Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Community Violence Exposure On Children Affected By Hurricane Katrina, Audrey Baumeister

LSU Master's Theses

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most disastrous natural occurrences to ever hit the United States. It is known that increased adjustment difficulties have been found among children following a disaster. Further, community violence exposure has been linked to several areas of negative psychological functioning including PTSD, depression, and anxiety. This study examines the predictive value of level of exposure to the hurricane, level of community violence exposure, and gender, in examining PTSD symptomatology following Hurricane Katrina. Participants were 230 mother-child dyads recruited from various public and private elementary and middle schools within Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish, and East Baton …

The Mise En Scène Of Rossini's Le Siège De Corinthe And The Conventions Of Staging At The Paris Opéra In The 1820s, Tina Huettenrauch

LSU Master's Theses

Shortly before 1800, the publication of livrets de mise en scène, short manuals including information regarding costumes, set designs, and blocking (i.e., the movement of characters on stage), became increasingly popular in France. While theater scholars (Gösta M. Bergman, Marvin Carlson, Hellmuth Christian Wolff) have recognized the value of these documents for the history of staging (and blocking in particular), musicologists have tended to focus on their impact on visual aspects and realization of drama. Those who have looked at staging (H. Robert Cohen, Rebecca S. Wilberg, M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet) have largely ignored the period prior to 1827, …

Durable And Reusable Antimicrobial Textiles, Leila Elizabeth Bonin

LSU Master's Theses

Antimicrobial textiles are a large research focus in the textile industry. There is an apparent need for creating reusable and durable antimicrobial textiles. Most of the textiles with antimicrobial properties effective against Staphylococcus aureus are disposable. To address the issue, two types of biopolymer solutions were created in a USDA lab. Both solutions displayed antimicrobial properties. A medium weight, plain weave cotton sheeting was used as the test fabric. Samples of the sheeting were cut, treated, and tested to determine their efficacy as antimicrobial textiles. The tests performed included tensile deformation, bending, shearing, compression, surface friction, surface roughness, and treatment …

Message Framing And Interactivity In Direct-To-Consumer Internet Advertisements: Visual And Textual Cues On Web Sites For Prescription Medications, Brooke Alayne Harrington

LSU Master's Theses

Americans’ adoption of the Internet has spawned the increased usage of this medium for direct-to-consumer advertising by pharmaceutical manufacturers, despite the widespread controversy over the ethics of the practice, the educational value of direct-to-consumer advertising, and the ultimate cost of the practices to the public. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates the industry’s advertising within traditional media, the agency does not yet impose standards for direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medications on the Internet. This content analysis of the visual and textual cues of 100 direct-to-consumer Web sites for prescription medications identifies the unexpected strong presence of gain frames …

Measuring And Achieving Quality Customer Service: A Study On Public Sector In Malaysia, Muhammad Hafiz Rashid

Theses

Excellent quality of customer service is so important for government agencies even though they are not-for-profit. Better service enhances productivity, and treating customer right the first time saves time and money. Creating satisfied customers reduces the likelihood irate citizens take their complaints to higher sources, or to a public forum where negative word-of-mouth can be damaging. A common criticism of the public in Malaysia has been the poor quality of customer service rendered by employees in government agencies. As the largest organization in Malaysia, the quality of service they provide has a tremendous influence on public perceptions of the quality …

Photocatalytic Oxidation Of Ethanol Using Macroporous Titania, Gibert Merle Magpantay

LSU Master's Theses

Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) using TiO2 is a potential means of remediating poor indoor air quality that is attributed to low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC). In this work, ethanol is chosen as a simple compound representative of VOC’s. The aim of this research is to establish a baseline for the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 in ethanol PCO as well as the photonic efficiency of the photoreactor. The PCO conversion could then be enhanced by using photocatalyst having a macroporous structure. A flat plate photoreactor, UV light delivery and a flow system was designed in this work to accomplish ethanol …

It's Not Rocket Science: Nasa's Crisis Communication Efforts As A Public Sector Organization Following The Columbia Shuttle Disaster, Emily Ann Schult

LSU Master's Theses

Seventeen years after the Challenger accident, the space shuttle Columbia and its crew were only forty miles from Kennedy Space Center when the shuttle exploded during re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion killed all seven astronauts onboard. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations immediately jumped into action, declaring a contingency and following the Agency Contingency Action Plan for Space Flight Operations. As a public sector organization, one that must report to Congress and the American public, NASA is held to different standards than private organizations when it comes to releasing information. To understand how public sector organizations handle …

Emperor Has No Clothes: Eu's Cyprus Challenge, Birol A. Yeşilada, Ahmet Sozen

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the words of the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, “membership of [politically divided] Cyprus in the European Union coupled with Turkey’s membership aspirations has seriously complicated future peace negotiations on the island.” (Hürriyet, June 16, 2006). This is a rather harsh assessment of EU’s Cyprus policy given the fact that membership in the Union would most likely create the optimal conditions for peace and stability between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Yet, EU membership of one side at the expense of the other community, seem to have created more obstacles for peace. This paper provides a critical analysis …

Aging Predisposes Oocytes To Meiotic Nondisjunction When The Cohesin Subunit Smc1 Is Reduced, Vijayalakshmi V. Subramanian, Sharon E. Bickel

Dartmouth Scholarship

In humans, meiotic chromosome segregation errors increase dramatically as women age, but the molecular defects responsible are largely unknown. Cohesion along the arms of meiotic sister chromatids provides an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to keep recombinant chromosomes associated until anaphase I. One attractive hypothesis to explain age- dependent nondisjunction (NDJ) is that loss of cohesion over time causes recombinant homologues to dissociate prematurely and segregate randomly during the first meiotic division. Using Drosophila as a model system, we have tested this hypothesis and observe a significant increase in meiosis I NDJ in experimentally aged Drosophila oocytes when the cohesin protein SMC1 …

Spectral Tomography With Diffuse Near-Infrared Light: Inclusion Of Broadband Frequency Domain Spectral Data, Jia Wang, Scott C. Davis, Subhadra Srinivasan, Shudong Jiang

Dartmouth Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: Wim Wiewel takes the helm at Portland State University; faculty research is going from ideas to something the public can use; Dark Horse Comics’ full collection is on the shelves in the PSU Library; and more.

Food Cartology: Rethinking Urban Spaces As People Places, Hannah Kapell, Peter Katon, Amy Koski, Jingping Li, Colin Price, Karen Thalhammer

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Urban Vitality Group (UVG) partnered with the City of Portland, Bureau of Planning to study the effects that food carts have on street vitality and neighborhood livability. The number of food carts within the city seems to be growing, while the City lacks sufficient knowledge about the industry to guide policy. The purpose of the study was to assess the benefits and negative consequences of allowing food carts within the city and to ascertain what economic opportunities may be offered by food carts, especially for low-income and minority entrepreneurs. The findings indicate that food carts have significant community benefits …

Along The Oregon Trail: Disaster Preparedness In Oregon Libraries And Archives, Kristen Kern

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Kris Kern discusses the creation of the Western States and Territories Preservation Assistance Service (WESTPAS) in 2007 to assist in protecting Oregon's Library collections.

Lessons From The Color Of Fear, Jamie P. Ross

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter focuses on the role that power, innocence, and ignorance play in maintaining the position of white privilege. There are times when white people use their privilege in ways that overtly attempt to put and keep people of color in their places, but more often white privilege is less obvious. White privilege does not stand out in white people’s behavior at all times.When white behavior is normalized, it is masked. At these times, white privilege and power hide behind the masks of innocence and the masks of ignorance. White people can hide their location, with relation to power, from …

Web 2.0, Synthetic Immersive Environments, And Mobile Resources For Language Education, Julie M. Sykes, Ana Oskoz, Steven L. Thorne

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

In light of the increasingly blurred line between mediated and nonmediated contexts for social, professional, and educational purposes, attention to the presence and use of innovative digital media is critical to the consideration of the future of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). This article reviews current trends in the use of mediated communication and offers a vision for near-future second and foreign language (L2) learning that utilizes emerging media as (a) meaningful contexts for L2 language development and (b) a means for adding real world relevance to in-class uses of internet-mediated communication tools. In this article, we first explore a sampling …

The Currency Of Visibility And The Paratext Of “Evelyn Lau”, Marie Lo

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the article:

The apparently deracinated nature of Evelyn Lau’s work has rendered her an ambivalent figure in Asian Canadian and Asian American literary studies. Lau’s characters, often racially unmarked, are instead scarred by their longing for human connection, and they drift in and out of generic spaces or cloistered back rooms that are untethered to the specificity of the world outside. Her stories of prostitution, sadomasochism, obsession, and unrequited love do not lend themselves easily to the interpretive frameworks that have characterized Asian American and Asian Canadian literary studies.

Engaging Recreational Fishers In Management And Conservation: Global Case Studies, Elise F. Granek, Elizabeth M.P. Madin, M. A. Brown, Will F. Figueira, Darren S. Cameron, Zeb Hogan, Gerry Kristianson, Pierre De Villiers, Jack E. Williams, John R. Post, S. Zahn, R. Arlinghaus

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Globally, the number of recreational fishers is sizeable and increasing in many countries. Associated with this trend is the potential for negative impacts on fish stocks through exploitation or management measures such as stocking and introduction of non-native fishes. Nevertheless, recreational fishers can be instrumental in successful fisheries conservation through active involvement in, or initiation of, conservation projects to reduce both direct and external stressors contributing to fishery declines. Understanding fishers’ concerns for sustained access to the resource and developing methods for their meaningful participation can have positive impacts on conservation efforts. We examined a suite of case studies that …

The Viability Of A Thermoelectric Fuel Conditioning System For A Diesel Engine Utilizing Biodiesel, Timothy Schriefer

Theses

Certain internal combustion engines, which run on hydrocarbon fuels, experience difficulty upon engine start-up in extreme cold weather. As ambient temperature decreases below the fuel cloud point and beyond, paraffin form in the fuel and eventually clog the fuel filter causing the engine to fail to start. This problem becomes more pronounced when the engine in question is a Diesel and the fuel utilized is biodiesel. As an alternative fuel source, biodiesel has many advantages; however, its cold weather performance is worse than even conventional diesel fuel. As biodiesel becomes more integrated into the world’s energy usage scenario, one of …

The Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans: Vestiges Of A Neighborhood, Adam N. Hess

LSU Master's Theses

The Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans: Vestiges of a Neighborhood is a photo-documentary of the remnants of one of America’s most unique and culturally distinct neighborhoods. Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated this neighborhood, it lies in ruin, slowly returning to nature. All that remains of the community that once occupied the Lower Ninth are the dilapidated buildings, the crumbling homes, and the small possessions left behind. For the past three years I have explored the Lower Ninth Ward, discovering the remains of a community rich in tradition, family, and religion. Through the use of black and white photographs and …

Daily Record, Jacques Pierre Gasquet

LSU Master's Theses

The paintings in this master’s thesis exhibition represent my daily encounters over the past three years. The hurricanes of 2005 made me realize how nature can be ugly and destructive one day and peaceful and beautiful the next. My paintings are abstractions of imagery representing the disrupted landscapes and personal obstacles left behind by the storms, along with my optimistic vision of a harmonious world. I describe my experiences through the search for a delicate sense of balance that excites and then quiets the mind. The painting is created through an intense interaction between me, the materials and the surface, …

Examining The Effects Of Non-Intensive Therapy On Word Retrieval, Apraxic Errors And Quality Of Life Following Intensive Therapy, Erin Lofton Cain

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine if given a period of intensive aphasia therapy a patient diagnosed with aphasia and an accompanying apraxia would maintain, gain, or lose skills during non-intensive therapy. A literature review revealed that intensive therapy has been shown to increase a patient's skill level in various areas. However, very little research was found that focused on how these patients' perform when reintroduced to typical aphasia therapy. This study proposed three specific questions: if the participant would retain her current level of word retrieval functioning evident after intensive therapy, if the participant would retain her …

Examination Of Blueberry Anthocyanins In Prevention Of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Through Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Culture Study, Naomi Marie Sundalius

LSU Master's Theses

This research investigated the ability of blueberry anthocyanins to inhibit the uptake of N-retinyl-N-retinylidene ethanolamine (A2E) by retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells as quantified by pigment epithelial derived factor (PEDF) levels in RPE cells. The A2E was synthesized and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). Freeze dried blueberry powder of 50/50 blend (Tifblue/Rubel) anthocyanins were extracted by acetone and concentrated through chromatography. A RPE cell culture study investigating four treatments using a combination of 100 ìM A2E in DMSO and 100 ìg of blueberry anthocyanins in DMSO was tested. The treatments included: (A) control RPE cells; (B) RPE …

Titian, The Pesaro, And The Frari: Different Strokes For Different Folks, Carl Edward Blyskal

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis parses two early paintings by the Venetian High Renaissance artist Titian. The discussions analyze the circumstances and patronage, compositional elements, iconography, and meanings of each work that lead through a maze of often contradictory art historical scholarship. This journey concludes by my proffering greater insights for each extraordinary painting by this internationally renowned artist. The earliest extant work by Titian--St. Peter Enthroned, with Donor and Pop--is a wonderful, if somewhat awkward, completion of a commission begun by Giovanni Bellini. Dating controversies over the centuries are examined, and a secure time-frame of 1506 to the first half of 1507 …

Mathematical Skill Acquisition: Transfer Effects Of A Computer Game Based On The Components Theory Of Skill Acquisition, Jenny Kessell

Theses : Honours

Research within the field of mathematical learning has often focused on the extent to which knowledge of particular mathematical skills can facilitate the learning of new and unpracticed mathematical skills. Additionally, it has examined the influence of context on learning and the amount of practice necessary for complex skill acquisition to result. This paper provides a review of the research examining mathematical learning, skill acquisition and transfer of skills in a mathematical context. Pertinent theories in the field of cognitive skill acquisition are examined for their ability to explain transfer of skill. The review focuses on factors that influence the …

New Indeterminate Music: The Influence Of The Cagean Trajectory In The Importance Of Being Earmarked, Brett Philip Murray

Theses : Honours

This paper explores the influence of John Cage (1912-1992) on contemporary experimental music focusing on the indeterminate work The Importance of Being Earmarked (2008). Firstly through an investigation of selected works from Cage (written between the 1930s- 1960's) and the concepts that form a Cagean trajectory, and secondly by showing how a contemporary composer has adopted this trajectory in the composition of a new work that combines sound-installation, theatre, and Max/MSP programming.

Black, White, Brown, Green, And Fordice: The Flavor Of Higher Education In Louisiana And Mississippi, Alfreda A. Sellers Diamond

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Like many other states, Mississippi and Louisiana have struggled, and continue to struggle with the difficult problem of racial segregation in higher education. Through decades of litigation and negotiation, their higher education systems developed plans to equalize and unite the historically black and historically white institutions. The author's examination of Mississippi and Louisiana's strategies reveals that the states used several different approaches to achieve desegregation, but nevertheless their colleges and universities, like many aspects of society, remain largely racially distinct. The author concludes that many elements essential to effective desegregation were missing from the Mississippi and Louisiana plans. Hopefully, the …

Taking It To The Bank: Actualizing Health Care Equality For San Francisco's Transgender City And County Employees, J. Denise Diskin

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

This note tracks the decision of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco Health Service System Board (HSSB) to provide transition related health care coverage to its transgender city and county employees. The author evaluates the intersection of gender identity, systemic racism, classism, and homophobia within the struggle of marginalized communities to overcome health inequities and discrimination that also often lead to chronic underemployment, lower paying jobs and insufficient medical benefits. The note uncovers the realities of access to legal rights and remedies in connection to medical care for the transgender community, whose vastly diverse needs and …

No Child Left Behind Act, Race, And Parents Involved, Joseph O. Oluwole, Preston C. Green Iii

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Professors Oluwole and Green consider how raceconscious implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act could affect the racial achievement gap in the United States. Their article addresses challenges states and school districts are confronted with in attempting to overcome racial achievement gaps while facing decreasing budgets and mandatory procedures. They evaluate the feasibility of race-conscious school funding in the context of the Act's purposes and past challenges to school financing schemes. Professors Oluwole and Green emphasize the necessity of raceconscious school funding, both as a social justice matter and a practical matter for the future of American education.

The Legal Status Of Hijab In The United States: A Look At The Sociopolitical Influences On The Legal Right To Wear The Muslim Headscarf, Aliah Abdo

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, however the current sociopolitical and legal climate has allowed for various restrictions on hijab, the headscarf worn by Muslim women. This note surveys recent restrictions and bans affecting the wearing of hijab in educational settings, employment, prison entry, state driver license photos, athletic competitions, airports, and in court, noting an alarming trend both internationally and domestically. The author suggests that the justifications associated with actions against hijab are merely pretextual and that these actions are often based on misconceptions and misunderstandings surrounding hijab, the Muslim community, and the …

The Effects That Mediator Styles Impose On Neutrality And Impartiality Requirements Of Mediation, Susan Nauss Exon

University of San Francisco Law Review

This Article examines current laws, policies, and procedures that define and attempt to regulate the mediation field.