Digital Commons Network^™

A Critical Item Analysis Of The Qabf: Development Of A Short Form Assessment Instrument, Ashvind Nand Singh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the relative inability of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) to provide an accurate and reliable self-report, assessment in this population is more difficult than with individuals in the general population. As such, assessment procedures must be adjusted to compensate for the relative lack of information that the individual can provide and rely more on the behavioral expression of communication. One method commonly used is the indirect functional assessment that utilizes behavior rating scales that have been developed to gather behavioral data in a short time. One of the few empirically derived and psychometrically sound is the QABF, a …

An Investigation Of Decision-Making Style Of Chinese College Student Online Apparel Shoppers, Yao Zeng

LSU Master's Theses

Internet users in China increased to 210 million with an annual growth rate of 53.3 percent in 2007 (CNNIC, 2008). This dramatic increase of Internet usage in China provides numerous opportunities for online marketers. Thirty-eight percent of Chinese netizens are 18 to 24 years old, among whom college netizens account for a large proportion in China (CNNIC, 2008). Given the market potential of targeting this group, research is needed to understand Chinese college students’ online shopping behavior. The purpose of this research was to better understand Chinese college student online apparel shoppers by investigating their decision-making style and explore the …

Elements Of Mythmaking In Witness Accounts Of Colonial Piracy, Plamen Ivanov Arnaudov

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Focusing on historical accounts (1684-1734) by English, French, and Spanish witnesses, this dissertation establishes a continuity in fictionalized representations of anti-heroic pirates from the buccaneering period to the Golden Age of Piracy. Informed by history, literary, myth, and performance theory, the analysis identifies significant distortions in reports by observers and participants. The distortions that pertain to mythmaking patterns are classified and analyzed further. Conflicting and ambivalent representations of the pirate as an anti-hero are resolved through the positing of a literary scapegoat hypothesis drawing from René Girard and Joseph Roach. While demonstrating mythical archetypes at work in the construction of …

Distance As A Barrier To Child And Adolescent Mental Health Service Access In Post-Katrina Orleans Parish, Rob Harrison

LSU Master's Theses

Socially vulnerable populations are more susceptible to the impacts of natural disasters than other groups. An aspect of social vulnerability is lack of access to resources following a disaster. Distance is one barrier that prevents socially vulnerable populations from accessing services. Using 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data and current outpatient child and adolescent mental health facilities in post-Katrina Orleans Parish, Louisiana, this thesis seek to understand if those facilities are located farther from block groups with higher percentages of demographically disadvantaged residents than from block groups with lower percentages of demographically disadvantaged residents. Block group demographic disadvantage is defined in …

Participant Positioning And The Positioning Of Participatory Pronouns In The Academic Lecture, Robert Thomas Connor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Through a research approach of emergence applied to a corpus of academic letures, I developed a theory to explicate the referents of a class of frequently used pronouns (I, you, and we), which I term the Participatory Pronouns. My theory of the Positioning of Participatory Pronouns resolves the main practical concern of the research participants, which is to place their utterances in contexts for authoritative, intellectually sound, and socially relevant interpretation. At the theoretical level, my theory is a specification of Relevance Theory and resolves disparate previous analyses of pronouns. Overall, my work provides a new paradigm for how referents …

Getting Warm(Er) An Investigation Into Linguistic Relativity And Its Significance In The Translation Of The English Lexical Term "Warm" Into French, Elizabeth Neuerburg Addison

LSU Master's Theses

Students of foreign languages are well aware that every language has its own vocabulary and word-for-word translations are rarely valid. It is therefore unsurprising that identifying literal translations in French for the English lexical term “warm” is problematic. This study demonstrates that not only is there a variety of French lexical terms that can be used to convey the meaning that the English lexical term “warm” conveys, but that certain French lexical terms are more likely to be used only in certain situations. Furthermore, an examination of this phenomenon through the lens of linguistic relativity has revealed differing conceptualizations of …

Appealing To Heaven: The Significance Of Religion In John Locke's Advocacy Of Revolution, Glenn Andrew Moots

LSU Master's Theses

This research addresses the intersection of philosophy and theology in Locke’s philosophy, particularly his political philosophy. The justification for this inquiry is Locke’s use of the phrase “Appeal to Heaven” in the Second Treatise together with his advocacy of resistance in the Letter Concerning Toleration. The thesis begins with a brief survey of the relevant secondary literature and frames the intersection of theology and political philosophy. The thesis then seeks to justify the claim that Locke’s political ideas were motivated by religious concerns. This includes a close examination of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, The Reasonableness of Christianity and his …

The Effects Of Cross-Age Mentoring In An Online Collaborative Environment, Gail Lorraine Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This mixed method research was designed to examine the effects of cross-age mentoring in an inter-institutional online learning community. The research questions focused on the impact of mentoring on high school students’ confidence in their information seeking skills, perceptions of their information seeking standards, and the application of these standards to an information seeking task. Also of interest was the dialogic interaction between the students at the two sites, the impact of the facilitator on the process, and the university students’ perceptions about their experience. The participants included 26 students (mentees) enrolled in an American history class at a rural …

Impact Damage Between The Collision Of A Vessel And Protective Fender Systems, Paul Joseph Kocke

LSU Master's Theses

Vessel collision with bridge pilings can cause a catastrophic event and are occurring at an alarming rate. Such events can lead to the collapse of a bridge, causing deaths, shutting down a primary route of transportation and costing millions of dollars in repairs. Today, the AASHTO Bridge Code gives designers a methodology toward designing bridge pilings to withstand the impact of an errant vessel. However, bridges designed before this code was written require a protective system that is capable of redirecting a colliding vessel without causing severe damage to the pilings or the vessel. This research will look into three …

Modeling The Relationship Among Occupational Stress, Psychological/Physical Symptoms And Injuries In The Construction Industry, Omosefe Osarieme Abbe

LSU Master's Theses

The construction industry has one of the highest incidents of fatal and non-fatal accidents/injuries every year. As a high risk industry, there is a need to investigate factors that affect the occurrence of these accidents to be able to protect workers. Traditional approaches to workers’ safety in the construction industry have focused on the physical and biomechanical aspects of work by improving tools, equipment and task completion methods. However, the impact of psychosocial factors, specifically stress as experienced by construction workers is an area of growing research. Research in the area of occupational stress in the Construction Industry is yielding …

A Symphonic Poem On Dante's Inferno And A Study On Karlheinz Stockhausen And His Effect On The Trumpet, Michael Joseph Berthelot

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The first portion of this dissertation is an original composition A Symphonic Poem on Dante’s Inferno. This symphonic poem is in three movements: I. The Dream, depicts Dante falling asleep and describes the beginning of the Inferno, II. The Journey, depicts Virgil and Dante walking towards the Gates of Hell, III. Hell’s Depths; explores Hell’s Gates, the Souls of Limbo and the Nine Circles of Hell. Dante realizes at the age of thirty-five that he has wandered into the Dark Wood of Error. As soon as he realizes his loss, Dante lifts his eyes and sees the first light, lighting …

One Rhizome, Two Unstoppable Blossoms: Environmental Communication And Ecological Rhetoric, Kevin James Ells

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation will contribute to the project of explaining what environmental communication studies may offer theoretically to an understanding of communication and rhetoric in general, investigate a complex problem in rhetoric from a variety of methodological approaches, offer examples of rhetorical criticism relevant to environmental communication researchers, and delve into certain salient aspects of ecological rhetoric (defined herein as rhetoric from an ecological perspective). The hypothesis of this doctoral thesis is twofold: 1) studying environmental communication can illuminate much about communication and rhetoric in general, and 2) ecological rhetoric has considerable persuasive potential in itself for reasons that can be …

Creatures Del Monte, Alejandro Arauz

LSU Master's Theses

To visually represent the multifaceted hybrid identity; a multidimensional artistic approach was necessary. I considered all the physical, psychological and cultural truths of my family. I explored our relationships, our behaviors and our responses as we simultaneously identify with the Latino and Anglo North American cultures and exist within its ever-changing parameters. Two streams of thought emerged in my artwork. One explores the characteristics and bi-cultural composition of my immediate family. The other looks at recalling past and distant members of my extended family as our points of origin while identifying the visible and invisible forces that shape our characters. …

Separate But Equal?: The Archaeology Of An Early Twentieth-Century African American School, Dena Lyn Struchtemeyer

LSU Master's Theses

The written and historical record is frequently flawed, as it most often written by a single dominant group. The history of Morganza Elementary, an early twentieth century African American school in Morganza, Louisiana, was both omitted from the historical record and as a result, was slowly being erased in the minds of the community. Archaeological excavations were undertaken in order to better understand the lifeways of both the community and the students as well as the daily practices of both. In conjunction with the archaeological excavations, oral histories were completed with former students. Through this combination, new light was shed …

Technology Diffusion And Total Factor Productivity Growth, Subaran Roy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I investigate the effects of two important channels of technology diffusion (i) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and (ii) import of capital goods, on the total factor productivity (TFP) growth. My first essay contributes to the literature by empirically investigating the role of initial distance of a country from the technology frontier in determining the net effect of FDI on TFP growth. In this essay, I find that the net effect of FDI on TFP growth decreases with the increase in distance. In order to take this research a step further, I implement the recently developed threshold regression technique to explore …

Saint Maló Remembered, Erin Elizabeth Voisin

LSU Master's Theses

This research explores the unique process of creolization that occurred in Southern Louisiana through the development of the figure of San Maló over time. His transformation from historic rebel to religious icon takes place through the devices of folklore, poetry, and song. This developmental process of a culture redefining its heroes through oral tradition represents the dynamism of creolization. The transformative process of San Maló serves as an exemplary representation of how a culture negotiates its own history with what is deemed necessary and beneficial to the culture’s survival. All information on this transformation was gathered through historic research and …

Collaborative Family Law, The New Lawyer, And Deep Resolution Of Divorce-Related Conflicts, Pauline H. Tesler

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Unlike many of the contributions to this Symposium issue, mine is a speculative, idiosyncratic opinion piece. I want to explore what we know, what we think we know, what we do not know, and what we need to know about Collaborative Law and interdisciplinary team Collaborative Divorce Practice as they presently exist in the field of family law, in two respects: what these processes offer to clients (the "deep resolution" part of my title) and what effect the practice of these processes has on lawyers (the "new lawyer" part of my title). Instead of citing to authority, this essay draws …

Still Waiting For The Dream: The Justice Of Punishing Undocumented Immigrant Students, Katie Annand

UC Law Journal

An estimated 50,000 to 65,000 undocumented immigrant students graduate from high schools in the United States each year. Yet, upon reaching graduation, undocumented immigrant students, who oftentimes grew up in the United States and consider this country their home, face significant obstacles: current federal laws effectively bar access to higher education for many of these students by imposing substantial financial barriers and by preventing these students from obtaining legal residency, foreclosing federal financial aid and many career options requiring work authorization.

Legislators have responded to student efforts to seek equal access to higher education by proposing the DREAM Act. This …

Native Spiritualities As Resistance: Disrupting Colonialism In The Americas, Kirstin Lea Squint

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project analyzes eight novels which represent revolt or resistance by varied Native peoples against the European and Euro-American colonization of the Americas. I take a comparative approach to literatures of the Americas because of the dearth of research examining the literatures of both continents side by side, particularly literatures by and about Indigenous Americans. Chapter One introduces the theoretical bases for the project, including colonial and postcolonial theories, Native American literary theories, and aesthetic concerns specific to American Indian literatures. The second chapter is a comparative analysis of Miguel Angel Asturias’s Men of Maize and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac …

Formalism: From Racial Integration To Same-Sex Marriage, Holning Lau

UC Law Journal

Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, No. i concerned racial integration in public schools; however, the case has a doctrinal impact that extends beyond the context of race, extending specifically to same-sex marriage. Ironically, the five Supreme Court Justices who formed a majority in the casefour of whom are commonly labeled social conservatives - bolstered the case for same-sex marriage. They did so by introducing a new exercise of formalism to equal protection analysis. Specifically, they created doctrine that supports the argument that same-sex marriage bans warrant heightened scrutiny because such bans discriminate on the basis of …

Preserving Power Without Sacrificing Justice: Creating An Effective Reciprocity Regime For The Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments, Vishali Singal

UC Law Journal

Globalization has transformed the world's legal systems into interconnected regimes. The strength of a nation's legal system is predicated, in part, on whether foreign nations will recognize and enforce its judgments. While nations have accorded respect to one another's judgments in the spirit of comity by recognizing and enforcing them, none are obligated to do so. Given these delicate relationships between nations, a debate has arisen in the United States' legal community as to whether the United States should require foreign nations to recognize and enforce its own judgments before its courts will reciprocate this treatment towards foreign judgments. In …

Transnational Legal Practice 2006-07, Carole Silver, Laurel S. Terry, Ellyn S. Rosen, Carol A. Needham, Robert Lutz, Peter D. Ehrenhaft

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article reviews developments in transnational legal practice during 2006 and 2007, including international developments, U.S. developments and regional developments in Australia and Europe. The primary focus of the international developments section is the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This article discusses GATS Track 1 Activities related to legal services, including the Legal Services Collective Requests and issues related to GATS Track 2 and the potential development of GATS disciplines. This section also surveys GATS-related initiatives of the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association and U.S. implementation of foreign lawyer multi-jurisdictional practice rules. In other …

Globalization And The Business Of Law: Lessons For Legal Education, Carole Silver, David Van Zandt, Nicole De Bruin Phelan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Whether working for global or local organizations, lawyers today are increasingly faced with the prospect of working with colleagues and competitors who are diverse in terms of nationality, education and training, and with clients whose problems may be as locally-focused as a Chicago zoning matter or as distant as the acquisition of one non-U.S. company by another. The global forces shaping business and the practice of law are felt in legal education, too, and U.S. law schools occupy a leading role in educating domestic and non-U.S. students for practice in the transnational marketplace. In spite of this, however, the core …

Signature Identification In The Light Of Science And Experience, Roger C. Park

UC Law Journal

The Daubert case encourages judges to ask whether forensic identification expertise is valid, not merely whether it is accepted among practitioners. The example of DNA has shown what real science can do, and has highlighted the shortcomings of other forms of forensic science. The combined effect of Daubert and DNA has contributed to skepticism about forensic identification techniques. This skepticism may lead to exclusion of evidence or to procedural limits aimed at making the expertise more trustworthy or preventing it from having undue weight. I will discuss these two alternatives in the context of the specific forensic problem of signature …

Conceptual Hurdles To The Application Of Atkins V. Virgina, Lois A. Weithorn

UC Law Journal

In its 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment precludes the execution of "mentally retarded offender[s]." Despite the apparent "brightline" clarity of an absolute ban on the execution of mentally retarded offenders, the determination of which offenders fall within the protected group is deceivingly complex. The meanings of the concepts of "mental retardation," "intelligence," and "adaptive behavior" are-like the standards of decency guiding the Court-continually evolving, and are subjects of ongoing reevaluation and debate. Given what is at stake in Atkins assessments, lawmakers, jurists, practitioners, …

The Myth Of "Lucky" Patent Verdicts: Improving The Quality Of Appellate Review By Incorporating Fuzzy Logic In Jury Verdicts, Michael T. Nguyen

UC Law Journal

Fuzzy logic, a relatively new mathematical concept, has emerged over the past few decades as an effective tool to model complexity and uncertainty. In a nutshell, fuzzy logic recognizes that truth is not always black or white, but rather, truth can be measured in shades of gray. Patents, because they rely on language to claim inventions, are fuzzy legal concepts. Fuzzy logic may help to simplify the jurors' comprehension of complex real-world problems in patent law.

In this Note, I propose a "fuzzy" special verdict form and procedure for "defuzzifying" the verdict that would allow the jury the freedom to …

Why Binomial Distributions Do Not Work As Proof Of Employment Discrimination, Ben Ikuta

UC Law Journal

Although it is possible for employer discrimination policies to be facially apparent in employment discrimination cases, usually employer policies are not overtly discriminatory. In those situations where it is not apparent, the only method of proving a prima facie case of discrimination in most systemic disparate treatment instances is to show a pattern of discrimination in the employer's hiring decisions. Since these patterns can usually "be identified and analyzed in quantitative form," cases rely primarily, and often exclusively, on statistics. If the plaintiff offers statistics that indicate a hiring practice that is unlikely absent discrimination, then the plaintiff is deemed …

Disciplinary Differences In Preferred Research Methods: A Comparison Of Groups In The Biglan Classification Scheme, Mark A. Alise

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Biglan system of classifying disciplines in groups based on similarities and differences in their subject matter has been validated in numerous empirical studies. The present study sought to expand that validation by comparing two Biglan groups that include disciplines representing the social and behavioral sciences. As a unique point of comparison, preferred research methods were contrasted between Psychology and Sociology forming one group of pure disciplines and Education and Nursing forming another group of applied disciplines. A code sheet was developed to categorize the various components of published research, distinguishing at the most basic level quantitative, qualitative, and mixed …

The Matter Of Fit: The Law Of Discrimination And The Science Of Implicit Bias, David L. Faigman, Nilanjana Dasgupta, Cecilia L. Ridgeway

UC Law Journal

This Article examines the "fit" between the law of discrimination and the science of implicit bias, including consideration of the legal standards that apply and a broad overview of the sociological and psychological literatures that are relevant to those standards. The Authors first set forth the legal framework within which the psychological and sociological research literatures must be considered. Although the legal standard is not entirely unambiguous, scientific research on implicit bias appears relevant to the basic empirical issues put in issue by the law. The Authors then review the general research literature on the phenomenon of "implicit biases" in …

Death To Tyrants: District Of Columbia V. Heller And The Uses Of Guns, David C. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.