Digital Commons Network^™

Habitat And Demography Of Understory Trees In Mixed Species Hardwood Forests In Northern Florida, United States Of America., Charles Kwit

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Temperate mixed-species hardwood forests of northern Florida, USA, contain a high diversity of understory tree species, some of which have been hypothesized to require disturbance (e.g., hurricanes and/or treefall gaps). Taxus floridana is a rare understory conifer endemic to midslopes of ravines of the Apalachicola River Bluffs, and is found primarily on north-facing slopes. Vegetation sampling in the southern portion of T. floridana's range revealed the presence of an upslope oak-hickory community of suggested recent origin, and higher densities of American beech (Fagus grandifolia ), southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), and evergreen understory trees on north-facing midslopes with T. floridana than …

Three Essays On Political Economy And International Trade., Far-Tsair Lai

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

In the standard common agency model of politics, the interest groups always lobby a single policy-making entity for policy favor. To deal with this unreality, I step in some issues about the trade policy making that is entangled with the multiplicity of public decision-makers. My study cooperates multi-agent and the common agency model to analyze the trade policy making under the political system that is controlled by a number of lawmakers. The analysis points out that the committee of symmetric lawmakers behaves like a single government but the equilibrium policy is not efficient. Because the presence of multiple players on …

Virtual Teams: An Investigation Of The Determinants Of Team Effectiveness And The Contribution Of Managerial Behavior Control., Gabriele Piccoli

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Information Technology is providing the backbone for development of new organizational forms. Virtual teams represent one such organizational form that has the potential to change the workplace and provide organizations with increased levels of flexibility and responsiveness. Many organizations are recognizing these potential benefits and are implementing virtual teams. A gap exists in the current Information Systems literature. No previous study has looked at the role of managerial control mechanisms in fostering virtual team effectiveness. This study contributes a model of virtual team effectiveness based on an extension of research in traditional environments. The contribution of managerial behavior control practices …

Gods, Men And Their Gifts: A Comparison Of The "Iliad", The "Odyssey", The "Aeneid" And "Paradise Lost", Paul Norman Anderson

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is an examination of the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid and Paradise Lost based upon their similar depictions of gods and men, specifically in regard to their use of gifts. The procedure is lexical and thematic in approach. The word group around which the majority of the evidence is centered is the noun 'gift' and the verb 'to give.' The nature and use of gifts is examined in the four works under consideration. However, the evidence for the notion of gift-giving is not limited by a strict positivistic approach. Evidence from the texts that clearly includes the notion …

Attitudes Of Teachers Of Spanish As A Foreign Language Toward Teaching Spanish To Hispanic Students In Urban Schools., Rossana Ramirez Boyd

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Many Hispanic students do not have opportunities to develop their native language in efforts to adapt to an all English curriculum at the schools they attend. This is particularly evident among high school Hispanic students who usually possess oral fluency in Spanish but lack reading and writing skills in Spanish. The purpose of this research was to explore the attitudes of teachers of Spanish as a foreign language toward teaching Spanish to Hispanic students. This research was guided by four questions, What are the attitudes of teachers of Spanish as a foreign language toward (1) the use of Spanish? (2) …

The Function Of Speech (Verbal Mediation) On Corresponding Academic And Social Behavior., Kimberly Jo Callicott

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The role of language in self-control has been of interest to researchers across continents and time. This study attempted to isolate the functional role of language in relationship to subsequent academic and task engaged behaviors with four students aged 10--14. The students were diagnosed with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders had normal intelligence and were receiving their education at an alternative placement facility. The study used a single subject design and exposed the subjects to conditions of self-declaratory speech (SDS), SDS and reinforcement for correspondence, a return to baseline, SDS and reinforcement for correspondence, and SDS with delayed reinforcement. Results of …

Agricultural Trade Liberalization And Uneven Development: The Case Of South Korea., Heesun Chung

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was concluded in 1993, was the principal global forum to discuss agricultural trade in an extensive way. In this last venue of the GATT, South Korean negotiators had to agree to open the nation's agricultural markets so as to assure manufacturing export access to international markets amidst heightening Pressure from surplus agricultural producers A broad range of economic studies have estimated that as an aftermath of the Uruguay Round, a majority of South Korean farmers, who are comparatively disadvantaged due to small-scale, labor-intensive farming, might be displaced. …

Congestion Control Mechanisms For Internet Multicast Transport Protocols., Elias George Khalaf

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Internet Multicasting has emerged in the last few years as the inevitable method for efficiently delivering replicated data to multiple recipients in large scale internets. More specifically, Reliable Multicast Transport Protocols have been the subject of intensive research in recent years. The goal of such research was mainly to develop reliable and scalable protocols to efficiently and reliably deliver data to receivers, and at the same time reduce congestion on the network. In this research, we propose a new generic family of protocols, called the K family of protocols, that focus on congestion control by reducing the processing requirements on …

Computer -Assisted Instruction And Sequencing Within The Studio: A Focus On Halsey Stevens' "Sonata For Trumpet And Piano", Timothy James Zifer

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The teaching of solo literature in the context of studio trumpet instruction has always presented personal challenges, especially when that literature includes a variety of mixed meter, subito tempo, and dynamic changes. Consistent aid from a metronome and tuner has for generations facilitated the dedicated musician, yet these devices are obviously limited by the student's dedication, receptivity, and innate talent. I conversely propose that by introducing computer assisted instruction within the confines of the private studio, the students' musical ability will be enhanced as will the pupils' consistent practice regiment. The introductory segment of Chapter 1 provides an extremely truncated …

A Narrative Study Of Selected Introductory College Biology Students' Struggles To Gain An Understanding Of Scale And Measurement., Juliana Guillory Hinton

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Case studies, developed with criteria from Yin's Case Study Research: Design and Methods (1994), probed single mental constructs of four introductory college biology students who were recent high school graduates. Data sources included autobiographical essays, interviews, coconstructed concept maps (Wandersee & Abrams, 1993), a videotape questionnaire, and graphics. A multisensory microscopy experiment provided the setting for the construction of shared meanings by the participants. Concept maps were used then to explore the existing cognitive framework of the participants. This research affirmed the value of supporting graphic organizers for understanding science (Good & Berger, 1998; Hyerle, 1996; Trowbridge & Wandersee, 1998). …

Female High School Biology Students' Biofilm -Focused Learning: The Contributions Of Three Instructional Strategies To Patterns In Understanding And Motivation., Jo Dale Hill Ales

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This exploratory study examined three instructional strategies used with female high school biology students. The relative contributions of the strategies to student understanding of microbiology and motivation in science were analyzed. The science education community targeted underachievement in science by implementing changes in content and practices (NRC, 1996). Research suggested that teachers facilitate learnirig environments based on human constructivism (Mintzes, Wandersee, & Novak, 1997) that is rooted in meaningful learning theory (Ausubel, Novak & Hanesian, 1978). Teachers were advised to use both visual and verbal instructional strategies (Paivio, 1983) and encourage students to construct understandings by connecting new experiences to …

The Rhetoric Of The Benign Scapegoat: President Reagan And The Federal Government., Stephen Wayne Braden

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Ronald Reagan deservedly attained the moniker "The Great Communicator" due to his rhetorical prowess. This dissertation addresses an aspect, governmental scapegoating, of Reagan's rhetorical strategy. Traditional scapegoating theory claims that the scapegoat is either killed or driven from the community. However, I claim that Reagan profited by making a unique use of the scapegoat, one that was benign, the government remained essentially unscathed. The means to analyze Reagan's discourse is Kenneth Burke's cycle of guilt, victimage, redemption and rebirth. Ten speeches of President Reagan are analyzed: both of his Inaugural Addresses, his Economic Recovery Speech, and his seven State of …

Efficient Checkpointing For Heterogeneous Collaborative Environments: Representation, Coordination, And Automation., Kasidit Chanchio

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Checkpointing can be used to adapt resource utilization in heterogeneous distributed environments. In checkpointing, the state of a process is captured and later restored on a computer to restart execution from the point where the state capturing had occurred. Such capability can be applied to process migration for which resource utilization is adapted toward high-performance by moving a running process from one computer to another. For a heterogeneous environment, problems in checkpointing can be categorized into three domains regarding mechanisms to capture and restore the execution state, memory state, and communication state of a process. Although a few solutions have …

Floral Ontogeny And Phylogeny In Malvaceae., Teresa Shuff Crozier

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Floral ontogeny in representatives of Malvaceae was compared using scanning electron microscopy. Many aspects of floral development have been resolved by this research, including the presence of a petal-stamen ring meristem in malvaceous taxa. There are several ontogenetic pathways to the formation of this ring meristem; in addition, common petal-stamen mounds are usually present during some stage of development. Stamen proliferation is achieved by partitioning of the ring meristem and furcation of common stamen primordia. Time of initiation overlaps between the corolla and the androecium, and between the androecium and the gynoecium. Helical initiation occurs in the outer organ whorl …

Workplace Whining: Antecedents And Process Of Noninstrumental Complaining., Anita Konieczka Heck

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this dissertation was to develop a conceptual scheme that advances understanding of workplace whining. It reports an investigation into eight theoretically relevant antecedents to workplace whining, classified into four categories (i.e., dispositional, attitudinal, relational, behavioral). Additionally, it explores the role of organization-based self-esteem in mediating the link between each antecedent and workplace whining. Kowalski's (1996) theory of complaining and self-esteem theory (Coopersmith, 1967, Epstein, 1973; Jones, 1973; Leary & Downs, 1995, Mruk, 1995; Pierce et al., 1989) provided the primary theoretical underpinnings for a series of hypothesized relationships. Data on 471 schoolteachers and their immediate supervisors from …

The Effect Of Phytase On Nutrient Availability In Diets For Swine And Poultry., Sara Leann Johnston

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

A series of experiments was conducted to determine the effect of increasing phytase coefficient of variation (CV) in chick diets, and to determine the effect of phytase addition on nutrient availability in diets for swine and poultry. The first experiment (EXP) simulated varying mix uniformity of phytase by alternately providing two diets with two different concentrations of microbial phytase (FTU). Increasing phytase CV had little effect on growth performance, whereas bone ash and breaking strength and Ca and P retention and excretion decreased only at the most extreme CV. These data suggest that a phytase CV of between 34 and …

An Inquiry Into The Impact Of The Regrow Reading /Writing Strategy On Comprehension In A Community College Setting., Angel Michele Royal

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the REGROW reading/writing strategy on the comprehension of community college students enrolled in a Developmental English course. The study looked specifically at (a) reading and writing as processes, (b) traditional reading comprehension strategies, (c) traditional direct writing instruction, and (d) the impact of the REGROW reading/writing strategy on comprehension. The focus of this study was to conduct six mini-case studies on students classified as below average, average, and above average, and to track their actions when exposed to direct writing instruction and the REGROW reading/writing strategy. By providing in-depth …

Evaluating Alternative Instructional Strategies To Improve Sixth Graders' Reading Comprehension., Emma Mccall Schorzman

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Although little empirical evidence supporting various instructional strategies for teaching reading comprehension exists, many educators utilize particular strategies assuming their effectiveness. Because difficulties with comprehension are intensified as students reach the intermediate grades, it is necessary that middle school educators instruct using strategies empirically supported through research. This mixed-method study examined the effectiveness of the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (Stauffer, 1969), the PreP technique (Langer, 1981), and graphic organizers (Barron, 1969), three popular strategies among middle school teachers. Six teachers participated in the two-group design, pretest/posttest study; over a seven-week period, three of the teachers instructed their sixth-grade students using lessons …

The Impact Of Implementing Metacognitive Strategies On Instructional And Experiential Scaffolding., Frances Ann Steward

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the mixed multiple case study was to explore scaffolding at home and school. Strategic instructional procedures, metacognitive strategies use, and homework procedures were examined during reading instruction and home assistance for progress. The participants are as follows: (a) The three principals setting the school's instructional tone; (b) The three reading teachers providing modeling, coaching, and encouragement during lesson presentation and feedback; (c) The six students (two fifth graders in each of the three reading classrooms) depending upon assistance for comprehension task completion; and (d) The six family members assisting with homework. The school sites were selected with …

Effects Of Reading Styles On African-American Preschoolers Of Disadvantage., Elizabeth Nowlin Witt

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the effects of two styles of storybook reading within the storybook reading event (SBRE) upon African-American preschoolers of disadvantage (AAP-D). One style, performance-oriented, was thought to be closer to cultural frameworks familiar for this population. This style was contrasted with the interactive style familiar to children of middle-class. Each style was utilized with two groups of five children (ten children per condition) across three storybooks, which were each read six times. Pre- and posttesting were used to determine changes in language (semantic and discourse ability, as measured by retelling), literacy, and world knowledge. A control group of …

An Information Theoretic Approach To Content Based Image Retrieval., John Morris Zachary Jr

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

We propose an information theoretic approach to the representation and comparison of color features in digital images to handle various problems in the area of content-based image retrieval. The interpretation of color histograms as joint probability density functions enables the use of a wide range of concepts from information theory to be considered in the extraction of color features from images and the computation of similarity between pairs of images. The entropy of an image is a measure of the randomness of the color distribution in an image. Rather than replacing color histograms as an image representation, we demonstrate that …

Lithic Utilization Strategies At The Hoover Site, 16ta5, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, Josetta A. Leboeuf

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Lithic artifacts are frequently abundant at many prehistoric sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent areas of the Northern Gulf Coast despite limited resources. These assemblages are beginning to receive the attention required to make meaningful interpretation which in turn can be used as comparable data sets. An understanding of the behavior associated with the full range of the reduction process was sought during the study of the lithic materials from the Hoover site (16TA5) near Ponchatoula. Louisiana. This was achieved through observations on raw material procurement. reduction sequences. tool use. maintenance and discard. and how these tools relate …

African-American Garden Culture: A Study Of Tradition And Translation, Sally Akers Joachim

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Many studies have been done on cultural gardening practices and their resulting forms: a Japanese meditation garden or the Italian use of water elements are two examples. This research revolved around the assumption that African-Americans have distinct ways of expressing their ethnic history, values, and traditions in their built environments. Studies have been conducted in rural areas with African-American subject gardeners; this study investigates the urban and suburban yards and gardens of African-Americans in San Antonio, Texas to leam how cultural heritage affects the design or arrangement of personal space in the city, and to identify physical elements that could …

Evidence For An Antagonistic Relationship Between The Boundary Element-Associated Factor Beaf And The Transcription Factor Dref, Craig M. Hart, Olivier Cuvier, Ulrich K. Laemmli

Faculty Publications

Boundary elements interfere with communication between enhancers and promoters, but only when interposed. Understanding this activity will require identifying the proteins involved. The boundary element-associated factor BEAF is one protein that is implicated in boundary element function. Three genomic fragments (scs', BE76 and BE28) containing BEAF binding sites function as boundary elements in transgenic Drosophila, suggesting that this is an intrinsic property of the numerous genomic regions to which BEAF binds. To characterize additional proteins that interact with boundary elements, we have isolated a protein that binds to two of these boundary elements (BE76 and BE28) and have identified it …

Synthesis And Unusual Properties Of The First 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-Octabromo-5,10,15,20-Tetraalkylporphyrin, Nora Y. Nelson, Craig J. Medforth, Daniel J. Nurco, Song Ling Jia, John A. Shelnutt, Kevin M. Smith

Faculty Publications

The new perhalogenated porphyrin 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octabromo-5,10,15,20-tetrakis(trifluoromethyl)porphinato -nickel(II) exhibits several striking features, including an extremely ruffled macrocycle with a very short Ni-N distance, an unusually red-shifted optical spectrum, and, surprisingly, hindered rotation of the meso-trifluoromethyl substituents (ΔG2+78 = 47 kJ mol-1).

F99rs Sgb No. 5 (Election Code), Russo, Grantham

Student Senate Enrolled Legislation

A BILL

To amend Article VI, Section 1 of the LSU A&M Student Government Election Code as it pertains to the polling locations of the Mass Communications College and the Music and Dramatic Arts College.

A Most Perfect Man': What General Robert E. Lee Can Still Teach Us, Josiah Bunting Iii

Civil War Book Review

To reconstruct the past, through discipline and discrimination, is satisfying to the historian, and possibly useful to those who read him. To make explicit its lessons, somehow to make them useful and instructive, and possibly influential, is more difficult, and perhaps more dangerous. Harry Crocke....

The Effect Of Hot Spots On The Performance Of Mesh--Based Networks, Yazan M. Al-Issa

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Direct network performance is affected by different design parameters which include number of virtual channels, number of ports, routing algorithm, switching technique, deadlock handling technique, packet size, and buffer size. Another factor that affects network performance is the traffic pattern. In this thesis, we study the effect of hotspot traffic on system performance. Specifically, we study the effect of hotspot factor, hotspot number, and hot spot location on the performance of mesh-based networks. Simulations are run on two network topologies, both the mesh and torus. We pay more attention to meshes because they are widely used in commercial machines. Comparisons …

A View From The Pacific: Archaeological Analysis Of Materials From Nicaragua's Sixteenth Century Spanish Town Of Leon Viejo, Kira Blaisdell-Sloan

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

In 1524 the town of Leon Viejo was founded by Hernandez de Cordova on the Northwestern shore of Lake Managua in Nicaragua. Eighty-six years later it was abandoned, as earthquakes and volcanic activity made the site undesirable. At the present time, Leon Viejo represents the only Pacific coast Spanish occupied sixteenth century colonial townsite for which archaeological data is available. In this thesis I present a historically informed analysis of archaeological materials recovered from eight separate structures located towards the center of this site.

Utilizing The Annales Historical Approach, World Systems Theory, community and household level analysis, I weave together …

The Effect Of Hot Spots On The Performance Of Mesh-Based Networks, Yazan M. Al-Issa

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Direct network performance is affected by different design parameters which include number of virtual channels, number of ports, routing algorithm, switching technique, deadlock handling technique, packet size, and buffer size. Another factor that affects network performance is the traffic pattern. In this thesis, we study the effect of hotspot traffic on system performance. Specifically, we study the effect of hotspot factor, hotspot number, and hot spot location on the performance of mesh-based networks. Simulations are run on two network topologies, both the mesh and torus. We pay more attention to meshes because they are widely used in commercial machines. Comparisons …