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2008

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The "Stern Review" And Its Critics: Implications For The Theory And Practice Of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Daniel H. Cole Jan 2008

The "Stern Review" And Its Critics: Implications For The Theory And Practice Of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The UK's Treasury's "Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change" (Oct. 2006) reached dramatically different conclusions and policy recommendations than most earlier economic analyses of climate change. It found that the costs of climate change, as well as the potential net benefits of greenhouse gas reductions, were much higher that previously estimated, and consequently recommended more rapid and extensive cuts in emissions than other economist analysts. The Stern Review estimated that a 1% annual investment of global GDP in mitigation could prevent a 5% (or more) reduction in annual global GDP from climate change harm, forever. A number of prominent …

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Navigating The New Politics Of Judicial Appointments, Ryan W. Scott, David R. Stras Jan 2008

Navigating The New Politics Of Judicial Appointments, Ryan W. Scott, David R. Stras

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Review Essay explores the new politics of judicial appointments by addressing the important question whether Senate-specific reforms to the judicial appointments process are likely to succeed. In his recent book, The Next Justice, Chris Eisgruber proposes a two-part plan to repair the Supreme Court appointments process. Like many other scholars that have written in the area, Eisgruber's reforms focus primarily on the Senate. First, he proposes that the Senate get smart by asking penetrating questions about the judicial philosophy of Supreme Court nominees in an effort to ensure that the future Justices are moderates, rather than extremists. Second, he …

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An Exploratory Study Of Social Work Supervisors' Supervisory Styles, Motivations, And Evaluative Processes, Michelle Elise Chevallier Jan 2008

An Exploratory Study Of Social Work Supervisors' Supervisory Styles, Motivations, And Evaluative Processes, Michelle Elise Chevallier

LSU Master's Theses

While many factors influence the quality of social work supervision, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore social work supervisors’ supervisory styles, motivations, and evaluative processes and its impact on the social work profession. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from 10 Board Approved Clinical Supervisors (BACSs) during a one-time session in which a questionnaire on supervisory styles was administered and an interview covering supervisory styles, motivations, and evaluative processes was conducted. This project was undertaken to better understand some of the perceptions, values, beliefs, and problems involved in the supervisory process and its impact on the profession. …

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Synthesizing Tsca And Reach: Practical Principles For Chemical Regulation Reform, John S. Applegate Jan 2008

Synthesizing Tsca And Reach: Practical Principles For Chemical Regulation Reform, John S. Applegate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The European Union's newly enacted comprehensive regulation for industrial chemicals, known as REACH, draws heavily on three decades of experience in the United States under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Much of that experience has been negative, inasmuch as TSCA is widely regarded as a disappointment among US environmental laws, and so REACH deliberately reverses many of the legislative choices that Congress made in TSCA. REACH also takes advantage of important new regulatory concepts that were not available to the framers of TSCA thirty years ago. The passage of REACH has sparked renewed interest in reforming TSCA, and the reformers …

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Language Learning Through Storybook Reading In Headstart, Patricia Minnis Brazier-Carter Jan 2008

Language Learning Through Storybook Reading In Headstart, Patricia Minnis Brazier-Carter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore whether storybooks designed to elicit talk about letters and sounds, termed "alphabet-storybooks" will generate more print referencing behaviors from Head Start teachers than traditional storybooks, and if there is a concomitant positive impact on the learning of the children in these classrooms. In addition, the meaning reference behaviors of adults and impact on children also will be measured to determine if meaning is sacrificed at the expense of print referencing.

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Exploration Of New Ternary Gallides And Investigation Of Their Structure-Property Relationships, Jung Young Cho Jan 2008

Exploration Of New Ternary Gallides And Investigation Of Their Structure-Property Relationships, Jung Young Cho

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the investigation of new ternary intermetallic gallides, which may exhibit exotic physical properties such as heavy-fermion behavior, large magnetoresistance, and even superconductivity. In particular, the Ln-Cu-Ga (Ln = lanthanides) system has been systematically investigated by changing a reaction ratio and/or using a different temperature profile to optimize desired phases. Single crystals of Ln2MGa12 (Ln = La, Ce; M = Ni, Cu) have been synthesized using Ga flux and compared to their Pd analogues. Interestingly, Ce2MGa12 (M = Ni, Cu) show enhanced Sommerfeld coefficient of ¡Ö 191 mJmol-1K-2 and ¡Ö 69 mJmol-1K-2 for Ni and Cu compounds, …

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Syntheses Of Trimethylamine- And Phosphonate- Substituted Carboranylporphyrins For Application In Boron Neutron Cancer Therapy, Michael William Easson Jan 2008

Syntheses Of Trimethylamine- And Phosphonate- Substituted Carboranylporphyrins For Application In Boron Neutron Cancer Therapy, Michael William Easson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chapter 1 contains an introduction to porphyrins and carboranylporphyrins, including their physical properties, history, methods of synthesis, medicinal applications, and an overview of recently published compounds. Chapter 2 contains the total synthesis of a series of trimethylamine- and phosphonate-substituted carboranylporphyrins for application in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), including characterization by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, matrix-assisted time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, high resolution mass spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectrophotometry, X-ray crystallography, and melting point apparatus. Chapter 3 contains synthetic methods which were investigated as alternate routes to porphyrin synthesis and functionalization. Chapter 4 presents the in vitro biological evaluation of trimethylamine- and phosphonate-substituted …

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Factors That Influence Traditional-Age College Students To Re-Enroll In Their Third Year At A Research Extensive University In The Southern Region Of The United States, Joseph M. Lutta Jan 2008

Factors That Influence Traditional-Age College Students To Re-Enroll In Their Third Year At A Research Extensive University In The Southern Region Of The United States, Joseph M. Lutta

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Student retention is of policy significance to higher education systems. In the United States, student retention is a major problem in higher education affecting students, universities, and society. Most of the research on student retention has focused on first-year students. Little is known about the retention of college students after their first year. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected demographic and academic characteristics on the decision of traditional-age, undergraduate students to re-enroll at a research-extensive university. The population was defined as all traditional-age undergraduate students who entered the selected university during the fall …

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Lattice Boltzmann Modeling For Mass Transport Equations In Porous Media, Borja Servan Camas Jan 2008

Lattice Boltzmann Modeling For Mass Transport Equations In Porous Media, Borja Servan Camas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to extend the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) to cope with parameter heterogeneity and anisotropy in mass transport equations in porous media, as well as investigating the stability and accuracy. Although the LBM is a well known and effective numerical method to solve fluid flows, LBM has not been extensively applied to mass transport equations in porous medium flow yet, and only a few works can be found on improving LBM to cope with mass transport equations other than the diffusion and advection-diffusion equations. One of the reasons why LBM has not been extensively used …

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To Kill Whites: The 1811 Louisiana Slave Insurrection, Nathan A. Buman Jan 2008

To Kill Whites: The 1811 Louisiana Slave Insurrection, Nathan A. Buman

LSU Master's Theses

Before January 1811, slave rebellion weighed heavily on the minds of white Louisianans. The colonial and territorial history of Louisiana challenged leaders with a diverse and complex social environment that required calculated decision-making and a fair hand to navigate. Racial and ethnic divisions forced officials to tread carefully in order to build a prosperous territory while maintaining control over the slave population. Many Louisianans used slave labor to produce indigo, cotton, and sugarcane along the rivers of south Louisiana, primarily between Baton Rouge and the mouth of the Mississippi River. For nearly a century, Louisianans avoided slave upheaval but after …

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Analyses Of High School Band Students' And Directors' Perceptions Of Verbal And Nonverbal Teaching Behaviors, Jennifer A. Whitaker Jan 2008

Analyses Of High School Band Students' And Directors' Perceptions Of Verbal And Nonverbal Teaching Behaviors, Jennifer A. Whitaker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to document and explore the use and perception of verbal and nonverbal teaching behaviors of selected high school band directors. Participants were six successful high school band directors and members of their top-performing ensembles. Directors were videotaped during rehearsals. Videos were subsequently analyzed. Systematic observation data consisted of frequencies and percentages of conductor magnitude, filler use, and time spent on and off podium; frequency and time of each sequential pattern component; and instructional pacing. Directors and students viewed and rated video excerpts of their directors using 10-point Likert scales. Participants then completed a 22-item …

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Dynamic Shear Bands In Metals Under High Strain Rates, Amin Hisham Almasri Jan 2008

Dynamic Shear Bands In Metals Under High Strain Rates, Amin Hisham Almasri

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Adiabatic shear bands have been observed for a long time to occur under different conditions in many applications. Analysis of these localizations highly depends on the selection of the constitutive model. Hence, two constitutive models that take temperature and strain rate effect into account are proposed. The first model is a physically based model that depends on basic physical quantities, such as dislocation densities, Burgers vector, and activation energy. The second model is a simple empirical power model with a softening term. The empirical constitutive law is seen to be more successful in capturing the mechanical behavior of steel alloy …

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How To Remember Thee?: Problems Of Memorialization In English Writing, 1558-1625, Sean Flory Jan 2008

How To Remember Thee?: Problems Of Memorialization In English Writing, 1558-1625, Sean Flory

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the use of funeral commemoration in religious and political controversies in early modern England. By examining the rhetoric used in funeral sermons and elegies, I show that commemorative writers use figural interpretation of the Bible to legitimize praise by linking the deceased to characters from scripture. Figural interpretation places the dead into a framework of ecclesiastical history and creates Protestant saints used as exempla in political and religious debates. This dissertation examines funeral sermons, elegies, and other commemorative poems written between 1558 and 1625. Chapter one discusses the development of figural interpretation in Elizabethan funeral sermons. …

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Fast Marching Methods - Parallel Implementation And Analysis, Maria Cristina Tugurlan Jan 2008

Fast Marching Methods - Parallel Implementation And Analysis, Maria Cristina Tugurlan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fast Marching represents a very efficient technique for solving front propagation problems, which can be formulated as partial differential equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions, called Eikonal equation: $F(x)|\nabla T(x)|=1$, for $x \in \Omega$ and $T(x)=0$ for $x \in \Gamma$, where $\Omega$ is a domain in $\mathbb{R}^n$, $\Gamma$ is the initial position of a curve evolving with normal velocity F>0. Fast Marching Methods are a necessary step in Level Set Methods, which are widely used today in scientific computing. The classical Fast Marching Methods, based on finite differences, are typically sequential. Parallelizing Fast Marching Methods is a step forward for …

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Quantification Of Tars And Particulates From A Pilot Scale, Downdraft Biomass Gasifier, Christopher Osita Akudo Jan 2008

Quantification Of Tars And Particulates From A Pilot Scale, Downdraft Biomass Gasifier, Christopher Osita Akudo

LSU Master's Theses

Alternative energy production through biomass gasification produces combustible gases, such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and methane. These gases can be used for generation of direct heat, electricity, or liquid fuels through the Fischer Tropsch process. However, a major limitation of the overall process is the purity of the generated synthesis gas. The tars and particulates generated in the gasification process constitute a major impediment to the commercial use of this technology because they may condense on valves, fittings, and therefore, hinder the smooth running of an engine. This research was aimed at developing a gas characterization and testing protocol, and …

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Assessing A Hydrothermal Liquefaction Process Using Biomass Feedstocks, Jason S. Midgett Jan 2008

Assessing A Hydrothermal Liquefaction Process Using Biomass Feedstocks, Jason S. Midgett

LSU Master's Theses

The need to reduce the United States dependence on foreign oil has never been greater. In the past decade emphasis has been placed on developing new and/or improved means to procure clean renewable energy. Liquefaction, which was developed for coal conversion over a century ago is one of these areas. Liquefaction used for biomass conversions to bio-oils is grouped under the thermochemical conversion (TCC) area of energy conversion methods along with gasification and pyrolysis. This thesis discusses liquefaction experiments conducted using varieties of Louisiana biomass feedstocks. Dairy manure collected from the Louisiana State University Dairy Farm in Baton Rouge, was …

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A Unified Methodology Of Maintenance Management For Repairable Systems Based On Optimal Stopping Theory, Hongye Wang Jan 2008

A Unified Methodology Of Maintenance Management For Repairable Systems Based On Optimal Stopping Theory, Hongye Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the study of maintenance management for repairable systems based on optimal stopping theory. From reliability engineering’s point of view, all systems are subject to deterioration with age and usage. System deterioration can take various forms, including wear, fatigue, fracture, cracking, breaking, corrosion, erosion and instability, any of which may ultimately cause the system to fail to perform its required function. Consequently, controlling system deterioration through maintenance and thus controlling the risk of system failure becomes beneficial or even necessary. Decision makers constantly face two fundamental problems with respect to system maintenance. One is whether or when …

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A Genetic Bayesian Approach For Texture-Aided Urban Land-Use/Land-Cover Classification, Wenxue Ju Jan 2008

A Genetic Bayesian Approach For Texture-Aided Urban Land-Use/Land-Cover Classification, Wenxue Ju

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Urban land-use/land-cover classification is entering a new era with the increased availability of high-resolution satellite imagery and new methods such as texture analysis and artificial intelligence classifiers. Recent research demonstrated exciting improvements of using fractal dimension, lacunarity, and Moran’s I in classification but the integration of these spatial metrics has seldom been investigated. Also, previous research focuses more on developing new classifiers than improving the robust, simple, and fast maximum likelihood classifier. The goal of this dissertation research is to develop a new approach that utilizes a texture vector (fractal dimension, lacunarity, and Moran’s I), combined with a new …

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Richard Rorty's Map Of Political Misreading, Shaun Kenan King Jan 2008

Richard Rorty's Map Of Political Misreading, Shaun Kenan King

LSU Master's Theses

For more than a quarter century, Richard Rorty was one of the most controversial writers. Critics of Rorty have often clustered their remarks around distinct themes within Rorty’s body of literature. Is Rorty’s criticism of the correspondence theory of truth valid and what standard of validity could confirm that? Does Rorty’s treatment of pragmatists such as William James and John Dewey accurately reflect their writings? Is Rorty’s brand of liberalism defensible when it assumes no non-circular form of justification can be proffered? These are the questions most often addressed by Rorty’s critics. He responded to their objections for two decades. …

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The Gallant Six Hundred: Performing The Light Brigade Into A Heroic Icon, Elizabeth Carrick Cawns Jan 2008

The Gallant Six Hundred: Performing The Light Brigade Into A Heroic Icon, Elizabeth Carrick Cawns

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

History is not so much what actually happened as how we have received and disseminated what happened. This reception and dissemination take place through a variety of media, many of which are not the purview of the traditional historian. It is in the trifles of daily life that we find the patterns of cultural norms – the ethos of the society that is as unnoticed by that society as the air it breathes. Society makes choices that affect the future based on what has been disseminated, rather than on the original event. This is especially true of such military disasters …

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Three Papers On The Behavior Modeling Of The Shrimp Fishermen In The Gulf Of Mexico, Tao Ran Jan 2008

Three Papers On The Behavior Modeling Of The Shrimp Fishermen In The Gulf Of Mexico, Tao Ran

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The overall goal of this research is to empirically analyze shrimp fishermen behavior to help improve the management of the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fleet. Given that optimal management requires consideration of more than the net benefits derived from shrimp harvesting, this research also seeks to provide an empirical framework that would allow future investigators to measure benefits lost through bycatch-related management actions. This paper expands on previous fishing behavior literature by focusing on two of the most important short-run decisions confronting Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishermen (where to fish and how long to fish). A better understanding of these …

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Bayesian Model Averaging On Hydraulic Conductivity Estimation And Groundwater Head Prediction, Xiaobao Li Jan 2008

Bayesian Model Averaging On Hydraulic Conductivity Estimation And Groundwater Head Prediction, Xiaobao Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Characterization of aquifer heterogeneity is inherently difficult because of the insufficiency of data, the inflexibility of parameterization methods, and non-uniqueness of parameterization methods. Groundwater predictions are greatly affected by multiple interpretations of aquifer properties and the uncertainties of model parameters. This study introduces a Bayesian model averaging (BMA) method along with multiple generalized parameterization (GP) methods to identify hydraulic conductivity and along with multiple simulation models to predict groundwater head and quantify the prediction uncertainty. Two major issues about BMA are discussed. The first problem is with using Occam’s window in usual BMA applications. Occam’s window only accepts models in …

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A Comparison Of The Moral Development Of Advertising And Journalism Students, Stephanie Marino Jan 2008

A Comparison Of The Moral Development Of Advertising And Journalism Students, Stephanie Marino

LSU Master's Theses

This study employed the Defining Issues Test (DIT) to complete the analysis and comparison of the moral development of mass communication students, specifically those who major in advertising and journalism. The DIT is an instrument based on Kohlberg’s moral development theory and is a device for assessing the extent to which a person has developed his or her moral schemas. Results indicate no statistically significant difference in levels of moral development between sampled students majoring in journalism and advertising; no difference in levels of moral development between students who have and have not completed a course in media ethics; and …

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Adsorption And Photochemical Transformation Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons On Atmospheric Water Films, Jing Chen Jan 2008

Adsorption And Photochemical Transformation Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons On Atmospheric Water Films, Jing Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Atmospheric water films affect the processing of chemicals in the atmosphere and have potential effects on human health and the environment. In this work, adsorption and photochemical transformations of gas-phase PAHs were studied in a flow-tube photo-reactor with a view to understanding the behavior of gas-phase PAHs occurring in thin water films such as those of aerosols and fog. Naphthalene and phenanthrene were chosen as model PAHs for this study. Bulk water-air and air-to-interface partition constants of naphthalene and phenanthrene were estimated from the experiments based on the dependence of the equilibrium uptake on the water film thickness. Theoretical computations …

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Non-Industrial Private Forest Landowners And Us Home Center Retailers' Attitudes And Perceptions Of Forest Certification, Polwattage Kushil Perera Jan 2008

Non-Industrial Private Forest Landowners And Us Home Center Retailers' Attitudes And Perceptions Of Forest Certification, Polwattage Kushil Perera

LSU Master's Theses

The concept of forest certification, a relatively recent development in forestry, is based on the use of market-based incentives to encourage sustainable forest management practices. Since the majority of forests in US South are privately owned, certifying forests owned by non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners is an important issue. From the demand perspective of certification, pressure from non-governmental environmental organizations and consumer awareness has prompted major wood products retailers to state preferences for certified wood products. In the US, wood product demand in the retail home centers sector is second only to the home building industry. In addition, home center …

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Sorption And Desorption Characteristics Of Tylosin In Three Louisiana Soils And Clay Minerals, Zehua Zhou Jan 2008

Sorption And Desorption Characteristics Of Tylosin In Three Louisiana Soils And Clay Minerals, Zehua Zhou

LSU Master's Theses

Tylosin, a macrolide class and widely used antibiotic in animal production, could contaminate environment through manure application to soil and further to river and ground water. Tylosin transport and movement in the environment are largely determined by its sorption and desorption in soils, which are poorly understood so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine (1) the optimal conditions for tylosin stability, (2) sorption and desorption characteristics of tylosin by poultry litter-impacted three Louisiana soils and (3) sorption and desorption of tylosin by selected clay minerals, the main components of soil which have strong potential application in …

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Long-Term Subsidence And Compaction Rates: A New Model For The Michoud Area, South Louisiana, Clint H. Edrington Jan 2008

Long-Term Subsidence And Compaction Rates: A New Model For The Michoud Area, South Louisiana, Clint H. Edrington

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the stratigraphic record of the Michoud area in East New Orleans, Louisiana to address questions concerning the magnitude of, and processes leading to land-surface subsidence. The hypotheses under review are based on recent geodetic studies, which challenge the widely held position that modern subsidence is primarily a function of shallow sediment compaction. Testing these hypotheses involved constructing a structural cross section of the Michoud area using well logs, chronostratigraphic data, and fault picks, so as to evaluate differential motion along specific faults through time. Employing ages and corrected depths for three key subsurface horizons, long-term (Middle Miocene …

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Ancient Greek And Ancient Hebrew Agrarianism: An Ecocritical Study Of Hesiod's Works And Days And The Book Of Proverbs, Ernest Nathan Manning Jan 2008

Ancient Greek And Ancient Hebrew Agrarianism: An Ecocritical Study Of Hesiod's Works And Days And The Book Of Proverbs, Ernest Nathan Manning

LSU Master's Theses

The subject of this thesis revolves around the “Western” view of nature and its social origins. The author advances the subject through a comparison of two ancient texts: Hesiod’s Works and Days and the Old Testament book of Proverbs. He concludes that the Western view of nature gestated in agricultural societies of small-farmers who saw themselves as being both part of and separate from the natural world. Their ability to control nature being limited, they saw civilization as fulfilling a limited agricultural role in the cosmos, as being different but part of and not controlling the whole. In the last …

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Phonemic Awareness And Sight Word Reading In Toddlers, Alicia Tonya Mcinnis Jan 2008

Phonemic Awareness And Sight Word Reading In Toddlers, Alicia Tonya Mcinnis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated emerging phonemic awareness skills and printed sight word recognition abilities in two-year-old toddlers using plain text and MorphoPhonic Face words on flash cards. MorphoPhonic Face words were used to determine if this learning process is enhanced when words are iconically represented to show the first sound and the word's meaning (purposefully creating idiosyncratic cues) using pictures superimposed into the letters. Sixteen (16) age-matched toddlers were assigned to alternate treatment groups and received exposure to both printed and MorphoPhonic pictured words three times weekly for six weeks. During each session, children were taught 16 sight words (8 in …

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Three Essays In Options Pricing: 1. Volatilities Implied By Price Changes In The S&P 500 Options And Future Contracts 2. Price Changes In The S&P Options And Futures Contracts: A Regression Analysis 3. Hedging Price Changes In The S&P 500 Options And Futures Contracts: The Effect Of Different Measures Of Implied Volatility, Jitka Hilliard Jan 2008

Three Essays In Options Pricing: 1. Volatilities Implied By Price Changes In The S&P 500 Options And Future Contracts 2. Price Changes In The S&P Options And Futures Contracts: A Regression Analysis 3. Hedging Price Changes In The S&P 500 Options And Futures Contracts: The Effect Of Different Measures Of Implied Volatility, Jitka Hilliard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this work, I develop a new volatility measure; the volatility implied by price changes in option contracts and their underlyings. I refer to this as implied price change volatility. First, I examine the time series behavior of implied price change volatility and investigate possible moneyness and maturity effects. I compare these characteristics to those of the usual implied volatility measure and the historical volatility of the S&P 500 index. Then, I investigate the performance of the implied price change volatility in a regression setup and in hedging applications. I compare the performance of hedges using daily updated implied price …

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