Digital Commons Network^™

Two Essays On Investment, Yao Zheng

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays: one looks at the time-varying relationship between earnings and price momentum, and the other looks at how liquidity and transparency affect the pricing differential between Chinese A-and Hong Kong H-share.

The first essay presented in Chapter I investigates the time varying relationship between earnings momentum and price momentum. Using a Markov-switching framework, allowing for variation between high volatility and low volatility states, I find that price momentum is significantly more influenced by earnings momentum in the high volatility state. Further for price momentum I find that loser firms display a higher degree of differential …

Leftover Thought & Other Poems, Michael A. Volpi Jr.

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Grandpa Bandit, Jasmine D. Dunn

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Grandpa Bandit tells the story of elderly Virgil Wells, an upstanding citizen who is forced to partake in criminal activities in order to be able to provide for his ailing wife, Mary. As their funds decrease and their medicare is terminated, Virgil applies for work but is overlooked. His abilities are underestimated. He's viewed as a liability because of his age. When all attempts at making an honest living fails, Virgil decides that his only option is to rob a bank.

Throughline: The common misconception that the elderly are incapable of working hard during their golden years often leaves these …

Rendezvous: Stories And A Novella, Heath Fisher

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

People are often a product of their environment, and each of the characters in this collection is an example of that shaping effect. These stories take you to the southern plains–land of red dirt, Bluestem, and prairie wind. Themes like hope, loss, and the exploration of frontier appear throughout the collection. In each story the setting becomes a character, forcing us to recognize the importance of place in our lives.

Happy Valley, Robert D. Gray

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Spirit Of The Spitfire: Creating The Role Of Nancy Shedman In Romulus Linney's "Holy Ghosts", Caleigh M. Keith

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explains the acting method used by Caleigh Keith while portraying the role of Nancy Shedman in Romulus Linney’s Holy Ghosts. Included are chapters of historical research, character analysis, and a production report, which includes a scored script, rehearsal and performance journal, and a self-evaluation of the actor’s work. Holy Ghosts was produced by Theater UNO at the University of New Orleans in the Robert E. Nims Thrust Theater of the Performing Arts Center. It opened Tuesday, February seventh, and ran through Sunday, February twelfth, two thousand and twelve. Evening performances were at seven-thirty and Sunday’s matinee was …

Pigments Of Imagination: An Actor's Journey Of Creating The Character Of Jack Lawson From David Mamet's Race, Paxton H. Mccaghren

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to create a believable, multiple dimension character portrayal of Jack Lawson in David Mamet’s Race. Documentation of the process will include: an explanation of the acting technique and analysis used to create the backstory and portrayal of the character; insight into the background and beliefs of playwright, David Mamet; and a personal review of my growth and performance.

Gender Perceptions Of Administrative Team Members Regarding Secondary Principals' Leadership Actions And Behaviors In Managing Change, Shannon L. Verrett

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey study investigated middle and high school administrative team members’ leadership classifications and perceptions of secondary principals’ leadership actions and behaviors in the context of change and to what extent these perceptions are gender specific. In addition to gender, the study also examined the impact of race/ethnicity, age, campus level, length of employment in the district, length of time working with the principal, and closeness to the principals on leadership actions and behaviors. The results of the study are intended to highlight the importance and value of feminine-inspired leadership approaches and administrative team members’ perspectives of leadership …

Factors That Influence The Participation Of Immigrant Latino Parents In The Special Education Process Of Their Children With Disabilities, Maria Isolina Ruiz

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act emphasized the importance of parents’ participation in all educational decisions concerning their children with disabilities. However, parents’ ability to actively participate in, and contribute to, their children’s special education process is influenced by a variety of parent and school related factors. For immigrant Latino parents, these factors may include additional issues related to cultural and linguistic diversity not experienced by most parents. This study examined the experiences of immigrant Latino parents when navigating the special education system as well as the impact that such experiences had on parents’ participation in the special education process …

A Study Of The Impact Of Instructional Approach On Community College Students’ Problem Solving And Metacognitive Abilities In The Developmental Mathematics Course, Introductory Algebra, Sandra T. Landry

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the cognitive, metacognitive, affective and instructional constructs that influence students’ problem solving development in a community college Introductory Algebra course. The study addressed the lack of success that developmental mathematics students in a community college have in the Introductory Algebra course and in subsequent curriculum mathematics courses. Research suggests that the prevalent procedural-oriented instructional methodology used in most mathematics classrooms may be contributing to the lack of student success. The community college students (N = 140) in this study were enrolled in an Introductory Algebra course. The study investigated the relationships …

Exploring The Relationship Between English Composition Teachers' Beliefs About Written Feedback And Their Written Feedback Practices, Sandra Vandercook

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

For teachers of freshman English composition, the most time-consuming aspect of teaching is responding to student papers (Anson, 2012; Straub, 2000b). Teachers respond in various ways, but most teachers agree that they should offer written feedback to students (Beach & Friedrich, 2006). However, little research has been conducted to determine how teachers’ written feedback practices reflect their beliefs about the purpose of such feedback. This qualitative study explores the relationship between English composition teachers’ beliefs about written feedback and their actual written feedback practices.

The participants were a sample of four instructors of freshman English composition at a mid-sized metropolitan …

Evaluating The Role Of Environmental Stressors And Sensitive Parenting On The Emergence Of Behavior Problems During Early Childhood, Brenna Sapotichne

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Repeatedly, parenting quality has been shown to affect children’s level of behavior problems during early childhood (e.g., Bayer, Sanson, & Hemphill, 2006; Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin, 2003). However, the parent-child relationship exists within a broader social context (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). Therefore, social contextual stressors such as financial strain, neighborhood danger, and residential overcrowding may affect children’s adjustment through parenting. Based on The Family Stress model (Conger & Elder, 1994), the current study tests the theory that sensitive parenting mediates the relationship between these three environmental stressors (i.e., financial strain, neighborhood danger, and residential overcrowding) and children’s behavior problems from ages …

Application Of Web Mashup Technology To Oyster Information Services, Christian Chuindja Ngniah

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Web mashup is a lightweight technology used to integrate data from remote sources without direct access to their databases. As a data consumer, a Web mashup application creates new contents by retrieving data through the Web application programming interface (API) provided by the external sources. As a data provider, the service program publishes its Web API and implements the specified functions.

In the project reported by this thesis, we have implemented two Web mashup applications to enhance the Web site oystersentinel.org: the Perkinsus marinus model and the Oil Spill model. Each model overlay geospatial data from a local database …

Water-Soluble Deep-Cavity Cavitands: Synthesis, Molecular Recognition, And Interactions With Phospholipid Membranes, Sarah E. Ioup

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Water-soluble deep-cavity cavitands provide a rare opportunity to study self-assembly driven by the hydrophobic effect. These molecular hosts dimerize in the presence of certain guest molecules to form water-soluble molecular capsules. These systems have given rise to numerous novel chemical phenomena and have potential use in drug delivery. The host octaacid (OA) has been particularly well-characterized, but studies are limited to basic pH because of limited host solubility.

Herein we report an improved synthesis of OA and the syntheses of three new water-soluble deep-cavity cavitands. The new hosts are soluble at neutral pH, increasing relevance for biological studies. The new …

From Amber To Darkness, Courtney J. Spencer, Courtney Spencer

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

N/A

Odor Monitoring At Wastewater Treatment Plants, Natasha Halageri

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is notable for its toxicity and corrosion is one of the major sources of odor in wastewater treatment plants. Evaluation of existing or potential odor problems requires knowledge of the type of compounds likely to cause such problems and the mechanism of their formation in wastewater systems which is discussed in this paper. For the present study, the East Bank wastewater treatment plant was chosen since it is the largest wastewater treatment facility within Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. To combat the odor problems in this facility, a monitoring program was designed and developed to characterize the …

Beneath Cuoi's Tree, Zachary J. George Sir

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

“Man’S Country. Out Where The West Begins”: Women, The American Dream, And The West In Joan Didion’S Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Coleen Maidlow

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the feminist perspective in Didion’s collection of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Throughout the text, Didion looks closely at the West and the changing social climate which surrounds her. Her essays chronicle women struggling to find a balance between the domestic and independence promised by myth the West. I analyze how women are granted only limited participation within the American Dream because of the masculine power structures which dominate our society. As the values of the American Dream shift, the women that Didion depicts attempt to find identity and independence despite the restrictive forces around them.

Gaining Relevance In The Face Of Obsolescence: The Uss Texas – A Battleship In The Second World War, Kali Martin

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Despite the vast material that has been written about the Second World War, most literature mentions battleships in passing, giving little attention to a role that battleships filled- that of naval gunfire support for amphibious landings. The literature regarding the Navy’s older, obsolescent battleships such as the Texas is scarce. Using primary sources regarding the Texas and the evolution of naval gunfire doctrine from the pre-war and wartime periods, this study looks at the involvement of the Texas in the Second World War and how the Navy employed its oldest battleships. The amphibious landings of the war provided a …

The Feasibility Of Closing Vehicle Crossings Along St. Charles Avenue: A Study Of Transit Safety And Performance, Vivek B. Shah

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The St. Charles streetcar is an important transit line in the city of New Orleans, with about 65,000 people living within a ½ mile walking distance from it. However, the line experiences a very high streetcar/automobile crash rate due in large part to the large number of grade vehicle crossings over the tracks that lack signalization. Through traffic modeling, the closure of many of these vehicle crossings and the diversion of automotive traffic to the remaining, signalized crossings is analyzed to determine traffic impacts on street network. The result is a modest increase in traffic, about 7-8%, at the remaining …

Volatile Memory Message Carving: A "Per Process Basis" Approach, Aisha Ibrahim Ali-Gombe

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The pace at which data and information transfer and storage has shifted from PCs to mobile devices is of great concern to the digital forensics community. Android is fast becoming the operating system of choice for these hand-held devices, hence the need to develop better forensic techniques for data recovery cannot be over-emphasized. This thesis analyzes the volatile memory for Motorola Android devices with a shift from traditional physical memory extraction to carving residues of data on a “per process basis”. Each Android application runs in a separate process within its own Dalvik Virtual Machine (JVM) instance, thus, the proposed …

Characterization Of Magnetic Nanostructured Materials By First Order Reversal Curve Method, Denny R. Lenormand

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Interactions and magnetization reversal of Ni nanowire arrays and synthetic anit-ferromagnetic coupled thin film trilayers have been investigated through first order reversal curve (FORC) method. By using a quantitative analysis of the local interaction field profile distributions obtained from FORC, it has proven to be a powerful characterization tool that can reveal subtle features of magnetic interactions.

High Frequency Study Of Magnetic Nanostructures, Abhishek Srivastava

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The work in this thesis is divided in three parts. In part one we developed electrodeposition method of Nickel Nanowire in commercial AAO template in constant current (Galvanostatic) mode, further we tried to estimate the growth rate from theory, from saturation magnetization and direct measurement from SEM image.

In part two we focused on using the Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) to measure the Ferromagnetic Resonance (FMR))of various magnetic Nanowire arrays. We employed different measurement geometries using microstripline and coplanar waveguide as microwave transmission lines.

In part three our aim was to study the magnetic properties of complex ferromagnetic system, especially …

Comparative Phylogeography Of Central African Duikers Using Non-Invasive Sampling Methods, Stephan Ntie

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The present study sets out to assess patterns of evolutionary diversification in central African duikers (subfamily Cephalophinae). The sampling strategy consisted of collecting geo-referenced duiker feces across 43 sites and seven countries. However, several challenges related to the use of non-invasive samples needed to be addressed prior to large scale DNA amplification. First, the best storage method for obtaining DNA from fecal samples needed to be established. Our study revealed that while silica is best for nuclear microsatellite analyses, RNAlater is the best storage medium for maximal mitochondrial amplification. Moreover, extracting DNA as early as possible always provided the …

The Relationship Between Legal And Extra-Legal Factors: How Judges Come To Make Their Decisions In Domestic Violence Cases, Ioulia Koublitskaia

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to understand how Trial Court Judges in state and city courts make decisions in domestic violence cases. The researcher examined the relationship between legal (e.g., evidence) and extra-legal factors (e.g., preconceived biases and behaviors related to judicial decision-making) using a qualitative research design. A case study of multiple locations in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes was used whereby a purposive sample of 17 current civil, municipal, and criminal court judges were interviewed. Judicial decision-making strategies were studied via face-to-face interviews, courtroom observations, and content analysis of courtroom communications (e.g., speech, written text, interviews, images, etc.). …

Not Just A Symbol But A Status Symbol, Summer D. Winston

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I create art, not out of a deep understanding of the world around me, but out of a lack of one. Human psychology, motives, behaviors, stressors, intentions and identity are the themes that boggle me the most. Therefore, it is only natural that my work would be fueled by the questions these themes pose. In the past I sought to understand what pushes people to make certain choices and how can the world around us affect the formation of identity. Currently I wonder about identity in terms of what do people use to form and reinforce identity both real and …

Integrating Oracle Peoplesoft Campus Solution To External Applications, Ishwor Aryal

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

An integration solution must sustain multiple PeopleSoft upgrades, which is necessary to preserve investment in system integrations. Since the underlying structures and connection technologies of PeopleSoft have been and can be migrated from version to version in order to enhance features and performance, it is critical for any external component of integration to be built based on publicly visible interfaces of the PeopleSoft component. We have developed a standard-based solution to integrate “PeopleSoft Campus Solution” into “Microsoft SharePoint” using Web services generated by PeopleSoft’s Pure Internet Architecture. We have illustrated such kind of integration in two examples that emulate some …

Artifacts, Lacar E. Musgrove

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Statehouse Mosaics And The American Electorate: How State Legislatures Affect Political Participation, Robynn Kuhlmann

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Comparatively few studies have explored how variations in state governing institutions influence voting behavior. Utilizing lower chamber state legislative election returns from the years 2000 through 2010, and the 2002 through 2010 GSS data series, this dissertation focuses on how US state legislatures influence voting behavior and political attitudes of the American electorate. Specifically, this research takes on a comparative approach and illustrates how institutional differences in the size, capacity, and composition of the US state legislatures affect the electorates’ propensity to vote and how politically efficacious people feel.

Evolution Of Nuclear Integrations Of The Mitochondrial Genome In Great Apes And Their Potential As Molecular Markers, Ivan D. Soto-Calderon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The mitochondrial control region (MCR) has played an important role as a population genetic marker in many taxa but sequencing of complete eukaryotic genomes has revealed that nuclear integrations of mitochondrial DNA (numts) are abundant and widespread across many taxa. If left undetected, numts can inflate mitochondrial diversity and mislead interpretation of phylogenetic relationships. Comparative analyses of complete genomes in humans, orangutans and chimpanzees, and preliminary studies in gorillas have revealed high numt prevalence in great apes, but rigorous comparative analyses across taxa have been lacking.

The present study aimed to systematically compare the evolutionary dynamics of MCR numts in …