Digital Commons Network^™

Behavioral And Electrophysiological Assessment Of Children With A Specific Temporal Processing Disorder, Annette Hurley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Auditory processing disorders (APDs) have received considerable attention over the past few decades. Much of the attention has focused on the controversy surrounding the operational definition of APD, the heterogeneous nature of APD, and an appropriate test battery for APD assessment. Temporal processing deficits are one characteristic of APD and are the focus of the present investigation. This investigation reports behavioral and early electrophysiological measures in a group of children with specific temporal processing difficulties and an age-matched control group. In an effort to better describe the subjects, two language tests and the SCAN-C were administered. Significant differences were found …

The Influence Of State Merit-Based Aid On Access And Educational Experiences: An Exploration Of The Louisiana Tuition Opportunity Program For Students (Tops), Roderick L. Smothers

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Access to higher education at the beginning of the new millennium faces unprecedented challenges. Although many of those challenges have been identified and addressed through research and federal and state policies, there still exists an inherent gap in the current and potential future success of today’s college students. This is particularly true for minority and lower-income students. Some of the identified challenges include: lack of financial assistance, persisting through and graduating from college, pre-college preparation, socioeconomic status, and family support/motivation. This study focuses primarily on the financial barriers that impede the process of providing equal access to all students, which …

(Re)Solution, Benjamin M. Dillon

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis report explains the process of creating the work in (Re)solution. The relationship between transferred digital prints and paint is described in relation to the intent of the work. Finally, there is a discussion of the questions and dilemmas posed by the working process as well as the completed work.

Protein Aggregation Studies: Inhibiting And Encouraging Β-Amyloid Aggregation, Jed Paul Aucoin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This work demonstrates peptide-based aggregation mediation of fibril forming peptides, notably β-amyloid (1-40), Aβ_1-40. To achieve the goals of this work, Aβ_1-40 aggregation was governed by ionic strength, temperature, and pH. After controlling and reproducing Aβ_1-40 aggregate formation (fibrils), each peptide-based aggregation mediator was evaluated for its ability to self-aggregate and to possess surface-active properties. The incorporation of these mediators in Aβ_1-40 solutions changed the surface tension and produced aggregate complexes of mediator and Aβ_1-40. Evidence that Aβ_1-40 fibril formation may be mediated by disorder-to-order transitions has been observed by layer formation …

Numerical And Experimental Investigation Of Transport Processes In Biological Systems, Yimeng He

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on optimization techniques for transport process during the cryopreservation of biological systems. In the first part of this thesis, a well established shape independent Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) technique was used to measure the dehydration response during freezing of Pacific oyster sperm cells. Volumetric shrinkage during freezing of diploid and tetraploid pacific oyster sperm cell suspensions was obtained at cooling rates of 5 and 20 ˚C/min in the presence of extracellular ice and CPAs. By fitting a model of water transport to the experimentally obtained volumetric shrinkage data the best fit membrane permeability parameters (L_pg and …

The Medici, Verrocchio, And San Lorenzo, Evelyn Diane Pell

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis addresses the subject of two Medici family tombs designed by Andrea del Verrocchio for the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. One is the tomb of Cosimo de’ Medici and the other a dual tomb for his sons, Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici. In dealing with this subject, the paper discusses the Medici’s rise to power in Florence, Verrocchio’s career leading up to the tombs, and the important relationship between the Medici and San Lorenzo. The family donated lavishly to the rebuilding of the church and received in return spiritual aid and extraordinary burial sites. Upon first looking …

Thinking Outside The Frame : How Museum Curators Shape The Viewer's Experience Of Art, Sara J. Hansen

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Metamorphosis Of A Songwriter, Troy Donnell Erickson

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Disorientations And Representations In Popular Culture Objects : The Case Of Redbook And Clara, Beth M. Eslinger

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Debunking Dilution Doctrine: Toward A Coherent Theory Of The Anti-Free-Rider Principle In American Trademark Law, David J. Franklyn

UC Law Journal

This article argues for a fundamental shift in the way famous trademarks are protected under American trademark law. Currently, famous trademarks are protected by dilution law, which purports to prevent a particular kind of harm (i.e., the gradual whittling away of the commercial magnetism of a famous mark). The article argues that this is the wrong focus of famous mark protection, because dilution is an illusory concept; it either does not exist, or it is so difficult to prove, that it is an ineffective and misleading doctrinal tool.

The article contends that American trademark law should move from the harm-based …

Taxing The New Intellectual Property Right, Xuan-Thao N. Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

UC Law Journal

Domain names, particularly generic domain names such as men.com, loan.com, beauty.com, cool.com, and car.com, have become the new valuable intellectual property right in recent years, commanding high monetary value in the marketplace. How should the acquisition costs of such domain names be treated under the current tax regime for intellectual property? Addressing this complex question requires an examination of the character of domain names through numerous doctrines ranging from traditional intellectual property right to government contract. In addition, the question dictates a critique of whether domain names are similar to existing rights to which the current intellectual property tax regime …

"Captive Audience" Meetings In Union Organizing Campaigns: Free Speech Or Unfair Advantage?, Elizabeth J. Masson

UC Law Journal

Union density in the private sector in the United States is less than ten percent. Yet studies have shown millions of nonunionized U.S. workers would like to be represented by a union. Employer resistance to unionization is a key factor in whether employees are able to successfully elect a union as their bargaining representative. Although some tactics employers use in antiunion campaigns are unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act, "captive audience meetings" are not. Employers may lawfully hold mandatory captive audience meetings, assembling employees to listen to anti-union speeches, during an organizing campaign. The sole restriction on such meetings …

Visual Voice : The Communicative Visual Nature Of Pottery, Kendra Przekwas

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Mystery, Wonder, And Awe : The True Nature Of Science, Katie E. Rau

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Transfer Functions Of Streptomyces Plasmid Pij101: Insights Into A Novel Bacterial Conjugation System, Matthew John Ducote

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For Streptomyces plasmid pIJ101 to mediate DNA transfer, only the clt locus and the Tra protein are required, though three non-essential spread functions increase the radial distance of plasmid dissemination among recipients after the initial lateral transfer event. clt is a contiguous 54-bp sequence within an intrinsically curved plasmid region that contains inverted and direct repeats; biochemical and genetic methods described here indicate that single-stranded cleavage reminiscent of most conjugative plasmids does not occur at clt. clt therefore likely promotes plasmid transfer by interacting with the pIJ101 Tra protein or host-encoded factors in a transient, novel DNA-processing event or by …

Soils Of Regeneration: Exploring Conceptualizations Of The Natural World As A Context For An Ecologically-Sensitive Curriculum, Emily A. Demoor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

David Orr (1994) asserts that the ecological crisis is a crisis of education. This study explores the relationship between the ecological crisis and education by examining the role that language plays in shaping perceptions of the natural world. Toward this end it analyzes narratives of science, literature and other disciplines that conceptualize the natural world as object and as subject. It evaluates how particular metaphors used in reference to the natural world enhance or impede ecological understanding and the cultivation of responsibility and stewardship and considers ways in which these conceptualizations might be used as a basis for new curriculum …

Activity-Based Anorexia: The Effects Of Resistant Starch, Holly M. Nguyen

LSU Master's Theses

Anorexia nervosa is the third most common illness among adolescent females. Approximately one half the cases of anorexia nervosa have been suggested to be activity-induced. Various animal studies have been used to study human anorexia, particularly the activity-based anorexia model (ABA). The ABA paradigm consists of diet restriction and liberal access to activity, which ultimately results in a rapid decrease in both body weight and food intake paradoxical to the significant increase in activity. Because resistant starch (RS) has been shown to initiate a lower rise and a steady level of post-prandial blood glucose, it was hypothesized that a diet …

Migmatization Of Archean Aluminous Metasediments From The Eastern Beartooth Mountains, Montana, U.S.A., Andrew T. Maas

LSU Master's Theses

Geothermobarometry, mineral compositions and textures, and thermodynamic models suggest biotite dehydration melting occurred in the peraluminous rocks of the eastern Beartooth Mountains. These Archean metapelitic migmatites are metatexites and diatexites, and have typical metamorphic assemblages of Qtz + Pl + Kfs + Bt + Sil +/- Grt +/- Crd. The subsequent in situ crystallization of the magma derived from the biotite dehydration created migmatitic leucosomes in the rocks. These leucosomes are primarily composed of quartz, plagioclase and potassium feldspar. Water derived from the dehydration of biotite was dissolved in the melted phase. Crystallization of the magma reintroduced this water to …

Tissue Culture And Transformation Of Introducing Genes Useful For Pest Management In Rice, Shuli Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sheath blight (SB), caused by Rhizoctonia solani K¨¹hn, is a major rice disease internationally and in the southern rice area of the Unites States, including Louisiana. Breeders have incorporated partial resistance into commercial rice varieties to control the disease, but a higher level of resistance is needed. It has been demonstrated that the pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins ¦Â-1, 3-glucanase and chitinase are components of effective defense mechanisms for protecting plants against fungal pathogens. This research was conducted to co-transform the ¦Â-1, 3-glucanase, chitinase and bar genes into the rice variety Taipei 309 using the hpt gene for resistance to hygromycin B …

Elemental: Promise Of Plenty, Bill Wolff

LSU Master's Theses

This body of work is about human nature, and centers on issues of aggression, consumption and collapse. Five materials make up the exhibition, and each carries a specific metaphor: wood is flesh, brick represents collective history, rope is a metaphor for human activity, metal is control and salt is a quintessential commodity. Craft is used as a means to explore the boundary between natural and synthetic phenomena, as well as elevating the status of the base materials. The work is arranged to provide an environment and context for the viewer to respond.

A Genetic Study Of Resistance To Kernel Infection By Aspergillus Flavus In Maize (Zea Mays L.), Ruming Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Maize (Zea mays L.) kernel infection by Aspergillus flavus is a chronic problem in the southern USA. Genetic resistance to A. flavus is needed to solve this problem. To ascertain and understand the inheritance of resistance to field kernel infection by A. flavus, a five-parent diallel analysis and a half-sib family analysis of 35 maize crosses were conducted during 2003 and 2004 for percent kernel infection (PKI) rates. All parents contained the leafy gene (Lfy). From the combining ability analysis of the five maize parents and their 20 F1s, highly significant general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA), and …

Zooplankton Visualization System: Design And Real-Time Lossless Image Compression, Dattatreya Reddy Tetala Satya Surya

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis, I present a design of a small, self-contained, underwater plankton imaging system. I base the imaging system’s design on an embedded PC architecture based on PC/104-Plus standards to meet the compact size and low power requirements. I developed a simple graphical user interface to run on a real-time operating system to control the imaging system. I also address how a real-time image compression scheme implemented on an FPGA chip speeds up image transfer speeds of the imaging system. Since lossless compression of the image is required in order to retain all image details, I began with an …

Modeling The Hydrologic And Particulate Loadings From Paved Urban Surfaces, Chad Michael Cristina

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation details the results of recent investigations concerning non-colloidal particulate matter found in urban rainfall-runoff and urban snowmelt. Three forms of the power law model (PLM) were used to model particle number density. It was found that significant model error could be introduced into PLMs when the median diameter particle was used to estimate the number of particles per interval, but the SSE of continuous PLMs could be significantly reduced through the use of correction factors when the sieve interval was large (P<0.05). Additionally, a multiple PLM analysis may be more appropriate than a single PLM analysis when changes in particle population occur within a single gradation. PLMs were also used to model the relationship between cumulative granulometric mass and cumulative particulate-bound metal mass. The use of such calibrated PLMs provided considerable cost reduction when compared to conventional direct measurements of particulate-bound metal mass. A first flush analysis indicated that only events with average volumetric flow rates approaching 1 L/min/m of drainage width exhibit a rapid depletion of particulate matter consistent with the concentration-based definition of the first flush. An analysis of particle separation mechanisms indicated that 90% of these particles, by mass, could be removed from the discharge with detention times of 30 min and 120 min for snowmelt and rainfall-runoff, respectively, in a typical roadside drainage system. It was also found that the kinematic wave model could accurately model significant aspects of rainfall-runoff events in traffic-impacted watersheds provided that abstractions were incorporated into the modeling process. For this watershed the source of abstraction was attributable to vehicular traffic. For high-intensity events with more than 10 vehicles per runoff volume (VPV) the runoff coefficient varied between 0.6 and 0.9 while for low-intensity events with fewer than 10 VPV the coefficient ranged between 0.2 and 0.4.

A Comparison Of Administrator And Faculty Self-Report And Knowledge Of Distance Education, Related Intellectual Property Laws And Policy, And Tenets Of Academic Freedom, Mary Irene Pogue

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Distance education is an emerging force in higher education that is creating new opportunities and added challenges. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare what university administrators and faculty know about issues that surround a debate about ownership of intellectual products created for distance education including technologies used in distance education and the law, university policies, and tenets of academic freedom that are supposed to stimulate intellectual creativity. An Internet-based survey was used to gather data from university faculty and administrators at four southeastern research universities in the United States. Results indicated that respondents were almost universally …

Social Protests, Asocial Media: Patterns Of Press Coverage Of Social Protests And The Influence Of The Internet Of Such Coverage, Sonora Jha Nambiar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines media coverage of two social protests set more than three decades apart – “The March on the Pentagon” in October 1967, part of the anti-Vietnam war movement and “The Battle for Seattle” in November-December 1999, part of the movement for democratic globalization. Through two separate studies – a content analysis of print media coverage and qualitative in-depth interviews with journalists – this dissertation looks for patterns of sourcing and framing between the coverage of these two protests. It also examines any possible influence on these patterns caused by journalists’ access to diverse sources and research through the …

A Comparison Of A High-Resolution Survey And A Three-Dimensional Seismic Survey In A Feature-Rich Region Of The Green Canyon Area, Gulf Of Mexico, Bruce Miles Samuel

LSU Master's Theses

Recent advances in Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technology have revolutionized the positioning and accuracy of high-resolution deep sea mapping tools. Geologic hazard and engineering surveys by AUV’s are producing high-resolution data sets of a quality that has never before been seen. Three-dimensional (3D) seismic data, though traditionally used for only deep subsurface mapping of large areas, is now being reprocessed at a higher resolution and utilized in well site investigations and geologic hazard assessments. This study makes a comparison between a 3D seismic survey and an AUV high-resolution survey in order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of both of …

The Portrayals Of Minority Characters In Entertaining Animated Children's Programs, Siobhan Elizabeth Smith

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to note, categorize, and discuss the stereotypes of African Americans in animated children’s cartoons. The purpose is also to compare them to see how they changed. A content analysis of two cartoons finds that characters do act in stereotypical ways. A quantitative analysis of 76 cartoons supports these findings. Overall, The Proud Family, a cartoon of the 21st century, is more stereotypical than Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, a cartoon from 30 years ago. Though primary characters display the same amount of stereotypical behavior, secondary characters show an increase in the amount of …

Assessment Of Instructional Methodologies And Student Information Processing Styles In A Terrorism Preparedness Course, William James Mccarthy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The focus of the research was the evaluation of two instructional methodologies for teaching terrorism preparedness at several universities in Louisiana. Participants were taught a curriculum for an audience who may work at a potential terrorist target. The purpose of the research was to determine if processing styles based instruction improved learning. The objectives of the study were to: 1) Describe participant demographics: a) age, b) gender, c) credit hours, d) field of study; and e) preferred Strategic Information Processing Style (SIPS); 2) Determine if changes occur in knowledge of terrorism preparedness as measured by the Terrorism Awareness test; 3) …

Developing Embryo Technologies For The Eland Antelope (Taurotragus Oryx), Gemechu G. Wirtu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Assisted reproductive technologies developed in domestic cattle serve as a starting point in similar studies on nondomestic bovids. The common eland is a useful model species for studies on rare tragelaphine antelopes. In Chapter 3 of the present study, effects of components/attributes of protein-free embryo culture media on the in vitro development of in vitro-derived bovine embryos were evaluated. A 2 x 2 factorial study comparing effects of groups of amino acids (20aa or 11aa) in two base media (modified KSOM or BM-3) demonstrated that amino acids and base medium affected embryonic development. A subsequent 7 x 2 factorial experiment …

Quality Evaluation Of Cheddar Cheese Containing Gamma-Oryzanol, Miguel Ángel Gutiérrez

LSU Master's Theses

Health benefits from consuming rice bran oil (RBO) have been extensively studied in humans. RBO has been shown to decrease cholesterol absorption by inhibiting the oxidation of the LDL-cholesterol. Gamma-Oryzanol is one of the RBO components that possess antioxidative properties; it is a polyphenolic compound resembling tocopherol (vitamin E), which is another component of RBO. There are evidences that oryzanol has potential applications for enhancing shelf-life of foods containing fats processed at a high temperature, decreasing the total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels in plasma lipids, and healing ulcers. In order to take advantage of the health benefits of oryzanol, …