Digital Commons Network^™

Nonlinear Tracking Control Using A Robust Differential-Algebraic Approach., Michael Christopher Mickle

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation presents the development and application of an inherently robust nonlinear trajectory tracking control design methodology which is based on linearization along a nominal trajectory. The problem of trajectory tracking is reduced to two separate control problems. The first is to compute the nominal control signal that is needed to place a nonlinear system on a desired trajectory. The second problem is one of stabilizing the nominal trajectory. The primary development of this work is the development of practical methods for designing error regulators for Linear Time Varying systems, which allows for the application of trajectory linearization to time …

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. …

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 …

Pseudo Power Signatures For Nonstationary Signal Analysis And Classification., Vidya Venkatachalam

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This research focuses on the analysis and classification of multicomponent non-stationary signals of arbitrary duration. The proposed classification approach has potential applications in areas like moving target detection, object recognition, oil exploration, and speech processing. The wavelet transform is used as the basis for the analysis. The classification technique is based on novel scale energy density functions, called pseudo power signatures , which are independent of signal length, and which can be used to characterize the time-scale energy distribution of the signal. These signatures allow for fast classification of signals regardless of their length. Two approaches to determine pseudo power …

Stress And Strength Of Laminated Composite Containing A Circular Hole., Yi Zhao

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is to study the stress and strength of a finite laminated plate containing a circular hole subjected to tension. Efforts were made in three aspects: theoretical modeling, computer simulation using finite element method, and experimental evaluation using unidirectional and crossply Scotchply laminates. The stress concentration factor, normal stress distribution and tensile strength of laminates with various hole sizes and gage lengths were investigated. Theoretically, two models were proposed to describe the normal stress distribution of a laminate with finite width and finite length. By defining a width correction function and a size correction function, the normal stress in …

An Economic Analysis Of Intellectual Property Rights: Justifications And Problems Of Exclusive Rights, Incentives To Generate Information, And The Alternative Of A Government Run Reward System, Steve Calandrillo

Articles

This article examines and questions the traditional justifications for intellectual property (I.P.) rights in America (focusing on copyright and patent law), and explores incentives necessary to induce the creation of these works of information. I conclude that changes are needed to I.P. law in order to best foster society's dual goals of 1) promoting incentives to create I.P. works (such as currently patented drugs), while also 2) maximizing distribution of those products to all consumers who would stand to gain (and not merely those who can afford the monopoly price charged). Hence, I suggest the creation of a Government-Run Reward …

Islamic Law As A Source Of Constitutional Law In Egypt: The Constitutionalization Of The Sharia In A Modern Arab State, Clark B. Lombardi

Articles

No abstract provided.

Secrets And Lies? Swiss Banks And International Human Rights, Anita Ramasastry

Articles

This Article explores the relationship of Swiss banks and their tradition of bank secrecy to the activities of a particular group of depositors: war criminals and other human rights violators. The Article focuses on litigation brought in U.S. courts by plaintiffs seeking access to Swiss bank deposits made by the Nazis and Ferdinand Marcos. The Article examines the possibility of holding banks accountable under international law for assisting a customer who has committed a serious breach of international law. Part I introduces the role of bank secrecy in the current litigation. Part 11 describes the Swiss tradition of bank secrecy. …

Couriers Without Luggage: Negotiable Instruments And Digital Signatures, Jane Kaufman Winn

Articles

Prior to the very recent explosion of interest in the Internet, for decades electronic commerce had been conducted on a large scale over closed networks. Since the late 1960s, billions of dollars in funds transfers have been executed over networked computer systems such as the Federal Reserve Wire Network (Fedwire), Clearing House Interbank Payment System (CHIPS), and the automated clearing house system (ACH); billions of dollars of goods have been sold over electronic data interchange networks. These closed, proprietary networks were built during the era of mainframe computer systems and are now being challenged by open networks of distributed client-server …

Regulating The Use Of The Internet In Securities Markets, Jane Kaufman Winn

Articles

As use of the Internet and other new technologies in securities continues to expand, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and self-regulatory organizations (SROs) within the securities industry have continued their efforts to adapt their existing regulations to these developments. Although regulators in the United States have provided guidance to market participants on many issues, many other important questions under U.S. securities law remain unanswered.

Guidance regard to securities law in other jurisdictions is almost non-existent, though transnational organizations, such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), are working to remedy this situation. I

n 1997 and 1998, the …

That Which Governs: An Essay On The Nature Of Law And Its Relation To Justice, Ronald A. Parsons

South Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

Impartial Juries Via Peremptory Challenges: State V. Etzkorn's Improper Focus On The Jurors Excused During Voir Dire, Naomi R. Cromwell

South Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Uneasy Legacy Of Baker V. Selden, Dale P. Olson

South Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

Intentional Classroom Humor In Nursing : A Multiple Case Study, Joan Kay Ulloth

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived connections between the intentional use of humor in the nursing classroom and student learning in the cognitive and affective domains while seeking to understand student and teacher perceptions and responses to humor.

Method. This study used a case study approach and the end result is a multiple case study of three associate degree nursing instructors in the Midwest. The data collection methods included observations, interviews, and surveys. Data from the different sources were examined within and across cases for commonality or difference of experience. Connections were made between …

Employability Skills In The Undergraduate Business Curriculum And Job Market Preparedness : Perceptions Of Faculty And Final-Year Students In Five Tertiary Institutions, Patrick Antonio Williams

Dissertations

Problem

For several decades educators, researchers, and employers have expressed concern about the quality of business graduates that are entering the workplace as entry-level professionals. The major concern of these stakeholders is that many students who are leaving tertiary institutions lack the necessary employability skills needed for career success. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate if undergraduate schools of business are adequately preparing their students for the workplace through the incorporation of employability skills throughout the curriculum. To achieve this purpose, the study measured the perceptions of both final-year undergraduate business students and their professors to determine …

Key Administrative Decisions In The History Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Education In Bermuda, Leslie C. Holder

Dissertations

Problem. In 1993, during the celebration of fifty years of continuous Christian education in Bermuda, it became strikingly evident that the Seventh-day Adventist Church had no single literary, historical compilation of SDA education in the country. This research can help to fill this information void.

Method. Seven key administrative decisions have been identified as being of paramount importance in influencing the manner in which SDA education has developed in Bermuda: (1) the initial decision to found an SDA school, (2) the relocation of the school to the Sandringham property, (3) the expansion from eight grades to twelve, (4) the choices …

The Development Of A Master Plan Of Curriculum And Instruction For A Charter School In The State Of Michigan, Thomas Gerald Kea

Dissertations

Problem. Our country stands in need of academic imperatives that will provide direction for our public school system. Highly accountable charter schools are being propagated to model quality education. The country is presently challenged to produce competent educational programs that contribute to this pioneer effort.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to develop a master plan of curriculum and instruction for a charter school in the state of Michigan by studying select schools and other documents.

Method. This was a qualitative study that sought to determine the culture of select charter, public, private, and home schools. Ten principles, drawn …

Anchors And Flotsam: Is Evidence Law 'Adrift'?, Richard D. Friedman

Reviews

Difference, as well as distance, yields perspective. A comparison of legal systems may search for common underlying principles, or for lessons that one system might learn from another. But it may also be aimed primarily at illuminating one system by light shed from another. This is the aim of Evidence Law Adrift, Mirjan Damagka's elegant study of the common law system of evidence, and he is ideally suited for the task. Born and schooled in Continental Europe, he has lived and taught in the United States for twenty-five years. His relation to the common law system of evidence is, I …

The Erotic Of Torts, Carol Sanger

Faculty Scholarship

"What kind of feminist would be accused of sexual harassment?" asks Jane Gallop (p. 1). Gallop quickly provides her own challenging answer: "the sort of feminist ... that ... do[es] not respect the line between the intellectual and the sexual" (p. 12). Gallop is firm and unrepentant about not respecting this line: "I sexualize the atmosphere in which I work. When sexual harassment is defined as the introduction of sex into professional relations, it becomes quite possible to be both a feminist and a sexual harasser" (p. 11). Figuring out what this means – and what its implications are for …

Quit-Claiming The Doctrine Of Discovery: A Treaty-Based Reappraisal, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The discovery doctrine is one of the baseline legal concepts that has worked to seriously disadvantage the land rights of indigenous nations in the United States because it asserts, as one of its definitions, that the "discovering" European nations and their successor states, gained legal title to Indian lands in North America. The author argues, using comparative colonial and early American treaty, legislative, and other historical data, that this definition is a legal fiction. In historical reality, discovery was merely an exclusive and preemptive right that vested in the discovering state the right of first purchase.

Ammon In The Hebrew Bible: A Textual Analysis And Archaeological Context Of Selected References To The Ammonites Of Transjordan, James Roger Fisher

Dissertations

The study of the Transjordanian Iron-Age (ca. 1200-550 BC) state of Ammon is important to students of the Bible because of the numerous references to the Ammonites (bene 'ammon) included in the historical and prophetic sections of the Hebrew canon. The book of Genesis traces the ancestry of the "Sons of Ammon" to an eponymous ancestor named Ben Ammi--son/grandson of Abraham's nephew Lot (Gen 39:17).

Chapter 1 points out how Ammon--though often ignored or slighted in studies up to the mid-20th century--increasingly receives scholarly attention. It also shows a need for applying the results of archaeological research to facilitate a …

Technological Change And Women’S Participation In Crop Production In Bangladesh, S Rahman, Jk Routray

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

There is a dearth of information on the employment effects of modern agricultural tech nology on rural women in Bangladesh. The present study1 looks at women's participation in crop production activities, examines their influence in the diffusion of modern technol ogy and their participation in the hired labor market. Data for this study comes from two intensive surveys conducted in the crop years 1989 and 1996 in three agro-ecological regions of Bangladesh. Findings suggest that the prevailing claim-that women are involved only in post- harvest processing of crops-underestimates their contribution to agricultural production. Women's share of total labor is 10-18 …

Analysis And Evaluation Of Vladimir Lossky's Doctrine Of Theosis, Eugene Zaitsev

Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes and evaluates the doctrine of theosis as it is presented in the work of Vladimir Lossky, one of the leading contemporary spokesmen for Orthodox theology. Two main questions set up the purpose of the study: Is Lossky's soteriological position biblical, and is Lossky's understanding of theosis in agreement with the tradition he belongs to.

The method of study is historical-analytical. First, the development of the idea of theosis is traced in the Greek Fathers, in the Byzantine tradition (mainly Gregory Palamas), and in Lossky's immediate antecedents in the Russian religious tradition. This historical background identifies two major …

Relationships Among Expectations Of Reentry Problems Of International Students Living In On-Campus Apartments And Off-Campus Housing At Andrews University And Selected Student Characteristics, José R. Bourget-Tactuk

Dissertations

Problem. Andrews University has maintained a large international student population throughout the years, but no previous study exists that examines expectations of reentry problems among international students. Consequently, neither has there been data collected on important demographic variables influencing the sojourn experience of this group, nor does there exist information about relationships among demographic variables and specific reentry areas that shape the students' expectations about the return home.

Method. The Expectations of Problems Upon Return to the Home Country Among International Students at Andrews University survey instrument was developed. Descriptive statistics were used to discover demographic characteristics and frequency of …

Volunteers As Tutors And Trainers Of Tutors : A Qualitative Study, Mark B. Thogmartin

Dissertations

Problem. The Seventh-day Adventist church/North American Division initiated a Tutoring and Mentoring project in response to President Clinton’s America Reads literacy campaign. This study documents the efforts of the church and the first cohort of trainees as they sought to establish tutoring projects in their home locales.

Method. The author of this study was involved as a co-trainer and a participant-observer during the initial 1-week training session held at the North American Division Headquarters. This training was intended to equip the participants to become tutors of children and trainers of tutors in a primary-level tutoring project. During the …

The Newly Found "Compassion" For Sexually Violent Predators: Civil Commitment And The Right To Treatment In The Wake Of Kansas V. Hendricks, Elizabeth Weeks

Scholarly Works

In light of heart-wrenching stories of sexual abuse and public demands for safety, the Kansas v. Hendricks case presented the Supreme Court with compelling facts on which to uphold the Kansas commitment strategy. After all, the statute prevented the release of a man whose history of sex crimes, incarceration, and institutionalization spanned nearly two decades, and who admitted he still had sexual desires for children but could not control his urges. Faced with that evidence, the Court would have been hard-pressed to strike down the Kansas statute by finding that such a predator received inadequate treatment for his disorder, or …

The Courts And The Congress: Should Judges Disdain Political History?, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

In an earlier article in these pages, Professor John Manning argued that the use of legislative materials by courts in effect permits Congress to engage in delegation of its authority to subunits of the legislature, in violation of the separation of powers. Professor Strauss, acknowledging that the previous generation of courts may have excessively credited the minutiae of legislative history, responds that judicial attention to the political history of legislation is required, not forbidden, by considerations of constitutional structure. Only awareness of that history will promote interpretation reflective of the context and political moment of Congress's action. Our history of …

Philosophical Perspectives On Dramatic Art, Jane M. Gangi

Education Faculty Publications

Describes how the author facilitates drama experiences in the foundations of education courses that she teaches for preservice teachers. Suggests the course helps students gain an understanding of the philosophies of education, the rationale for arts in the curriculum, as well as multiple perspectives of dramatic art, by learning through experience.

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

No abstract provided.

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

No abstract provided.