Digital Commons Network^™

The Intersecting And Integrating Identities Of Rural Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Christians, Brandi Woodell

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The majority of discussions of gay and lesbian experiences in the United States associate gay culture with urban areas. However, there is still a significant population of LGBT people living in the rural United States (Baumle et al 2009). Many of these individuals identify with rural spaces and seek to maintain “country” identities. As with rural spaces, there is an assumption that Christian identities directly conflict with those of non-heterosexual identities. This study examines the ways in which these individuals create and negotiate stereotypically conflicting identities regarding their sexuality, their rural identities and their religious identities. The goal of this …

Design And Construction Of A Nernst Effect Measuring System, Warner E. Sevin

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

An experimental Nernst effect measuring system is designed and constructed. The ability to measure the Nernst effect allows completion of a thermoelectric suite of measurements consisting of electrical conductivity, the Seebeck effect, the Hall effect, and the Nernst effect. This suite of measurements gives information about electron transport, carrier concentration, and electron scattering within a thermoelectric sample. Programs were designed in LabView to control the various instruments in the measuring system. Measurements of the Nernst effect were taken on two thermoelectric samples, bismuth nickel telluride and bismuth antimony telluride. These measurements were taken at both constant temperature and constant magnetic …

Ghosts That We Knew, Cara E. Cotter

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of fictional short stories about loss and the left behind, seeking to confront grief in terms of hope, humor, and getting the oar back in the water to row on.

The Association Between Conduct Problems And Bullying For Youth With And Without Callous-Unemotional Traits, Farrah N. Golmaryami

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The current study aims to examine whether the association between conduct problems and bullying are accounted for by different factors in those with and without callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Participants included 284 students in the 4^th through 7^th grades. Results indicated that conduct problems and bullying were significantly correlated, and that this association was not moderated by CU traits. Moreover, anger dysregulation, and to some extent, victimization, were more strongly associated with conduct problems in those with lower levels of CU traits. Furthermore, conduct problems were more strongly related to attitudes towards bullying for those lower on CU traits …

The Privatization Of Hazard Mitigation: A Case Study Of The Creation And Implementation Of A Federal Program, Alessandra Jerolleman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of the private and public sectors in hazard mitigation, an important part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) performance requirements from the Stafford Act. Hazard mitigation is the effort to reduce societal impacts from natural disasters by reducing their risk to people, property and infrastructure; before hazards occur. The goal of the work is to contribute to the literature examining the national trend towards privatization and reliance on the free market economy for the provision of government social services, through such public management movements as the “New Public Management” (NPM) of the 1980s and …

“Maintaining Mythic Property”: The Lost History Of Louis Allard And His Grave In New Orleans City Park, Kimberly H. Jochum

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Where Do We Go From Here? Multiliteracy And The Future Of Narrative, Dustin W. Mccrory

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Words on a page are insufficient vehicles for complex ideas. When images and words appear together on the page, as in comics, the process of meaning-making through narrative functions more efficiently. Building on this idea, we must establish a “graphic narratology” to understand the process whereby meaning is transmitted. Analysis of narratological conventions, as well as the conventions of mass-market comics, provides a framework for this new narratology.

Critiquing Academic Culture With Satire Through Lady Lazarus, A Fictional Biography, Amber R. Perry

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the tradition of academic satire, Lady Lazarus is the fictional biography of the daughter of American rock musicians. In her late teens she rises to fame as confessional poet, who, despite only publishing one collection of poems during her brief life, becomes an overnight sensation. Author Andrew Altschul is satirizing academia’s need to be a part of popular culture and in doing so, privileges the ability to use controversy and conventional beauty to sell books as opposed to creating quality art. By focusing on how the author uses Hans Robert Jauss’ horizons of expectations, unreliable narrators, anecdotes in biography …

Reaper – Toward Automating Mobile Cloud Communication, Daniel R. Ward

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Mobile devices connected to cloud based services are becoming a mainstream method of delivery up-to-date and context aware information to users. Connecting mobile applications to cloud service require significant developer effort. Yet this communication code usually follows certain patterns, varying accordingly to the specific type of data sent and received from the server. By analyzing the causes of theses variations, we can create a system that can automate the code creation for communication from a mobile device to a cloud server. To automate code creation, a general pattern must extracted. This general solution can then be applied to any database …

A Study On The Regulation Of Amino Acids And Glucose Sensing Pathways In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Mengying Chiang

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient availability regulates eukaryotic cell growth. This study focuses on two signaling pathways, involved in sensing amino acids and carbon sources, which allow cells to respond appropriately to their presence. The first part of this study shows that Ssy1, a plasma membrane localized sensor in the Ssy1-Ptr3-Ssy5 (SPS) amino acid sensing pathway, can detect 19 common L-amino acids with different potencies and affinities based on the physiochemical structure of amino acids. Substituents around alpha carbon are critical for amino acid sensing by Ssy1. Furthermore, a high concentration of cysteine is toxic to cells. Inactivation of SPS signaling confers resistance to …

Approaches For Improved Positional Proteomics, Yanjie Jiang

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Positional proteomics is emerging as an attractive technique to characterize protein termini, which play important biological roles in cells. Even with the advances in past decades, there still are areas for improvement. This thesis focuses on improving data quality and assignment confidence in positional proteomics.

A novel workflow was designed for the large-scale identification of protein N-terminal sequences. 4-sulfophenyl isothiocyanate (SPITC) is used for N-termini sulfonation; Upon higher energy collisional dissociation (HCD), SPITC peptides in electrospray ionization ESI generate predominately y-type ion series; such simplification of spectra enables the identification of N-termini with high fidelity. The presence of b_{1 …}

Three Essays In Financial Economics, Ivan F. Julio

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Financial Market Development On Holdings Of Us Assets And Equity Carve-Outs And Macroeconomic Activity, Ravigsida Dorcas Compaore

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The first part of this dissertation examines the impact of financial development on different countries holdings of U.S securities. The difference between the US weight in the global market capitalization and the US weight in developed and developing countries is tested through a panel data analysis. We find that most countries tend to overweight their US debt portfolio which is strongly related to their financial market development. When holdings of US debts and equity are low, financial market development is high; in developing countries, holding less US equity in their portfolio causes country to get better financial development. In developed …

Holding Mardi Gras Hostage: Mayor Ernest N. Morial And The 1979 New Orleans Police Strike, Gordon F. Chadwick

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In 1979, New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebration was disrupted by a police strike. The strike exposed the new political positioning that had resulted from national pressures such as the realization of black political power and the brief surge in public worker unions. New Orleans’ weakening white social elite was forced to assert its remaining power through Mardi Gras, while finding an unexpected ally in Mayor Ernest N. Morial, the first black mayor of New Orleans. This temporary alliance exemplifies an experience that was different than that of other American cities. While strong racial tension persisted, the old establishment’s interests coincided …

A Necessary Monster? Vladimir Putin's Political Decisions Regarding The "Secession" Of Chechnya And The Second Chechen War (1999-2009), Kimberly G. Edwards

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis will examine Vladimir Putin's controversial political decisions regarding the Second Chechen War justifying the conflict both inside and outside of Russia. It opens with Putin identifying with the United States after the terrorist activities of September 11, 2001 and how he used the American War on Terror to explain his own decisions regarding the Caucasus. For further understanding the paper looks at the history of Russian-Chechen relations to show how the centuries of hostility and mistrust culminated in two Chechen Wars within a ten year time period (1994-2004). It will also study the Russian view, held by …

Two Essays On The Efficiency, Diversification, And Performance Of Financial Institutions, Abu Khan

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the first chapter I investigate the change in operating performance, efficiency and value addition of US bank merger and acquisition after GLBA. I extend the previous research by combining all the previous methodology used in merger literature and added a new methodology namely Expected EVA improvement. I will test whether these performance metrics have similar results or the performance of merger vary depending on the measurements. I will also examine the factors that have significant impact on the change in the banks’ performance.

My results show that industry-adjusted operating performance of merged banks increases significantly after a merger.I also …

Invisible Women: Examining The Political, Economic, Cultural, And Social Factors That Lead To Human Trafficking And Sex Slavery Of Young Girls And Women, Robyn L. White

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employs the most recent and best available data on human trafficking, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Trafficking in Persons Global Report 2006, as well as nine independent variables to determine what their effects are on countries’ volumes of human trafficking outflows. By completing a cross-sectional analysis via an OLS regression, I found statistically significant support for three factors that I hypothesize lead to greater outflows of human trafficking. My findings suggest that countries that are less corrupt, have more seats in parliament held by women, and score higher on Cho, Dreher, and Neumayer’s Anti-Trafficking Policy …

Aaron Kohn Attacks Corruption In New Orleans: An Intersection Of Media And Politics, 1953-1955, Kyle P. Willshire

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Aaron Kohn’s career as a driven professional crime fighter with the Special Citizens Investigative Committee, and later the Metropolitan Crime Commission, began after the Kefauver Hearings on organized crime, one of the first Senate investigative committee hearings broadcast on the evolving medium of television, gripped the American public in 1950. Sen. Estes Kefauver’s committee visited cities across America, including New Orleans. The hearings’ popularity revealed public thirst for coverage of sensational topics like organized crime, and established how Kohn would soon approach the SCIC job: with force and bombast, featuring flair and sometimes bended truth. Aaron Kohn combined Kefauver’s crusading …

Geomorphic Evolution Of Caminada Pass In Southeast Louisiana., Jordyn A. Spizale

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Tidal inlets play a significant role in barrier island sustainability along the barrier islands of southern Louisiana. With increasing tidal prism, major changes are taking place within and adjacent to the inlets. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Caminada Pass, a tidal inlet along the Caminada-Moreau headland, has evolved through time. Fundamental to this effort is evaluating which processes have contributed toward inlet evolution and what is the response of the inlet-bordering barrier island shorelines of Grand Isle and Elmer’s Island. This effort summarizes previous results and utilizes published bathymetric data, aerial photographs, vector shorelines, satellite images, …

A Gateway For Everyone To Believe: Identity, Disaster, And Football In New Orleans, Brandon D. Haynes

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to analyze the dynamic processes of collective identity by examining the relationship between New Orleans and its professional football team, the Saints, after Hurricane Katrina. Much of the discourse written on American professional sports focuses on economic transactions between player and franchise or franchise and city. This study explores sports from a cultural perspective to understand the perceived social values provided to the host community. This case study spans the years from 2006 to 2013 and discusses several major events, including the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the reopening of the Superdome, the Saints winning a …

Phasing-Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies In Venezuela: A Transportation Planning Perspective, Mariana E. Marmol

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the feasibility of a gasoline and diesel consumer subsidy phase-out in Venezuela from a transportation planning perspective. It surveys the literature and discusses case studies from Iran, Brazil, and Bolivia in order to identify the lessons that Venezuela can learn from these countries’ successes and mistakes. It examines how strengthening and investing in the public transportation system can be used as a means to gain public support for the reform. I discuss the current political, social, and economic conditions that make a fossil-fuel subsidy reform difficult, and offer suggestions from a transportation planner’s perspective on how the …

Vampirism In Hawthorne’S “The Birthmark,” The Scarlet Letter, And “The Minister’S Black Veil”, Amanda D. Baudot

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Erik Butler’s predicates for vampirism apply in some degree to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s male protagonists who skulk in the margins of “The Birthmark,” The Scarlet Letter, and “The Minister’s Black Veil.” As metaphoric vampires who seek weak prey in order to manipulate power structures, these monomaniacal parasites assume paternalistic positions in order to control and manipulate their victims, and they disguise their exploitive and egotistic sides with idealistic and altruistic passions for science and religion. This thesis explores how Hawthorne’s protagonists’ corrupt and consuming spirits echo traditional vampiristic characteristics.

Leitmotif, Breiseus A. Ashford

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Semantic Assistance For Data Utilization And Curation, Brian J. Becker

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

We propose that most data stores for large organizations are ill-designed for the future, due to limited searchability of the databases. The study of the Semantic Web has been an emerging technology since first proposed by Berners-Lee. New vocabularies have emerged, such as FOAF, Dublin Core, and PROV-O ontologies. These vocabularies, combined, can relate people, places, things, and events. Technologies developed for the Semantic Web, namely the standardized vocabularies for expressing metadata, will make data easier to utilize. We gathered use cases for various data sources, from human resources to big enterprise. Most of our use cases reflect real-world data. …

The Lived Experiences Of Master's Level Counseling Students In Beginning Skills Classes: A Qualitative Study, Brian K. Knight

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

According to McAuliffe and Lovell (2006), regardless of the training received in skills classes, master’s level counseling students continue to be rote in their approach to clients and their use of counseling skills as opposed to understanding how skills fit into the helping process. Students also experience confusion manifested by fear, anxiety, self-doubt, and questioning of abilities to perform the required skills (Skovholt & Jennings, 2005). The purpose of this research study was to explore the lived experiences of master’s level counseling students in a beginning counseling skills class. I used Perry’s (1970) scheme of cognitive and intellectual development …

An Applied Numerical Simulation Of Entrained-Flow Coal Gasification With Improved Sub-Models, Xijia Lu

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The United States holds the world's largest estimated reserves of coal and is also a net exporter of it. Coal gasification provides a cleaner way to utilize coal than directly burning it. Gasification is an incomplete oxidation process that converts various carbon-based feedstocks into clean synthetic gas (syngas), which can be used to produce electricity and mechanical power with significantly reduced emissions. Syngas can also be used as feedstock for making chemicals and various materials.

A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) scheme has been used to simulate the gasification process for many years. However, many sub-models still need to be developed …

Before, During, After, Kelly Rose

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Following in the footsteps of writers Mary Karr, Joan Didion, Russell Baker, and many others, Kelly Rose writes about her childhood, marriage, and subsequent divorce from a New Orleans journalist. Her writing is broken down into various sections, which address her writing influences, her troubled relationship with her mother and her complicated divorce. Finally, the author discusses how these experiences have shaped her writing today.

Essays On Commercial Bank Risk, Regulation And Governance, Mohammad Faisal As Safa

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I analyze the effect of various risks faced by commercial banks on the executive compensation in banking industry. Commercial bank executives are risk averse due to the regulatory pressure in addition to board governance mechanism. Commercial banks face various risks because of the regulatory mechanism and unique asset structure of the firm. So, it is expected that they should associate their own pay and pay-performance sensitivities (PPS) with the risks their banks face.

I find that bank executives associate their performance based pay with both idiosyncratic risk and systematic risk. But they associate their fixed pay only with systematic risk. …

Perceived And Actual Emotional Control Among Youth: Are There Differential Relations With Anxiety And Aggression?, Brandon Scott

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The perception of and actual ability to control emotional responses during stressful, taxing situations are important to an individual’s well-being. Studies have shown that both low perceived control and a low actual ability for emotional control are related to internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. However, significant gaps in research exist in terms of testing theoretical predictions about how perceived and actual emotional control are associated with anxiety and aggressive behavior problems, particularly among adolescents. The first goal of this study was to examine two objective measures of actual control (i.e., vagal tone and vagal regulation) and their link with …

Forensic Analysis Of Whatsapp On Android Smartphones, Neha S. Thakur

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Android forensics has evolved over time offering significant opportunities and exciting challenges. On one hand, being an open source platform Android is giving developers the freedom to contribute to the rapid growth of the Android market whereas on the other hand Android users may not be aware of the security and privacy implications of installing these applications on their phones. Users may assume that a password-locked device protects their personal information, but applications may retain private information on devices, in ways that users might not anticipate. In this thesis we will be concentrating on one such application called 'WhatsApp', a …