Digital Commons Network^™

Factors Determining University Enrollment Status: The Case Of High School Students Recruited To Attend Louisiana State University College Of Agriculture., Fredrick Muyia Nafukho

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a model existed that significantly increased the researcher's ability to accurately explain whether or not a recruited student in the College of Agriculture at LSU will enroll based upon the current recruitment strategies. The target population for this study consisted of 1,130 prospective freshmen recruited to attend the College of Agriculture in the fall 1997. A comparison of students who resided on the College of Agriculture's 1997 prospective freshmen data base, with the university undergraduate data base gave an accessible population of 226 students. The actual sample size was determined using …

Comparison Of Intervention Strategies Based On Experimental Analysis, Descriptive Analysis, And Reinforcer Assessment In Addressing Off-Task Classroom Behaviors., Lynn Habyan Lafleur

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Independent descriptive and experimental analyses as well as preferences assessments, were conducted. Descriptive analyses were conducted to identify baseline levels of off-task behavior, and to systematically describe the co-variation between off-task behaviors and peer attention, teacher attention, and the instructional task. Data on off-task behavior were analyzed by computing conditional probabilities associated with maintaining stimuli (e.g., peer attention). Intervention development was based on a simple contingency reversal. Experimental analyses were conducted to examine the extent to which off-task behavior was related to task difficulty or to consequences (i.e., peer attention) that were systematically programmed by the experimenter. Hypotheses and intervention …

Investigation Of Two Treatment Approaches For Improving College Students' Comprehension Of Science Text., Nancy L. Martino

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Many college freshmen are unable to read expository material at a level of proficiency necessary for understanding and integrating information from their textbooks. Providing intervention that addresses these deficits and results in rapid improvements is critical if these students are going to pass their current courses and remain in college. This study examined whether an instructional approach termed Communicative Reading Strategies (CRS) would result in improvement in the ability to comprehend expository text. CRS uses interactive strategies that teach students to comprehend a text as it is read. The CRS approach was compared to a skills approach that addressed similar …

Questions About Behavioral Function (Qabf): A Behavioral Checklist For Functional Assessment Of Aberrant Behavior., Theodosia Renata Paclawskyj

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Functional assessment is a tool in behavior therapy used to identify the functional relationships between a behavior of interest and the individual's environment. A functional assessment identifies variables that both occasion and maintain a particular behavior. Traditional functional assessment methodologies have relied on experimental techniques in which analog sessions are designed to mimic situations in the individual's environment. However, these techniques are time-consuming, require extensive training, and rely on the availability of numerous resources in the individual's setting. Development of a brief functional assessment checklist would circumvent these difficulties and make a significant contribution to applied behavioral psychology. The proposed …

Assessing The Reuse Potential Of Objects., Maria Lorna Reyes

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

In this research, we investigate whether reusable classes can be characterized by object-oriented (OO) software metrics. Three class-level reuse measures for the OO paradigm are defined: inheritance-based reuse, inter-application reuse by extension, and inter-application reuse as a server. Using data from a software company, we collected metrics on Smalltalk classes. Among the 20 metrics collected are cyclomatic complexity, Lorenz complexity, lines of code, class coupling, reuse ratio, specialization ratio and number of direct subclasses. We used stepwise regression to derive prediction models incorporating the 20 metrics as the independent variables and the reuse measures, applied separately, as the dependent variable. …

Effects Of Anesthesia And Potential Antispastic Agents In An Experimental Model Of Spasticity., Heather Colleen Mosser

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Spasticity is a common motor disorder in spinal cord injured-patients. Therapeutic agents used to treat the motor abnormalities exist but are often unsatisfactory. Tests of potential pharmacotherapies are routinely conducted in anesthetized intact or acutely spinal animals, conditions which do not accurately simulate the human situation. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop, validate and use the chronic spinal rat as a model of spasticity that closely approximates the human spastic syndrome to evaluate antispastic agents. The main goals of this research project were to: (1) demonstrate the development of spasticity in the chronic spinal rat; (2) determine effects …

A Descriptive Assessment Model For Writing Programs: A Plan For Louisiana College., Linda Pettus Peevy

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Aware of the proliferation of discussion, activity, and even legislation regarding assessment of educational programs; informed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) regarding institutional effectiveness; and realizing that assessment efforts are a valid means of revealing programmatic strengths and weaknesses and, therefore, of suggesting where change is needed, the Louisiana College English faculty began in 1991 to study how best to assess the effectiveness of its core requirement in English, a three-semester writing program. The project that forms the basis for this dissertation had its inception in that endeavor. This descriptive study, designed to assess the effects …

Rhetoric And Social Struggle: In Search Of The Topoi Of Violence., Edward Christopher Reilly

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The rhetorical study of violence tends to examine violence within larger generic boundaries such as social movements studies or war rhetoric. In order to work toward a generalizable rhetorical theory of violence and discourse, this study examines texts which justify violence across generic boundaries. Accordingly, four case studies individually examine texts which justify political violence. This study compares and contrasts the rhetorical strategies of George Bush, the Unabomber, Earth First! and Abbie Hoffman. This study concludes that there are no universal strategies among the four case studies in the justification of violence. However, there appears to be a continuum of …

Facilitating Knowledge Integration And Flexibility: The Effects Of Reflection And Exposure To Alternative Models., Lewis Garnet Roussel Jr

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Three experiments investigated the effect of various kinds of reflection (within-task and post-task reflection) on learning a process control task. Also, two ways of providing learners with alternative ideas about task behavior, exposure to other's ideas and providing hints for task solution, were examined. The task involved a simulated "sugar production factory" in which the learners sought to control sugar production by manipulating workforce size. It was predicted that combining within-task reflection with exposure to alternative task ideas would lead to superior task performance through integration of experiential and reflective knowledge. Contrary to the prediction, within-task reflection consistently interfered with …

Biology And Ecology Of The Anopheles Quadrimaculatus Sibling Species Complex In Louisiana., Cynthia Roxanne Rutledge

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

A polymerase chain reaction method for identifying individuals in the Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say sibling species complex was validated for wild mosquitoes from Louisiana and Mississippi. This method distinguished An. quadrimaculatus species A, B, C, and D by detecting species-specific differences in the 2nd internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA and was 100% specific and 95% sensitive. A polymerase chain reaction assay that detects differences in the second internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA was tested for its usefulness in identifying all immature stages of two representatives in the An. quadrimaculatus sibling species complex. The technique was successful in amplifying DNA …

The Effects Of An Enriched Environment On The Stereotypic Movement Of Individuals With Profound Mental Retardation., Brandi Braud Smiroldo

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of a specific type of enriched environment on the stereotypic movements of individuals with severe and profound mental retardation. A multisensory room which contained visual, auditory, and tactile stimulation was used. Effects of brief exposure to the multisensory room was compared to effects of exposure to a placebo probe involving attention and access to tangibles and to no treatment controls. Comparisons were made during a 10-minute post-test session immediately following. No significant differences between groups on rate of stereotypic movements at post-test was noted, anecdotal information and review of raw …

Components That Should Be Included In An Ethics Enhancement Program For State Legislatures., Kenneth Ward

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the study was to identify the components and sub-components that should be included in an ethics enhancement program for a state legislature, as perceived by a national panel of experts in the areas of legislative ethics. A Delphi panel comprised of state legislators and state ethics officers was established and comprised of persons representing each of the four regions of the United States. In Round One of the study, the panel identified 12 primary components and 124 related sub-components for an ethics enhancement program in a state legislature. Each of the suggested items were unique and nearly …

The Effect Of Participation In The Occupational Safety And Health Administration's Voluntary Protection Programs On Injury/Illness Rates., Linda Diane Weems

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect participation in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) has on injury/illness rates (IIR). Data was obtained from OSHA's Office of Cooperative Programs for the companies participating in the VPP for the years 1983 through 1997. This data was summarized and analyzed to satisfy this study's objectives. Objective 1 was to describe and compare the companies participating in OSHA's VPP and their IIR with the average IIR reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the industries for each year of the program's existence from …

Educational Technology And State Reform: Examining The First-Year Impact Of Louisiana's State Technology Policy On Public School Districts., Jeffrey Paul Gagne

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

During the 1990's educational technology became a major educational policy issue for every state (White, 1997; Education Commission of the States, 1997; National Council of State Legislators, 1996; Trotter, 1997). By early 1998, all 50 states had state-level technology plans in various stages of implementation, and state funding for educational technologies was rapidly increasing across the country (Trotter, 1997). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of recently enacted Louisiana state-level technology reforms on public school district technology efforts between the 1996--97 and 1997--98 school years. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data, creating …

Applications Of Band Ratioing At Fort Irwin, California., Alexander Wright Taylor

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation describes the results of two projects that demonstrate the power of band ratioing of remote sensing data. The first method, Band Ratio Differencing (BRD), challenges the more traditional techniques for detecting environmental disturbance of the surface in and terrains. These traditional techniques are inadequate because they cannot identify the nature of the change (physical, chemical, biological) or the processes (natural, anthropogenic) involved in causing the change. In contrast, BRD of Landsat TM data has the advantage of providing information about changes in the composition of alluvial surfaces. These compositional changes, when combined with empirical field data provides insight …

Literacy Stories: Attitudes Toward Literacy And Motivation To Read Among African-American Males In An Urban Community., Donna Parham Washington

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Through methods of ethnographic research this study explores the attitudes toward literacy and the motivation to read of African American male secondary school students in an urban community. This study includes historical inquiry obtained through the gathering of oral histories from men who experienced their youth and adolescence in the same geographic area as the secondary school students. Over the past fifty years the neighborhood focused on in this study has undergone tremendous change, both societal and structural. Information obtained through the interviews of the older men and the younger men will be compared to determine changes in literacy attitudes, …

An Efficient Library For Parallel Ray Tracing And Animation, John Edward Stone

Masters Theses

"A parallel ray tracing library is presented for rendering high detail images of three dimensional geometry and computational fields. The library has been developed for use on distributed memory and shared memory parallel computers and can also run on sequential computers. Parallelism is achieved through the use of message passing and threads. It is shown that the library achieves almost linear scalability when run on large distributed memory parallel computers as well as large shared memory parallel computers.

Several applications of parallel rendering are explored including rendering of CAD models, animation, magnetic resonance imaging, and visualization of volumetric flow fields. …

Tectonic Caves Of Solai In The Kenyan Rift Valley, Robert A. Davis

International Journal of Speleology

Tectonic caves at Solai, Kenya, were explored in 1970. These lie in a complex geological area of the Great Rift Valley in columnar-faulted ignimbrite. Fissures are presumed to have been widened by later tectonic activity -e.g. the major earthquake of January, 1928. The caves and exploration are briefly described. Questions of formation, drainage and possibilities of steam reservoirs are discussed.

Research In Mathematics Education: A Contemporary Perspective, Alistair Mcintosh (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

The twelve chapters in this book-all but two written by researchers in Australian universities-provide ample evidence of the impressive contributions currently being made by Australia to research in mathematics education. The authors' fields of inquiry are diverse: they include discussion of the roles of language and imagery, problem posing and problem solving, students' beliefs and students' thinking, gambling and mental computation. T!1eir methodologies are no less diverse, incorporating descriptions of both quantitative and qualitative research projects, including action research in classrooms, theoretical perspectives and the development of theoretical models, reviews of research, surveys, clinical interviews and descriptions of new research …

Aiswa Literacy Project B P-3 Assessment : Teachers Developing Effective Literacy Assessment Strategies, Judith Rivalland

Research outputs pre 2011

This project originated from recommendations from Phase 1 in the development of the National Literacy Plan for the Association of Independent Schools. These recommendations included the need for a systematic approach to literacy assessment and teaching. The current project aimed to address this situation. The primary purposes of the project were: to explore how teachers can best improve outcomes for children by understanding assessment measures more effectively; to provide time for reflection and discussion about what participating teachers find out from using the assessment procedures; to explore how this knowledge will help teachers select appropriate teaching for all children, particularly …

Social Knowledge: Heritage Challenges Perspectives: Proceedings: Research Committee 13: Sociology Of Leisure, Francis Lobo (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Gender And Task Complexity On Audit Judgment, Janne Chung, Gary S. Monroe

Research outputs pre 2011

This study examines the interaction effect between gender and task complexity on audit judgment based on the selectivity hypothesis. This hypothesis states that males are selective information processors whereas females are detailed information processors. The study extends this hypothesis to an auditing context and hypothesizes that males will outperform females when task complexity is low while females will outperform males when task complexity is high. A two (males and females) by two (task complexity - high and low) full factorial experiment was carried out. The low and high task complexity conditions were created by manipulating the number of cues. The …

Salinity Action Plan : Wetland Vegetation Monitoring, 1997/1998, G. Ogden, R. H. Froend

Research outputs pre 2011

This report represents the vegetation component of a project designed to provide on-going monitoring of wetland salinity and biological resources in wetlands of the agricultural zone of south-west Western Australia. Maintenance of wetland biological diversity in the agricultural zone is one of the major objectives of the Salinity Action Plan. Due to their low position in the landscape, wetlands are the habitat most affected by salinisation...

Eye Health Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander People: Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Health Reviews: Number 1, Neil Thomson, Beverley Paterson

Research outputs pre 2011

As with many other aspects of health status, it is most probable that prior to the European settlement of Australia in 1788 the eye health of Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders was excellent. In fact. their eye health was almost certainly better than that of Europeans of the time. There are no definite data from early post-settlement times, but this conclusion appears reasonable from the results of a number of thorough surveys conducted as late as the 1940s and 1950s ( 1-4) Despite finding some severe preventable problems, particularly trachoma (a form of infective conjunctivitis - see Appendix l …

Arts On The Edge Conference: 30 March - 3 April Perth 1998 Western Australia, Western Australian Academy Of Performing Arts

Research outputs pre 2011

No abstract provided.

Proceedings Of The Fifth International Women In Leadership Conference: Ethics Or Leadership? The 90'S Dilemma, Adrianne Kinnear (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

The International Women in Leadership conference attracts internationally renowned speakers as well as a wide audience from across the nation. The Conference is at the forefront of organisational and leadership research and provides a means of personal interaction with preeminent female researchers and leaders in Australia and overseas. Such interaction deepens the understanding of the leadership capacities of women and of leadership in organisations, knowledge which is central to the intellectual work of the Women in Leadership Project. Held at the Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, from the 25th-27th November 1996, the Fifth International Women in Leadership conference focused on the theme: …

Principles And Practices Of Esl Teachers: A Study Of Adults And Children, Michael P. Breen, Bernard Hird, Marion Milton, Rhonda Oliver, A. Thwaite

Research outputs pre 2011

The study reported here aimed to identify the particular practices and uncover the particular principles of a group of ESL teachers. Some of the teachers were working with adult learners and some were working with young children. The research aimed to answer three main questions:

1. What are the classroom practices of this group of language teachers?

2. What principles do they identify as underlying their work in the classroom?

3. What is the relationship between the principles they held and the practices they adopted?

The study also aimed to find out if there were similarities or differences between teachers …

Statistical Boundaries: A Means By Which The Realities Of Rural Decline In The Western Australian Wheatbelt Has Been Hidden, Fiona M. Haslam-Mckenzie

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper will focus on a recent demographic study of the statistical subdivisions between Geraldton and Esperance and an ethnographic survey in that region, undertaken to understand the changes occurring in rural- communities. The paper will then examine the links between continuing depopulation trends and diminishing infrastructure, focusing on how these demographic changes impact on the daily lives of the Western Australian agricultural population, particularly women, and what effect these changes and government policy are having on the delivery of essential services.

The overall population of the region from Geraldton south to Esperance in Western Australia, excluding the metropolitan area, …

Regional Libraries Online Project : Survey, Glenn Watkins, Kitty Delaney, Gail Woods

Research outputs pre 2011

The Library and Information Service of Western Australia (LISWA) implemented their Regional Libraries Online Project in 1997 to provide public Internet access to 11 regional libraries in Western Australia. This report highlights major trends and issues that arose during the implementation of the project...

Into The Blue: A Celebration Of 80 Years For Women In Policing In Western Australia, Mel Ainsworth, Duane Bell, Irene Froyland

Research outputs pre 2011

No abstract provided.