Digital Commons Network^™

Heroic Individualism: The Hero As Author In Democratic Culture, Alan I. Baily

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My study focuses on the literature of democratic morality, with specific reference to the question of "heroic individualism." I attempt to elucidate the notion of heroic individualism by examining three modern democratic moralists whose work occupies the space between politics and literature: Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Carlyle and Friedrich Nietzsche. In brief, I conclude that the central aspiration of heroic individualism is to bridge the gap between writing and action, the Text and the Voice. The dialogue among Rousseau, Carlyle, and Nietzsche reveals that the problem of writing as action is central to heroic-individualist morality. Each of these authors demonstrates …

Something Borrowed, Something Blue : Carrying Old Traditions Into A New Life, Katherine M. Argenziano

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Examining Middle School Students Learning Language Arts Skills In Context, Erica L. Dinkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the embedded language approach is effective in teaching the traditional language arts curriculum, and whether it holds any advantages over the more traditional approach. Twelve teachers in ten different schools taught language skills using the embedded language approach, while twelve matched teachers explicitly taught the same skills using traditional workbook practice activities for six weeks. Treatment efficacy was assessed using gain scores between pretest and posttest using a battery of informal and standardized measures. In addition, weekly comprehension probes were administered to examine whether language arts skills taught during the week …

Multianalyte Detection Of Breast Cancer By Fabrication Of Hybridmicroarrays On Polymer-Based Microanalytical Devices, Suying Wei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Breast cancer is one of the most common and fatal cancer diseases that affect women worldwide. As is true with most other cancer diseases, early detection of breast cancer is very crucial for proper medical treatment because treatment of advanced breast cancer will be much more difficult and inconsistent. Screening and testing of breast cancer biomarkers, either genetic or proteomic, are among techniques used for diagnosis of breast cancers. Nevertheless, none of the biomarkers is by itself sensitive and selective enough for diagnosis of breast cancer, and thus, multi-analyte assays towards detection of multiple breast cancer biomarkers from different classes …

The Justice Of Recovery: How The State Can Heal The Violence Of Crime, Linda G. Mills

UC Law Journal

A longstanding assumption of the criminal justice system is that victims benefit in some way from the prosecution and punishment of the person who caused them harm. This Article, however, argues that victim healing involves more than punishing the offender, and that by rethinking the roles victims perform in the criminal justice system, we may provide them with a more comprehensive menu of options to facilitate their recovery from crime. The societal goals of punishment and accountability and the individual desire for healing are not mutually exclusive. Incorporating recovery approaches from both the science of victimology and theories of restoration …

The Queen's Stone : Becoming A Storyteller, Sarah Walker

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Development Of An Emergency Medical Pack (Emp) For Short-Duration Human Spaceflight, Amy L. Gieske

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Photography : Do Photographs Convey A Comprehensive Truth?, Tiffany Rose Stratton

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Stories In Response, C Christopher Johnson

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Magnetic, Thermodynamic And Transport Properties Of The Magnetic Semiconductor Fe₁₋Xcoxs₂ And Superconducting Lasb₂, Song Guo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years magnetic semiconductors have attracted a great deal of attention because it is thought that they can be used to generate spin polarized current in spintronics, an emerging field where the spin degree of freedom of charge carriers is utilized in microelectronic devices. In this dissertation work, we investigate the magnetic, thermodynamic, and transport properties of the magnetic semiconductor Fe_1-XCo_xS₂ for x less than 0.14, the doping range where Insulator-to-Metal and paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic transitions occur. We discovered that the Kondo effect is an important ingredient in the paramagnetic region of magnetic semiconductor Fe_{1-X …}

The Measure Of A Justice: Justice Scalia And The Faltering Of The Property Rights Movement Within The Supreme Court, Richard J. Lazarus

UC Law Journal

The ability of a Supreme Court Justice to craft a majority opinion is the most important and least understood of the skills that distinguish between ordinary and truly extraordinary jurists. The Justice who is able to do so is the one most likely to produce Court opinions that, because of their persuasive force, promote the kind of public respect ultimately necessary for the Court's authority. The publication of the papers of Justice Harry Blackmun (The Blackmun Papers) in 2004 allows an assessment of Justice Antonin Scalia's effectiveness in crafting Supreme Court precedent in the protection of property rights. The Papers …

California's Punitive Damages Law: Continuing To Punish And Deter Despite State Farm V. Campbell, Kathleen S. Kizer

UC Law Journal

In State Farm v. Campbell, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the punitive damages awarded in a particular case must be proportional to the amount of compensatory damages awarded in that case. Although the Court refrained from setting a "bright-line ratio," many courts reviewing awards after State Farm have time and again reduced punitive damages awards, using factors between four and nine in reliance on proclamations made by the Court in State Farm. In addition, State Farm casts doubt on whether a defendant's financial condition is relevant to the issue of punitive damages. Both of these assertions-that punitive damages must …

Beyond Moody: A Re-Examination Of Unreasonably Small Capital, Lee B. Shepard

UC Law Journal

Fraudulent conveyance laws may end up back in the spotlight as the economy slows following a period of sharply increased leveraged buyout activity and aggressive lending tactics. Since participants in leveraged transactions are more sophisticated than in the past, plaintiffs may focus on unreasonably small capital, rather than insolvency, to show that a debtor engaged in a constructively fraudulent conveyance or transfer. Unfortunately, unreasonably small capital is an underdeveloped legal concept, particularly with regard to standards by which courts can determine whether a transaction left a debtor with unreasonably small capital.

The leading case on the subject, Moody v. Security …

Environmental Justice: Access To Clean Drinking Water, Hastings Law Journal

UC Law Journal

Many low-income communities and communities of color are unable to advocate for clean drinking water or oppose rate hikes for drinkable water. Failing infrastructure, industrial pollution, and increasing water scarcity in California disproportionately affect vulnerable, marginalized communities. This Panel focused on community organization and novel legal approaches (such as Title VI Civil Rights complaints) that could be used to advocate for clean drinking water.

Companion Animals As Being-Objects: The Role Of The Self/Other Binary In The Human-Animal Bond, Amanda Kelly Reed

LSU Master's Theses

This research project is an investigation into the human-dog bond and the practice of pet adoption and pet surrender at the East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control Center. The human-dog bond is an excellent vehicle for an investigation into how we create categories of other because it is a highly complex and intersubjective relationship with deep evolutionary roots that is often reduced to a relationship between possessor and possessed in which cultural, historical, and biological contexts are not considered. It is a relationship in which constructed meaning is taken for fact. This thesis explores how animal control centers both resist …

Treaty Obligations And National Law: Emerging Conflicts In International Arbitration, William W. Park, Alexander A. Yanos

UC Law Journal

Invoking either forum non conveniens or the absence of personal jurisdiction, several federal courts have refused to enforce foreign arbitral awards. The authors explore the impact of these cases, suggesting that the decisions may put the United States in breach of duties under the New York Arbitration Convention. The resulting damage to reliability in cross-border dispute resolution will inhibit the type of international economic cooperation that benefits both the United States and the larger world community.

With a view to reconciling domestic law and treaty obligations, the Article suggests that enforcement of foreign awards should include a two-step process. Pursuant …

Champagne, Feta, And Bourbon: The Spirited Debate About Geographical Indications, Justin Hughes

UC Law Journal

Geographical Indications (GIs) are terms for foodstuffs that are associated with certain geographical areas. The law of GIs is currently in a state of flux. Legal protection for GIs mandated in the TRIPS Agreement is implemented through appellations law in France and through certification mark systems in the United States and Canada. This Article first examines the state of GIs throughout the world. The author then turns to the continuing debate between the European Union and other industrialized economies over this unique form of intellectual property. The European Union claims that increasing GI protection would aid developing countries, but, in …

Money And Tragedy In The Nineteenth-Century Novel, Clany Soileau

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The nineteenth-century novelists studied in this dissertation used tragic form to investigate economic and social changes taking place around them. Honoré de Balzac’s Le Père Goriot (1834), William Dean Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham (1884-1885), Giovanni Verga’s Mastro-don Gesualdo (1888), Benito Pérez Galdós’s Miau, (1888), and Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks (1901) reflect the interest of writers in France, the United States, Italy, Spain, and Germany in questions concerning how money in an evolving capitalist society not only had a major role in shaping the behavior and personalities of specific individuals but also affected such institutions as the family. Under these …

The Abc's Of Hiv: When "Just Say No" Is Not Enough-Queer Critique Of Aids Policy, Lisa Laura Ladwig

LSU Master's Theses

This paper will critique the United States' AIDS policy, both domestic and international. I demonstrate how queer theorists have used Jacques Lacan's concepts of "jouissance" and the "unconscious desire" to suggests ways in which the current policy has dangerous implications for real people, for public health, and human rights. I reveal how the problem of rising HIV infection is not due to the lack of availability of safer-sex information, but rather it is a problem of execution: the Religious Right's ideology inscribed in our public health policy. Finally, I wish to expose how people in this country and others are …

The Macarthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory As An Assessment Tool For Low-Income, African American Children, Elizabeth Waters Wooden

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of the MacArthur- Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) as an assessment tool for low-income, African American (AA) children. The data were from eighty-seven typically developing AA children, aged 8 to 30 months; these children were recruited from childcare centers that served low-income populations in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Each participant’s primary caregiver completed a biographical sketch and a CDI inventory. Two analyses were completed. The first analysis examined the distribution of the CDI scores relative to the child’s age, gender, birth order, and level of maternal education. The second analysis involved …

A Performer's And Conductor's Analysis Of Ingolf Dahl's For Alto Saxophone And Wind Orchestra, Christopher Scott Rettie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ingolf Dahl’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Orchestra was written in 1949 for the famous concert saxophonist, Sigurd Rascher and was then revised to its present state in 1953. The concerto, widely known by saxophonists and wind band conductors alike, is considered among the finest of repertoire for band as well as for saxophone. Although Dahl’s concerto is one of the most frequently performed saxophone concerti, there has been surprisingly little written about it. Available published sources deal directly with the concerto, but do not address harmonic implications, the saxophone solo part, or the published wind band score. This …

The Transcription For Two Double Basses Of Selections From Pièces De Violes, Quatrème Livre, Deuxiême Partie: Suitte D'Un Goût Etranger By Marin Marais, Yong Hao Pan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Marin Marais (1656-1728) was one of the most celebrated bass viol composer-performers of the French school from the late seventeenth century to the early eighteenth century. The purpose of this project is to introduce some of his music to double bass players through transcriptions. The monograph starts with an overview on the importance of transcriptions in double bass literature. A historical background of the viol and its relation to the double bass are discussed in the second chapter. The third chapter reviews Marin Marais’s biographical sketch, and some of his most significant compositions. The transcription process of eight selected bass …

The Scent Of A New World Novel: Translating The Olfactory Language Of Faulkner And García Márquez, Terri Smith Ruckel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Both William Faulkner and Gabriel García Márquez introduce the olfactory as a focal element in their writing, producing works that challenge the singular primacy of sight as the unrivaled means by which the New World might be understood. As they translate experiences of the New World into language, both writers record the power of olfactory perception to reflect memory and history, to shape identity, to mark unmistakably certain crisis moments of ethical action, and to delineate a form of knowledge crucial to their New World poetics of the novel. Observing and analyzing the olfactory language particular to the cultural spaces …

Delineating Hurricane Vulnerable Populations In Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Stephanie Pedro

LSU Master's Theses

Since settlement first began, equality issues between different social classes have been evident in the location of where residents settled in New Orleans. This research seeks to answer the question: What socioeconomic indicators are prevalent in the areas most-at-risk to flooding which could inhabit populations least able to evacuate? I will use Census 2000 block group data from the socioeconomic sample data (SF3) collected in 2000, along with other economic and GIS data from the New Orleans region to statistically represent the distribution of risk by selecting indicators predicted to be in flood zones from a classification tree analysis. Then, …

Zachary Richard's "Faire Récolte": A Translation From The French, Michael D. Bierschenk

LSU Master's Theses

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Cajun language, which had been entirely oral for most of its history, began to emerge as a productive literary language. One of the prominent new authors of the period was Zachary Richard, also an important Cajun musician. One of his collections of poetry, Faire récolte (Les Éditions Perce-Neige, 1997), is translated here. This thesis also includes a translator's note that briefly explores the broad themes of the poems and the methods used in translating them.

Green Theatre: Proto-Environmental Drama And The Performance Of Ecological Values In Contemporary Western Theatre, Kurt Gerard Heinlein

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study is to illustrate the purpose and potential of theatre that promotes a proto-environmental agenda, or Green Theatre, in re-orienting Western behavior and mores in a direction that creates positive socio-environmental change. In correlation, this dissertation will examine the objectives and performance modes of several educational and professional theatre entities that house a distinctly unique Green agenda. The primary performances featured will include Peter Schumann’s Bread and Puppet Theatre, Blue Man Group’s Tubes, performances by Koko the signing lowland gorilla, and Playmakers of Baton Rouge’s production of Habitat Cats.

Verb Aquisition In Students Of English As A Second Language: Language Learning Background And Attitudes, Erin Kyles Rogers

LSU Master's Theses

In order to determine how learner background and learner attitudes affected English as a Second Language students’ verb production, eleven ESL learners participated in both oral and written tasks. They were given written surveys to determine what was emphasized more in learning English in their home countries: speaking or writing. Another survey was administered to determine which of these activities that they liked best. Next, the subjects watched a movie clip, wrote about it, and then spoke about it. Their written and spoken total amount of verbs produced and total amount of verbs used correctly were compared and analyzed to …

Writing As A Cultural Negotiation: A Study Of Mariama Bâ, Marie Ndiaye And Ama Ata Aidoo, Catherine Afua Kapi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Critical review of the existing literature on African women writers clearly shows that nowhere is the question of writing as a cultural negotiation posed, discussed or much less addressed. This is a lacuna that this dissertation addresses for the first time by proposing a re-reading of the selected works of Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Bâ and Marie NDiaye through the new prism of writing as part of cultural negotiation. In doing so, the dissertation goes beyond the paradigm of binary oppositions that undergirds the critical literature on writing by Sub-Saharan women in favor of the innovative concept of negotiation. In …

Between Representation And Practice: Contesting Public Space In New Orleans' Jackson Square, Rebecca A. Sheehan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recent geographic research on public space focuses largely on either the past or present. Using historical and ethnographic methods, I contribute to understanding public space over time from an everyday point of view, a variety of social scales. Further, departing from a generally political-protest focus that much geographic literature centers on, my study explores the multifaceted areas of the political, cultural, and economic in public space. Thus, I show that the need for public space expands beyond protest voices into other realms that form and inform identity. Through New Orleans’ Jackson Square, these prospects of public space demonstrate “a world …

Mass Media Usage During A Natural Disaster: Lsu College Students And Hurricane Katrina, Pavica Juric

LSU Master's Theses

A survey with 293 American and 68 international LSU students and two focus groups with American students and one with international students were conducted between November 2005 and February 2006 to determine the difference in media use between American and international LSU students in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: What were students’ main sources of information after the storm? What were their sources when electricity was out? Which source of information helped students feel less lonely? Which source of information helped students fell less stressful? Finally, which medium did the students believe, when compared to others, did the best job …