Digital Commons Network^™

Cloned This Way: Emphatic Dissonance And Mixed Messages In The Representations Of Non-Heterosexual Sex Acts In Three Television Series, Vincent W. Youngbauer, Joseph Jones

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Across Pk-20: Honoring The Historical Naming Practices Of Students Of Color, Norma Angelica Marrun

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Collaboration In Crowdsourcing Contests: Towards An Understanding Of Collective Behavior In Crowdsourcing Contests, Hanieh Javadi Khasraghi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With the advances in internet technologies and the emergence of crowdsourcing, organizations are now increasingly looking outside their boundaries for solving problems. These new technologies have enabled companied to tap into online crowds with variety of skills, talents, experience, and knowledge. Yet, the success of crowdsourcing depends on high quality participation of crowdsourcing individuals and teams. In recent studies, examining the effect of simultaneous collaboration and competition mechanisms on individual and team performance in crowdsourcing have received considerable attention. But, none of these studies examined how different levels of collaboration affect team performance in crowdsourcing contests. In this paper, using …

Designing Agricultural Economics And Agribusiness Undergraduate Programs, Jeffrey M. Gillespie, Maria Bampasidou

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence. Agricultural economics and agribusiness (AEAB) programs offer their graduates unique exposure to agricultural markets, policy, and production systems, which differentiates them from business programs. Despite the advantages associated with AEAB degrees, a significant challenge universities and AEAB graduates face is a general lack of recognition of what agricultural economics is and what an agricultural economist does. Using data collected from U.S. 1862 and 1890 land grant universities, we stress the importance of designing effective AEAB curricula based on enrollment trends, …

Effects Of Specific Language Impairment On A Contrastive Dialect Structure: The Case Of Infinitival To Across Various Nonmainstream Dialects Of English, Andrew M. Rivière, Janna B. Oetting, Joseph Roy

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Using data from children who spoke various nonmainstream dialects of English and who were classified as either children with specific language impairment (SLI) or typically developing (TD) children, we examined children’s marking of infinitival TO by their dialect and clinical status. Method: The data came from 180 kindergartners (91 speakers of African American English, 60 speakers of Southern White English, 29 speakers of +Cajun); 53 were children with SLI, and 127 were TD children. Data included 4,537 infinitival TO contexts extracted from language samples; each was coded as zero or overtly marked and by preceding verb context (i.e., verbs …

Biochar Produced From Mineral Salt-Impregnated Chicken Manure: Fertility Properties And Potential For Carbon Sequestration, Ran Xiao, Jim J. Wang, Lewis A. Gaston, Baoyue Zhou, Jong Hwan Park, Ronghua Li, Syam K. Dodla, Zengqiang Zhang

Faculty Publications

In this study, nutrient properties and carbon sequestration potential of biochars derived from chicken manure (CM) impregnated with mineral salts (calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, ferric chloride) were evaluated. Pretreatment with mineral salts reduced phosphorus (P) availability via the formation of insoluble metal phosphate minerals. Less carbon was lost during the pyrolysis of pretreated CM, and the produced biochars (BCCa, BCMg, and BCFe) were more stable (i.e., reduced C loss during chemical oxidation and less CO2 release during incubation) than pristine biochars. Spectroscopic evidence indicated that enhanced biochar stability via metal salt pretreatment before pyrolysis was related to increased aromatization and …

Ethics, Aesthetics, And The Representation Of Intellectual Disability In The Realist Narrative, Elizabeth Wells

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue for a renewed approach to realist texts that rely on conventional perspective and minor characters in their representation of intellectually disabled characters. While disability studies' concepts like narrative prosthesis and the normate have done essential work in arguing for the need for disability's representation from the perspective of the disabled, these ideologies have also negatively influenced the critical reception of texts that do not respond to this need in an immediate or obvious way. By offering new readings of novels with disabled characters whose representations have been frequently questioned, my aim is to complicate the …

Advanced College Credit Pathways: Six Undergraduates Reflect On Their Journeys As Writers, Candence Malhiet Robillard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored the writing habits and behaviors of six undergraduate students who earned advanced college credit from the International Baccalaureate diploma, Advanced Placement exam scores, or through dual enrollment partnerships with accredited colleges. Using narrative and case study methods, the study investigated the relationship between high school advanced credit composition courses and the requirements of undergraduate writing. At the time of the study the participants had already completed a minimum of three semesters of study on a college campus.Participants met a total of three times over the course of one semester. Inreflecting on their experiences and in sharing their …

Rapunzel Has Insomnia: Stories, Mary Buchanan Sellers

LSU Master's Theses

Rapunzel Has Insomnia is part story collection, part fairy tale vignette, and part personal memoir, dealing with themes of mental illness and inheritance, the complexity of mother daughter relationships, and childhood trauma. Similar to the structure of a novelin-- stories, Rap unzel ’s connective tissue is made up of memoir, specifically dealing with the aftereffects of my mother’s Bipolar One disorder and subsequent psychiatric commitments throughout my childhood and young adult years. The other more peripheral narratives are magicalrealist in nature, which are made up of fabulist fiction stories. Both of these narratives are then tied to an over arching …

Re-Forming Educational Reform: An Oral History Of Three Louisiana Teachers, Ashley L. Seatter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of educational reforms from 1983- 2014 through conducting oral histories with three Louisiana teachers. My research, as a postmodern and cultural feminist, was to interview and create a dialogue with three teachers; to find the intersection between school, reform and the meaning these give to their teaching life. I chose to interview teachers who are currently or close to retirement, who taught in a Louisiana accredited school system.

My focus was to investigate the lives of teachers, including their thoughts on educational reform changes during their tenure of teaching. Much …

Annotated Bibliography Of The Global Literature On The Secondary Transportation Of Raw And Comminuted Forest Products (2000-2015), Anil Koirala, Anil Raj Kizha, Cornelis F. De Hoop, Brian E. Roth, Han Sup Han, Patrick Hiesl, Dalia Abbas, Shuva Gautam, Srijana Baral, Steve Bick, Kamalakanta Sahoo

Faculty Publications

Secondary transportation of raw and comminuted forest products is a major component in forest harvesting operations in terms of economics, public perception, and safety. Consequently, there is a substantial amount of literature on this topic. The existing literature has dealt with many of the technical aspects of transportation with a majority of them focusing on improving supply chain issues; however, there are only few specific to secondary transportation issues in general. This annotated bibliography will help practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders gain a better understanding of the existing literature from 2000 to 2015. To this end, we began by classifying the …

Almond Milk Powder Fortification With Flaxseed Oil (Linum Usitatissimum) As An Alternative Non-Dairy Milk Powder For Infants And Toddlers, Federico Bueno

LSU Master's Theses

Lactose intolerances in toddlers have become a major concern. Almond milk (AM) has nutritional benefits and a texture like dairy milk without the content of lactose. Because of longer stability and storage, milk is often stored in powdered form. An almond milk fortified with flaxseed oil in powdered form may be an alternative. Flaxseed oil (FO) contains high amounts of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) which is a precursor to DHA and EPA. The objectives of this study were: the development of an AM spray-dried powder with microencapsulated FO (AMFOP), the determination of the mass and energy balance of that AMFOP production, …

“All Of Our Skinfolk Ain’T Our Kinfolk;” A Triangulation Study Of The Impact Of Black Racial Identity On The Discourse Of Media Practitioners’ Coverage Of Social Justice, Political And Celebrity News, Gheni Nicole Platenburg

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since its inception, in 1827, the black press worked to “plead [its] own cause.”[i] Following the 1968 Kerner Commission report, white newsrooms desegregated, and the number of black newsrooms sharply declined. Black journalists transitioning to the white press faced new editorial and psychological challenges.

Today’s black press functions as a shell of its former self, creating a vacancy for media that represent the needs and interests of the black community. Mainstream cable news programs possibly provide a solution to this void -- black journalists and pundits. Using a triangulation approach, this dissertation explores this possibility by examining the impact …

On Working From Within: Understanding Self And Story, Bruce Parker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Curriculum theory explores teaching and learning both in and out of schools. This research continues to engage with teachers and students as complex individuals whose identities and experiences influence their education and their approaches to teaching and learning. This research examines questions of self and story using autobiographical and autoethnographic methods. The project begins with an overview of some of the challenges public education and teachers have met with in the past two decades. One outcome of those challenges is control of the curriculum and classroom time has increasingly been taken away from students and teachers and given to administrators …

Influences Of Spiciness And Visual Color Cue On Salty Taste Intensity Perception In Reduced-Sodium Cheese Dips, Valentina Rosasco Silva

LSU Master's Theses

The current high levels of dietary sodium intake are negatively affecting consumers’ health. Reducing sodium consumption to the recommended amount could help prevent around 2.5 million deaths yearly and save up to $18 billion dollars in health care costs worldwide. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the possibility of increasing the saltiness perception and acceptability of reduced-sodium cheese dips by using the multisensory approach and analyzing gender differences towards salty taste expectations. Two experiments were conducted: I) The combined effects of gender and visual color cue on salty taste expectations, liking, and purchase intent (PI) of cheese …

A Conductor's Guide To Gabriel Jackson's To The Field Of Stars, Joshua Glenn Cheney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Gabriel Jackson is one of Great Britain’s most performed living composers. He is a prolific writer, having composed choral and instrumental works for ensembles and performers around the world. Currently, commissions include a setting of the Stabat Mater for the tenth anniversary of the Marian Consort, an English professional ensemble under the direction of Rory McCleery. Other recent commissions include The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (completed for the 750th anniversary of Merton College, Oxford in April, 2014), In Nomine Domini (for the BBC Proms in 2010) and To the Field of Stars, the subject of this dissertation.

The …

Witnessing The Event Of Deconstruction: Cultural Encounter Between Louisiana And Japan And Its Implications For Education, Kaori Shimizu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cultural diversity is widely understood as needed, and the importance of learning about other cultures has been emphasized. However, if other cultures are located and explained within the framework where the culture of the Self invisibly maintains the fixed normative status, it would result in “a creation of cultural diversity and a containment of cultural difference” (Bhabha, 1990c, p. 208).

Addressing this issue, this dissertation study considers the curriculum that appreciates cultural differences in recognizing the alterity of the culture of the other, emerged from the engagement in the tension existing between two cultures, of the Self and of the …

An Evaluation Of College Student Attitudes Toward Gay Adoption, Cassandra Chaney Phd, Le'brian Patrick

Faculty Publications

Given the increasing debate regarding same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption, few studies to date have examined college student attitudes regarding this topic. This qualitative study explores the sentiments of 31 college students from a large university in the southern region of the country towards gay adoption before and after viewing the documentary We Are Dad (2005). The study allowed students to provide their level of agreement or disagreement with the statements provided by respondents on a public blog site who debated both sides of this issue. In addition, students responded to the following two questions during two points in time: …

The Use Of Expansions To Increase The Mean Length Utterance Of Preschool Students, Kaitlyn Carley Geffen

LSU Master's Theses

Language is an important area of development addressed in preschool, as it is the foundation for literacy development and the way children express their thoughts and understandings. Mean length utterance (MLU) can be used as a measure of a child’s expressive language development. One intervention that has been used to increase MLU is expansion. Expansion is when an adult responds to a child’s utterance by expanding their sentence to form a more complete or complex sentence. This study used an Expansion Intervention to increase the MLU of preschool aged students. The subjects consisted of three preschool children attending a …

Impact Of Temperature, Plant Species, And Sorghum Cultivar On The Population Dynamics Of Melanaphis Sacchari, Monique Ferreira De Souza

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari Zehner, is now widely established in sorghum, Sorghum bicolor L., production areas of the United States and is an important economic pest. However, detailed studies of temperature, host range and plant resistance effects on the biology and population parameters of the M. sacchari biotype responsible for the sorghum outbreak in the United States have not been performed previously. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate: 1) How temperatures affect M. sacchari 2) M. sacchari interaction with host plants 3) M. sacchari interaction with sorghum genotypes. The response of M. sacchari to six different constant temperatures (15, …

Predicting Working Memory And Fluid Intelligence From Measures Of Musicality, Juan Alexander Ventura

LSU Master's Theses

The relationship between musicality and cognitive abilities has been a popular topic in the media and among researchers over the last 25 years. Research has been inconsistent on whether musicality influences performance on non-musical complex tasks, such as measures of working memory and fluid intelligence. Inconsistencies regarding results between studies have arisen partly due to differences in sample and task selection, in addition to conflicting interpretations of results. Consequently, we conducted an individual differences investigation on the prediction of working memory (tonal, verbal, and visuospatial) and fluid intelligence by measures of musicality (formal years of musicality training, musical sophistication, melodic …

The Handmaiden Of Gnosis: Music In Esoteric Societies, Justin Andrew Owen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Western esotericism, or the practice of trying to understand divinity through secret initiatic means, exists in several philosophical strains, which mystics through the ages have formalized into systems of teaching. One aspect that appears in many of the traditions is music. Music is a direct language of the consciousness within esoteric traditions because it does not rely on language to express higher concepts. Just as these societies teach truths mainly through symbolism, they use music, since it lends itself to interpretations beyond the connotation-laden nature of words. This dissertation focuses on three major strains of western esotericism: Rosicrucians, Theosophists, and …

Factors Affecting Spatial Differences In Health Outcomes, Kwadwo Poku-Agyemang

LSU Master's Theses

This study sought to establish the impact of the disparities between Metropolitan, Micropolitan and Non-Core communities on life expectancy. The study also assesses the impact of individual behavioral choices and certain social variables and county level policies one the life expectancy in a county.

A simple mean comparison analysis is employed to establish the differences in life expectancy across the various levels of the urban hierarchy in 1,553 counties in the United States. An ordinary least squares model is used to tease out the relationship between specific individual choice factors; smoking habits, obesity and exercise habits and socio-economic factors; medicare …

Investigating Early-Career Teacher Propensity For Arts-Based Pedagogy, Jamie Allison Hipp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the factors which support the use of arts-based pedagogy in elementary settings. To address the lack of a current profile of an early-career teacher (ECT) with a propensity to use the arts – music, theatre, dance, and visual art – this study illuminates ECT attitudes and behaviors related to arts-based pedagogy. The researcher administered Oreck’s (2001) Teaching with the Arts Survey (TWAS) and employed a non-experimental survey design using purposive sampling. The ECT population studied included currently employed elementary (1-5) teachers who completed the compulsory arts-based pedagogy class at a large Louisiana university in the fall of …

"Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall": Reflections On Colorism, Healing, And Resistance In Literature And Social Media, Sarah Lorena Webb

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Colorism is a warped mirror image problem. A mirror is anything we refer to, consciously or not, for feedback about ourselves. A mirror is warped to the extent that it disempowers or disenfranchises those reflected in it. Speculative mirrors expose the distortion of warped mirrors by revealing positive or subversive alternatives. Speculative mirrors help us conceive of theories that resist harmful ideology. Newly aware of the distortion of warped mirrors and newly equipped with the tool of speculative mirrors, we may choose to engage in self-reflection—the process of composing one's own affective and empowering or tactical self-concept. Projecting one's self-reflection …

“Breathless Zeal And Careless Confidence”: German Propaganda In World War I (1914-1918), Elisabeth Fondren

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the building and rethinking of German propaganda institutions during World War I. The goal of this dissertation is to illustrate the evolution of German government ideas on propaganda between 1914-1918.

During the war, German military leaders, politicians, and diplomats had ambitions to change, reform and modernize approaches to media governance. They were losing the battle of ideas, they realized early on. And so German officials were desperate to make propaganda fit into the structure of government; they tried to use new media technologies to be more persuasive. Although there was an abundance of ideas, all of their …

The Politics Of Despair Enabled By Dysconscious Xenophobiaism: A Call To Action On Behalf Of Immigrants And Their Children, Irina S. Okhremtchouk, Adam T. Clark

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

We’Ve Been Here Before: An Open Letter To Defy, Resist, And Build, Jessica N. Lester, Allison Daniels Anders, Nicholas Mariner

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

The Receptive-Expressive Gap In English Narratives Of Spanish-English Bilingual Children With And Without Language Impairment, Todd A. Gibson, Elizabeth D. Peña, Lisa M. Bedore

Faculty Publications

Purpose: First, we sought to extend our knowledge of second language (L2) receptive compared to expressive narrative skills in bilingual children with and without primary language impairment (PLI). Second, we sought to explore whether narrative receptive and expressive performance in bilingual children's L2 differed based on the type of contextual support. Method: In a longitudinal group study, 20 Spanish-English bilingual children with PLI were matched by sex, age, nonverbal IQ score, and language exposure to 20 bilingual peers with typical development and administered the Test of Narrative Language (Gillam & Pearson, 2004) in English (their L2) at kindergarten and first …

Differential Effects Of Mindful Breathing And Loving-Kindness Meditation Exercises On College Students' Mental Health, Sarah J. Bolognino

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mindfulness and loving-kindness are two concepts with associated meditation exercises that have been evaluated as part of mindfulness-based treatment approaches (MBTAs) to improve mental health. A common MBTA, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) includes multiple component exercises including mindful breathing meditation (MBM), and loving-kindness meditation (LKM). The purpose of the present study was to examine differential effects of MBM and LKM on the proposed process variables of social connectedness, cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance, present moment awareness, affect, and compassion for self and others, as well as across outcomes measures of general anxiety, social anxiety, depression, and wellbeing. Additionally the …