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Mitigation And The Capital Defendant Who Wants To Die: A Study In The Rhetoric Of Autonomy And The Hidden Discourse Of Collective Responsibility, Daniel R. Williams

UC Law Journal

Two powerful adjudicatory ideals-preserving individual autonomy and promoting systemic reliability-collide most dramatically in cases where capital defendants join the prosecution in seeking a death verdict. Capital defendants do this by "waiving" the presentation of all mitigation evidence and affirmatively urging the jury to sentence them to death. This supposed expression of autonomy (presumably not unlike other constitutional waivers) impedes the sovereign's constitutional mandate to pursue reliable capital sentencing. Does autonomy trump reliability? This Article examines the mitigation-waiver conundrum in a way never done before, and by doing so, aspires to illuminate how the rhetoric of autonomy suppresses destabilizing notions such …

Reconceptualizing Due Process In Juvenile Justice: Contributions From Law And Social Science, Mark R. Fondacaro, Christopher Slobogin, Tricia Cross

UC Law Journal

This Article challenges the accepted wisdom, at least since the Supreme Court's decision in Gault, that procedures in juvenile delinquency court should mimic the adult criminal process. The legal basis for this challenge is Gault itself, as well as the other Supreme Court cases that triggered the juvenile justice revolution of the past decades, for all of these cases relied on the due process clause, not the provisions of the Constitution that form the foundation for adult criminal procedure. The Court's reliance on due process means that the central goal in juvenile justice is fundamental fairness, which does not have …

Hale's Legacy: Why Private Property Is Not A Synonym For Liberty, Ilana Waxman

UC Law Journal

For anyone interested in critiquing the laissez-faire view of regulation as an illegitimate intrusion on the rights of property owners, it is particularly important to understand the historical fate of progressive critiques during the Lochner era. One such critique came from Robert Hale, a progressive law professor and economist of the 1920s-1940s who has proved to be one of the most enduring of the Lochner-era critics. Although Hale's critique of private property and the free market fell into obscurity after his retirement in 1949, it was revived in the 1970s, and has been the subject of considerable scholarly interest for …

Understanding Parents' Decisions About Serving Vegetables To Their Children, Alissa Villarrubia

LSU Master's Theses

With the increasing rate of childhood obesity it is important to examine obesity prevention programs and strategies. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been identified as a successful framework to examine and understand human behavior and obesity prevention research. However, there is limited support for the TPB regarding its use and efficacy for understanding parents’ influence on the health behavior of their children. The purpose of this study was to: (a) describe the most common behavioral, normative, and control beliefs of parents’ serving vegetables to their children; (b) examine the social cognitive correlates of parents’ intentions to serve vegetables …

Delinquent Or Disabled? Harmonizing The Idea Definition Of "Emotional Disturbance" With The Educational Needs Of Incarcerated Youth, Moira O'Neill

UC Law Journal

Congress enacted the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to meet the special education needs of disabled youth. Yet the Department of Education regulations defining "emotional disturbance," one of the qualifying disabilities under the IDEA, have consistently defined the term to exclude youth diagnosed as "socially maladjusted." Special education scholars and professionals have long criticized this definition of emotional disturbance as imprecise and inconsistent with mental health constructs of emotional and behavioral disorders. Incarcerated youth are particularly affected by this definition of "emotional disturbance," as they demonstrate a higher prevalence of special educational needs than does the public school population. …

Social Ape, Morgan Dione Harris

LSU Master's Theses

“Social Ape” is an investigation and rationalization of America’s obsession with consumption. As a designer, this battle between consumption and individualistic expression has been intriguing. It is a platform for questioning how the public processes information supplied by marketing and advertising, resulting visually in interpretations of this information. It seems fascinating that even though consumers are constantly bombarded by persuasive propaganda, they feel in control of their purchasing decisions. To this end, I am using fashion as a tool for investigation. Fashion is a powerful commodity, representing identity and status, and thus fueling consumption and expression.

Instantaneously Trained Neural Networks With Complex And Quaternion Inputs, Adityan V. Rishiyur

LSU Master's Theses

Neural network architectures such as backpropagation networks, perceptrons or generalized Hopfield networks can handle complex inputs but they require a large amount of time and resources for the training process. This thesis investigates instantaneously trained feedforward neural networks that can handle complex and quaternion inputs. The performance of the basic algorithm has been analyzed and shown how it provides a plausible model of human perception and understanding of images. The motivation for studying quaternion inputs is their use in representing spatial rotations that find applications in computer graphics, robotics, global navigation, computer vision and the spatial orientation of instruments. The …

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 …

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, …

Aristotelian-Liberal Autonomy, Geoffrey Allan Plauche

LSU Master's Theses

Written in the burgeoning tradition of Aristotelian liberalism, my thesis seeks to enrich this tradition by developing a liberal theory of autonomy based on a broadly Aristotelian foundation. Chapter One summarizes and critiques the major contemporary theories of autonomy developed by Kant and analytic philosophers. Chapter Two explicates the Aristotelian conception of autonomy, drawing on recent work by Fred Miller and Roderick Long. Aristotle is chided for not being liberal enough and so Chapter Three develops an Aristotelian-liberal theory of autonomy based in part on recent work by Douglas Rasmussen, Douglas Den Uyl and Roderick Long. Global and local individual …

Validity Of The Reflux Symptoms Index For Post-Pubescent Female Vocalists, Natalie Herpin Overall

LSU Master's Theses

The Reflux Symptoms Index (RSI), a nine-item self-rated questionnaire, has been suggested as a way of monitoring severity of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) symptoms during treatment. However, limited research has been conducted to assess the validity of the RSI as a way of identifying severity of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) symptoms as differentiated from gastroesophageal reflux (GER) symptoms. Twenty-five post-pubescent female vocalists participated by completing a one-hour voice evaluation, including a Voice Handicap Index (VHI), an RSI, a Reflux Finding Score (RFS) completed with videostroboscopy for visualization of the laryngeal cavity, and analysis of an acoustic sample with the Multi-Dimensional Voice Profile …

Computer-Aided Diagnostic Systems For Digital Mammograms, Nicholas Jabari Lee

LSU Master's Theses

A computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) system that uses a unique shape-based classification scheme, the Ellipse-Closed Curve Fitting (ECCF) algorithm, is developed for digital mammogram image analysis. The system is developed to work as a post-processing extension to a previously developed CAD system that locates and segments mass lesions, or tumors, found in digital mammograms into separate images. The ECCF system is implemented in the MATLAB mathematical scripting language and is thus capable of running on multiple platforms. The ECCF algorithm detects edges in tumor images and casts them into closed curve functions. Parameters for an ellipse of best fit for a …

The Relationship Between Parent-Adolescent Conflict And Academic Achievement, Marie S. Nebel-Schwalm

LSU Master's Theses

Previous research has shown family conflict to have a detrimental effect on the academic functioning of children and adolescents. Most research conceptualizes family conflict as marital distress or divorce. Additional factors that have been shown to effect academic functioning include cognitive ability (i.e., intelligence), academic skills (e.g., homework behaviors), and amount of resources (i.e., socioeconomic status, SES). The present study investigated whether parent-adolescent conflict is related to adolescent academic achievement after accounting for cognitive ability and homework behaviors. Participants include 74 middle school students attending public school in a low-SES urban environment. Prior to conducting analyses, parent and adolescent reports …

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 …

Animation In Artificial Grammar Learning: Can Animation Facilitate Learning?, Bill Sallas

LSU Master's Theses

Domangue, Mathews, Sun, Roussel, and Guidry (2004) trained participants to generate valid exemplars from an artificial grammar using either memory-based or model-based processing. Their results showed that learning by memory-based processing resulted in fast but inaccurate performance, while model-based learning resulted in slow but accurate performance. Attempts to integrate both types of training did not result in fast and accurate string generation. Fast and accurate performance was achieved by Sun and Mathews (2004) using a computer animated display to train participants. The current study used a 2x2x2 factorial design to determine why participants who view an animated display of a …

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 …

Communicating The Modern Entrepreneurial University In The 21st Century: A Case Study Of Academic Capitalism And Media Messaging In The Pursuit Of Revenues And National Prominence At Louisiana State University, Charles F. Zewe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

American public universities have passed through three stages of development: the religious, the philanthropic/land-grant, and the federal research university. Squeezed by government budget cuts and demands for more money to pay for research and faculty raises, U.S. higher education has entered a fourth phase, the entrepreneurial university. Public universities are increasingly capitalizing on the intellectual property of their faculty and students to sustain themselves and expand. Administrators spout free-market rhetoric as faculty attempt to commercialize research by creating spin-off companies. Using Louisiana State University as a case study, this dissertation, applies a combination of organizational knowledge creation and resource dependence …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of A Body Mass Index-For-Age Percentile Health Report In Raising Parent Awareness Of Their Child's Weight Status, Anantha Padmaja Lakkakula

LSU Master's Theses

Overweight in children has become a major health concern. Research suggests that many parents may not be aware of their child’s actual weight status. The objectives of this study were to test the effectiveness of a body mass index (BMI)-for–age percentile report in raising parent awareness of their child’s weight status. Eighteen public elementary schools in southeast Louisiana were pair matched and divided into nine intervention and nine control schools. Children in the intervention and the control schools were divided into two groups 1) healthy weight (BMI ≥ 5th to <85th percentile) and 2) at risk and overweight (BMI ≥ 85th percentile). Forty children were randomly selected from each of the two weight groups from the intervention and the control schools. Parents of children in the intervention group received a BMI-for-age percentile health report along with a short questionnaire. Parents of children in control schools received the questionnaire only. Parents in the intervention group have 4.7 times more accurate perception about their child’s weight compared to the control group (OR: 4.7, 95% of CI: 0.89-24.86, p=0.00 ). After receiving the report, more parents of at risk or overweight children were concerned and only fewer parents of healthy weight children were anxious about their child’ weight. When parents were compared based on their child’s weight regardless whether they got the report, parents of at risk or overweight children were more than five times less likely to perceive the correct weight classification of their child (OR: 1.8, 95% of CI: 0.05-0.62, p=0.00) and less concerned about their child’s weight (OR: 0.98, 95% of CI: 0.32-2.93, p=0.00) when compared to parents of healthy weight children. All parents were willing to help their child follow healthy behaviors regard less of the report and their child’s weight status. A BMI-for-age percentile report appears to be an effective way to increase parent awareness and concern regarding their child’s weight status. With increased awareness, parents may be more likely to encourage their children to achieve a healthy weight.

Revisiting "The Need For Negro Lawyers": Are Today's Black Corporate Lawyers Houstonian Social Engineers?, H. Timothy Lovelace Jr.

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Thermal Management Of Micro Gas Chromatographs, Chetan Ramesh

LSU Master's Theses

Gas chromatography is an analytical technique for separating and analyzing individual components in a gas mixture. Applications of gas chromatographs (GCs) include chemical analysis, environmental maintenance, green house gases monitoring, and forensic analysis when used in conjunction with mass spectrometry. There has been a tremendous interest in miniaturization of gas chromatograph systems because of significantly reduced size, portability, fast response times, low power consumption and low cost. Isothermal analysis is a chromatographic analysis at one column temperature. In temperature programming, a linear increase of column temperature with time is used during the course of the analysis. Temperature programming facilitates separation …

Effects Of Smoking Cessation And Female Sex Hormones On Food Intake In Postmenopausal Women, Megan Ranae Apperson

LSU Master's Theses

Following smoking cessation, individuals increase their food intake. Women experience greater postcessation hyperphagia than men, and older women may increase their food intake more than younger women. Some research has suggested that postcessation increases in food intake may be macronutrient specific. However, previous investigations of macronutrient specific changes in food intake following smoking cessation have had significant methodological problems. The current study assessed changes in total food intake and macronutrient selection using the Macronutrient Self-Selection Paradigm (MSSP), a direct, laboratory based measure of food intake that is valid and reliable with respect to macronutrient intake. Fifty-five postmenopausal females completed the …

Target Audiences And Communication Channels Of Lighten Up Programs In The United States, Nancy Leah Borden

LSU Master's Theses

Several Lighten Up programs around the United States were qualitatively studied in efforts to determine their target audiences and the communication channels used to reach these audiences. To guide this study, principles from the social marketing framework and the diffusion of innovations theory were applied. Several Lighten Up program executive directors and other high-ranking individuals in charge of the programs were interviewed in-depth to answer questions pertaining to target audiences and communication channels. Inductive data analysis illustrated that programs did not segment their target audiences, that more programs depended on interpersonal and group communication than mass communication, and finally, that …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between City Typology, Interactivity And Advertising Message Strategies Of American Municipal Web Sites, Jeremy John Starr

LSU Master's Theses

This study became to first to scientifically explore the relationship between city typology and the use of advertising message strategy and interactivity within municipal web sites. The study used Taylor’s six-segment strategy wheel to analyze message strategies and previous scales of interactivity to analyze structural interactivity. Medium-size cities and cities within the South and West geographic regions more likely used sensory strategies within their web sites. Cities with racially diverse populations more likely used sensory strategies within their web sites as well. Large cities and central cities, both with large populations, used the most interactive strategies within their sites compared …

Using Stochastic Optimization And Real-Options Models To Value Private Sector Incentives To Invest In Food Protection Measures, Andrew Michael Lewis

Agribusiness and Applied Economics

Agro-terrorism has become a major concern since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks due to characteristics that create unique problems for managing the threat of an agro-terrorist attack. The costs of trucking delays alone were in the tens of millions of dollars. Over the last few years, the government has spent billions of dollars on biological surveillance and record keeping in preventing potential attacks. Several public and private initiatives are currently in use. Examples include 1) the bio-terrorism regulation of 2004 on maintenance of records; 2) establishment of food protection centers for research and teaching excellence; and 3) investments in …

Arts In New Directions The Development And Application Of A Construct That Uses The Arts To Promote Transformation And Self-Actualization In Health Care And Education/Therapy, Alexxis Avalon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artistic methods to evoke relaxation, spark creativity, and change self-perceptions are already being used by therapists, educators, and scientists. Interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers are developing to create new paradigms that incorporate the use of arts to empower individuals. By describing various connections between the arts and participants, researchers are looking at the expressive arts (including dance, music, drama, poetry, and visual arts) for transformation and self-actualization.The problem is that no construct is available to describe the transformation, "the conscious move from one deep structure of knowledge to another" (Wilber, 2004), that occurs when using the arts in health care and …

Implications Of Sleep Disorders Symptoms On School Behavior, Academics, And Quality Of Life, Erin Elizabeth Ax

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric sleep problems are among the most common yet significant pediatric health issues faced by families. Sleep problems can impact social-emotional and academic functioning of schoolchildren. Once identified, pediatric sleep problems and disorders are treatable with effective and rapid behavioral and medical interventions. The purpose of the current study was to determine the prevalence rates of symptoms of sleep disorders in a diverse school-based sample as well as the relationship between symptoms of sleep disorders and school behavior, academic achievement, and quality of life. The present study examined the relationship between the independent variables of No Sleep Disorders symptoms and …

A Case Study Of A School Implementing A Constructivist Philosophy, Joseph C. Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Isaacson's (2004) dissertation chronicles the implementation of a constructivist instructional approach at Southwood Elementary School. Southwood's faculty experienced a change of principals, which the Tri-Partite Theory of Organizational Change and Succession, a theory of organizational entropy, predicts could lead to organizational entropy. This study examines the dynamics of the change in principal, as well as Isaacson's recommendation to study teachers' perceptions regarding the maintenance of the constructivist approach. This study answers three questions: 1) Are faculty still using constructivist strategies? 2) What are teacher perceptions regarding the maintenance and support of constructivist philosophy? 3) Is there congruence between what literature …

Cue Reactivity And The Role Of Social Alcohol Expectancies In The College-Aged Drinking Population, Ashlee C. Carter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown alcohol expectancies to be critically important in understanding maladaptive drinking patterns within alcohol use disorders. Alcohol expectancies, thought to be automatically elicited in the presence of environmental alcohol-related cues, represent both cognitive and affective associations with drinking behavior. However, the automatic and affective properties of alcohol expectancies have not yet been thoroughly measured in the literature. Psychophysiological measures, including skin conductance, heart rate, and the acoustic startle response in particular, offer a uniquely powerful set of indices for the automatic affective processing of alcohol-related cues.

Therefore, the present study was designed to examine how alcohol expectancies moderate …

The Effects Of Multimedia Annotations On L2 Vocabulary Immediate Recall And Reading Comprehension: A Comparative Study Of Text-Picture And Audio-Picture Annotations Under Incidental And Intentional Learning Conditions, Zhaohui Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the effects of multimedia annotation on L2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. The overarching objective of this study was to compare the effects of text-picture annotation and audio-picture annotation on L2 vocabulary immediate recall and reading comprehension. This study also sought to examine the different effects under incidental and intentional learning conditions. The participants were 78 intermediate adult ESL learners from three universities in northwest U.S. The participants read an Internet-based English text. Twenty target words, annotated in either text-picture or audio-picture, were embedded in the reading text. The participants accessed the annotations by clicking on the …

Traumatic Loss And Transformative Life Experiences: The Lived Experience Of Green Cross Traumatologists Deployed To The New York City World Trade Center Disaster, Carron C. Cherrie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examines the lived experience of Green Cross traumatologists deployed to the New York City World Trade Center disaster. The deployment took place five days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The author was a member of a ten member advance team that provided crisis stabilization services to an international union in Lower Manhattan. Disaster Mental Health Services and community outreach were provided for a month. The purpose of the study was to describe in an anthropologically holistic perspective the lived experience of traumatologists, who as Americans were also affected by the terrorist disaster. Thirty-one traumatologists …