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Gender Inequality, Concentrated Disadvantage, And Homicide Victimization: A Sex And Race Specific Analysis Of Homicide Victimization Rates In Large U.S. Cities, Ginger Donise Stevenson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is designed to extend prior research on the structural correlates of homicide victimization among demographic subgroups in large U.S. cities. The present study draws on two broad theoretical traditions - the concentrated disadvantage perspective and gender inequality perspectives. Using Supplementary Homicide Reports data for 1990, race- and sex-specific homicide victimization measures were constructed for 120 U.S. cities. Due to the extremely rare prevalence of homicide victimization among some demographic subgroups, Poisson and Negative Binomial Regression techniques are used to test a series of hypotheses regarding the effects of concentrated disadvantage and gender inequality on homicide victimization for four …

De La Page D'Écriture Et Du Mythe De L'Ancêtre Rebelle: La Problématique De L'Écrite Et De La Parole Dans Le Roman Francophone Ouest Africain, Boubakary Diakite

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to question the concept of orality as the natural expression of ancestors in African novels and press for a reading of West African writers, which values their fictional creation as autonomous from their cultural origins. The main purpose of this study is to examine, through series of close textual readings, how francophone West African novels distance themselves from oral tradition by fully assuming literacy as a characteristic of the post-colonial Africa. The first chapter attempts a redefinition of orality, as only a critical discourse aimed at translating the complexity and the suspected hybridity of …

Factors Affecting Participation In City Recycling Programs, Stacy Marie Lockhart

LSU Master's Theses

Recycling consists of diverting or recovering materials from the solid waste stream that would otherwise end up returning to the environment as a potential source of pollution. These collected materials are then used as raw materials in the manufacture or assembly of a new product or package. Over the years the amount of municipal solid waste being generated per person has steadily increased. Waste disposal costs are also increasing, making recycling even more important. To address this issue cities are developing recycling policies or plans. The type of plan varies according to the area; as of this time there are …

Malignant Democracy: Core Fallacies Underlying Election Of The Judiciary, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

There is no requirement of democratic theory that mandates that all public offices be filled by election. This is particularly true in modern democratic states, which are simply too large to justify the administrative burden of electing everyone who has significant responsibilities in our society.

Examples of this are everywhere in modern democracies, such as the United States and Europe. In England, for example, the Prime Minister is not directly elected by the people. Does this mean Great Britain has ceased to be a democracy? In most large, sophisticated nation-states, national cabinet officers have great power but are the political …

Control Of Transport Dynamics In Overlay Networks, Qishi Wu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Transport control is an important factor in the performance of Internet protocols, particularly in the next generation network applications involving computational steering, interactive visualization, instrument control, and transfer of large data sets. The widely deployed Transport Control Protocol is inadequate for these tasks due to its performance drawbacks. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct a rigorous analytical study on the design and performance of transport protocols, and systematically develop a new class of protocols to overcome the limitations of current methods. Various sources of randomness exist in network performance measurements due to the stochastic nature of network traffic. …

Deficit Politics And Democratic Unity: The Saga Of Tip O'Neill, Jim Wright, And The Conservative Democrats In The House Of Representatives During The Reagand Era, Karl Gerard Brandt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Reagan Era featured partisan clashes, controversy over fiscal policy, and a time of trial for the Democratic Party and its claim of diversity. This dissertation examines the efforts of the House Democratic Leadership to build party unity and to enhance its operating methods in battles with the Reagan administration over fiscal policy and the future of the United States. The House Democratic Leadership was challenged by the conservative Democrats. In 1980, the conservatives formed the Conservative Democratic Forum (CDF). Acting as a quasi-third party, the CDF was instrumental in passage of Reagan's economic program in 1981. Afterwards, the CDF …

Immunological, Hematological, And Serum Biochemical Effects Of High Level Dietary Fish Oil And Vitamin E Supplementation In The Dog, Casey J. Leblanc

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Inflammation is a component of the innate immune response. However, severe or prolonged inflammation can be detrimental. Dietary n-3 fatty acid supplementation has proven clinical benefits in chronic inflammatory diseases, most likely due to reduced synthesis of inflammatory mediators and inhibition of lymphocyte proliferation and function. The purposes of this study were to characterize alterations in inflammatory mediator production, and lymphocyte proliferation, in dogs fed a diet consisting of 0.65% n-3 fatty acids (DMB) with an n-6:n-3 fatty acid ratio of 3.4:1. Fifteen dogs were randomly assigned to one of three dietary groups for twelve weeks. Group Sunflower oil received …

Myosin Heavy Chain And Physiological Adaptation Of The Rat Diaphragm In Elastase-Induced Emphysema., Dong Kwan Kim, Jianliang Zhu, Benjamin W Kozyak, James M Burkman, Neal A Rubinstein, Edward B Lankford, Hansell H Stedman, Taitan Nguyen, Sanford Levine, Joseph B Shrager

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Several physiological adaptations occur in the respiratory muscles in rodent models of elastase-induced emphysema. Although the contractile properties of the diaphragm are altered in a way that suggests expression of slower isoforms of myosin heavy chain (MHC), it has been difficult to demonstrate a shift in MHCs in an animal model that corresponds to the shift toward slower MHCs seen in human emphysema. METHODS: We sought to identify MHC and corresponding physiological changes in the diaphragms of rats with elastase-induced emphysema. Nine rats with emphysema and 11 control rats were studied 10 months after instillation with elastase. MHC isoform …

Treatment Of Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds Using Wetland Systems, Gabriel Roderick Kassenga

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Bench-scale continuous vertical flow column and microcosm studies were conducted to investigate the attenuation potential of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) in constructed wetland soil mixtures prepared from peat, compost and sand and in a pristine natural freshwater wetland soil. The study also determined geotechnical properties of potential synthetic peat mixtures for construction of treatment wetlands for CVOCs. Trichloroethene (TCE), cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cis-1,2-DCE) and 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) were the main test chemicals used during the studies. Based on geotechnical and sorption characteristics, two mixtures (one comprised of sand and peat and the other comprised of sand, peat and compost product) were selected …

High Carbon Dioxide Requiring Mutants Of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtti, Steve Vincent Pollock

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a photosynthetic alga that has the ability to concentrate CO2 around Rubisco to achieve enhanced rates of photosynthesis in a low CO2 environment. This dissertation presents results obtained from the generation and analysis of four high CO2 requiring mutants of C. reinhardtii. The use of reverse genetics is a very powerful tool to dissect out the individual components of metabolic pathways. Two reverse genetics methods were utilized in this study: a random insertional mutagenesis method to discover genes that are required for growth in a low CO2 environment, and a directed mutagenesis approach, RNA interference, to determine …

Evaluation Of Static Low Density Media Filters For Use In Domestic Wastewater Treatment, Cynthia Wagener

LSU Master's Theses

Static Low Density Media (SLDM) filters are submerged granular medium filters that contain a static matrix of floating media. These filters provide concurrent biological and physical treatment, and are therefore classified as bioclarifiers. Through different design and operation strategies, SLDM filters may be used for a variety of functions such as: solid-liquid separation alone, organic conversion and solids capture, nitrification and solids capture, and denitrification and solids capture. For operation as an aerobic unit, an external aeration strategy was developed to preserve the static nature of the bed. In this study, SLDM filters treated a highly variable flow domestic wastewater …

Solute Transport In A Porous Medium: A Mass-Conserving Solution For The Convection-Dispersion Equation In A Finite Domain, William Golz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation considers the proper mathematical description for the physical problem of a miscible solute undergoing longitudinal convective-dispersive transport with constant production, first-order decay, and equilibrium sorption in a porous medium. Initial and input concentrations may be any continuously differentiable functions and the mathematical system is articulated for a finite domain. This domain yields a mass balance which requires Robin (i.e., third-type) boundaries, which describe a continuous flux but a discontinuous resident-concentration. The discontinuity in the resident concentration at the outflow boundary yields an underdetermined system when the exit concentration is not experimentally measured. This is resolved by defining the …

Fractal Compression And Analysis On Remotely Sensed Imagery, Ke Xiao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Remote sensing images contain huge amount of geographical information and reflect the complexity of geographical features and spatial structures. As the means of observing and describing geographical phenomena, the rapid development of remote sensing has provided an enormous amount of geographical information. The massive information is very useful in a variety of applications but the sheer bulk of this information has increased beyond what can be analyzed and used efficiently and effectively. This uneven increase in the technologies of gathering and analyzing information has created difficulties in its storage, transfer, and processing. Fractal geometry provides a means of describing and …

The Epidemiology Of Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia Coli O157:H7 In Louisiana Cattle, And White-Tailed Deer, John Robert Dunn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 is an important human pathogen. Dairy cattle, beef cattle, and white-tailed deer (WTD) are involved in STEC O157:H7 transmission to humans. We conducted cross-sectional studies in Louisiana, using sensitive microbiological methods, in dairy cattle, beef cattle, and WTD to investigate the epidemiology of STEC O157:H7. Results of the dairy studies are as follows. In the point prevalence study, summer-time prevalence in herds was 38.5%, with a cow-level prevalence of 6.5%. Among positive herds, cow-level prevalence ranged from 3%-34.6%. Three of five herds sampled in the longitudinal study were positive. Cow-level prevalence increased during spring and …

Evaluation Of Fertilizer And Irrigation Production Systems For Large Nursery Containers, Anthony Lynn Witcher

LSU Master's Theses

Container-grown woody ornamentals require high volumes of water and sufficient nutrients to develop into healthy, high quality plants. The increased awareness of possible contamination of ground and surface water resources from nursery runoff has forced growers to implement higher water use efficiency techniques to maximize fertilizer efficiency and reduce nutrient and irrigation runoff. Components of a large container production system that could affect irrigation volume, substrate nutrition levels and runoff include fertilizer placement, irrigation frequency and irrigation method. Irrigation and fertilization components were evaluated in two experiments to determine which would maximize growth, minimize effluent and reduce the amount of …

Revisiting The Vast Wasteland, Fred H. Cate, Newton N. Minow

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Biology And Ecology Of Leptographium Species And Their Vectos As Components Of Loblolly Pine Decline, Lori G. Eckhardt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) decline (LPD) has been present in upland sites of central Alabama since the 1960s. Symptoms of LPD (fine root deterioration, short chlorotic needles, sparse crowns, reduced radial growth) begin in the 30-40 yr age class, resulting in premature death at ages 35-50. Previously, declining loblolly was diagnosed as littleleaf disease (LLD); however, site conditions associated with LPD are different from LLD sites. Littleleaf disease only occurs on eroded, heavy clay soils and is secondarily associated with the fungus, Phytophthora cinnamomi. In contrast, LPD occurs on sandy, well-drained soils and is associated with Leptographium spp., as …

Improvement Of Kenaf Yarn For Apparel Applications, Ting Zhang

LSU Master's Theses

The objectives of the research are to determine the impact of the retting methods and blending percentage on the properties of kenaf fiber as well as the yarns and fabrics that contain kenaf, and to analyze and characterize kenaf fiber and yarns and fabrics that contain kenaf in terms of physical properties, such as tensile strength, elongation, evenness, absorbency and surface characteristics. In this research, kenaf fiber bundles were treated by chemical methods and softened to improve fiber properties. The treated fibers then were blended with cotton having 0, 10%, 25%, and 50% blending ratio and spun into yarns with …

The Impact Of Opt-In Privacy Rules On Retail Credit Markets: A Case Study Of Mbna, Fred H. Cate, Michael Staten

Articles by Maurer Faculty

U.S. privacy laws are increasingly moving from a presumption that consumers must object to ("opt out" of) uses of personal data they wish to prohibit to a requirement that they must explicitly consent ("opt in") to uses they wish to permit. Despite the growing reliance on opt-in rules, there has been little empirical research on their costs. This Article examines the impact of opt-in on MBNA Corporation, a diversified, multinational financial institution. The authors demonstrate that opt-in would raise account acquisition costs and lower profits, reduce the supply of credit and raise credit card prices, generate more offers to uninterested …

How Should Sports Organizations Handle A Crisis?: A Focus On Collegiate Institutions, Jamie Mabile Delatte

LSU Master's Theses

The sports industry is big business just like any other big business. Sports organizations face various crises just as corporate America does. A survey of 345 professional and college level sports organizations revealed that 70% of them experienced a crisis in 1997, while the Los Angeles Times reported that 220 college athletes were the focus of criminal charges in 1995. "Sports crises are clearly more frequent today than ever before," said Kathleen Hessert. Mike Paul agrees with that trend based on his research, attributing the trend to poor life choices away from the sport. What is a crisis? A crisis …

Cross-Cultural Construct Validation Of The Learning Transfer System Inventory In Tawian, Hsin-Chih Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Human Resource Development has historically made a large contribution to Taiwan's economic growth. Organizations in Taiwan perceive training as one of their top priorities to maintain their competitive advantage. Although many organizations have spent considerable money on training, there has been a lack of a comprehensive, generalizable, psychometrically-sound instrument to investigate transfer of learning in Taiwan. This study cross-culturally validated the constructs of the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) for use in Taiwan. By doing so, HRD practitioners in Taiwan can benefit by having an instrument to diagnose intervening variables and improve individual performance. The LTSI was translated through a …

Stereotyping Of Women In Television Advertisement, Vaishali Shrikhande

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the portrayal of women in television commercials and documented the stereotypes associated with women in today’s television commercials. Content analysis was chosen as a method of inquiry for this study. Two hundred and twenty six advertisements were recorded from the three chosen networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. No local advertisements or public service announcements were included in the sample. Each advertisement was initially coded for the central figure, whether the central figure was a male or a female. In addition, each central figure in the advertisement was coded for the following categories: 1) age; 2) product use; …

Are The U.S. Patent Priority Rules Really Necessary?, Mark A. Lemley, Colleen V. Chien

UC Law Journal

The United States is the only country in the world that awards patents to the first person to invent something, rather than the first to file a patent application. In order to determine who is first to invent, the United States has created an elaborate set of "interference" proceedings and legal standards to define invention and decide how it may be proven. Supporters of this system claim that it is necessary to protect small inventors, who may not have the resources to file patent applications quickly, and may therefore lose a patent race to large companies who invented after they …

Homicide On Holiday: Prosecutorial Discretion, Popular Culture, And The Boundaries Of The Criminal Law, Carolyn B. Ramsey

UC Law Journal

As tort reforms have decreased plaintiffs' opportunities to recover for injuries and deaths arising from popular "extreme" sports, prosecutors have become more willing to bring criminal charges against participants in these inherently dangerous sports. This Article explores the emerging tensions between the popularity of these sports and the prosecutorial decisions resulting in the charging and conviction of "extreme" sport athletes deemed responsible for recreational injuries and fatalities.

Demonstrating the increasing popularity of "extreme" sports and examples of injury and death resulting from them, this Article shows that tort reform and the economic influence of service providers, such as ski areas, …

The Public Domain: The Evolution Of Legal Restraints On The Government's Power To Control Public Access Through Secrecy Or Intellectual Property, Edward Lee

UC Law Journal

The concept of the public domain is the focus of a firestorm of debate, precipitated by some of the most important controversies of our digital age. This debate, however, is deeply flawed in two critical respects. First, the debate has invoked the public domain without a clear understanding of the origin of the term and the first principles that courts enunciated in recognizing the concept. Second, the debate has focused almost exclusively on intellectual property law in analyzing the public domain, ignoring the many uses of the term in other areas of law, such as First Amendment rights of access, …

Revisiting The 1992 Los Angeles Riots: An Analysis Of Geographical Perspectives, Paul Watts

LSU Master's Theses

The intent of this thesis is to investigate the complexities of the 1992 Los Angeles riots from a spatial perspective. To study the 1992 Los Angeles riots is an attempt to understand dynamic and unpredictable events, events that can result in multiple deaths, vast property damage, and leave irrevocable scars on a community for years. It is these reasons that should call geographers to the challenges of studying riots. Part of this thesis is to critically evaluate previous quantitative work on the 1992 Los Angeles riots and to argue for a new investigative approach in understanding riots in general. My …

The Correlation Between College Students' Familiarity With Potentially Offensive Popular Music And Self-Reported Tolerance Of Obscene Language And Sexual Behavior, Harry Emons Martin

LSU Master's Theses

This study's purpose was to examine the correlations among popular music preference, sexual behavior tolerance, and potentially obscene language usage. Subjects (N = 81) were college freshmen over the age of 18 who graduated from high school in 2001. They were drawn from one section each of a Music Appreciation course (non-music majors) and an Introduction to Music Study course (music majors). The top 20 songs from the October 27, 2001 Billboard Magazine's Top 100 charts were analyzed for occurrences of potentially offensive words and whole lines of lyrics containing sexual references. Subjects responded to a 4-part questionnaire. In part …

Role Of Endothelin-1 In The Gastrointestinal Tract Of Horses In Health And Disease, Ramaswamy Monickarasi Chidambaram

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Gastrointestinal tract disease is the leading natural cause of death in horses and horses with ischemic intestinal disease have the greatest mortality. We hypothesized there is basal synthesis of endothelin-1 (ET-1) in the intestinal tract of healthy horses that is likely involved in regulating vasomotor tone, secretion and motility and that ET-1 synthesis increases with gastrointestinal tract disease, which may be involved in the pathophysiology of these disorders. Plasma ET-like immunoreactivity was increased in horses with naturally-acquired gastrointestinal disease, compared with normal horses; values were greatest in horses with large intestinal strangulation obstruction, enterocolitis and peritonitis. There was an association …

Behind The Scenes: Uncovering The Structures And Manipulations Of Tabloid Talk Show Workers, Guests And Audiences, Kelly Thompson Losch Deshotel

LSU Master's Theses

How talk show workers, guests and audiences behave behind-the-scenes is largely a mystery to the public. This research focuses on the behind-the-scenes workings of a daytime syndicated talk show to better understand the motivations of talk show guests and how talk show workers manipulate guests and audiences. While researchers have conducted studies of talk show guests using formal interviews and questionnaires, no researchers have posed as covert observers to study talk shows. The researcher conducted participant observation to study the behaviors of those involved with the on and offstage talk show structure. The researcher interned for the show without revealing …

Should Directors Reduce Executive Pay?, Randall S. Thomas

UC Law Journal

This Article examines internal pay disparities in American public corporations and argues that wide gaps between the top and bottom of the pay scale can, in certain circumstances, directly and adversely affect firm value. Further, this Article argues that corporate boards should be informed about these effects, and that they should, in many cases, reduce internal pay differentials to address them. In support of this thesis, the Article analyzes numerous empirical studies that illustrate the underlying premise that wide disparities in corporate pay scales can adversely affect firm value. These studies demonstrate that, at many types of organizations, as internal …