Digital Commons Network^™

Lashing Reason To The Mast: Understanding Judicial Constraints On Emotion In Personal Injury Litigation, Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Arguing from the premise that personal injury plaintiffs and injury evidence do not taint proceedings by encouraging jurors to adjudicate based on emotion rather than evidence, this article reviews and challenges judicial attempts to constrain jurors' emotive responses to an injured plaintiff in three areas of personal injury litigation: voir dire, admissibility of evidence, and restrictions on damages arguments and assessment. The judicial abhorrence of sympathy as a ground for substantive decision making during some phases of the trial clashes with judicial tolerance of the emotion during others, giving rise to a pattern of sympathy in, sympathy out where the …

Towards A Cosmopolitan Vision Of International Law: Identifying And Defining Cil Post Sosa V. Alvarez-Machain, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, future Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) litigants seemingly will be asked to demonstrate that the norms giving rise to their actions are violations of clearly established Customary International Law (CIL). Given the mutable character of CIL, especially in the area of human rights, this will surely fuel the already voluminous literature on the content of the CIL of human rights.

While debate will certainly arise over the norms that have been become CIL, significant attention must be also be devoted to the problems inherent in the CIL of …

Recognizing Odysseus' Scar: Reconceptualizing Pain And Its Empathic Role In Civil Adjudication, Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article proffers a consideration of how the expression of pain impacts the interpersonal dimensions of personal injury proceedings, contesting through philosophical logic and textual analyses of case law and legal practitioners' texts the conclusion of scholars such as Elaine Scarry and Robert Cover that pain unmakes both the word and the world. Seeing pain as something that can and must be communicated, albeit in a different form than pain embodied, makes pain a much more profound force, comports with our understanding of pain as a physical yet interpersonally meaningful sensation, and has many evidentiary ramifications. Taking as its premise …

The Effect Of Music Tempo On Movement Responses Of Preschool Children, Melanie Woods Alexander

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of tempo on movement responses of children ages one to three. For two weeks, 17 children between the ages of 22 and 36 months were videotaped twice per week to observe and measure their movement responses to fast and slow musical stimuli. During these sessions, the children were videotaped in their classrooms, engaged in either free play or in a quiet group activity. The videotaped sessions were then analyzed using a Motor Observation Form. Once all of the tapes had been viewed and scored, overall percentages of movement and no …

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 …

The Cost And Availability Of The Thrifty Food Plan In Southeast Louisiana, Blair Suzanne Buras

LSU Master's Theses

Low-income individuals in Southeast Louisiana consume poor quality diets and have high rates of nutrition-related health problems such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity. The United States Department of Agriculture created the Thrifty Food Plan to help food stamp recipients consume a minimal cost, nutritious diet. It is unknown whether the food lists designed to support the Thrifty Food Plan are affordable and available to the food stamp reliant population in Southeast Louisiana. In 29 supermarkets and large grocery stores located in East Baton Rouge Parish and seven surrounding parishes, the cost and availability of two weekly …

An Investigation Of Focus: Local, Regional, And National Newspaper Coverage In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina, Roxanne Kearns Dill

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the content in coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by local, regional, and national newspapers. Specifically, six newspapers were examined for a variety of items, including topics covered, frame, types of sources cited, types of authorities quoted, geographic focus, and assignment of blame for the devastation and evacuee distress that followed this historic storm. The analysis covered a two-week period, from August 29, 2005, the day Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, to September 11, 2005. The research methods included a content analysis of the 263 articles that appeared on Page 1 of The New York …

"A Kind Providence" And "The Right To Self Preservation": How Andrew Jackson, Emersonian Whiggery, And Frontier Calvinism Shaped The Course Of American Political Culture, Ryan Ruckel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Andrew Jackson has inspired numerous biographies and works of historical scholarship, but his religious views have attracted very little attention. Jackson may have been a giant on the political landscape, but he was also a human being, an ordinary American who experienced the same difficulties and challenges as other Americans of the early nineteenth century. Another common experience for many Americans of Jackson’s day included church life, revivals, and efforts to conceptualize every day events within the context of religious experience. Finding out where Jackson stood on religion and what role religion played in his thinking helps situate him as …

Monoclonal And Phage-Displayed Antibodies As Lipopolysaccharide Serotyping Reagents And Their Use In Typing Colony Variants Of Vibrio Vulnificus, Randall M. Schulz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Vibrio vulnificus is a Gram-negative organism that is found in estuarine environments. The bacterium is capable of causing gastroenteritis, wound infections, and septicemia, often resulting in death for susceptible individuals. Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to five lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O-serovars have previously been used as a serotyping system in epidemiological studies. Here is the first report of two additional MAbs capable of recognizing two new LPS serovars (O6 and O7), further increasing the number of V. vulnificus that can be typed. Analysis of V. vulnificus isolates from the United States, Europe, and Asia demonstrated that the O1/O5 serovar is dominate in clinical …

Methods For The Study Of Signaling Molecules In Membrane Lipid Rafts And Caveolae, Rennolds S. Ostrom, Paul A. Insel

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Lipid rafts and caveolae are cholesterol- and sphingolipid-rich microdomains of the plasma membrane that concentrate components of certain signal transduction pathways. Interest in and exploration of these microdomains has grown in recent years, especially after the discovery of the biochemical marker of caveolae, caveolin, and the recognition that caveolin interacts with many different signaling molecules via its scaffolding domain. There are three major types of caveolins (1, 2, and 3), with some selectivity in their expression in different tissues. Results assessing lipid raft/caveolae co-localization of molecules in signal transduction pathways have provided support for the idea that signaling components are …

Petrological And Geochemical Investigations Of Deep Sea Turbidite Sands In The Pandora And Moresby Troughs: Source To Sink Papua New Guinea Focus Area, Luke Jeremiah Patterson

LSU Master's Theses

The Moresby and Pandora Troughs of the northern Coral Sea are components of the deep-sea depositional system that is the ultimate sink for the Source to Sink Papua New Guinea (PNG) Focus Area. Cores collected from the R/V Melville during March-April 2004 reveal marine volcaniclastic and terrigenous turbidites deposited in these troughs during the Quaternary. Constraining the spatial, temporal, and provenance characteristics for these terrigenous sands through mineralogical, chemical, and textural analysis is the primary focus of this study. All cores contain thinly-bedded sandy turbidite packages interlayered with hemipelagic marls and typical centimeter-to-meter-thick turbidite sequences. The Moresby Trough core JPC22 …

The Influence Of Tobacco Merchant Education And Enforcement Activities On The Rate Of Tobacco Use Among Youth In Louisiana, Leslie Hope Brougham

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is two-fold: 1) to determine whether a relationship exists between the self-reported tobacco use by secondary students in Louisiana and the tobacco sale rate to persons under the age of 18 in those parishes; and 2) to investigate the relationship between merchant education in a parish and the parish tobacco sale rate to persons under the age of 18 in those parishes. Multiple data sources were utilized to include tobacco use among secondary students, education provided to merchants, and tobacco sales to minors compliance checks. Aggregated parish data for each of the data sources were …

What Makes A Man : From Biology To Society, Jennifer Beneke

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

A Woman's Place : An Authentically Feminist Zone, Elizabeth Anne Blazek

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Nutrient-To-Cost Comparisons Of Daily Dietary Intake, Food Security Status, And Body Mass Index In Female Food Stamp Recipients Residing In Southeast Louisiana, Shanna Lundy

LSU Master's Theses

Diets are typically poorer and risk of chronic disease is greatest in low-income populations. A relationship has been established in the literature between food costs and diet quality, where lower cost diets are generally those of the poorest quality. Food group intake, energy/nutrient intake, and diet cost were assessed in 64 female food stamp recipients in Southeast Louisiana. From one 24-hour dietary recall collected at the beginning of the monthly resource cycle (Day 1) and one at the end (Day 2), nutrient intakes and diet costs were able to be analyzed between different time frames. Participants were divided among food …

Design And Evaluation Of Automated, Continuous Culture Techniques For Brachionus Rotundiformis, Zhengzhong Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A 40-L recirculating rotifer turbidostat (RRT) pilot system consisting of a rotifer reactor, biofilter, foam fractionator, feed container, harvester, and two air-lift pumps was designed to produce B. rotundiformis, a small (S-type) rotifer, that is increasingly demanded for production of small-gape marine finfish larvae. The system’s automatic monitoring (turbidity, pH, conductivity and temperature) and controlling (turbidity, pH, feeding and harvesting) were performed by a Rugid™ computer. A 4 (temperature) x 3 (salinity) study indicated that a 30oC/15 ppt treatment is the most favorable to the growth of B. rotundiformis. Under these conditions, the effect of harvest rate on rotifer system …

Hurricane Katrina: A Content Analysis Of Media Framing, Attribute Agenda Setting, And Tone Of Government Response, Brigette Lynn Brunken

LSU Master's Theses

This study content analyzed print media coverage of government response from four newspapers in the five weeks immediately after Hurricane Katrina, looking for common frames, attribute agenda setting, and tone. In addition, it assessed week-to-week differences throughout coverage. Findings indicate that the order of Semetko and Valkenburg's (2000) common frames changed, emphasizing human interest first. Conflict, attribution of responsibility, economic consequences, and morality frames followed. Media's use of attribute agenda setting was evident throughout coverage, primarily emphasizing the issues, relief and rescue, economic, negative timeliness, and rebuilding and repairing. Media's tone of government response was moderately neutral with federal tone …

Stepping Out Of The Shadow: The Leadership Qualities Of Successors In Family Business, John James, Iii Cater

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to better understand the development of successors in the family business and their approach to the leadership of the firm. Foundational concepts in the family business literature and leadership literature are reviewed. I propose an integration of leadership theory into family business studies. I examine the reasons successors join the family business, the successors development from follower to leader, differences between founders and successors, and the leadership qualities of successors. A case study approach is followed, using a mixture of qualitative interviews and a survey questionnaire, the Organizational Leadership Assessment. Six family businesses are …

The Relationship Of Crime And Oil Development In The Coastal Regions Of Louisiana, Asha D. Luthra

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project examines the relationship between patterns of crime and the development of the oil and gas extraction industry in the coastal regions of Louisiana. The suggestion of a link between these phenomena has often been made, but little systematic research has been conducted to determine if there is indeed a crime-oil development nexus. Limited previous research has focused primarily on the issue of “boom and bust” cycles on some forms of deviant behavior, but the data and the methods used were inadequate, and thus, the resulting conclusions were often misleading or possibly erroneous. During the course of this project, …

The Impact Of Masking Of Persuasive Intent On Persuasive Message Effectiveness, Christina Simmers Rodrigue

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The decreased dependency of marketing managers on traditional message forms (i.e., commercials) has increased the use of nontraditional message forms (i.e., product placement) in marketing communication. These newer message forms are unique because their persuasive intent is concealed by the presentation method and, therefore, may be processed differently than the traditional message forms. Consequently, this paper examines three major issues that arise out of the integration of nontraditional message forms into marketing communication, including (1) incorporating nontraditional message forms into the traditional persuasion literature, (2) introducing a new persuasion element (termed masking of persuasive intent) and its role in the …

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 …

Fabrication, Characterization And Properties Of Hiercchically Ordered Nanocomposites, Avinash Dundigalla

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The objectives of this research are to study the structure, morphology and properties of poly(ethylene-oxide) (PEO)-clay nanocomposites using various imaging techniques. Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy are used to image structures on all length scales. Complementary scattering experiments are discussed along with preliminary differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy results. In particular we investigated the multilayered structures of PEO-Laponite and PEO-Montmorillonite multilayered films made from solution. The shear orientation of a polymer-clay network in solution combined with simultaneous solvent evaporation leads to supramolecular multilayer formation in the film. The resulting …

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 …

Cross-Examining The Brain: A Legal Analysis Of Neural Imaging For Credibility Impeachment, Charles N. W. Keckler

UC Law Journal

The last decade has seen remarkable progress in understanding ongoing psychological processes at the neurobiological level, progress that has been driven technologically by the spread of functional neuroimaging devices, especially magnetic resonance imaging, which have become the research tools of a theoretically sophisticated cognitive neuroscience. As this research turns to specification of the mental processes involved in interpersonal deception, the potential evidentiary use of material produced by devices for detecting deception, long stymied by the conceptual and legal limitations of the polygraph, must be reexamined. Although studies in this area are preliminary, they have not yet satisfied the foundational requirements …

The Effect Of A Condensed Tannin Containing Forage, Sericea Lespedeza On Existing And Challenge Infections Of Haemonchus Contortus In Sheep, Leigh Ann Chafton

LSU Master's Theses

Haemonchus contortus is one of the most threatening parasites to small ruminant production. Control has traditionally relied on the use of anthelmintics. Control has waned because the worm population has developed resistance to most of the currently available anthelmintics and alternative control measures are needed. Current consumer pressure is to reduce the use of chemicals in agricultural products, thus pushing control methods to more natural and acceptable approaches. One such approach is the feeding of condensed tannin containing forages either as fresh forage or dried products (hay, meal, pellets, etc). This study was conducted to determine the effect of a …

Be Revolutionary : Images Of Women In Soviet And Cuban Political Posters, Rachel Schlegel

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

The Personal Journey Of Solo Performance, Heidi Stenseth

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Women's Attitudes Toward Singlehood, Lisa Peterson

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Thinking Back : A Restropective On Writing The Stones Of Hermes, Loren Nieuwsma

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Corruption On Chinese Economic Growth, Justin Hagel

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.