shapes their experiences in Richmond. In doing so, it hopes to fill a gap in music geography and in the study of the punk subculture. According to much of the literature, punk died decades ago, but for those who claim punk allegiance in Richmond today, it is very alive and real. This …

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Socioeconomic Characteristics Of Cancer Mortality In The United States Of America: A Spatial Data Mining Approach, Srinivas Kumar Vinnakota Jan 2006

Socioeconomic Characteristics Of Cancer Mortality In The United States Of America: A Spatial Data Mining Approach, Srinivas Kumar Vinnakota

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States of America. Though it is generally known that cancer is influenced by environment, its relation to socioeconomic conditions is still widely debated. This research analyzed the spatial distribution of cancer mortalities of breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate, and their associated socioeconomic characteristics using association rule mining technique. The mortality patterns were analyzed at the county and health service area levels that corresponded to the years between 1999 – 2002 and 1988 – 1992, respectively. Distinct socioeconomic characteristics of cancer mortality were revealed by the association rule mining technique. …

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Liminality In Gender, Race, And Nation In Les Quarteronnes De La Nouvelle-Orléans By Sidonie De La Houssaye, Christine Koch Harris Jan 2006

Liminality In Gender, Race, And Nation In Les Quarteronnes De La Nouvelle-Orléans By Sidonie De La Houssaye, Christine Koch Harris

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project examines themes of race, gender, and nation in a series of four novels by nineteenth-century Louisiana author Sidonie de la Houssaye. The series, called Les Quarteronnes de la Nouvelle-Orléans (The Quadroons of New Orleans), is based on the system of plaçage. Plaçage, a system of concubinage in which white men took women of mixed racial heritage (such as “quadroons”) as mistresses, becomes a source of conflict and contradiction in the series. The author sees plaçage as a tragic necessity for some educated and morally “upright” quarteronnes. For others, those quarteronnes depicted as libidinous and avaricious, it is a …

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Evaluating The Spatial Ecology Of Anthrax In North America: Examining Epidemiological Components Across Multiple Geographic Scales Using A Gis-Based Approach, Jason Kenna Blackburn Jan 2006

Evaluating The Spatial Ecology Of Anthrax In North America: Examining Epidemiological Components Across Multiple Geographic Scales Using A Gis-Based Approach, Jason Kenna Blackburn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the spatial ecology and potential pathways of infection of anthrax, Bacillus anthracis, in North America. A multi-scale approach was used to evaluate the components required for disease agent survival in the environment, interactions with wildlife, and the potential role that vectors play in anthrax transmission. First, ecological niche modeling with the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP) was used to predict the geographic distribution of anthrax in the continental U.S. using case data from outbreaks between 1957 and 2005. These results were then used to produce the first quantitative, continental scale predictions of anthrax in Mexico. At …

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A Mobile Element Based Phylogeny Of Old World Monkeys, Jinchuan Xing, Hui Wang, Kyudong Han, David A. Ray, Cheney H. Huang, Leona G. Chemnick, Caro Beth Stewart, Todd R. Disotell, Oliver A. Ryder, Mark A. Batzer Dec 2005

A Mobile Element Based Phylogeny Of Old World Monkeys, Jinchuan Xing, Hui Wang, Kyudong Han, David A. Ray, Cheney H. Huang, Leona G. Chemnick, Caro Beth Stewart, Todd R. Disotell, Oliver A. Ryder, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

SINEs (Short INterspersed Elements) are a class of non-autonomous mobile elements that are states, making them useful genetic systems for phylogenetic studies. Alu elements are the most successful SINE in primate genomes and have been utilized for resolving primate phylogenetic relationships and human population genetics. However, no Alu based phylogenetic analysis has yet been performed to resolve relationships among Old World monkeys. Using both a computational approach and polymerase chain reaction display methodology, we identified 285 new Alu insertions from sixteen Old World monkey taxa that were informative at various levels of catarrhine phylogeny. We have utilized these elements along …

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Tracking Alu Evolution In New World Primates, David A. Ray, Mark A. Batzer Oct 2005

Tracking Alu Evolution In New World Primates, David A. Ray, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

Background: Alu elements are Short INterspersed Elements (SINEs) in primate genomes that have proven useful as markers for studying genome evolution, population biology and phylogenetics. Most of these applications, however, have been limited to humans and their nearest relatives, chimpanzees. In an effort to expand our understanding of Alu sequence evolution and to increase the applicability of these markers to non-human primate biology, we have analyzed available Alu sequences for loci specific to platyrrhine (New World) primates. Results: Branching patterns along an Alu sequence phylogeny indicate three major classes of platyrrhine-specific Alu sequences. Sequence comparisons further reveal at least three …

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Big-Bodied Males Help Us Recognize That Females Have Big Pelves, Robert G. Tague Aug 2005

Big-Bodied Males Help Us Recognize That Females Have Big Pelves, Robert G. Tague

Faculty Publications

Schultz ([1949] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 7:401-424) presented a conundrum: among primates, sexual dimorphism of the pelvis is a developmental adjunct to dimorphism in other aspects of the body, albeit in the converse direction. Among species in which males are larger than females in body size, females are larger than males in some pelvic dimensions; species with little sexual dimorphism in nonpelvic size show little pelvic dimorphism. Obstetrical difficulty does not explain this relationship. The present study addresses this issue, evaluating the relationship between pelvic and femoral sexual dimorphism in 12 anthropoid species. The hypothesis is that species in which …

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Adult Demographic Composition In The Poole-Rose Ossuary, Kirsten Marie Brown May 2005

Adult Demographic Composition In The Poole-Rose Ossuary, Kirsten Marie Brown

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

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