Digital Commons Network^™

Spectra: Secure Power Efficient Clustered Topology Routing Algorithm, Waqaas Siddiqui

Theses

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have emerged as one of the hottest fields today due to their low-cost, self-organizing behavior, sensing ability in harsh environments, and their large application scope. One of the most challenging topics in WSNs is security. In some applications it is critical to provide confidentiality and authentication in order to prevent information from being compromised. However, providing key management for confidentiality and authentication is difficult due to the ad hoc nature, intermittent connectivity, and resource limitations of the network. Though traditional public keybased security protocols do exist, they need large memory bandwidths and complex algorithms, and are …

Making Sustainable And Environmental Improvements Through Focused Factories, Kyle Hurst

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between environmental strategy, business strategy, and manufacturing strategy. Specifically, this paper evaluates the potential link between a manufacturing strategy known as focused manufacturing (focused factories) and improved environmental performance. The thesis explores the current literature on focused factories and various environmental tools and strategies. Barriers to sustainable and environmental improvements are discussed, as well as the integration of environmental strategy into the overall business strategy of a company. To examine the relationship between focused factories and environmental improvement, statistical analysis is performed on data generated from a web-based survey sent …

The Study Of The Effect Of Shock And Vibration In The Distribution Cycle To The Performance Of Rfid Tags, Chalermlarp Rungkamol

Theses

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of shock and vibration during distribution on the performance of a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transponder. The RFID system selected for this study was a passive, ultra-high frequency system that complied with the requirements of Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense. The performance of an RFID tag was determined based on a transponder's read range. Two types of experiments were conducted in this research: test protocols used to identify the read range characteristics of the RFID transponder and a simulation of the product distribution cycle based on the ASTM D …

Feasability Of Printing Rfid Antennas On Corrugated Paperboard, Juthamart Sayampol

Theses

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a trace-and-track technology using RF signals for communication. RFID system was expected to replace barcodes and magnetic stripes because of its extra benefits for the supply chain: multiple items tracking and operation without line-of-sight. A major limitation of RFID technology was the cost of implementation. Since the existing method for RFID applications - "Slap and Ship" - was costly and time-and-labor consuming, this study was aimed to investigate whether the new method - printed-RFID-antenna - could be used in corrugated packaging industry for cost reduction purpose, and also whether those printed antennas could function under …

Risk Reporting And Source Credibility: Trying To Make The Readers Interested, Raluca Cozma

LSU Master's Theses

An experiment with 98 participants was conducted to explore the effects of government versus multiple sources on perceived credibility and interest when applied to the same risk stories. It also analyzed the effects of source treatment on participants' assessment of government credibility and source reasonableness. The study investigated the effects of demographic characteristics of participants (age, gender, media use) on the same variables, and tried to determine if there was any statistical correlation between the two dependent variables of credibility and interest. It also analyzed the effects of human-interest reports on credibility and interest. Overall, the study found that participants …

Examining Sponsorship And Cosponsorship In The U.S. House Of Representatives, 1973-2002, Kelly Marie Burke

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the effects of background characteristics on members of Congress' legislative activity. I intend to measure legislative activity using the total number of bills sponsored and cosponsored during each Congress. Beginning in 1973, this original dataset includes over 6,000 observations and is the most comprehensive study of this subject. Because my dataset begins in 1973, I will be able to identify any effect that the unrestricted ability to cosponsor, which began in 1978, had on legislative activeness. It is my intention to contribute to our scholarly understanding of sponsorship and cosponsorship activity in …

Mapping Weak Multidimensional Torus Communications On Optical Slab Waveguides, Karthik Sethuraman

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis deals with the mapping of communication of a d-dimensional weak torus on an optical medium. Our results are derived in the setting of a sawtooth slab waveguide. The mapping aims to reduce the number and cost of optical components, by exploiting the fact that not all edges of a weak topology are used simultaneously. This approach allows for a better utilization of the huge bandwidth of an optical slab waveguide; currently the cost and size of optical components external to the optical communication medium are the primary bottleneck of an optical interconnect. We introduce the notion of adjacency …

Contact Effects In Thermally Evaporated Pentacene Thin Films And Aspects Of Microsystem Hybrid Integration, Jagadish Yernagula

LSU Master's Theses

Organic thin film transistors have the potential to replace silicon based transistors in applications such as smart cards and RF-ID due to their low cost and low processing temperatures. Thermally evaporated pentacene is studied as an organic thin film material. Thin film transistors were fabricated in bottom contact structure using thermal evaporation of pentacene at a rate of 0.5 to 1 nm/s. Heavily doped Si was used as a gate material and 100 nm thick silicon dioxide was used as a dielectric. Ni was used as contact metal for source and drain contacts. Threshold voltage of 16 V and mobility …

Development Of Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert Containing Soy Protein And Coconut Milk, Luciana Soler

LSU Master's Theses

As consumers have pursued healthier lifestyles in recent years, consumption of soy foods has risen steadily, encouraged by scientific studies showing health benefits from these products. There is a large market for ice cream in the United States. However, since ice cream contains dairy ingredients, a number of Americans are not able to consume it because of dietary habits due to religious beliefs, lactose intolerance, vegetarianism or other related ideologies. For years, these groups of consumers have been able to substitute ice cream with frozen desserts containing soy protein as a substitute for milk protein, but never in the United …

In The Garden, Christopher B. Hutson

LSU Master's Theses

This body of artwork is centered on the idea of a garden as a space in between the two systems of human and natural order. The ambiguities of this in-between space tie together ideas pertinent to both worlds, using the ancient “doctrine of signatures” as an intermediary. These ideas are explored in fourteen artworks, including large-scale and smaller drawings, lithographs, and etchings.

Spalding Gray And The Slippery Slope Of Confessional Performance, David Price Terry

LSU Master's Theses

Beyond Spalding Gray’s iconic position as a confessional performer, he serves as a representative character for a culture increasingly consumed with both self-reflection and self- disclosure, where confessional speech is understood as somehow more “authentic” or “pure” than other forms of discourse. I argue that confession is a performative, not a constative utterance (a doing not a saying) and that it is a productive not a libratory act; it does not free an already existing self, but produces a new self in the act of performance. Consequently, though the confessional performance style typified by Gray can be aesthetically compelling for …

Improving Homework In Adolescents With Adhd: Comparing Training In Self- Vs. Parent-Monitoring Of Homework And Study Skills Completion, Kara J. Meyer

LSU Master's Theses

Self-monitoring has been proven to be effective in increasing performance, on task behavior, and homework completion in students with learning disabilities and other academic difficulties. Parent supervision and involvement in homework also has been shown to improve performance. However, the effectiveness of parent vs. self-monitoring of homework completion and test preparation has never been examined in adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The current study compared the effectiveness of self- and parent-monitoring of homework and study skills completion in middle school students with ADHD. Students were trained in the SQ4R study strategy and homework completion skills. In one group students monitored …

Evangelicals And The Republican Party: A Reinforcing Relationship For Israel, John Charles Tadayeski

LSU Master's Theses

In examining one’s level of religious involvement and orthodoxy of worship, several authors have found significant correlations between levels of these variables and an attachment to political parties, particularly the Republican Party (Layman, 1997). My analysis of a 2002 ABC News/Washington Post poll (ICPSR, 2002) finds that the same mechanism that is indicative of partisanship also influences and reinforces evangelicals’ sympathies toward Israel. While the Republican and Evangelical variables are statistically significant with respect to an elevated level of sympathy toward Israel, the interaction effect of these two variables is the most noteworthy product of this analysis. When subjects respond …

Press Street: A Concept For Preserving, Reintroducing And Fostering Local History, Brian J. Mcbride

LSU Master's Theses

To encourage increased stability in declining neighborhoods, government planning agencies and other land developers, continuously search for solutions to improve the quality of life for people living in communities in need of revitalization and a boost to their local economy. Studies have shown that well developed greenways and other public open spaces are improving the economic stability for many neighborhoods. Consequently, it is the creation of successful parks and public open spaces that have been found to be the first steps to improving such communities (The Trust for Public Land). If creating parks is the key to saving neighborhoods, can …

Use Of Terraced Marsh Habitats By Estuarine Nekton In Southwestern Louisiana, Bryan Paul Gossman

LSU Master's Theses

A variety of techniques have been employed in attempts to mitigate the extensive wetland loss occurring in coastal Louisiana. Marsh terracing is a wetland restoration technique that has rapidly gained in popularity in recent years. Terraces are assumed to benefit coastal restoration by providing areas for emergent plant growth, reducing wave energies, and increasing edge habitat to support nekton communities. The objectives of this study were to: 1) determine the effect of marsh terraces on adjacent water quality and sediment characteristics, 2) compare nekton abundance, species richness, and diversity in edge and open water habitats within terraced and unterraced ponds, …

Seasonal Space Use, Habitat Preference And Survival Of Female Wild Turkeys In A Louisiana Bottomland Hardwood Forest, Walker Blake Wilson

LSU Master's Theses

Female wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) were captured and radio-marked in a bottomland hardwood forest in south-central Louisiana. Turkeys were monitored using radio telemetry from fixed points on Sherburne Wildlife Management Area, Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, and Bayou des Ourses to observe seasonal patterns of space use, habitat preference and survival from 2002-04. The largest mean seasonal home range of 902.87 ha occurred during preincubation (15 Feb – 9 Apr; n = 24) when females typically search for suitable nest sites, and the smallest mean seasonal home range was 434.12 ha, during brood-rearing (1 Jun – 30 Sep; n = 32) …

Hail To The Chief: Former Law Clerks For William Rehnquist Recall What They Learned And How He Touched Their Lives, Craig M. Bradley, Laura E. Little, John C. Englander, Celestine Richards Mcconville

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died Sept. 3, is remembered for his disarming warmth and humor, breadth of knowledge about the law, and insistence that there is life outside the office. Few knew him better than the legions of clerks who tolled with and learned from him. Indeed, the sheer number who attended his funeral testifies to how highly he was regarded. Here, four former clerks from the decades of the 1970s, '80s and '90s write about their own particular memories of the late chief justice.

"Is There A Translator In Teh [Sic] House?": Cultural And Discourse Analysis Of A Virtual Speech Community On An Internet Message Board, Tracy Rene Leblanc

LSU Master's Theses

In the newly emergent field of online ethnography, netspeak and online behavior are quickly becoming the next frontier of linguistic anthropology. The discourse analysis and cultural investigation of the virtual speech community of Penismightier.com reveal several salient aspects of culture through the lens of the internet and online human behavior. This thesis focuses on aspects of language use in the discourse on message board threads on the Penismightier website. The Pen speech community has innovated a lexicon of original and modified techie language, such as unique emoticons and alpha-numeric orthography. The orthographic innovations of this virtual speech community blur the …

The Yes Men And Activism In The Information Age, Lani Boyd

LSU Master's Theses

Western history is filled with pranks and trickery intent on enlightening audiences by blending fiction with reality. The Yes Men, an Internet-based activist group, did just that, forging new ground and establishing themselves as political pranksters in a media-dominant global society. With an arsenal of parody, satire, interventions, and tactical obfuscation, the Yes Men attack those who they feel abuse their positions of power. They have impersonated public persons and infamous entities, including President George W. Bush, the World Trade Organization, and Dow Chemical. Their mimicry is so convincing that the audience cannot decipher between satire and the real thing. …

Diversity: A Fundamental American Principle, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor David Orentlicher argues that following the U.S. Supreme Court's affirmative action decisions in June 2003, both the Court in its defense of diversity and the commentators in their critiques of the diversity rationale have misjudged the public interest in diversity . Rather than having insufficient weight to justify affirmative action or reflecting a limited educational interest, diversity is a critical principle for much of American constitutional and social structure. In particular, the federalist system of government rests in large part on the belief that a diversity of approaches by the fifty states will lead to better …

The Influence Of Solo Performance Opportunities On Self-Reported Levels Of Musical Performance Anxiety Among Undergraduate College Music Majors, Carol W. Larsen

LSU Master's Theses

Musical performance anxiety (MPA) is a concern for most college age musicians. While low to moderate levels of MPA may enhance performances for some musicians, too much “stage fright” can seriously hinder the quality of solo performances. Musicians use several techniques to manage MPA. One of these, desensitization, involves repeated exposure to solo performance opportunities. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between the number and type of public solo performances completed and the level of self-reported performance anxiety among students pursuing baccalaureate degrees in music at a research extensive university in the southern United …

Pressure-Velocity Correlation Study On 1:50 Scale Model Of The Ttu Wind Engineering Research Field Lab Building, Praveen Kumar

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of the present study is to investigate the relationship between incident wind velocity fluctuations and the surface pressure fluctuations on the roof of a low rise building. The goal was fulfilled by studying the pressure velocity correlation on 1:50 scale model of a typical low rise building, the Wind Engineering Research Field Laboratory (WERFL) building located at Texas Tech University, Lubbock. The experimental study was carried out in the LSU Wind Tunnel Laboratory by simulating the boundary layer prevalent at the full-scale site. The velocity profile in the boundary layer was measured using the TSI Hot-Wire system with …

The Impact Of Training On Caregiver Responsiveness, Carrie Lou Ota

LSU Master's Theses

This is an evaluation of observation-based experiences in child care in the state of Louisiana to help determine the importance of training and its impact on caregiver responsiveness. Infant and toddler child care caregivers were observed prior to and following a six-hour statewide training provided by Louisiana State University Cooperative Extension. The focus of the training was the Right from Birth series (Ramey & Ramey, 1999). Caregiver responsiveness to infants and toddlers was measured using a multiple baseline design. Observers examined both positive and negative caregiver behaviors which were categorized as either active or passive on the part of the …

Covering The Revolution Of Roses (Differences And Similarities Between Georgia And Independent Television Companies), Nino Danelia

LSU Master's Theses

The study analyzed how independent and state media's news programs differ in the way they framed the Georgian Revolution of Roses. The paper analyzed what sources, frames and key words journalists used to describe the protest in order to investigate if the coverage was objective or biased in any particular direction. Study provides evidence that by framing protests in a different way, politicians and journalists give different meanings to the same issues and suggest what is at issue. Each party of the political elite tried to promote their own political viewpoints. By preferring sources from the ruling party and their …

The Riace Bronzes: A Comparative Study In Style And Technique, Jennifer Alaine Henrichs

LSU Master's Theses

Two monumental bronze statues were discovered by a diver in the remains of an ancient shipwreck in the Riace Marina off the coast of Calabria in 1972. After their recovery and extensive conservation in the Archaeological Museum in Florence, the Riace bronzes have now come to reside in the Reggio Calabria Museo Nazionale. Lacking any inscriptions and removed from their original context, the Riace bronzes have been the source of much conjectured debate throughout the art world. This paper examines the Riace bronzes on both technical and stylistic grounds by addressing such matters as the method of construction, the physical …

Power And Memory Optimization Techniques In Embedded Systems Design, Atef Khalil Allam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Embedded systems incur tight constraints on power consumption and memory (which impacts size) in addition to other constraints such as weight and cost. This dissertation addresses two key factors in embedded system design, namely minimization of power consumption and memory requirement. The first part of this dissertation considers the problem of optimizing power consumption (peak power as well as average power) in high-level synthesis (HLS). The second part deals with memory usage optimization mainly targeting a restricted class of computations expressed as loops accessing large data arrays that arises in scientific computing such as the coupled cluster and configuration interaction …

Addressing Imperfections In The Tax System: Procedural Or Substantive Reform?, Leandra Lederman, Stephen W. Mazza

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In his book "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else", David Cay Johnston, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, covers a wide array of topics, including some that are quite complex, in a very readable way. The federal income tax system generally and tax compliance in particular are important focuses of the book, but the theme that implicitly connects chapters that otherwise appear unrelated is a variety of aspects of income inequality.

Although "Perfectly Legal" does not make a clear case that politicians and …

Techniques For Low Power Analog, Digital And Mixed Signal Cmos Integrated Circuit Design, Chuang Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With the continuously expanding of market for portable devices such as wireless communication devices, portable computers, consumer electronics and implantable medical devices, low power is becoming increasingly important in integrated circuits. The low power design can increase operation time and/or utilize a smaller size and lighter-weight battery. In this dissertation, several low power complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit design techniques are investigated. A metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) can be operated at a lower voltage by forward-biasing the source-substrate junction. This approach has been investigated in detail and used to designing an ultra-low power CMOS operational amplifier for operation at …

The Economics Of Neutrality: Switzerland And The United States In World War Ii, Matthew Schandler

LSU Master's Theses

The following study addresses the contentious issue of Swiss economic policy during the Second World War. In particular, it concentrates on the deterioration of Swiss-American relations that resulted from Switzerland’s economic ties to Nazi Germany. It is argued that Switzerland’s survival as a neutral and democratic country depended less on the defense preparations of the Swiss Army and more on the difficult trade negotiations with both the Axis and Allies. Varied sources that include American and Swiss governmental reports, diplomatic documents, and contemporary accounts of the war, support the argument that although moral considerations played a secondary role to economic …

Palimpsest Encounters: A Baseline Study Of Federal, Antebellum, And Postbellum New Orleans Gardens Using The Notarial Archives Drawings, Cecilia L. Mcnab

LSU Master's Theses

The focus of this thesis is to establish a basis for a typology of New Orleans gardens from 19th Century Notarial drawings. Previous inquires of the New Orleans Notarial Archives drawings emphasized elite gardens of the Vieux Carré and Garden District. This baseline study investigates both vernacular and elite gardens of 159 drawings in the three oldest of the city Municipal Districts during the period 1810-1880, and identifies 19 garden templates. It sets the drawings in their social, political, and historical context to inform a critical understanding of the garden types. The inquiry examines 47 spatial and design variables, using …