Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of A Reflex Replication Program On Retained Primary Reflexes, Motor Coordination, Vocabulary, Visual Motor Ability And Rapid Naming In Preprimary Aged Children, Deborah Callcott

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The link between movement and cognition is not new, but remains steeped in controversy in the educational community. One of the reasons for this controversy has been the lack of substantial research that supports the link between movement programs and observable academic benefits. The results of recent research have indicated that the retention of primary reflexes, particularly the tonic neck reflexes in young children, can result in difficulties that affect the overall functioning of the child. The retainment of reflexes may lead to clumsiness, poor eye hand coordination, poor manipulative skills and consequently academic achievement may be compromised in some …

Computerized Adaptive Testing In Mathematics For Primary Schools In Thailand, Chaowprapha Chuesathuchon

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A new system-wide educational change has been introduced in Thailand requiring, amongst other things, that technologies for education be utilized in all levels of education. This study focuses on Mathematics Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) designed to provide Thai primary school teachers with an innovative method of assessment, one of the effective tools of new technology to be used in Thai primary schools. This study aims to: (1) construct multiple-choice test items for a Mathematics course on the topic of Equations for Year 6 (Prathom Suksa 6) students in Thailand; (2) calibrate the test items using a Rasch Measurement Model, investigate …

Improving Community Water Conservation Behavior In Chachoengsao, Thailand, Kuakul Sathapornvajana

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The issue of water supply throughout the world is of concern for many reasons. It is projected that by the year 2025 two-thirds of the world's population will encounter moderate to severe water shortages. As a result of unsustainable development over the past decade, Thailand has faced pollution problems as well as the depletion of many natural resources. These problems have impacted on the country's main rivers (Chaopraya River, Thachine River, and the Bangpakong River), that are crucial to a sustainable economy, society, and culture. There needs to be a concentrated effort at all levels (individual to community) to address …

A Jittered-Sampling Correction Technique For Adcs, Jamiil A. Tourabaly

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In Analogue to Digital Converters (ADCs) jittered sampling raises the noise floor; this leads to a decrease in its Signal to Noise ratio (SNR) and its effective number of bits (ENOB). This research studies a technique that compensate for the effects of sampling with a jittered clock. A thorough understanding of sampling in various data converters is complied.

Water Centrality For Water And Society, Ute Goeft

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The current approach to water management in Western societies, including Australia, is based on allocating water between different users. Appropriate for commercial uses, this commodity view of water has proved difficult for the inclusion of environmental and social concerns. Issues, such as which aspects have precedence, how much water should be allocated to each and how to make trade-offs in cases of insufficient water, pose problems that are yet to be worked out. In addition, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the identification of environmental as well as social water needs. The latter has prompted the writing of this …

Flexural Comparison Of The Aci 318-08 And Aashto Lrfd Structural Concrete Codes, Nathan Jeffrey Dorsey

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Vegetation Change Over Time In Naturally-Regenerating Coast Redwood Communities, Kristin K. Hageseth

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Cryptanalysis Of The Sigaba Cipher, Heather Ellie Kwong

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between The Cahsee And Quality Of Education For Raza Students, Jessica M. Rodriguez

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) and its effects on Raza students. The objective is to understand the relationship between the preparation for the CAHSEE and the preparation of students to become complete learners. This study finds that the emphasis placed on the CAHSEE forced teachers to change their curriculum to focus on the exam, taking away from students' overall quality of education. Intervention courses created to ensure passage of the exam, limit students' exposure to classes as well as on higher order and critical thinking skills. This study also finds that the CAHSEE negatively affects …

Preaching In The Postmodern Matrix : The Role Of Biblical Narrative Preaching And Symbolic Communication In The Formation Of Christian Identity, William Ray Jarrett

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Business In Missions In Chiang Mai, Thailand, Mark Lowery Russell

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Self-Assembled Layer-By-Layer Star Polymers By Electrostatic Interactions, Cecile Semana Bonifacio

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Design And Implementation Of Reverse Risk Assessment Software, Igor S. Tilinin

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Together We Can: Imagining The Future Of Employee Pensions, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing Teresa Ghilarducci & Christian E. Weller, Eds. Employee Pensions: Policies, Problems & Possibilities (LERA 2007)

A little over thirty years ago Congress enacted the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA),¹ a comprehensive reform of the existing system of pension regulation.² Solidly into its fourth decade, ERISA has been the object of much commentary as the various federal courts have struggled to infuse its complicated and sometimes imprecise pieces with coherent meaning. ³ Some have suggested that ERISA's primary goal of reducing the risk to employees of employer default has largely been achieved.⁴ Others believe that almost …

Counting And Sampling Paths In Graphs, T. Ryan Hoens

Theses

Since Euler began studying paths in graphs, graph theory has become an important branch of mathematics. With all of the research into graph theoretic problems, however, counting – exactly or approximately – the number of simple paths in finite graphs has been neglected. This thesis investigates an approximation technique known as Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for the specific purpose of approximating the number of simple paths in graphs. Due to the paucity of research into the subject, the thesis will make the conjecture that this cannot be done exactly in an efficient manner (assuming that the longstanding conjecture P …

Hydrogen Energy: A Study Of The Use Of Anaerobic Digester Gas To Generate Electricity Utilizing Stand-Alone Hydrogen Fuel Cells At Wastewater Treatment Plants, Charles W. Emerson

Theses

Not provided.

English Language & Third Generation Programming Language Pedagogical Practice Analysis, Vincent Falbo

Theses

In an effort to provide better computer programming instruction to more students at an introductory level, pedagogical methods could be improved using a paradigm of instruction based on the same strategies used to teach students spoken languages. Although many different methodologies of instruction have been explored in the past, this document identifies relationships between spoken languages and computer languages that encourage the exploration of the best practices of teaching English Language Arts so that they could be applied to computer programming instruction. Those with backgrounds in mathematics and science initially completed programming tasks. Much literature about the problem solving aspects …

Biologically Inspired Object Categorization In Cluttered Scenes, Theparit Peerasathien

Theses

The purpose of the thesis, Biologically Inspired Object Categorization system, is to provide an automatic system to classify the real-world images into categories. Generally, computer algorithms classify objects with much lower efficiency than human. Furthermore, some images with complex features such as cat and dog faces are difficult to be classified by ordinary computer algorithms. Therefore, the simulation of the structure and process of a mammalian’s visual cortex is created, which functions similarly to a human’s visual cortex, by using a computer. In this paper, I am presenting a biologically inspired neural network system which processes the images in a …

Hydrologic Response To Extreme Warm And Cold Summers In The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, East Antarctica, Peter T. Doran, Christopher P. Mckay, Andrew G. Fountain, Thomas H. Nylen, Diane M. Mcknight, Chris Jaros, John E. Barrett

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The meteorological characteristics and hydrological response of an extreme warm, and cold summer in the McMurdo Dry Valleys are compared. The driver behind the warmer summer conditions was the occurrence of down-valley winds, which were not present during the colder summer. Occurrence of the summer down-valley winds coincided with lower than typical mean sea level pressure in the Ross Sea region. There was no significant difference in the amount of solar radiation received during the two summers. Compared to the cold summer, glaciological and hydrological response to the warm summer in Taylor Valley included significant glacier mass loss, and 3- …

Digital Tools For Industrial Design, Thomas Myers

Theses

Not included.

A Positive Theory Of Strict Liability, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

In spite of its tenure as the prevailing economic theory of strict liability, the proposition that strict liability should be preferred to negligence when it is desirable to reduce injurers' activity levels rather than victims' activity levels raises a few questions. First, when should we prefer to reduce injurers' activity levels rather than victims'? Second, why should we not hold both victim and injurer strictly liable? This paper provides a model that answers these questions more effectively than the prevailing economic model. The model presented here offers specific predictions that are consistent with the detailed law on strict liability and …

Growth And Properties Of Metal-On-Metal Nanostructures: Ag On Cu(110) And Co On Ag(110), Indrajith Chandima Senevirathne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Heteroepitaxial nanostructures have a diverse array of applications and show novel phenomena that arise from the exotic physics exhibited in reduced dimensions. We have investigated two nano-structured systems in order to gain insights into the dynamics of their nucleation, growth and have observed striking differences, due in part to a competition between lattice strain, surface and interfacial free energies. When Ag is deposited on clean, single-crystal Cu(110), it initially wets the surface with a (111) monolayer, and spontaneously nucleates nanowires as the coverage is increased. The nanowires nucleate at defects and step edges and grow aligned along the [1–10] direction. …

Effects Of Burning On Henslow's Sparrow (Ammodramus Henslowii) Density And Habitat Quality In Louisiana, Laura M. Palasz

LSU Master's Theses

The Henslow’s Sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii) is a grassland species of concern that winters in prairies and open pine savannas across the Gulf Coastal Plain. Previous studies have indicated that these birds occur at higher densities in recently burned habitats in winter, but this has never been examined over a large geographic area containing multiple habitat types. The objectives of the study were to identify areas of important winter habitat in Louisiana, to examine the relationship between time since burn, bird density, and bird condition, and to determine vegetation structure and composition used by birds. We found most of the new …

Representation & Its Limit, Neal Anderson Hebert

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is an investigation into traditional accounts of aesthetic representation. Using the work of Noel Carroll as an exemplar of the definition put forward in canonical philosophical accounts of aesthetic representation, I look at how Carroll’s account must work. By examining both the definition in abstract and how this definition is instantiated into existent and hypothetical works of art, it becomes apparent that Carroll’s definition is overly stringent and relies upon a counterintuitive distinction between aesthetic representation and aesthetic expression. This distinction is problematic insofar as the distinction seems to be a largely semantic distinction: the mechanism by which …

Chemical Analysis Of Polymer Blends Via Synchrotron X-Ray Tomography, Heath Alan Barnett

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Material properties of industrial polymer blends are of great importance. X-ray tomography has been used to obtain spatial chemical information about various polymer blends. The spatial images are acquired with synchrotron X-ray tomography because of its rapidity, good spatial resolution, large field-of-view, and elemental sensitivity. The spatial absorption data acquired from X-ray tomography experiments is converted to spatial chemical information via a linear least squares fit of multi-spectral X-ray absorption data. A fiberglass-reinforced polymer blend with a new-generation flame retardant is studied with multi-energy synchrotron X-ray tomography to assess the blend homogeneity. Relative to other composite materials, this sample is …

Dactyls Reveal Evolutionary Patterns In Decapod Crustaceans, Jeffrey Guy Agnew

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Because of their high preservation potential and uses in foraging and defense, decapod crustacean dactyls (movable fingers of claws) are potentially excellent test subjects for an ongoing debate concerning the relative importance of top-down (predators) and bottom-up (prey) controls on morphologic diversification and evolution. The utility of dactyls for inferring evolutionary patterns were evaluated using living and subfossil xanthoid crabs sampled from the southeast U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, and were used to: (1) distinguish the roles of selection and constraint on dactyl morphology through allometric and shape comparisons in the context of the crab’s phylogenetic relationships and …

Academic Impropriety: Violation Of Normative Teaching Behaviors As Identified By Nursing Educators, Melanie Hilburn Green

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With public criticism of American higher education on the rise, it is prudent for those in the academy to reflect upon their responsibilities to their students. Of particular salience is an examination of what constitutes misconduct within the faculty role. This dissertation reports the results of a study designed to identify what nursing educators believe to be the violation of normative teaching behaviors. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was utilized to develop an understanding of the actions that constitute academic impropriety. The College Teaching Behaviors Inventory, a survey instrument designed by Braxton and Bayer (1999), was distributed to deans …

Measurement Of Nutrient Availability In Feedstuffs For Florida Pompano And Development Of Formulated Diets For Pompano Aquaculture, Craig Gothreaux

LSU Master's Theses

Consistently high market demand combined with low commercial catches have made Florida pompano, Trachinotus carolinus, one of the highest valued finfish from the Gulf of Mexico. Economic incentive has spurred interest in pompano culture since the 1950s, yet the body of nutritional research on pompano is still sparse. This study was conducted to measure the apparent digestibility of nutrients among a selection of common feed ingredients, and determine the optimum dietary protein level for juvenile Florida pompano at a fixed protein-to-energy ratio, in order to formulate nutritionally complete, cost-effective diets. The four ingredients tested in the digestibility trial were soybean …

Searching For Gravitational Waves From Binary Systems In Non-Stationary Data, Chad Hanna

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The gravitational wave detectors at the LIGO Observatories have achieved record sensitivity to gravitational-waves produced by astrophysical systems. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration has analyzed data taken in several science runs, searching for different signals. We describe a search for black holes with less than a solar mass in the LIGO data taken from February 22 to March 24, 2005. No gravitational waves were found, and an upper limit was set on the rate of mergers of such binary systems. This search, as well as other searches for binary systems, are affected by non-stationary noise. We describe the sophisticated pipeline that …

Digital Storytelling As A Literacy-Based Intervention For A Sixth Grade Student With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Exploratory Case Study, Brent A. Daigle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the use of Digital Storytelling as an intervention to improve the academic performance and social interactions of a sixth grade student with High-Functioning Autism. Qualitative methodology, using an inductive approach informed by grounded theory, was employed throughout this exploratory case study. Three separate data sources, consisting of document analysis, interviews, and participant observation, contributed to the findings of this study. Triangulation of inquiry methods enhanced the validity and rigor of this investigation. The findings from this inquiry indicate that Digital Storytelling was beneficial to the participant in this exploratory case study. Engaged student processes and critical analysis …