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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 …


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. …


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 …


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 …


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 …


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 …


Synthesis Of Disubstituted Amino Acids And Peptide Inhibitors Of Amyloid Beta Aggregation, Gregory Todd Mccandless Jan 2008

Synthesis Of Disubstituted Amino Acids And Peptide Inhibitors Of Amyloid Beta Aggregation, Gregory Todd Mccandless

LSU Master's Theses

The aggregation process of amyloid beta from monomeric peptide to oligomers and fibrils is believed to be connected with the neurological disorder Alzheimer’s disease. The focus of this research is the synthesis of alpha, alpha-disubstituted amino acids and peptide inhibitors of amyloid beta aggregation. The inhibitors are designed to interrupt (or alter) this process by binding to amyloid beta’s central hydrophobic core region (residues 17-20, Leucine-Valine- Phenylalanine-Phenylalanine). Target specificity is achieved via self recognition by basing the inhibitors on the sequence in this region. The inclusion of disubstituted amino acids in the sequence of the inhibitors will provide a blocking …


Entertainment Media And "Backstage" Event Framing: How 24 Defines Torture, Skye Chance Cooley Jan 2008

Entertainment Media And "Backstage" Event Framing: How 24 Defines Torture, Skye Chance Cooley

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the current study is to examine how the prime time television show 24 frames torture by US government officials almost exclusively in scenarios of high-consequence, high-confidence that are not supported by public opinion polls, provide contextual rationalizations that are unrealistic, show torture methods as a viable means to gain needed information, and show enemy combatants torturing U.S. citizens. Through a quantitative content analysis of torture on the television series 24 and an analysis of focus groups’ reactions to select episodes of 24 portraying torture in such scenarios, the study seeks to investigate the role of entertainment media …


The Investigation Of Treatment Outcomes For Adults With Chronic Brain Injury Following Intensive Multidisciplinary Treatment, Donna Mineo Fitzgerald-Dejean Jan 2008

The Investigation Of Treatment Outcomes For Adults With Chronic Brain Injury Following Intensive Multidisciplinary Treatment, Donna Mineo Fitzgerald-Dejean

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although communication sciences and disorders (COMD) research supports intensive treatment for individuals with chronic brain injury, funding to provide these services is limited. This study explored the use of interdepartmental university resources to provide an intensive, multidisciplinary chronic brain injury program. Methodologically, treatment regimes were designed with clinical faculty as practicum experiences for COMD master’s degree students. Subjects with a single onset head injury or cerebral vascular accident greater than one year were recruited to participate in the Intensive Treatment, Weekly Treatment or Control Groups. Pre, Post, and Post-Post Testing were used to measure cognitive-linguistic, quality of life and physical …


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 …


Rice Straw Fiber Polymer Composites: Thermal And Mechanical Performance, Fei Yao Jan 2008

Rice Straw Fiber Polymer Composites: Thermal And Mechanical Performance, Fei Yao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Rice straw fiber can be considered as important potential reinforcing filler for thermoplastic composite because of its lignocellulosic characteristics. It is thus of practical significance to understand and predict the thermal decomposition process of rice straw fibers. A method proposed by Málek, Šesták, and co-workers was used to investigate and model thermal decomposition process of common natural fibers with detailed analysis on rice straw system. Assuming a global model occurring within the entire degradation of natural fibers with consideration of fiber as one pseudo-component, model can be used to describe both isothermal and non-isothermal degradation process of most selected fibers …


Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry For The Analysis Of Collected Bioaerosols, Alton John Dugas Jan 2008

Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry For The Analysis Of Collected Bioaerosols, Alton John Dugas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation was to demonstrate collection, detection and identification of microorganisms from bioaerosols using offline matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) for the analysis of proteins. MALDI-MS intact bacteria techniques were adapted for use with an orthogonal MALDI quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Results indicate the instrument is capable of analyzing intact whole-cells. The first phase was to evaluate three bioaerosol samplers, an Andersen N6 single-stage impactor (AI), a cyclone impactor, and a vacuum filter system. The samplers collected test bioaerosols using a constructed bioaerosol exposure chamber (BEC). The BEC allowed all three samplers to operate in parallel. Each …


Redutive Dehalogenation Of Chlorinated Alkanes By Novel Bacteria At The Petroprocessor Of Louisiana Inc. Superfund Site, Jun Yan Jan 2008

Redutive Dehalogenation Of Chlorinated Alkanes By Novel Bacteria At The Petroprocessor Of Louisiana Inc. Superfund Site, Jun Yan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A reductively dehalogenating enrichment culture was established using chloroalkane-contaminated groundwater from the PetroProcessors of Louisiana, Inc. (PPI) Superfund site. Two novel, strictly anaerobic bacterial strains, designated as BL-DC-8 and BL-DC-9, were isolated from the enrichment culture. These strains represent the first bacteria known to anaerobically dehalogenate 1,2,3-trichloropropane, the degradation pathway of which was determined. Both strains could be cultured in completely defined basal medium and were also able to dehalogenate a variety of other vicinally chlorinated alkanes including 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, and 1,2-dichloropropane via dichloroelimination reactions. Chlorinated alkanes containing only a single chlorine substituent (1-chloropropane, 2-chloropropane), chlorinated alkenes (tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene, …


The Initial Reliability And Construct Validity Of The Autism Spectrum Disorder-Diagnostic (Asd-Dc) In Children, Melissa Luke Gonzalez Jan 2008

The Initial Reliability And Construct Validity Of The Autism Spectrum Disorder-Diagnostic (Asd-Dc) In Children, Melissa Luke Gonzalez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of the present study was to examine the reliability and construct validity of a newly developed assessment scale designed to identify autism spectrum disorders in children: Autism Spectrum Disorder-Diagnostic for Children (ASD-DC). Participants were parents and caregivers of children between ages 2 and 16 years, who are typically developing or developmentally delayed. Participants were asked to complete several rating scales including the ASD-DC, a DSM-IV-TR/ICD-10 checklist, the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills in Youngsters (MESSY), and the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Version 2 (BASC-2). In Study 1, the test-retest, inter-rater, and inter-item reliabilities of the ASD-DC was …


An Examination Of The Good Behavior Game And Behavior Specific Praise Statements On Student And Teacher Behavior, Robert Allen Wright Jan 2008

An Examination Of The Good Behavior Game And Behavior Specific Praise Statements On Student And Teacher Behavior, Robert Allen Wright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study directly compares two interdependent group oriented contingency strategies, the GBG and the GBG with a behavior specific praise statement (BSPS) component (i.e., GBG+BSPS) to examine the relative effectiveness of each as a tool for class-wide behavior management, to inspect the effect on teacher interactions with students, and to assess the relative teacher and student acceptability of both games. The Good Behavior Game has been identified as an evidence-based intervention to manage class-wide behavior difficulties, but recently has been criticized for not being proactive in teaching appropriate classroom behavior. The relative effectiveness and acceptability of each game as a …


Performing Photographs: Memory, History, And Display, Melanie A. Kitchens Jan 2008

Performing Photographs: Memory, History, And Display, Melanie A. Kitchens

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In my study, I place concepts and practices of photography and performance in dialogue to enable our understanding of how photographs perform and how performance contains or can contain elements we attribute to photographs. The connection between photography and performance that most intrigues me is how they make memories and when collected or restored in some socially shared way make histories too. My specific aim is to understand how photographs and performance might benefit from each other in how they make and transmit memories and histories. To activate the study, I select and focus on five specific events in which …


Application Of The Hyman Model To Evaluate The Water And Salt Budgets In Three Mangrove Sites Along Shark River, Everglades, Cheng-Feng Tsai Jan 2008

Application Of The Hyman Model To Evaluate The Water And Salt Budgets In Three Mangrove Sites Along Shark River, Everglades, Cheng-Feng Tsai

LSU Master's Theses

Mangrove trees play an important role in the maintenance and sustainability of coastal wetlands due to their ability to adapt and survive in a wide range of saline and tidal conditions. Hydrologic processes (e.g., inundation frequency) and salinity are important regulators controlling the growth and productivity of mangrove forests. To quantify how changes in landscape-level hydrology will influence these regulators in mangrove forests, the hydrology model (HYMAN) was applied to three sites with distinct tidal forcings along the Shark River estuary in the Everglades National Park. HYMAN model uses mass balance equation to determine daily water and salt budgets as …


Does The Tuition Opportunity Program For Students (Tops) Promote Access To Postsecondary Education For Students From Low-Income Families In Louisiana?, Frederick Thurber Jan 2008

Does The Tuition Opportunity Program For Students (Tops) Promote Access To Postsecondary Education For Students From Low-Income Families In Louisiana?, Frederick Thurber

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Louisiana concentrates its postsecondary financial aid funding in merit-based aid programs, as opposed to need-based aid programs. This study illuminates the distribution of Louisiana’s merit-based financial aid program, Louisiana’s Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS), to students from difference socioeconomic backgrounds by describing the basic characteristics of TOPS recipients at Louisiana State University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and selected Louisiana two-year postsecondary institutions. This study gives evidence to indicate that Louisiana’s TOPS program disproportionably benefits students from middle and upper income families, most of whom could afford college expenses without receiving a TOPS awards. In addition, this study …


The Second Coming Of Paisley: Militant Fundamentalism And Ulster Politics In A Transatlantic Context, Richard Lawrence Jordan Jan 2008

The Second Coming Of Paisley: Militant Fundamentalism And Ulster Politics In A Transatlantic Context, Richard Lawrence Jordan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Jordan, Richard L. B. A. University of Southern Mississippi, 2000. M. A. University of Southern Mississippi, 2002. Doctor of Philosophy, Fall Commencement, 2008. Major: History. The Second Coming of Paisley: Militant Fundamentalism and Ulster Politics in a Transatlantic Context. Dissertation directed by Associate Professor Meredith Veldman. Pages in dissertation, 345. Words in Abstract, 277. ABSTRACT On August 1, 1946, the Reverend Ian Paisley was ordained as the minister of the Ravenhill Evangelical Mission Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. From his new pulpit, the young evangelist embarked on a six-decade crusade attacking Irish theological and political issues and espousing militant fundamentalism …


Evaluation Of Three Methods For Teaching Intraverbals To Children With Language Delays, Nicole Trosclair-Lasserre Jan 2008

Evaluation Of Three Methods For Teaching Intraverbals To Children With Language Delays, Nicole Trosclair-Lasserre

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Direct instruction is often necessary to develop language or expand language use in individuals with language delays. Previous research has begun to identify certain training conditions that result in more efficient use of instructional time devoted to language development. Specifically, incorporating mands into the instructional arrangement, increasing the quality of reinforcement delivered for interspersed tasks, and including instructive feedback stimuli into the consequences of learning trials have all demonstrated more efficient learning of targeted language skills. The purpose of the current investigation was to compare three methods for teaching intraverbals (i.e., conversation skills) to individuals with deficits in this area. …


The Effects Of Community Violence Exposure On Children Affected By Hurricane Katrina, Audrey Baumeister Jan 2008

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 Jan 2008

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, …


Comparative Roles Of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (Hsv-1) Glycoproteins In Cytoplasmic Virion Egress, Hyuncheol Lee Jan 2008

Comparative Roles Of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (Hsv-1) Glycoproteins In Cytoplasmic Virion Egress, Hyuncheol Lee

LSU Master's Theses

HSV-1 acquires its final envelope by budding into cytoplasmic vesicles thought to be derived from Trans-Golgi Network (TGN) membranes. This process is facilitated by interactions among the carboxyl termini of viral glycoproteins and tegument proteins. To investigate the relative importance of different viral glycoproteins in cytoplasmic virion morphogenesis, a set of recombinant viruses were constructed silencing expression of the glycoprotein E (ΔgE), the carboxyl terminus of glycoprotein D (gDΔcp), and the membrane protein UL20 (ΔUL20). In addition, recombinant viruses were constructed having the ΔgE+gDΔcp, and the ΔgE+ΔgM (glycoprotein M) deletions. These recombinant viruses were constructed using the double-red, site-directed mutagenesis …


Durable And Reusable Antimicrobial Textiles, Leila Elizabeth Bonin Jan 2008

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 …


Multimedia Mathematics Intervention For Math-Delayed Middle School Students, Lisa L. Stokes Jan 2008

Multimedia Mathematics Intervention For Math-Delayed Middle School Students, Lisa L. Stokes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine if the Sharpening Math Skills Lab technology-mediated mathematics instructional practices for math-delayed middle school students have positive effects on their mathematics achievement and spatial visualization ability and to gauge student engagement in learning, implementation of the principles of instructional design, and attitudes toward mathematics instruction. The results of a recent meta-analysis report a range of significantly positive to significantly negative effect sizes which establish a need for further evaluation of academic achievement utilizing technology-mediated mathematics programs at the middle school level (Slavin, Lake, & Groff, 2007). The literature (Moreno & Mayer, 2000) …


Teachers' Perspectives On The Unintended Consequences Of High Stakes Testing, David Christopher Charles Jan 2008

Teachers' Perspectives On The Unintended Consequences Of High Stakes Testing, David Christopher Charles

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A mixed methods design was utilized that was divided into three phases to verify and explore high stakes testing’s effects on teachers’ perceptions regarding classroom practices, pressure, and commitment to the educational profession. Phase I utilized previous surveys and a peer review to create a knowledge base to generate a survey instrument that measured the three areas assumed to be affected by high stakes testing (commitment, pressure, and classroom practice). The survey instrument that was created was piloted. Throughout Phase II there was a series of three-step analysis: First, the means and standard deviations from the results of the surveys …


Numerical Simulations Of Flow And Mass Transport In Micro-Fluidic Components For Modular Bio-Analytic Chip Applications, Sudheer D. Rani Jan 2008

Numerical Simulations Of Flow And Mass Transport In Micro-Fluidic Components For Modular Bio-Analytic Chip Applications, Sudheer D. Rani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Microfluidics has received a great deal of attention in the past decade. The ability of modular microfluidic chips to miniaturize integrate chemical and biological systems (µTAS) can be greatly productive in terms of cost and efficiency. During the design of these modular devices, misalignment of materials, geometrical or both is one of the most common problems. These misalignments can have adverse effect in both pressure driven and electrokinetically driven flows. In the present work, Numerical Simulations have been performed to study the effect of material and geometrical mismatch on the flow behavior and species progression in microfluidic interconnects. In the …


Message Framing And Interactivity In Direct-To-Consumer Internet Advertisements: Visual And Textual Cues On Web Sites For Prescription Medications, Brooke Alayne Harrington Jan 2008

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 …


The Integration Of Mosquito Avian Host Preference With West Nile Virus Activity In Wild Bird And Mosquito Populations In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jessica Erin Brauch Jan 2008

The Integration Of Mosquito Avian Host Preference With West Nile Virus Activity In Wild Bird And Mosquito Populations In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jessica Erin Brauch

LSU Master's Theses

West Nile virus (WNV) infection rates in wild birds and mosquitoes, and the blood-feeding patterns of mosquitoes were examined at two study sites in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to identify the potential avian reservoir hosts and mosquito vectors of West Nile virus (WNV). Blood samples from a total of 2,442 wild birds in the orders Passeriformes, Piciformes and Columbiformes were collected from May 2006 to April 2008 and tested for the presence of WNV RNA using RT-PCR and antibodies to WNV using an epitope-blocking ELISA. WNV was detected in 3.77% of wild bird blood samples and antibodies to WNV were detected …


Factors Affecting Young Driver Safety In The State Of Louisiana, Cherian Cherian-Korah Jan 2008

Factors Affecting Young Driver Safety In The State Of Louisiana, Cherian Cherian-Korah

LSU Master's Theses

Though teenage drivers constitute only 6.4 percent of the total drivers in United States, they are responsible for 14 percent of the fatal crashes and are involved in 18 percent of all police-reported crashes in the country. One of the main causes of teenage crashes was found to be the presence of passengers in the vehicle. This study is focused on the effect of passengers on young drivers in the state of Louisiana. There have been efforts from traffic safety departments to contain crashes involving this age group of drivers and, particularly the Graduated Driver's License Law, which imposes restrictions …