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The Fattest Crocodile: Why Elected Judges Can't Ignore Public Opinion, Gerald F. Uelmen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Description Of General Self-Efficacy And Specific Self-Efficacy For Health Promoting Practices In A Disabled Population, Elizabeth M. Carrington

Masters Theses

This study examined disabled persons' self-efficacy in relationship to performance of health promoting practices. A descriptive research design in which questionnaires were administered by interview was utilized. The sample consisted of forty-four disabled adult individuals attending a vocational rehabilitation school. The General Self-Efficacy Sub-Scale (Sherer, et al, 1982) and the Self-Rated Abilities for Health Practices Scale (Becker, Stuifbergen, Oh & Hall, 1993) were administered.

Major findings related to the three research questions were: (a) this sample's Self-Rated Abilities Scores was higher than previously recorded for a comparable disabled population, (b) multiple disabilities had little impact on self-efficacy scores, (c) a …

Perceived Benefits And Barriers And Mammography Screening Compliance In Women Age 40 And Older, Amy Hoke Vanzee

Masters Theses

The mammography screening guidelines have been vague and differ from recommending organization to organization. Thus it is up to women to make decisions about mammography screening based on their personal health beliefs. This study examined the relationship between perceived benefits and perceived barriers to mammography and compliance with mammography screening guidelines in women age 40 and older. A correlational design was used with a convenience sample of 84 women from two outpatient family practice offices in the suburbs of a mid-western city. The Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors questionnaire created by Victoria Champion in 1995 was used to measure perceived benefits …

A Secondary Analysis Of Self Assessed Assets Of Ninth And Twelfth Grade Students, Carolyn H. Young

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to identify the assets possessed by ninth and twelfth graders. This is a secondary analysis of data collected from a survey taken in rural northeastern lower Michigan. This study compared and discussed the similarities and differences in the community, family, and personal characteristics that can be interpreted as assets possessed by these students. Thirty - nine such assets were identified as being possessed by at least one of the student populations. These data can be used to help develop programs which can prevent adolescents from engaging in high - risk behaviors such as early …

Behavioral And Emotional Indicators Of Sexual Abuse: A Comparison With Physically Abused And Non-Abused Children, Janine L. Post-Anderle

Masters Theses

The focus of this study was to identify behavioral and emotional symptoms among hospitalized children who were 1)sexually abused 2)physically abused 3)non-abused, and non-hospitalized non-abused children.

Information about children between the ages of 6 and 12 was obtained through a retrospective analysis of 120 closed records from two different child psychiatric hospitals. A convenience sample of 40 parents with non-hospitalized children was used to obtain data about non-hospitalized non-abused children.

The “Child Behavior/Emotion Checklist”, developed by the author, was used to collect data regarding symptoms exhibited by children. Results indicated no difference in symptoms among the hospitalized groups of children. …

Hiv/Aids Patients' Perceptions Of Nurse Caring Behaviors, Jennifer Lynn Jordahl

Masters Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine which nurse caring behaviors HIV/AIDS patient's perceived as most important. Subjects were recruited from an HIV/AIDS clinic in a large Midwestern city. Twenty-three subjects completed Cronin and Harrison (1988) Caring Behaviors Assessment (CBA) along with a patient demographic questionnaire and an open ended question asking, "Is there anything else a nurse could do to make you feel care for or about? If so what?".

Results of this study suggest that HIV/AIDS patients perceive expressive nurse caring behaviors, such as, listening to the patient, treating the patient with respect, and knowing when …

Patient Participation In Decision-Making Regarding Post-Operative Ambulation: How It Affects Patient Outcomes, Martha Ann Ruble

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of patient participation in decision-making regarding post-operative ambulation on ambulation behaviors, occurrence of post operative complications, and overall satisfaction for patients undergoing bowel surgery. A convenience sample consisted of 39 subjects, aged 20-80, who underwent bowel surgery at a 300-bed medical center in a midwest metropolitan area.

An active negotiated approach to encourage patient participation in decision-making regarding post-operative ambulation was utilized for subjects in the experimental group (n = 19). It was hypothesized that subjects in the experimental group would ambulate farther and more frequently, would experience fewer post-operative …

Adolescents' Perceived Reasons For Choosing Abstinence Or The Use Or Non-Use Of A Condom During Sexual Intercourse, Susan L. Vrobel

Masters Theses

Adolescents’ perceptions of reasons for abstinence, safer sex, and unsafe sex were investigated. The study used a descriptive design, with a questionnaire administered to 82 Midwestern ninth grade students enrolled in a school health class. From a written scenario describing a couple who are sexually attracted to each other, students were asked to identify reasons the couple might choose to abstain from, or use or not use a condom if they chose to have, sexual intercourse. This study supported earlier research by Keller et al. (1996) which identified four factors perceived by adolescents as contributing to sexual behavior; social norms, …

Evaluation Of The Community Living Adaptation Scale, Jane M. Morris

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the CLAS. Seventy-three subjects participated from mental health case management agencies. The reliability coefficient for internal consistency o f the CLAS was .82. CLAS was compared to the Global Assessment of Functioning scale using the Pearson’s correlation. Convergent validity was significant to the .36 level indicating a significant relationship at the .01 level. The Self Profile Scale (SPS) was developed by this researcher as a parallel scale to compare the client’s perceptions to the case manager perceptions regarding functional status level. Item to item comparison of the CLAS and SPS indicated similar …

Health Care Workers' Compliance With Glove Use And Variables That Influence Health Care Workers' Compliance With Glove Use, Angela C. Wallen-Counterman

Masters Theses

This study examined health care workers' compliance with glove use and variables that influence health care workers' compliance with glove use. A descriptive correlational design using a questionnaire given to health care workers in a long term care facility was employed for this study. The sample consisted of 28 health care workers who worked at the long term care facility. A modified Survey of Health Care Workers Use of Gloves (Henry, Maki, & Campbell,1992) was used to collect the data.

Data analysis consisted of reporting means, standard deviations, and range of scores for glove use compliance and variables that influence …

Evaluation Of Advanced Cardiac Life Support Written Examinations, Laura J. Borst

Masters Theses

This study was conducted using a descriptive research design to determine the quality of two Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) written examinations. In addition, the relationship between demographic variables and subjects’ performance on the written examinations was examined. Malcolm Knowles theory of Andragogy provided the Iramework for this study. A convenience sample of 367 subjects was recruited and randomly selected to take either Test A or Test B. The reliability estimates for Test A and Test B were found to be .45 and .54 respectively. Content validity and Item Analysis of test questions were performed. Relationships were found between Test …

Evaluation Of A Cardiac Home Care Program, Donna Mayo-Rosa

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a cardiac home care program in promoting self-care through supportive-educative nursing. Orem's self-care model served as the conceptual model for this study. Self-care was measured in this study by evaluating the patient's level of cardiac knowledge and functional ability.

This study was conducted at a home care agency in Midwest Michigan. A convenience sample of seven was obtained from patients admitted to a cardiac home care program following coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABO).

A descriptive design with a one group paired t-test was used to analyze the differences …

Due Process And The Subpoena Power In Federal Environmental, Health, And Safety Whistleblower Proceedings, Stephen Smith

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Managing Promises And Marketing Activities In The Cultivation Of Long-Term Relationship Commitment: The Development Of A Model For The Services Industries., John Michael Weber

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The concept of promises is important with services, because they can represent some tangible aspect of the service organization upon which the customer can develop expectations and partially evaluate the performance of the organization. It is also important to examine the marketing processes (external, internal, and interactive) the organization utilizes and the consumer can participate in, because these processes act as the communication avenue for the promises. Finally, it is important to evaluate the promises and marketing processes from the perspective of the consumer in order to determine the consumer's expectations, perception of service personnel, evaluations of actual service delivery, …

Promoting Self-Efficacy In Postsecondary At-Risk Readers: A View Of The Effects Of Using An Instructional Model Based On Cooperative, Active, Critical Thinking Unified Strategies (C*A*C*T*U*S)., Phyllis L. Simpson

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Nationwide, between one-third and one-half of all students who enter colleges and universities today are identified as needing some remediation. Many developmental freshmen do not have a realistic perception of their learning skills, their ability to activate their prior knowledge, nor a high degree of self-confidence in either their self-image or their inferencing ability to learn in today's college classroom. The review of the literature served as a basis for designing a cooperative, active, critical thinking unified strategy model (named by acronym C*A*C*T*U*S) for educating "at-risk" readers in developmental education. Furthermore, the literature review on self-efficacy and empowerment action-oriented teacher …

Beliefs And Practices Of Middle School Language Arts Teachers., Suzan Anderson

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the instructional beliefs and practices of middle school language arts teachers as they relate to developmental appropriate/inappropriate instruction. Developmentally appropriate instruction is defined as matching the curricula to the level of children's emerging mental abilities. If the learner is seen as a growing individual with developing abilities, then the aim of education should be to facilitate this development. This in turn means that the curricula must be studied and analyzed to determine that level of mental ability that is required to comprehend curriculum materials (Elkind, 1970). There is some concern that what …

The Selective Digital Integrator: A New Device For Modulated Polarization Spectroscopy., Aljosa Vrancic

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

A new device, a selective digital integrator (SDI), for the acquisition of modulated polarization spectroscopy (MPS) signals is described. Special attention is given to the accurate measurement of very small (AC component of interest $<$10$\sp{-3}$ x DC component), rapidly modulated ($\sim$50 kHz) signals at or below noise levels. Various data acquisition methods and problems associated with the collection of modulated signals are discussed. The SDI solves most of these problems and has the following advantages: it provides the average-time resolved profile of a modulated signal; it eliminates errors if the modulation is not sinusoidal; it enables separate measurements of the various phases of the signal modulation cycle; it permits simultaneous measurement of absorption, circular dichroism (CD) and linear dichroism (LD) spectra; it facilitates 3-D absorbance measurements; it has a wide gain-switching-free dynamic range (10 orders of magnitude or more); it offers a constant S/N ratio mode of operation; it eliminates the need for photomultiplier voltage feedback, and it has faster scanning speeds. The time-resolution, selectivity, wide dynamic range, and low-overhead on-the-fly data processing are useful for other modulated spectroscopy (MS) and non-MS experiments such as pulse height distribution and time-resolved pulse counting measurements. The advantages of the MPS-SDI method are tested on the first Rydberg electronic transitions of (+)-3-methylcyclopentanone. The experimental results validate the predicted SDI capabilities. However, they also point to two difficulties that had not been noted previously: the presence of LD in a gaseous sample and a pressure-dependence of the relative peak heights of the CD spectrum. Models for these anomalies are proposed. The presence of the oscillatory LD (but not an LD background) is explained with a sample cell model based on the observed polarization-dependent time-resolved profiles of transmitted light intensity. To obtain expressions for these intensities, a theoretical background, which provides a new approach to the treatment of light/matter interaction, is included as an Appendix. To explain the second anomaly, present only at high optical densities, a model based on the presence of scattered light is introduced and verified. The mode of correction for the scattering problem is outlined.

All Blues: A Study Of African-American Resistance Poetry., Anthony Jerome Bolden

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, critics of African-American poetry have disagreed vehemently about poetic form. Some, like J. Saunders Redding, for instance, have expressed skepticism about poetry based upon oral forms. Others, like Sterling Brown, have argued that a viable poetics can be developed from black expressive forms. This dissertation analyzes the debate over black poetic form and traces the development of modernist and postmodernist poetics that have been shaped by the specific contours of African-American vernacular culture. Yet this study is not merely formalistic. Although "All Blues" describes a blues aesthetic by examining intersexual relationships between the …

Creativity And The Cathartic Moment: Chaos Theory And The Art Of Theatre., Robert E. Brooks

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation investigates the potential applications of the scientific paradigm known as "chaos theory" in the examination of dramatic theory. By illuminating the limitations of traditional Newtonian physics and Euclidean geometry, chaos theory conveys philosophical implications that transcend the scientific and provide suitable tools for describing cultural and artistic phenomena. These implications include emphasis on unpredictability, interaction and feedback, qualitative rather that quantitative analyses, and a nonlinear, continuous, even holistic perspective of systems traditionally viewed as dischotomous (such as order and disorder or part and whole). This study examines several standard works of dramatic theory, concentrating on the relationship of …

Three Essays On The Term Structure Of Eurocurrency Rates., Cetin Ciner

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation investigates the term structure relationship in financial markets by using Eurocurrency rates of several countries. The first essay tests the restrictions of the expectations hypothesis of term structure and the Fisher hypothesis in an interrelated fashion to characterize the changes in the slope and the level of Eurocurrency yield curves of numerous countries. It is argued that the Fisher relation explains the level of the yield curve and the expectations hypothesis determines the long run relationship between yields at different maturities at that level. Special emphasis is given to the information content of the yield curve for future …

Media Priming In The 1980 Presidential Election., Gina Leigh Corell

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study will focus on a specific election, the 1980 presidential race. Through an examination of the media coverage, key issues, and the candidates, this research will provide a context for the statistical analysis that follows. This research explores the impact of media and other determinants of candidate assessment and vote choice. The findings in this study not only support the argument that news affects elections but also clarify the exact nature of that influence. The research uses the theory of priming as its theoretical base. The American National Election Study Survey for the 1980 presidential election is the data …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Principal Leadership Style And Student Academic Achievement In The Philippines., Mary Sylvette Tanjuan Gunigundo

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Principal leadership has been identified to be a crucial factor in the success of a school. One measure of school success is student academic achievement. Effective school literature suggests that there exist a relationship between principal leadership and student academic achievement. Thus, this study explored the relationship between principal leadership style (transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire) and student academic achievement in the Philippines. Three control variables were considered in examining this relationship and these were teacher educational background, student population, and student socio-economic status (SES). This study was conducted in thirty-six elementary public schools in the Philippines. The revised Multifactor Leadership …

Logistic Regression And Item Response Theory: Estimation Item And Ability Parameters By Using Logistic Regression In Irt., Necati Engec

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of logistic regression procedures as a means of estimating item and ability parameters in unidimensional and multidimensional item response theory models for dichotomous and polytomous data instead of IRT models. Unlike the IRT models, single logistic regression model can be easily extended from unidimensional models to multidimensional models, from dichotomous response data to polytomous response data and the assumptions such as all slopes are the same and intercept is zero are unnecessary. Based on the findings of this study, the following preliminary conclusions can be drawn: Item and ability parameters …

Concurrent Vs. Terminal Augmented Feedback In The Learning Of A Discrete Bimanual Coordination Task., Cynthia Marie Hadden

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Two experiments compared the effects of concurrent and terminal augmented feedback in learning a bimanual coordination task. In the first experiment, twenty-four participants practiced a discrete bimanual task that required a 90$\sp\circ$ phase offset of the upper limbs under one of two feedback conditions: concurrent or terminal. Participants in the concurrent feedback group received feedback as they performed the task during acquisition. Participants in the terminal feedback group received feedback after they completed each acquisition trial. Results indicated that concurrent group was able to more accurately produce the target figure during acquisition than the terminal group. Unlike earlier studies which …

A Validation Study Of The Assessment Of Dissimulation Scale Using Criminal And Civilly Committed Participants., Jill Suzanne Hayes

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Dissimulation malingering, unlike simulation malingering, refers to downplaying actual psychological difficulties in order to achieve secondary gain. Although several psychological tests have subscales designed to detect dissimulation, only the Assessment of Dissimulation Scale (ADS) has been specifically designed for this purpose. This screening instrument had limited usefulness, as it was validated only with college students. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the ADS was effective in detecting dissimulation in criminal and civilly committed populations which are likely to be the clinical targets for such a scale, and to establish a cut-off score on the ADS above which …

Essays On Panel Unit Root Procedures: Applications To The Convergence Hypothesis, Ppp And Ucip., Kenan Lopcu

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The first two essays in this dissertation deal with the empirical examination of growth, specifically with the reexamination of convergence. The first essay introduces the issue and provides the preliminary results. Most of the empirical studies on the determinants of economic growth use cross-country analysis, employing long-term averages of relevant variables on each country. In these studies a negative relationship between average growth rates and initial incomes is interpreted as an indication of convergence in cross-country incomes and therefore, presented as evidence in support of neoclassical growth models. Such an analysis, however, ignores dynamic information that can explain part of …

Service Recovery's Influence On Complainant Attitudes And Intentions: A Perceived Justice Framework., James G. Maxham Iii

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

I conducted two field studies (one in the banking industry, n = 692, and one in the new home industry, n = 339) that examined service recovery's influence on complainant perceptions of perceived justice (i.e., distributive, procedural, and interactional justice), satisfaction (i.e., transaction-specific satisfaction and overall firm satisfaction), and intentions (i.e., word-of-mouth intent and purchase intent). The studies assessed these perceptions over multiple time periods (i.e., post failure, post service recovery, and two weeks subsequent to service recovery) to better capture the perceptions as they form over time. The dissertation uses an equity theory framework in a service recovery context, …

Behavior Of Red Snapper, Lutjanus Campechanus, In Relation To Trawl Modifications To Reduce Shrimp Trawler Bycatch., Donna Reeve Rogers

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Behavioral responses of young-of-the-year red snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, to alterations in water flow were examined in the laboratory and the field in an effort to facilitate their release from shrimp trawls. Experiments with red snapper, collected by divers, were conducted in a racetrack flume. Four vertical and two horizontal mesh and solid panel types were examined. Four snapper (out of 96) escaped with vertical panels and thirteen fish (out of 48) exited with horizontal panels. Escapes occurred primarily with solid panels containing 0.95-cm holes drilled at 5-cm intervals. However, snapper that escaped with solid horizontal panels frequently went back into …

Wavelet-Based Registration Of Medical Images., Raj Sharman

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Registration is the process of spatially aligning two objects and is normally a preprocessing step in most object recognition algorithms. Registration of images and recognition of signatures of objects in images is important for clinical and diagnostic purposes in medicine. Recognizing structure, potential targets for defense purposes and changes in the terrain, from aerial surveillance images and SAR images is the focus of extensive research and development today. Automatic Target Recognition is becoming increasingly important as the defense systems and armament technology move to use smarter munitions. Registration of images is a preprocessing step in any kind of machine vision …

Vocational Education And Recidivism At The Louisiana Correctional Institute For Women., Henry Elbert Sanders Jr

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Recidivism is a phenomenon causing growing concern. When released criminals return to crime, the costs become immeasurable. Victims can never be adequately compensated for personal losses, and the nation cannot halt the spiraling costs of maintaining prisons housing mostly repeat offenders. The nation is spending upwards from 98 billion dollars on crime, annually. Public opinion opposes education for inmates, yet, with the nation's prisons operating near capacity, a millennium approaches that promises another wave of prison construction resulting in exponential leaps in the costs of incarceration. A marketing concept asserts that attracting people to a product is half the battle. …