Digital Commons Network^™

Culture And Persuasion Online: Predicting Attitudes, Cognitions, And Behavioral Intentions In A Culturally Diverse Online Marketplace, Gennadi Gevorgyan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With an online experiment and a focus group, I examined the role of cultural appeals in online persuasive communication. The results of the study revealed that culturally oriented Web sites and online advertisements influence individual attitudes and behavioral intentions. These effects were particularly strong when cultural appeals were consistent across advertisements and their hosting Web sites. I observed the main effect of culture on persuasiveness of Web sites and advertisements both the American and the Chinese samples of participants. The results of the study did not, however, support the expectation that ethnic identity and need for cognition would interact with …

Prioritization Of Safety Countermeasures For The State Of Louisiana Using Fuzzy Inference Systems, Meisam Akbarzadeh

LSU Master's Theses

In this study a fuzzy inference system is proposed for prioritization of countermeasures aimed at improving safety in the state of Louisiana. Countermeasures are prioritized based on their collective performance on cost, expected crash reduction and the severity of the problem they address. These three decision parameters can have six permutations in terms of their relative importance in decision making. In order to make the prioritization procedure handier for decision makers, the inference system is capable of being run under all six possible cases. Current safety standards influence the importance attached to crash reduction performance and severity of the problem …

Comorbid Psychopathology In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Intellectual Disabilities, Santino Vincent Lovullo

LSU Master's Theses

While there has been an abundance of research investigating Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in children, very little emphasis has been placed on ASD in adults, especially in regards to comorbid psychopathology. This is of great concern considering that ASD often co-occurs with intellectual disability (ID), and that both may serve as risk factors for additional psychopathology. While instruments exist that measure comorbid psychopathology in adults with ID, these scales are not targeted to the unique expression of comorbidity in adults with ID and ASD. The Autism Spectrum Disorders-Comorbidity for Adults (ASD-CA) was devised for this reason. This paper begins with …

"It Takes A Lot Out Of You": Ethnography Of Secondary English Teachers' Writing Pedagogy, Lisa F. Morales

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted in two case-study teachers’ public middle school classrooms in south Louisiana and a survey in three public school districts. A qualitative research focus with the research design taken from work of Michael Patton’s (2002) Qualitative Research Evaluation Methods and James Spradley and David McCurdy’s (1975) Anthropology: The Cultural Perspective. The survey was developed from the work of Tourangeau, Rips, and Rasinski’s (2002) The Psychology of Survey Responses. The researcher assumed the role of participant observer for three months which resulted in two themes: first, traditional teaching methods in the teaching of writing, and secondly, teacher perceptions …

Sialic Acid Conjugated Chitosan For The Attenuation Of Amyloid-Beta Toxicity, Dhruva Dilip Dhavale

LSU Master's Theses

Amyloid-beta (Aβ), a 39 to 43 amino acid long peptide, is the primary species identified in senile plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and has been implicated in the neurotoxicity associated with AD. It is believed that Aβ toxicity is mediated through the interaction with neuronal membranes. A variety of evidence indicates that 1) Aβ may bind to the cell surface sialic acids, 2) the affinity of this interaction is higher if the gangliosides or sialic acids on the cell surface are clustered, 3) the removal of the surface sialic acids attenuate Aβ toxicity. Based on this data, we hypothesized …

Effects Of Three Early Literacy Interventions In The Preschool Classroom: Comparing Phonological Awareness Training, Dialogic Reading, And A Combination Condition In Small Groups, Jennifer Koenig Longwell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Phonological awareness, oral language, alphabet knowledge, and print awareness are the building blocks for emergent literacy. These skills can be divided into embedded and explicit domains of early literacy interventions. Dialogic reading, a well-researched embedded method of reading intervention, incorporates oral language and print awareness through adult-child storybook reading. Phonological awareness interventions utilize explicit skills such as phonemic instruction and letter knowledge to increase early literacy. The current study examined three early literacy interventions, dialogic reading, phonological awareness, and a combination condition, in comparison with each other and a control condition. Thirty-seven preschool children were randomly assigned to a condition …

Turn-Taking And Gaze Behavior Among Cajun French And Cajun English Speakers In Avoyelles Parish, Andrew Mandell Riviere

LSU Master's Theses

Languages are the verbal and non-verbal codes of a culture. A culture houses a language(s) and is comprised of the gaze and distance/use of personal sphere. Linguists and anthropologists have long since argued over which takes priority: culture or language. French and Louisiana are synonymous: it is unimaginable to picture Louisiana without French because French constitutes the culture in Louisiana. Since linguists have debated the priority of language or culture, looking at Louisiana within the confines of this debate proves informative.

The language shift forced upon the residents of South Louisiana by the 1921 State Legislature made English the sole …

(Im)Possible Encounters, Possible (Mis)Understandings Between The West And Its Other: The Case Of The Maghreb, Tanja Stampfl

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My work deals with what I call (im)possible encounters, possible (mis)understandings between the West and the Rim of the World (in my case The Maghreb). I focus on writers (such as Paul Bowles, Patricia Highsmith, Edith Wharton, Tayeb Salih, Ahlam Mosteghanemi, Ahdaf Soueif) who stepped across the cultural dividing line to claim a voice of their own; a voice that enabled them to represent and at times misrepresent the host culture they chose to live in, and which acts as a “lieu” and at times “milieu de mémoire.” It is what the late Edward Said aptly called “intertwined histories, overlapping …

Using The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (Ados) To Discriminate Between Children With Autism And Children With Language Impairments Without Autism, Whitney Nicole Dolan

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to learn about the diagnostic accuracy of Module 1 of the ADOS-G. Specifically, this study was designed to determine how well the ADOS-G differentiates children with autism from children with language impairments without autism. Data for this study were obtained from 10 children who were recruited from speech, language and hearing clinics in the metropolitan area of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Visual inspection and statistical analyses indicated that the means of the ADOS-G scores for all domains (Communication, Social Interaction, and Communication + Social Interaction Score) were higher for the autism group than for the …

A Critical Exegesis And Interpretation Of The Work Of Austin Farrer, Wesley Dalton

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Language: In Politics, Genocide, And Politicide, Heather Rademacher

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Intentionality, Vocabulary, And Grammar In A Child With Autism, Heidi Huckabee

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Subject Relatives By Children With And Without Sli Across Different Dialects Of English, Janna B. Oetting, Brandi L. Newkirk

Faculty Publications

This study examined whether children's use of subject relative clauses differs as a function of their English dialect (African American English, AAE vs. Southern White English, SWE vs. Mainstream American English, MAE) and clinical diagnosis (specific language impairment, SLI vs. typically developing, TD). The data were spontaneous language samples from 87 AAE- and 53 SWE-speaking children, aged 3 to 6 years. Data on MAE came from previously published studies. Results were that the TD child speakers of AAE and SWE presented similar rates and types of subject relative clauses within their samples, but the rates at which they supplied the …

"Almost Impossible In Praise" Dedicatory Criticism In English Dramatic Texts Of The Seventeenth Century, David Roberts

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Unnatural Conjugation In Tristram Shandy, Book Vii, Arnd Bohm

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Joseph Warton's Enthusiasms, Adam Rounce

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Empirically Derived Combinations Of Tools And Clinical Cutoffs: An Illustrative Case With A Sample Of Culturally/Linguistically Diverse Children, Janna B. Oetting, Lesli H. Cleveland, Robert F. Cope

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Using a sample of culturally/linguistically diverse children, we present data to illustrate the value of empirically derived combinations of tools and cutoffs for determining eligibility in child language impairment.Method: Data were from 95 4- and 6-year-olds (40 African American, 55 White; 18 with language impairment, 77 without) who lived in the rural South ; they involved primarily scores from the Comprehension subtest of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (CSSB; R. Thorndike, E. Hagen, & J. Sattler, 1986), but scores from an experimental nonword repetition task (NRT; C. Dollaghan & T. Campbell, 1998) were also included as supplements to these …

Listen, Sing And Learn: The Effects Of Musical Activities On Phonemic Awareness In The Foreign Language Classroom, Kelli White

LSU Master's Theses

Traditionally, there has been a lack of emphasis placed on proper second language (L2) pronunciation in recent theoretical perspectives on foreign language pedagogy. Pronunciation is important because it is indicative of a learner’s level of phonemic awareness, an important component of second language acquisition. Inaccurate pronunciation (and therefore poor phonemic awareness) is often the result of a lack of training in this area due to the focus on grammar and syntax in many language classrooms. One often-neglected method of training students in L2 pronunciation discussed in some theoretical literature is the use of authentic materials in the form of musical …

A Comparison Of Morphophonic Faces And The Picture Exchange Communication System On The Production Of Verbal Communication In Preschoolers With Autism, Ashley Nicole Bourque

LSU Master's Theses

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit difficulties with both verbal and nonverbal language with approximately 50% of children diagnosed with autism remaining functionally mute into adulthood (Charlop & Haymes, 1994; Charlop-Christy, Carpenter, Le, LeBlanc, & Kellet, 2002). This study explored intervention using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) for two nonverbal preschoolers with ASD. The effects of PECS using two picture systems, Picture and Words (P&W) and MorphoPhonic (MPh) picture word, was assessed in the communicative outcomes after 6 weeks of intervention. This study asked if MPh picture words would elicit more picture-exchange communication acts in functional contexts than …

Euskera As A Defining Feature Of Euskadi, Whitney Blake Dennis

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the role of the Basque language (Euskera or Euskara) in the national identity of the Basque people. I looked at the history of Basque education, from the beginnings of the ikastola movement of the early 20th century to the current bilingual education system. I examined the use of Euskara in education from the primary school level to the university level in the Basque Autonomous Community. This research involved looking at the BAC government’s detailed studies on students in the various linguistic models of education in the BAC. Other areas I discuss in this paper are the …

The Fusion Model Of Instructional Design: A Proposed Model For Faculty Development Programs In Technology Integration, Lori C. Soule

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

University faculty are increasingly challenged to integrate technology into their teaching to meet the needs of technology-savvy students today. The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce and examine an instructional design model, the Fusion Model of Instructional Design, for designing and implementing more effective faculty development programs in technology integration. The model builds on positive aspects of participatory design (Vincini, 2001), rapid prototyping (Tripp & Bichelmeyer, 1990), and Keller’s (1983) ARCS model of motivation. Key characteristics of the Fusion Model are participation of early adopters in the design and implementation of training, recursive training of early adopters first and …

Speaking The Language Of Integration: A Case Study Of South Boulevard Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet, Heather Kathleen Olson Beal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Racial segregation and an achievement gap persist despite the promises of Brown vs. Board of Education (1954). In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, public schools are 83% Black, while nearly one-third of all children attend private schools which are 86% White. South Boulevard (SB) Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet Elementary is a counterexample because it has achieved integration and academic achievement well above district and state averages on high stakes tests. This research explores the culture of SB’s immersion magnet program in relation to its success as an integrated public school with high student achievement and explores the factors that motivated a …

A House Performs, Lisa Flanagan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study analyses and performs a series of histories about a semi-abandoned Victorian house located in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I engage Gregory Ulmer’s inter-discursive and inter-subjective process of historiography, the mystory, as a way of viewing and doing research. Mystory allows for research through diverse perspectives of professional, popular and personal discourses, which activates the pleasures and problems of knowledge production by urging invention and creative expression. Significance is discovered in less determined, more localized, ways of knowing that avoid fixing the house in terms of predetermined “historic” values. Material culture and archives like the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps …

The Rhetorical Myth Of The Athlete As A Moral Hero: The Implications Of Steroids In Sport And The Threatened Myth, Karen L. Hartman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research analyzes changes in the rhetoric of a sustaining myth in order to better assess what happens when a myth is threatened. By examining American sport and its current struggle to withstand the widespread use of steroids, the author investigates how public discourse about the scandal turns athletes from mythical heroes to cheaters. The author begins by explicating the rhetorical construction of the athlete as a moral hero in America and how this myth is perpetuated today. The author then examines how steroids threaten the myth of the moral athlete and uses Major League Baseball as a case study …

The Mathematical In Heidegger And Badiou, Dylan Armstrong Wade

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis I am tracing the historical development of subjectivity from its skeptical foundation in Descartes to Alain Badiou’s subject as fidelity to truth. Drawing from Martin Heidegger’s What is a Thing?, this history begins with the turn from an Aristotelian to a Newtonian apprehension of motion, turning towards an a priori mathematical projection of spatial uniformity, such that there are no longer different places – only quantifiable distance. It is on the basis of this turning away from tradition, or ordinary experience of different phenomena, that Descartes posits the self-certain I-pole. Heidegger criticizes modernity, defined as the merging …

Distinguishing Among Recollection, Familiarity, And Uncertainty: Categorizing The Subjective Basis For Memory Retrieval, Leigh Grace Rougeou

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Effectiveness Of The Response To Instruction Model For English Language Learners By Utilizing A Non-Language-Based Intervention, Chisato Komatsu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the use of the Response to Intervention (RTI) model for English Language learners (ELLs) by using a computerized constant time delay procedure (CTD) that de-emphasized the use of language. Forty-five ELLs, 22 native English speakers, and five students with a diagnosis of mild mental retardation participated in the study. A computer-administered CTD procedure was utilized for paired associate tasks. The study found differences and patterns in students’ performances that could be used to differentiate responders and non-responders to intervention. An interesting finding was that once the students were divided into groups …

Digital Storytelling As A Literacy-Based Intervention For A Sixth Grade Student With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Exploratory Case Study, Brent A. Daigle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the use of Digital Storytelling as an intervention to improve the academic performance and social interactions of a sixth grade student with High-Functioning Autism. Qualitative methodology, using an inductive approach informed by grounded theory, was employed throughout this exploratory case study. Three separate data sources, consisting of document analysis, interviews, and participant observation, contributed to the findings of this study. Triangulation of inquiry methods enhanced the validity and rigor of this investigation. The findings from this inquiry indicate that Digital Storytelling was beneficial to the participant in this exploratory case study. Engaged student processes and critical analysis …

A Study Of Regret And Rejoicing And A New Mcdm Method Based On Them, Xiaoting Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is one of the most widely used decision methodologies in the sciences, business, and engineering worlds. MCDM methods aim at improving the quality of decisions by making the process more explicit, rational, and efficient. One controversial problem is that some well-known MCDM methods, like the additive AHP methods and the ELECTRE II and III methods, may cause some types of rank reversal problems. Rank reversal means that the ranking between two alternatives might be reversed after some variation occurs to the decision problem, like adding a new alternative, dropping an old alternative or replacing a non-optimal alternative …

Vassilis Alexakis: Exorciser L'Exil Déplacements Autofictionnels, Linguistiques Et Spatiaux, Marianne Bessy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the writings of contemporary Francophone writer Vassilis Alexakis. I interpret Alexakis’s œuvre as an attempt by the writer to exorcize his own exile. The author left Greece in the 1960s, settled in France, and started to publish novels in French in the mid-1970s. By looking closely at the patterns of cultural dispossession, language loss, estrangement, and identity crisis in his writings, I show that Alexakis constructs an aesthetic of displacement that allows him to free himself cathartically from the angst of exile. A close analysis of Alexakis’s eleven novels, his autobiographical text, and his collection of short …