Digital Commons Network^™

Probing The Association Behavior Of Hydrophobic Organic Compounds With Dissolved Humic Materials, Hadi M. Marwani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The association mechanism between hydrophobic organic compounds (HOC) and dissolved humic materials (DHM) has continued to be one of the interesting areas in environmental applications. The goal of the research reported in this dissertation is to investigate the association behavior of HOC with DHM. The first part of this research involves steady-state fluorescence measurements of these multi-component systems to study the effect of DHM content on the association mechanism of HOC, in particular using pyrene as a model. Results showed that steady-state fluorescence alone may not provide enough information about the quenching mechanism of pyrene with DHM. Lifetime based fluorescence …

Visualizing The Menstrual Cycle: Effects Of A Redesigned Cycle Diagram On Community College Biology Students' Learning, Francesca Maria Mellieon-Williams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This mixed methods, exploratory study investigated the importance of the menstrual cycle diagram for understanding human reproduction. Several theories were used to support this study including Visual Design Theory (Tufte, 1990, 1997, 2001), and Human Constructivist Theory (Mintzes, Wandersee, Novak 1998). The two sexuality education programs used by society, abstinence-only programs and comprehensive sex education programs were compared to illustrate how this study applies to the current state of sexuality education in the United States. Community college students from two institutions in the southern region of the United States, registered in five introductory biological science courses, participated in a unit …

A Non-Traditional Traditionalist: Rev. A. H. Sayce And His Intellectual Approach To Biblical Authenticity And Biblical History In Late-Victorian Britain, Roshunda Lashae Belton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The relationship between science and religion was a dominant topic in late-Victorian Britain. This is exemplified in the debate over biblical authenticity and bible history. After 1860 higher criticism, the textual examination of the biblical texts became a prominent issue of discussion in British society. Higher critics brought into question the authorship and authenticity of the Pentateuch, particularly that of Genesis. One significant contributor to this debate was Oxford educator and Assyriologist Rev. Archibald Henry Sayce, who firmly believed that philology, history and, particularly, archeology provided the evidence necessary to validate the accuracy of biblical texts. Supporters of orthodoxy embraced …

Nueva Orleans: Hispanics In New Orleans, The Catholic Church, And Imagining The New Hispanic Community, Katie Judith Berchak

LSU Master's Theses

New Orleans, Louisiana, is a city with a rich Hispanic history which is often overlooked. Likewise, the role the Catholic Church has played in assisting the immigrant groups that have settled in New Orleans in the building of their communities has also often been ignored. The first part of this work will seek to trace the different Hispanic groups that have come to the city, their often unacknowledged legacies, and examine what role the Catholic Church played in their communities and history. During Spanish rule of colonial Louisiana from 1762 to 1803, Spanish colonists and recruits from the Canary Islands …

Voluntary Disclosures In Mergers And Acquisitions, Scott Allen Wandler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Whenever there is a merger between two publicly held companies in the form of a stock transaction, the companies must provide a proxy-prospectus to their shareholders with enough information to vote on the proposed merger. The proxy-prospectus contains mandatory pro forma financial statements as if the firms had merged as of the end of the previous year. Occasionally, the proxy-prospectus contains voluntary, forward-looking information, such as projected earnings per share (EPS) or price-to-earnings (PE) ratios of the combined firm. There are two reasons that management may provide this voluntary forward-looking information: 1) management could be providing an optimistic view of …

Understanding The New York Rabies Epizootic 1985-2005, David Dorrell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Surveillance data are an important part of medical geography. These data are used to produce much of the analyses that define the subdiscipline. It is understood that surveillance data may contain biases, but there have only been limited studies devoted to determining in what ways the data are not representative of actual disease prevalence. New York was selected for this research for several reasons. First, it has a strong rabies data set. Second, it has a centralized system of licensing animal and dog control officers. Third, it is well-represented in terms of local media. This dissertation attempts to better understand …

Clear And Present Danger: Brandenburg Test After September 11, 2001, James Connor Best

LSU Master's Theses

In a post-September 11, 2001 America and in light of the very real threat posed by radical Islamic terrorist, the courts must rethink the line between protected speech and incitement to violence. The Brandenburg test, which was previously understood to be the modern test to distinguish protected from unprotected advocacy, should be questioned. By examining the development of the Court's First Amendment doctrine leading up to Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), I establish that Brandenburg is ill fitted to be applied to advocacy of terrorism. In Brandenburg, the Court actually conflated two previously distinct speech tests-Judge Learned Hand's incitement test and …

Granular Contact Lubrication: Theory And Experiment, Karim El Kholy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is devoted to a theoretical and experimental study of the granular contact lubrication, both. The theory is based on the kinetic of the granular material where the granules interact with each other and with the boundary surfaces through instantaneous, binary collisions, characterized by a constant coefficient of restitution. Specifically this study focuses on granular lubrication in Couette flows. A series of simulations is reported and the results show good agreement with several published papers. Also, a theory that ties the true temperature to the grain mobility is developed. The true temperature of a granular material depends on the …

Synthesis And Functionalizations Of Tetrapyrrole Derivatives, Lijuan Jiao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chapter 1 of this Dissertation presents a brief overview of the history of tetrapyrrole derivatives and of their fundamental properties. Overviews of porphyrins, benzoporphyrins, chlorins and porphycenes are presented. Work presented in Chapter 2 through Chapter 4 mainly focuses on the syntheses and functionalization of chromophore-extended porphyrin derivatives. Several new synthetic routes for the syntheses and functionalizations of extended porphyrins either at the β-position or at the meso-position of porphyrin are developed. From these improved synthetic routes, the regio-selective syntheses of porphyrin derivatives are described. Chapter 2 mainly focuses on the syntheses of β,β'-fused methylenepropanoporphyrins and related porphyrin dimers. Chapter …

Dr. Frankenstein Was A Designer: Methods For Educating Gen H--The Hybrid Design Student, Patricia Ferguson Vining

LSU Master's Theses

Business Week recently launched an innovation and design quarterly entitled In, as well as a Website section specifically dedicated to design and innovation. Fast Company, with its Third Annual Masters of Design issue, and Fortune have also added significant design content to their publications. The business world appears to have discovered design as a vital strategic tool and economic force. Globalization and the Internet knowledge explosion have changed our world in unprecedented ways. Design thinking, which was previously relegated to dealing with issues such as form and function, has become the twenty-first century methodology for the development of new business …

Best Management Practices Adoption Rates And Alternative Land Usage Among Southwest Louisiana Rice Producers, Heidi Landry

LSU Master's Theses

The EPA has identified agriculture to be a major contributor of nonpoint source water pollution. The production of rice poses two major water quality issues: the application of a large amount of water that is held on the field for long periods of time during the growing season and the disposal of that water at a later time in the production cycle. Louisiana has developed the voluntary adoption of Best Management Practices (BMPs). These practices have been promoted through educational programs such as the Master Farmer program. This program, developed by the LSU AgCenter, targets conservation practices that are both …

Engineering A Photo-Control Mechanism For Rna Interference, Richard Andrew Blidner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

RNA interference (RNAi) is a phenomenon in which RNA molecules elicit potent and sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing. Nucleic acid chemical modifications have been incorporated to improve their pharmacological properties. Despite numerous developments in chemical modifications for increased stability, safety, and efficiency of these therapeutic agents, they still face challenges of spatial and temporal targeting. One potential targeting strategy uses photocaging techniques, which involves the covalent attachment of photolabile compounds to the effector NA species that blocks bioactivity until exposed to near UV-light. This work demonstrates that fully-2’-fluorinated nucleic acids (FNAs) can elicit RNAi and that these effectors are resistant to …

Relationship Between Problem Behaviors, Function, And Adaptive Skills In Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities, Noha Farrah Minshawi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The problem behaviors of self-injury, aggression, and stereotypies are among the most troubling and difficult to treat behaviors in individuals with intellectual disability (ID). One factor that has been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of problem behaviors in individuals with ID is adaptive skills deficits. However, the nature of the relationship between problem behaviors and adaptive skills deficits is not well understood. This relationship was assessed in two experiments. In Experiment 1, the researcher found an inverse, curvilinear relationship between problem behaviors (as identified by the Behavior Problems Inventory; BPI), and adaptive skills (as measured by the Vineland Adaptive …

An Analysis Of The World Shrimp Market And The Impact Of An Increasing Import Base On The Gulf Of Mexico Dockside Price, Pawan Poudel

LSU Master's Theses

As a result of increased cultured activities, the world shrimp market has been expanded significantly during the past two decades. Because the growth in world supply has exceeded that of growth in demand, the deflated world shrimp price has fallen significantly since the mid-1980s. While a large producer of shrimp (primarily in the Gulf of Mexico), the United States is also the world’s largest importer. In general, the Gulf of Mexico dockside price is determined by the world export price and, as such, the Gulf of Mexico price has fallen sharply in recent years. This study quantifies the impact on …

A Directional Algorithm For An Electronically-Collimated Radiation Detector (Ecrd), Adam Lackie

LSU Master's Theses

An electronically-collimated radiation detector (ECRD) is being developed to be used for locating radiation sources, e.g. for intraoperative localization of sentinel lymph nodes, or for public safety applications. The design emphasizes a compact, portable detector with a wide field of view. Typical probes provide either high sensitivity but no directional information when uncollimated, or directional information but poor detection efficiency when collimated. The ECRD design provides high sensitivity to the presence of radiation because it lacks physical collimation, and simultaneously provides directional information using electronic collimation. Intended to be a hand-held device, the ECRD front end comprises an array of …

Prevalence Of Family History Of Speech-Language Impairment In An African American Sample, Tricia Mccully Rodrigue

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of a positive family history of speech and/or language impairments in an African American sample. The first phase of the study used questionnaires from the primary caregivers of 161 children. The questionnaires allowed for an examination of family history as a function of a child’s socioeconomic level (+/- high school level of maternal education), educational placement (+/- receipt of services by a speech language clinician), and clinical status (+/- profile consistent with a diagnosis of SLI). The second phase of the study included interviews that were collected from 17 families …

Sensory Characteristics And Optimization Of A Low-Sodium Salt Formulation And Its Food Application, Armen Khachatryan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Excessive consumption of sodium is associated with high blood pressure in people. Reduction of sodium intake and replacement of salt with salt substitutes are an essential component of the primary prevention of hypertension. Potassium chloride is the most widely used salt substitute. However, when used in large amounts, it imparts bitterness and metallic aftertaste. Therefore, bitterness masking agents need to be used in salt substitute formulations. L-Arginine has been reported to have bitterness masking properties. No research has yet been conducted to investigate the effects of KCl and L-Arginine on the perception of saltiness and bitterness in the mixture of …

Hope For Today And Tomorrow: Identity Construction Power, And Persistence Of Community College Women Who Are First In Their Families To Attend College, Crystal Deer Lee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation was a case study of four community college women who were first in their families to attend college. Through this study, the “first-generation” construct was analyzed in regard to its uses and limits. The researcher found the label as an identifier becomes problematic through social discourse. These results confirm London’s (1996) finding that students themselves do not necessarily find anything unique about their situations or anything in common with other students simply based on their being the first in their families to attend college. Therefore, the “first-generation” construct may be viewed primarily as a higher education versus an …

The Failure Of Louisiana Campaign Finance Law: A Case Study Of Brnext And The 2004 Mayoral Election, Casey Elizabeth Rayborn

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is a case study in how weak campaign finance laws and government oversight can undermine democracy in a local election. It does so by demonstrating how Louisiana campaign finance law enabled one wealthy businessman to play a major role in a mayoral election under the auspices of an issue-based political action committee. Through the examination of the Louisiana PAC BRNext, its financial activities, and its relationships, this study suggests that BRNext and its founder Lane Grigsby were able to violate the spirit of the law in each of these areas. BRNext was able to take advantage of the …

The Impact Of Alcohol Hangover On Driving Performance, Edward Michael Uriell

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Music Therapy In Performance : Producing A Dramatic Musical Work With A Group Of Developmentally Delayed Adults, Natasha Yearwood

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

"But Seriously, Folks...": Understanding The Political Effects Of Late Night Television Comedy, Danielle Lynn Sarver

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The potential political effects of late night comedy programs have been a subject of much debate and concern, particularly since the 2000 Presidential election. Research into this area has been characterized by inconsistency in operationalizations of audiences and an almost exclusive focus on quantitative research. This project was designed to address key concerns that are central to this burgeoning literature by examining “heavy” viewers of late night talk shows (including audiences of Leno, Letterman, and Conan O’Brien) and “heavy” viewers of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” A combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to understand the relationships …

Mentoring Youth With Disabilities: The Mentor's Lived Experiences, Kimberly Lynn Seeger

LSU Master's Theses

Studies have demonstrated the benefits of mentoring as a successful intervention for youth in programs such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Limited research is available which describes the experiences of the mentors who participate in a program specifically for youth with disabilities. Youth with disabilities experience unique challenges as they work towards academic goals and independent living. Findings from this study will provide a insight into the lived experiences from the mentors’ perspective.

The methodology used for this study was a single interview with five adult mentors of youth with disabilities. Qualitative interviews were conducted with each mentor to …

Toward A New Understanding Of Wisdom: The Role Of Communication On Perceptions Of Wisdom, Jon M. Croghan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Wisdom is a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, multidisciplinary construct which has been discussed and examined since the beginning of recorded history. Many classical and contemporary scholars have sought to define wisdom, but a precise definition has proven elusive. Since wisdom often defies easy categorization, this dissertation examines wisdom using a multi-methodological perspective. Four chapters of this dissertation discuss the historiography of various societal attributions of wisdom using performance studies techniques. Three chapters examine wisdom and the instruments constructed to measure the construct from a social scientific approach. This study seeks to clarify, while simultaneously deconstructing, the definition of wisdom. The four performative …

An Empirical Analysis Of Life Tenure: A Response To Professors Calabresi And Lindgren, Ryan W. Scott, David R. Stras

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Opposition to life tenure has been steadily mounting in the legal academy and Professors Steve Calabresi and Jim Lindgren are among those leading the charge. Crucial to their argument that life tenure is fundamentally flawed is an empirical claim that the increases in average tenure among Supreme Court Justices are both dramatic and unprecedented.

In this article, the authors respond to Calabresi and Lindgren by showing that their hypothesis of dramatic and unprecedented growth in average tenure has two fundamental flaws. First, it suffers from a period-selection problem. Rendering the data using longer or shorter periods blunts or eliminates the …

Confusion Over Use: Contextualism In Trademark Law, Mark D. Janis, Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This paper tackles an intellectual property theory that many scholars regard as fundamental to future policy debates over the scope of trademark protection: the trademark use theory. We argue that trademark use theory is flawed and should be rejected. The adoption of trademark use theory has immediate practical implications for disputes about the use of trademarks in online advertising, merchandising, and product design, and has long-term consequences for other trademark generally. We critique the theory both descriptively and prescriptively. We argue that trademark use theory over-extends the search costs rationale for the trademark system, and that it unhelpfully elevates formalism …

Are Senior Judges Unconstitutional?, Ryan W. Scott, David R. Stras

Articles by Maurer Faculty

With burgeoning caseloads and persistent vacancies in many federal courts, senior judges play a vital role in the continued well-being of our federal judiciary. Despite the importance of their participation in the judicial process, however, senior judges raise a host of constitutional concerns that have escaped the notice of scholars and courts. Many of the problems originate with recent changes to the statute authorizing federal judges to elect senior status, including a 1989 law that permits senior judges to fulfill their statutory responsibilities by performing entirely nonjudicial work. Others arise from the ambiguity of the statutory scheme itself, which seems …

Through The Quarantine Looking Glass: Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis And Public Health Governance, Law, And Ethics, David P. Fidler, Lawrence O. Gostin, Howard Markel

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Peforming Louisiana: The History Of Cajun Dialect Humor And Its Impact On The Cajun Cultural Identity, Debrah Royer Richardson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cajuns, the descendants of the Acadian diaspora begun in 1755, chose to live a largely isolated existence in Louisiana until elements in the nineteenth century began concerted efforts to assimilate the Cajuns. By the beginnings of the twentieth century, the dual challenges of enforced schooling and the prohibition of spoken French affected the Cajun sense of pride. Around the same time, outsiders (satirists from Louisiana who were not of Cajun descent) used the Cajun dialect, in publications and on the radio, to humorously skewer Louisiana politics. Over the last century, Cajun dialect humor has evolved along specific lines that have …

Technological Change And The Design Of Plant Variety Protection Regimes, Mark D. Janis, Stephen Smith

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.