Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2003

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 18271 - 18300 of 18537

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Field Grown Cut Flower Production In Southern Louisiana, John Burke, Jr. Young Jan 2003

Field Grown Cut Flower Production In Southern Louisiana, John Burke, Jr. Young

LSU Master's Theses

Specialty cut flowers are nontraditional cut flowers used primarily in floral arrangements. Most specialty cut flowers are grown in an open field and production is dependent on a combination of climactic factors, which in turn affects the number of days to harvest and yield. Scheduled plantings of Celosia argentea var. cristata L., Helianthus annuus L., Zinnia elegans Jacq., and Gladiolus X hortulanus L. H. Bailey were conducted to determine the effect of time on the number of days to harvest and yield. Plants were grown in an open field from February to August in 2001 and 2002. Days to harvest …


Immiscible And Miscible Gas-Oil Displacements In Porous Media, Madhav Mukund Kulkarni Jan 2003

Immiscible And Miscible Gas-Oil Displacements In Porous Media, Madhav Mukund Kulkarni

LSU Master's Theses

Gas Injection is the second largest EOR process in U.S. To increase the extent of the reservoir contacted by displacing fluids, gas and water are injected intermittently - water-alternating-gas (WAG) process, is widely practiced. This experimental study is aimed at evaluating the WAG process performance in short and long cores as a function of gas-oil miscibility and brine composition. This performance evaluation has been carried out by comparing oil recoveries between WAG injection and continuous gas injection (CGI). Miscible (2500 psi) and immiscible (500 psi) floods were conducted using Berea cores, n-Decane and two different brines, namely the commonly used …


Marginal Income Tax Rates And The U.K. Economy: Three Essays, Eon-Seon Rym Jan 2003

Marginal Income Tax Rates And The U.K. Economy: Three Essays, Eon-Seon Rym

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the role of fiscal policy on economic activity by analyzing the response of major macroeconomic variables to innovations to the average marginal income tax rate (AMTR) measures in the U.K. by employing vector autoregressive (VAR) models. We identify these innovations by making certain assumptions about fiscal policy and then analyze the dynamic behavior of output, the interest rate, the exchange rate, and the trade balance in response to an increase in AMTR by studying the impulse response functions (IRFs) derived from the VAR and structural VAR (SVAR) approaches. The first essay focuses upon the calculation of the …


The Relationship Between Elementary School Foreign Language Study In Grades Three Through Five And Academic Achievement On The Iowa Tests Of Basic Skills (Itbs) And The Fourth-Grade Louisiana Educational Assessment Program For The 21st Century (Leap 21) Test, Carolyn Joyce Taylor-Ward Jan 2003

The Relationship Between Elementary School Foreign Language Study In Grades Three Through Five And Academic Achievement On The Iowa Tests Of Basic Skills (Itbs) And The Fourth-Grade Louisiana Educational Assessment Program For The 21st Century (Leap 21) Test, Carolyn Joyce Taylor-Ward

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The passage of the federal educational legislation, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, established foreign languages as a core curricular content area. Nonetheless, educational policy makers at the state and local levels often opt to allocate greater resources and give instructional priority to content areas in which students, and ultimately the school systems themselves, are held accountable through high-stakes testing. Although foreign languages are designated as a core content area, instructional emphasis continues to be placed on curricular areas that factor into state educational accountability programs. The present study employed a mixed-methodology design. The primary goal was to explore …


Off Road Vehicle Soil Suitability Analysis Within The Kisatchie National Forest, Jacqueline Avellanoza Prudente Jan 2003

Off Road Vehicle Soil Suitability Analysis Within The Kisatchie National Forest, Jacqueline Avellanoza Prudente

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Soil degradation due to improper use of off road vehicle (ORV) is among the major problems in the Kisatchie National Forest (KNF), especially in Catahoula (CRD), Evangeline Unit, Calcasieu (ERD), and Kisatchie Ranger (KRD) districts. The USDA-Forest Service (USFS) maintains designated trails within the forest, but many ORV users create their own trails. To address this issue, a research project was initiated in 2001 to assess the suitability of KNF soils for ORV traffic using Geographical Information System (GIS) software. The objectives were achieved by utilizing soil properties, rainfall events, soil trafficability ratings, Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI), and infiltration parameters. …


Design Of Optimal Equalizers And Precoders For Mimo Channels, Lijuan Li Jan 2003

Design Of Optimal Equalizers And Precoders For Mimo Channels, Lijuan Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Channel equalization has been extensively studied as a method of combating ISI and ICI for high speed MIMO data communication systems. This dissertation focuses on optimal channel equalization in the presence of non-white observation noises with unknown PSD but bounded power-norm. A worst-case approach to optimal design of channel equalizers leads to an equivalent optimal H-infinity filtering problem for the MIMO communication systems. An explicit design algorithm is derived which not only achieves the zero-forcing (ZF) condition, but also minimizes the RMS error between the transmitted symbols and the received symbols. The second part of this dissertation investigates the design …


Narrative Immediacy And First-Person Voice In Contemporary American Novels, Amy Faulds Sandefur Jan 2003

Narrative Immediacy And First-Person Voice In Contemporary American Novels, Amy Faulds Sandefur

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study of first-person fictive narration analyzes a selection of contemporary American novels so as to understand and describe more fully a literary effect I call immediacy. I employ the term immediacy to define narrative situations in which little durational gap exists between experience and narration and in which little ideological and emotional distance is communicated between the narrating persona and the subject self. The following chapters provide a close examination of narrative techniques employed by writers in the creation of immediacy and argues that both the tone of the novels and their themes of maturation and self-identity are attributable …


Salinity Tolerance Of Juveniles Of Four Varieties Of Tilapia, Robert Welsh Nugon Jan 2003

Salinity Tolerance Of Juveniles Of Four Varieties Of Tilapia, Robert Welsh Nugon

LSU Master's Theses

Juvenile (4 g) tilapia of four varieties, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), blue tilapia (O. aureus), Florida red tilapia (O. urolepis hornorum x O. mossambicus), and Mississippi commercial tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) were tested for salinity tolerance. This was accomplished by subjecting them to four salinity regimes during a 97-h period with as long as 63 h acclimation. Salinity regimes represented salinities found along coastal Louisiana. Each variety was challenged individually against every other variety and thus in triplicate. All four varieties are commercially produced in the southeastern United States. The Florida red tilapia and Mississippi commercial tilapia are hybrid-based varieties (distinct …


Effects Of Selective Herbicide Application On Vegetation And Invertebrates For Northern Bobwhite, And Small Mammal Communities Within Managed Pine Forests, Judy Diane James Jones Jan 2003

Effects Of Selective Herbicide Application On Vegetation And Invertebrates For Northern Bobwhite, And Small Mammal Communities Within Managed Pine Forests, Judy Diane James Jones

LSU Master's Theses

Decline of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) populations during the past 30 years in southern portions of their range has increased efforts to improve habitat quality by integration of wildlife and forest management. Prescribed burns and herbicides have potential to benefit bobwhites, vegetation, invertebrates, and small mammal communities in pine-dominated systems. This study was conducted at 700-hectare Louisiana State University Idlewild Research Station of LSU's Agricultural Center in East Feliciana Parish. The experiment was conducted on 3, 10.12-hectare, 75 to 85 year-old, over-mature, uneven-aged pine stands on hilltops and sloping terrain. Experimental design included vegetation, invertebrate, and small mammal response to …


So-Journeying: Creating Sacred Space In Education, Tayari Kwa Salaam Jan 2003

So-Journeying: Creating Sacred Space In Education, Tayari Kwa Salaam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research questions current taken-for-granted meanings given to school, education, teaching and curriculum from an African/African American perspective. This inquiry is based on my experiences as an African American woman curriculum theorist committed to the education of African American youth. Drawing on the lifework of Sojourner Truth, a nineteenth century African American woman abolitionist and human rights activist, this work seeks to explore aspects of both African/African American-centered education and curriculum theory as a means of informing understandings of school, education, teaching and curriculum. My research question is: How does Sojourner Truth inform curriculum theory? This inquiry is a self-exploration …


Alternative Language Sample Analyses For The Assessment Of Low-Income African American Children, Christy Gayle Wynn Jan 2003

Alternative Language Sample Analyses For The Assessment Of Low-Income African American Children, Christy Gayle Wynn

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical utility of three language sample analyses when working with low-income, African American (AA) children. Eighteen normally developing and three at-risk AA three-year-old preschoolers participated in the study. Language samples were elicited from each child during a 15-20 minute play interaction. Three language sample analyses, contrastive analysis, average sentence length, and complex syntax use, were completed on each language sample. Also coded was each child’s use of nonmainstream African American English (AAE) patterns. Only the contrastive analysis generated reliable differences between the at-risk children and the normally developing children. Other group …


The Influence Of Alcohol Advertising In A Campus Newspaper On Students' Consumption Of Alcohol, Gwendolyn Anne Taylor Jan 2003

The Influence Of Alcohol Advertising In A Campus Newspaper On Students' Consumption Of Alcohol, Gwendolyn Anne Taylor

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose this study was to investigate the relationship between alcohol advertising policies in the campus newspaper, The Reveille, and students’ reported consumption of alcohol. Students’ reported consumption of alcohol was assessed using the Harvard School of Public Health’s College Alcohol Study (CAS) for the years 1997, 1999, and 2000. Five variables were used: (a) How many times have you had five or more drinks in a row? (b) During the last two weeks, how many times have you had four drinks in row, (but no more than that?) (c) The last you had four or more drinks in row, …


The Role Of Killer Joe In Tracy Letts' Killer Joe: A Production Thesis In Acting, Christopher C. Cariker Jan 2003

The Role Of Killer Joe In Tracy Letts' Killer Joe: A Production Thesis In Acting, Christopher C. Cariker

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis covers the experience of Christopher C. Cariker in his portrayal of the character Killer Joe Cooper in the play Killer Joe. It contains a character analysis, a daily record of the rehearsal process, an interview with the actor who played the original Killer Joe, Paul Dillon, a breakdown of the fight at the end of the show, acknowledgments, and thoughts/conclusions on the lessons learned throughout the experience of doing the play.


The Relationship Between Selected Housing And Demographic Charateristics And Employment Status Among Rural, Low-Income Families, Ann Allgood Berry Jan 2003

The Relationship Between Selected Housing And Demographic Charateristics And Employment Status Among Rural, Low-Income Families, Ann Allgood Berry

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study was a secondary analysis of wave one data of the Rural Families Speak project, a multi-state longitudinal Agricultural Experiment Station project that focused on assessing changes in the well-being and functioning of rural low-income families in the context of welfare reform. Quantitative analysis was conducted to determine the housing situations of the families and the relationships of these factors with the family economic and cognitive well-being and employment circumstances of study participants. Discriminant analysis was used to develop a model to predict the employment circumstances (employed, not employed) of the participants. Housing costs usually take the first and …


"You Stupid, Lazy Kid": Perceptions Of Verbal Aggressiveness In Older Adults, Jon M. Croghan Jan 2003

"You Stupid, Lazy Kid": Perceptions Of Verbal Aggressiveness In Older Adults, Jon M. Croghan

LSU Master's Theses

Young adults' stereotypes of older adults has been well-documented in communication literature, however, there has been a lack of research on the impact of message strategy on intergenerational interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among three factors that previous research suggests should influence the activation of stereotypes toward a target: age, relational level, and message strategy. This study examines the role that message strategy, in this case, verbal aggressiveness, plays in activating young adults' (n = 186) negative stereotypes of older adults. The young adults' self-reported levels of trait verbal aggressiveness was positively correlated with …


The Dual Paths Of A Political Movement: Convergence And Divergence In Contemporary Conservative Public Address, Lyman Davis Hunt Jan 2003

The Dual Paths Of A Political Movement: Convergence And Divergence In Contemporary Conservative Public Address, Lyman Davis Hunt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the rhetorical choices made in public addresses by members of the contemporary conservative movement in the United States during the 1990s. The contemporary conservative movement in this instance is defined as a post World War II phenomenon. Specifically, it is argued that the popular notion of a unified conservative ascendence in America is but an illusion. Rather, two distinct tribes of conservatives, the economic and the traditional conservative, participate in a rhetorical homology that serves to hide significant ontological differences beneath the dialectical God terms freedom and order. Additionally, the charismatic nature of the term freedom authorizes …


A Methodology For Deriving Performance Measures From Spatio-Temporal Traffic Contour Maps Using Digital Image Analysis Procedures, Prashanth Kotha Jan 2003

A Methodology For Deriving Performance Measures From Spatio-Temporal Traffic Contour Maps Using Digital Image Analysis Procedures, Prashanth Kotha

LSU Master's Theses

The main focus of this study is to improve the data analysis tools used in performance monitoring and level of service assessment of freeway systems. The proposed study presents a methodology to develop new second-order statistical measures that are derived from texture characterization techniques in the field of digital image analysis. The new measures are capable of extracting properties such as smoothness, homogeneity, regularity, and randomness in traffic behavior from the spatio-temporal traffic contour maps. To study the new performance measures a total of 14270, 15-min traffic contour maps were generated for a section of 3.4 miles of I-4 in …


Development Of Gis As An Information Management System: A Case Study For The Burden Center, Zhitao Su Jan 2003

Development Of Gis As An Information Management System: A Case Study For The Burden Center, Zhitao Su

LSU Master's Theses

For a park site, it is very important and necessary to let the local planning authorities realize and understand the important aspects and benefits of the site and to establish the long-range development strategies for the location. In order to succeed during the planning process, the communication and information that flow among all the participants must be well organized. In this situation, a project-wide Geographic Information System (GIS) would be a good solution. The goal of this project is to explore the possibilities for administrative authorities to implement a GIS database system to support the site planning and management of …


Career Counseling For College Students: The Influence Of A Computer-Assisted Career Decision-Making Program On The Stability Of College Major Selection At A Research-Extensive University, Mary D. Feduccia Jan 2003

Career Counseling For College Students: The Influence Of A Computer-Assisted Career Decision-Making Program On The Stability Of College Major Selection At A Research-Extensive University, Mary D. Feduccia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of Career Discovery I, the first module in a computer-assisted program for career decision-making, on the stability of the choice of college majors. This study sought to determine whether any differences existed in the stability of college majors between students who entered a Research-Extensive University with undeclared majors, used Career Discovery I, and declared a major by the end of the first semester of enrollment and students who entered the same University with declared majors and did not use Career Discovery I during the investigation. In addition, the study …


A Study Of Dropout Characteristics And School-Level Effects On Dropout Prevention, Mindy L. Crain-Dorough Jan 2003

A Study Of Dropout Characteristics And School-Level Effects On Dropout Prevention, Mindy L. Crain-Dorough

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This sequential, three-phase study used quantitative analyses to examine the characteristics of student dropouts and the characteristics of schools successful and unsuccessful in mediating dropouts. Narrative profiles were created to describe types of students and types of dropouts. Phase I consisted of three parts, each using the student as the unit of analysis. Part One examined the profile of all Louisiana dropouts. Part Two involved the creation of clusters of dropouts and non-dropouts combined. Part Three focused on the creation of dropout clusters. In Phase II, the percents of potential dropouts were calculated for 301 schools using the dropout characteristics …


Social Sector Participatory Development In Honduras: A Process Across Institutions, Culturesval And Continents, Denese Ashbaugh Vlosky Jan 2003

Social Sector Participatory Development In Honduras: A Process Across Institutions, Culturesval And Continents, Denese Ashbaugh Vlosky

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research was conducted to determine whether our participatory process of curriculum development for vocational technical schools in Honduras was successful. This study analyzed program documents and correspondence to answer two questions: a) How did individual stakeholders perceive and negotiate the participatory process? and b) What factors --individual and environmental-- promoted and impeded the participatory process of development in this project? Participatory development concepts applied to Human Ecology Theory guided this research. Qualitative methodologies were utilized to develop the curriculum—Phenomenology-- and to evaluate the process of development—Grounded Theory and Matrix Analysis. An analysis of individual counterpart contacts revealed that stakeholder …


Truth's Veil: Language And Meaning In Merleau-Ponty And Derrida, Helen Troy Mellon Jan 2003

Truth's Veil: Language And Meaning In Merleau-Ponty And Derrida, Helen Troy Mellon

LSU Master's Theses

The linguistic structuralism of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) attracted the attention of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, prompting what is thought to be Merleau-Ponty’s “linguistic turn” of 1947. Saussure’s theory of the self-referential structure of linguistic signs as constitutive of value, was tied by Merleau-Ponty to his conception of the structure of intercommunication as constitutive of human value and meaning. Jacques Derrida, in the 1960s, also appealed to Saussure’s theory in formulating his thesis of a deferring and differing relationship between linguistic signs as constitutive of meaning, but rejected what he saw as the privileging of a metaphysics of presence-to-meaning in Saussure. One …


Development And Implementation Of Fine Structure Aerosol Spectrum Coagulation Kernels And Deposition Mechanisms Using Advanced Nodal Method In The Caerot Code, Hyeongkae Park Jan 2003

Development And Implementation Of Fine Structure Aerosol Spectrum Coagulation Kernels And Deposition Mechanisms Using Advanced Nodal Method In The Caerot Code, Hyeongkae Park

LSU Master's Theses

Aerosol transport in confined spaces was studied via numerical simulation using the dynamic aerosol equation, which is Boltzmann?s transport equation at the hydrodynamic limit. Until recent years, there existed no comprehensive computational tool to predict the spatial distribution and time evolution of aerosol size spectrum. A previously developed code, INDASOL3D, solves the dynamic aerosol equation by using a homogenized control-volume based finite difference method applying the group sectional method on the coagulation dynamics. However, quantitative correctness has not been satisfactory. In this thesis, two new codes (SAEROSA, and CAEROT) were developed. SAEROSA computes the time evolution of the size spectrum …


Perceptions Of Classical Armenia: Romano-Parthian Relations, 70 Bc-Ad 220, John Joseph Poirot, Iii Jan 2003

Perceptions Of Classical Armenia: Romano-Parthian Relations, 70 Bc-Ad 220, John Joseph Poirot, Iii

LSU Master's Theses

Relative to its importance, little research has been done on the Romano-Parthian rivalry that existed during the first two centuries AD. By extension, even less has been written concerning the kingdom of classical Armenia, which often served as the focal point of that bitter conflict. The absence of such research is regrettable, for it was this very rivalry that dictated how the Empire’s eastern border would be defined. According to many modern scholars and several of the classical authors, Romans feared the looming threat of the Parthian state. Although such panic was unfounded, this fear supposedly then prompted the Empire’s …


Dashiki Project Theatre: Black Identity And Beyond, Stanley R. Coleman Jan 2003

Dashiki Project Theatre: Black Identity And Beyond, Stanley R. Coleman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

At a cast party following a Dillard University theatre production in 1965, Guy West, a senior in theatre, stated that one of his dreams was to perform in his own theatre. These remarks by West proved to be the inspiration that began New Orleans' Dashiki Project Theatre. Prior to 1965, Free Southern Theater was the only theatre of the black experience in New Orleans. Through Dashiki Project Theatre, the black community found another opportunity to relate to black experience through the medium of theatrical performance. In the mid-sixties Theodore Gilliam, a Dillard University professor, and his associates founded Dashiki Project …


Radical Dialectics In The Experimental Poetry Of Berssenbrugge, Hejinian, Harryman, Weiner, And Scalapino, Camille Martin Jan 2003

Radical Dialectics In The Experimental Poetry Of Berssenbrugge, Hejinian, Harryman, Weiner, And Scalapino, Camille Martin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I focus on the work of five contemporary experimental poets - Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Lyn Hejinian, Carla Harryman, Hannah Weiner, and Leslie Scalapino - in order to demonstrate various aspects of a philosophical dynamic at work in their poetry. The critical debates surrounding experimental poetry often tend to be structured as a dualistic opposition with, for example, the forces of coherence, narrative linearity, and transparent referentiality on one side, and the forces of semantic disruption, narrative discontinuity, and linguistic materiality on the other. On each side, critics attempt to bolster the essential value of one term or set …


Print Media Impact On State Legislative Policy Agendas, Abby Kral Jan 2003

Print Media Impact On State Legislative Policy Agendas, Abby Kral

LSU Master's Theses

Using a survey of Louisiana’s State Legislature, this study examined the role media have in developing state legislators’ policy agendas by exploring the function of news media in the public policy process. The study also tested whether there was a correlation between media use, years of legislative service, and education level. This thesis was also able to establish a correlation between media use and gender, with results suggesting that female state legislators rely on newspapers more than their male counterparts. The results suggest that legislators do seek out issues in newspapers that affect the communities and constituents they serve and …


A Comparative Study Of Two Treatment Approaches For Improving Middle School Students' Reading Comprehension, Vessa Annette Cartmill Jan 2003

A Comparative Study Of Two Treatment Approaches For Improving Middle School Students' Reading Comprehension, Vessa Annette Cartmill

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of having material read to and discussed with learning disabled students (i.e., a compensatory approach termed Accommodated Reading in this study) compared to teaching the literate language of text structures to students (i.e., a language intervention approach termed Communicative Reading Strategies). Participants were two 5th grade students and three 6th grade students, classified as learning disabled according to criteria of the State of Louisiana. Students took part in the study 3 times per week, 40 minutes per day for 5 ½ weeks during their regular speech-language therapy time. After each …


The Effects Of Expansion On Objective And Subjective Benefit In Hearing-Impaired Listeners, Ashley B. Hill Jan 2003

The Effects Of Expansion On Objective And Subjective Benefit In Hearing-Impaired Listeners, Ashley B. Hill

LSU Master's Theses

The present research involves two studies. Twenty hearing-impaired participants were divided into two groups depending on their audiometric data and binaurally fit with the Starkey Endeavour 3211 hearing instruments. Experiment I was designed to determine if the use of expansion technology affected objective and subjective benefit in hearing-impaired listeners. Probe microphone measures were obtained at 40, 50, and 60 dB SPL and with the speaker deactivated to ensure that the expansion feature was functioning. Listener performance was measured in quite using the Connected Speech Test (CST) and in noise using the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) at 40, 50, and …


Program Participants' Knowledge And Perceptions Of Effectiveness Of The French Quarter Formosan Termite Program, Alan L. Morgan Jan 2003

Program Participants' Knowledge And Perceptions Of Effectiveness Of The French Quarter Formosan Termite Program, Alan L. Morgan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine program participants’ knowledge and perceptions of the effectiveness of the French Quarter Formosan Termite Program. The management of the Formosan subterranean termite is critical to the economic well-being of not only Louisiana, but the U.S. Estimates of property damage, repairs, and control measures exceed $1 billion per year in the U.S., of which $500 million is in Louisiana and $300 million is in the New Orleans area. In 1998, the LSU Agricultural Center, a statewide agricultural research and extension campus of Louisiana State University, in cooperation with the Agricultural Research Service, began …