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Literary Expressions Of Creole Identity In Alfred Mercier's L'Habitation Saint-Ybars And Johnelle, Mary Florence Cashell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines nineteenth-century Louisianan author Alfred Mercier’s novels and their roles as emblems of Francophone Creole cultural identity. During the nineteenth century following the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent anglophone influx, the French-speaking Creole population faced a cultural upheaval. Unable to completely identify as either French or American, Creoles occupied an uncertain space. This study demonstrates that Alfred Mercier’s works articulate a hybrid identity that is neither French nor American but rather a multicultural construct. The first chapter examines the nineteenth-century Creole community’s problematic positioning between French and American cultures. Chapters two, three, and four center on two of Mercier’s …

The Solo String Works Of J. S. Bach: The Relationship Between Dance And Musical Elements, Chung-Hui Hsu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In 1685, the Doge of Genoa made a visit to the French court and asked Louis XIV to host a ball. Louis XIV responded affirmatively and arranged a magnificent dance in his private apartment. The type of dance that took place was a kind of social dancing which later became the standard included Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, Gavotte, Bourée, Loure and Chaconne. These dances were called theatrical dances when they were used in theatrical production by professional dancers. During this period, the relationship between composer and choreographer was sometimes inseparable. Maestro Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) and his well-known choreographer Pierre …

Deductive Formal Verification Of Embedded Systems, Zheng Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We combine static analysis techniques with model-based deductive verification using SMT solvers to provide a framework that, given an analysis aspect of the source code, automatically generates an analyzer capable of inferring information about that aspect.

The analyzer is generated by translating the collecting semantics of a program to a formula in first order logic over multiple underlying theories. We import the semantics of the API invocations as first order logic assertions. These assertions constitute the models used by the analyzer. Logical specification of the desired program behavior is incorporated as a first order logic formula. An SMT-LIB solver treats …

Using Behavior Screening Data To Predict Scores On Statewide Assessments, Jeffrey Steven Chenier

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Federal and state initiatives (No Child Left Behind, 2001) require schools and districts to set high standards for student growth and achievement. Currently, student growth and progress are measured in Louisiana via statewide achievement tests. In 4th and 8th grades these assessments are considered to be ‘high-stakes’, as promotion and retention decisions are made based on how well students perform on these assessments. Making day-to-day decisions based on one assessment per year is not best practice (Jenkins, Deno, & Markin, 1979); therefore, screening instruments known as curriculum based measures (CBMs) were devised and tailored for school-based implementation. CBMs of academic …

Urban Population Density And Environmental Quality In Port-Au-Prince, Haiti: A Geo-Statistical Analysis, Myrtho Joseph

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation revolves around three issues on the urban area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti: the population distribution pattern, its estimation from remote sensing images, and its relationship with environmental quality. It follows a three-paper format. Paper 1 examines the population density pattern by the monocentric and polycentric models, based on the 2003 census data. The regression results show a poor fitting power of monocentric functions, and improved but less than satisfactory R2 by polycentric functions. A five-sector conceptual model is proposed to capture the urban structure shaped by the absence or lack of institutional enforcement of land use regulations and urban …

The Decline In Trust In The European Union, Nathan Donald Price

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

After twenty years, the European Union is undoubtedly at a crossroads, as its institutions try to manage the sovereign debt crisis in member states and the uncertainty surrounding the future direction of the project. The challenges the European Union has faced, and the response to them, have drawn considerable attention on the capacity of the European Union to manage the interests of the Europeans. In this dissertation, I discuss the process of Europeanization and why it has resulted in suboptimal outputs. Additionally, I discuss the perception of a democratic deficit in the European Union. The purpose of this is to …

Virgil's Shipwreck: How A Roman Poet Made And Unmade The Epic In The West, Jesse Bryan Burchfield Russell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We are still feeling the effects of the Second World War sixty-seven years after its conclusion. Much of post-war thinking has attempted to sort through the roots of the totalitarian ideology that developed in Europe and caused such massive destruction. Marxist and Frankfurt School critics have demonstrated that the roots of Fascism go deeper in the West than the twentieth century and are part and parcel of the West’s combination of technology and myth. Additionally, Post-Colonial critics have pointed out that the horrors of this war were also perpetrated throughout Europe’s colonial endeavors and have undertaken the task of deconstructing …

Molecular Approaches To Detect And Control Cercospora Kikuchii In Soybeans, Ashok Kumar Chanda

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cercospora leaf blight (CLB) caused by Cercospora kikuchii, has become a troublesome disease in the southern United States. C. kikuchii produces a non-hostspecific phytotoxin and a pathogenicity factor known as cercosporin during infection of soybean. A quantitative real-time PCR assay was developed for detection and quantification of C. kikuchii. The sensitivity of detection is 1 pg of genomic DNA. The assay detected the presence of C. kikuchii in soybean leaves long before the appearance of disease symptoms. C. kikuchii DNA levels in soybean leaves increased slowly during early soybean development, followed by a quick increase at late reproductive stages. Results …

Monitoring The Molecular Weight Of Poly(Lactic Acid) During Fiber Spinning And Coloration, Ashley Nicole Jacobs

LSU Master's Theses

One fiber that is being researched as a possible alternative to the petroleum based polyester fibers currently being used is polylactic acid (PLA). Being aware of the low heat resistance and degradation of PLA during processing is a concern for practical production and the performance of the polymer. Disperse dyed PLA film and solution dyed PLA film, along with un-dyed film and the original PLA pellets have been investigated to determine molecular weight. Infrared analysis has been conducted to examine the compounds found in the PLA samples at different steps in the polymer processing. Un-dyed PLA samples have been subjected …

Reflections On En-Teaching: Dewey, Heidegger And Lao Tzu, Jie Yu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Reflecting on my past two unsettling journeys of teaching in China and America produces questions about the teaching of truth in chapter one. The question of truth as it relates to the teacher’s role in the classroom raises not only issues of what and how we should teach, but challenges the very purpose of teaching. When I explored Martin Heidegger’s phenomenological perspective on (un)truth for insights into taken-for-granted assumptions about education and the purposes of teaching and learning, I noticed a strong resonance between his notion of “clearing” and the essential spirit of Taoism, “the Tao of inaction.” This led …

Country Of Illusion: Imagined Geographies And Transnational Connections In F. Scott Fitzgerald's America, Charles Mitchell Frye Iii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The two decades between World Wars I and II were a remarkably isolationist, xenophobic period in the history of American politics and culture. In the era’s literature, however, some US authors repurposed regional writing as a medium for rethinking conservative nationalism and for imagining their country’s place in the emerging global community. F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose career successes and failures mirrored the parabolic national pattern of Boom and Bust, was one such author. Though his works have seldom been interpreted through a regionalist lens, Fitzgerald lived in and wrote about every major American section, often planting tropes of transregional and …

Simmering In The Tombs: The Role Of The Zombie In Patrick Chamoiseau's Chronique Des Sept Misères And Simone Schwarz-Bart's Ti Jean L'Horizon, Andrew Walton Hill

LSU Master's Theses

The figure of the zombie is a recurring trope for writers in the French Antilles. Two of the most influential and popular authors in modern French-Antillean literature are Patrick Chamoiseau from Martinique and Simone Schwarz-Bart from Guadeloupe. Both of these authors use the figure of the zombie as representations of colonization and the lingering trauma of slavery in Antillean society. In this thesis, I examine two of the most well-known works by these authors, Chamoiseau’s Chronique des Sept Misères (1986) and Schwarz-Bart’s Ti Jean L’horizon (1979), and how these texts use the nature of the zombie in an effort to …

Ballplayer, An Addiction Story: A Production Thesis Of A Solo Performance Piece, Nickolas Ian Rhoton

LSU Master's Theses

The thesis assignment was to create a stand-alone solo performance piece of no less than 30 minutes in length. The absence of any further guidelines provided the opportunity to focus on a subject (or subject matter) of my choosing. Researching symptoms and tendencies of addictive personality disorder as a basis for a class-based performance assignment led me to Eric Show, a pitcher who played professional baseball in the 1980s and early 1990s. Eric’s life was both heartbreaking and compelling. This thesis follows the adaptation of a number of stories and interviews about Show into a performance piece that seeks to …

Effect Of Electrical Vehicles On Residential Distribution Systems, Paul Haley

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the present state of electrical vehicles (EVs) in the market and the effects that these vehicles could have on residential distribution systems. The current EVs available on the market and the current level of market penetration were investigated. Advantages and disadvantages of EVs from a consumer and governmental perspective were identified. The efficiencies of the whole energy delivery process of electrical vehicles and gasoline vehicles were estimated. Efficiency estimation was used to estimate the impact of EVs on the consumption of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases. Measurement of an EV battery charging cycle and …

Preparing A World Premiere: A Conductor's Analysis Of Ronaldo Cadeu's "Crime And Punishment: One Act Ballet", Raul Gomez Rojas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This paper is a conductor’s analysis of Ronaldo Cadeu’s recently completed orchestral score for his ballet Crime and Punishment, with a focus on its preparation for a first public performance. The research explores preparing a piece of music for its world premiere from several angles: the musical process in the form of score study, the extra-musical process involved in the production of the event and the culmination of both in rehearsals and performance with the orchestra. Detailed score analysis reveals that Crime and Punishment is a masterfully crafted piece of music that successfully conveys the essence of Dostoyevsky’s text. Cadeu’s …

A Safety Elements Model For The Building Construction Industry, Cliff Dunlap Dunlap

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Abstract was sent to Ms. McKenzie as an attachment to an e-mail

Student Perceptions Of The Impact Of Precollege Programs, Kimberly Powell Lesage

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Precollege-to-college outreach is abundant, with programs established on college campuses throughout the nation. Precollege programs provide students with knowledge pertinent to academic success and successful transitions between educational systems. The programs are also viable options in the effort to overcome disadvantage and disparity, and may best serve students who are considered underserved, and who encounter a multitude of barriers that inhibit their pursuit of a college education. A mixed-method, case study methodology was used to explore the perceptions of students who participated in two university precollege engineering programs. The findings of this study suggest that well defined and organized outreach …

Ayahuasca Characterization, Metabolism In Humans, And Relevance To Endogenous N,N-Dimethyltryptamines, Ethan Hamilton Mcilhenny

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ayahuasca denotes an Amazonian psychotropic plant tea obtained from Banisteriopsis caapi, which contains beta-carboline (b-carboline) alkaloids, chiefly harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine. The tea usually incorporates the leaves of Psychotria viridis, which are rich in N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychoactive 5-HT2A agonist. The beta-carbolines reversibly inhibit monoamine-oxidase (MAO), effectively preventing oxidative deamination of the orally inactive DMT and allowing its absorption and access to the central nervous system. Despite increased use of the tea worldwide, easy to perform and validated methods for its characterization do not exist and the metabolism and excretion of DMT and the b-carbolines has not been studied systematically …

"Faith Is Life": A Qualitative Study Of Christian Faith And Chinese Immigrant Families, Yaxin Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on religion and family in the United States has increased in the last two decades. With the increasing immigrant population, studies on minorities including Chinese immigrant families are also important. Religious faith has significant influences on some Chinese immigrant families. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between Christianity and Chinese immigrant families. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-two highly religious Chinese Christian couples in the Southern United States. Twenty-two open-ended questions were asked to understand their conversion processes and how the Christian faith influenced the participants’ marriage and family life. Most of the participants …

Chinese Piano Music: An Approach To Performance, Xi Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since the piano was introduced in China, in the nineteenth century, many Chinese composers have composed specifically for it. As a result of greater communication and cultural exchange between East and West, Western pianists have begun including Chinese piano pieces in their repertoire. This paper will suggest approaches for the pianist to gain a greater understanding of Chinese piano music. These approaches will include a detailed analysis of each piece, addressing cultural aspects pertinent to an understanding of the music, as well as compositional background, harmony, texture, and piano technique. In addition, each piece will be provided with suggestions intended …

Short Story Cycles Of The Americas, A Transitional Post-Colonial Form: A Study Of V.S. Naipaul's Miguel Street, Ernest Gaines's Bloodline, And Garbriel Garcia Marquez's Los Funerales De Mama Grande, Benjamin Sands Yves Forkner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of three short story cycles which are representative of the genre in the Americas: Miguel Street (1959) by V.S. Naipaul, Los Funerales de Mama Grande (1962) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Bloodline (1968) by Ernest Gaines. I analyze each of these cycles in depth concentrating on the structure, the order of the stories, and unifying elements such as characters, themes, internal symbolism, place, language and events, in order to demonstrate that these short story collections are indeed short story cycles. I examine these cycles in light of the two themes or factors out of which …

Two Sides Of The Ancient Vase: Eastern And Western Principles In The Works Of Keiko Abe, Christopher K. Hoefer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Keiko Abe is recognized as one of the leading marimba virtuosos of the Twentieth century. As a composer, she has been writing for solo marimba since the early 1960s and continues composing for the medium today. Her music became popular with Western percussionists after the publishing of Works for Marimba in 1987. This was her first compilation of works for the five-octave marimba. These pieces have become a constant source of repertoire for collegiate and professional performers. Despite Abe’s popularity and influence, little research has examined her compositions. This document features analysis and background of Abe and her music and …

British Identity And The German Other, William F. Bertolette

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

British identity evolved through conscious comparisons with foreigners as well as through the cultivation of indigenous social, economic and political institutions. The German other in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain, like the French other in previous centuries, provided a psychological path toward unity against a perceived common enemy. Because German stereotypes brought into sharp focus what the British believed themselves not to be, they provided a framework for defining Britishness beyond Britain’s own internal divisions of race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and politics. Post-World War II devolution and European integration have since revived British internal national divisions. The image of innocuous …

Impact Of Religion And Religious Differences On Political And Economic Cooperation Between Countries, Betul Dicle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Studies on economic and political cooperation of countries generally focus on the effects of factors such as geographical proximity, political regime type, and the different fiscal and monetary policies, among others. The impact of religious affiliation, however, stayed mainly as theory. The clash between and/or within religions had important proponents. We provide evidence that religion can have economic union effects. We evaluate whether there is historic economic polarization and whether religions have group dynamics similar to economic unions. Economic convergence, causation and trade cooperation are commonly reported for economic unions. Do these effects exist for countries with the same religion? …

The Effect Of Loving Kindness Meditation And Student Teachers Stress And Empathy, Imre Csaszar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Teachers face increasing demands in the twenty-first century as they engage with students, administrators, coworkers, staff, and parents. High demands and stressors may generate feelings of emotional exhaustion in educators. If left ignored or untreated the emotional exhaustion may eventually lead to burnout and impairment. This prospectus highlights a study designed to explore a preventative option to mitigate the experience of stress felt by student teachers through a structured, guided mindfulness training practice: loving kindness meditation.

The Role Of Music-Making In The Identity Construction Of Members Of An Adult Community Concert Band, Pamela G. Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to ascertain how music-making and band membership contributed to the identities of members of the New Orleans Concert Band and how their identities influenced their behaviors. The musician role identity of members of the New Orleans Concert Band, an adult community band, was examined through the lens of identity theory using ethnographic methods. Findings were based upon interviews with 37 band members, observations of rehearsals and concerts, and an examination of the organization’s documents. Results indicated that members valued individual and group music-making, literature played by the band, and social aspects of …

Examination Of The Reliability And Validity Of A New Observation Measure For Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Autism Spectrum Disorder Observation For Children, Daniene Neal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With increasing attention being drawn to autism spectrum disorders (ASD), specifically with regard to early and accurate diagnosis and treatment, researchers and clinicians alike have placed emphasis on finding assessment tools that can aid in this goal. The purpose of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of a new observation measure for ASD, the Autism Spectrum Disorders-Observation for Children (ASD-OC). The ASD-OC was found to have good to excellent interrater reliability, and excellent internal consistency (ƒÑ = .96). As a result of these initial reliability analyses, nine items were removed from the scale. The resulting 45 item ASD-OC …

The Lived Experience Of Discovery Of Purpose In Student Affairs Among Emerging Professionals, Nicholas Anthony Clegorne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Clegorne, Nicholas Anthony, B.M. University of Florida, 2002, M.M. University of Florida, 2004 Doctor of Philosophy Major: Educational Leadership and Research The Lived Experience of Discovery of Purpose in Student Affairs among Emerging Professionals Dissertation directed by Associate Professor Roland Mitchell Pages in dissertation, 146. Words in abstract, 297. ABSTRACT Some researchers estimate that as many as three out of five new professionals will leave the field of student affairs within the first five years. Furthermore low job satisfaction has been cited heavily among new professionals in student affairs. The alarming recognition that so many young professionals are unhappy and …

Three Case Studies In Twentieth-Century Performance Practice, Tina Huettenrauch

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since the middle of the twentieth century, the study of performance practice has increasingly drawn the interest of musicologists; however, despite the extensive documentation pertaining to matters of performance, the twentieth century has largely been neglected. Twentieth-century composers often annotated their scores extensively with indications of tempi, dynamics, and phrasing or included explanatory notes with detailed instructions. Supplemental records, such as diaries, transcripts of coaching sessions, and composers’ commentaries on interpretative issues further shed light on their intentions. Yet a piece is not shaped just by the score and the comments of the composer; rather, it exists diachronically, evolving over …

A Performance Guide To Leonard Lehrman's A Light In The Darkness, Timothy Adam Holcomb

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Holcomb, Timothy Adam, B.M.E. Music Education, Wright State University, 2002 M.M. Music, Louisiana State University, 2006 Doctor of Musical Arts, Winter Commencement, 2012 Major: Vocal Performance; Minor: Vocal Pedagogy A Performance Guide to Leonard Lehrman’s A Light in the Darkness Dissertation directed by Professor Robert Grayson Pages in dissertation, 146. Words in abstract, 106. ABSTRACT Leonard Lehrman is primarily known as the leading expert on the works of Marc Blitzstein. He is a composer and conductor, and serves to provide a voice for Jewish poets and composers. This document presents Leonard Lehrman’s song cycle, A Light in the Darkness (White-Sailed …