Digital Commons Network^™

Pore-Scale Analysis Of Dnapl Dissolution And Biomass Distribution, Keegan L. Roberts

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A comparison of equilibrium and non-equilibrium dissolution of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) was conducted to ascertain how PCE saturation, individual blob properties (volume, surface area, sphericity), and PCE occupied pores are affected by two distinct dissolution regimes. One-dimensional columns were imaged at various dissolution stages using high resolution (~10 um) synchrotron x-ray tomography (XT) and image subvolumes were analyzed using a series of grain, pore network structure, and blob analysis algorithms. An analysis of algorithm-generated data was conducted to determine grain and pore statistics, PCE saturation and individual blob properties, and correlations between PCE blobs and pore network structure. Grain and pore …

Wendell Berry And The Politics Of Homecoming: Place, Memory And Time In Jayber Crow, Drew Kennedy Thompson

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the “politics of homecoming” appearing in author Wendell Berry’s novel Jayber Crow. The novel portrays the community of a small rural town, as narrated through the autobiography of its bachelor barber. The life-story of Jayber Crow is a journey of homecoming, progressing through three stages of nativity, estrangement, and restoration. These phases correspond and interact with philosophical motifs that can be traced throughout Berry’s corpus, but reaching their fullest expression in Jayber Crow. “Place” is the first motif, and facilitates a discussion of Berry’s contemporary agrarian vision of community. “Memory,” the second motif, becomes effective during the …

The Digital Disconnect: Uncovering Barriers That Sustain The Phenomena Of Unplugged Teachers In A Technological Era, Deidra Brown Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the barriers to technology integration of teachers that are technology proficient and work in school settings where Type I barriers, such as lack of access, insufficient time to plan, and lack of support, have been systematically removed. The results of this case study are intended to provide practical recommendations for practitioners such as technology coordinators, principals and teachers, and recommend future areas of study. The participants in this qualitative study consisted of eight teachers, three principals and one technology supervisor. Six of the eight teachers were interviewed, and all eight were observed teaching a lesson that utilized …

Our First Unisex President?: Black Masculinity And Obama's Feminine Side, Frank Rudy Cooper

Scholarly Works

People often talk about the significance of Barack Obama's status as our first black President. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, however, a newspaper columnist declared, "If Bill Clinton was once considered America's first black president, Obama may one day be viewed as our first woman president." That statement epitomized a large media discourse on Obama's femininity. In this essay, Professor Frank Rudy Cooper thus asks how Obama will influence people's understandings of the implications of both race and gender.

To do so, he explicates and applies insights from the fields of identity performance theory, critical race theory, and masculinities studies. …

Presumed Consent To Organ Donation: Its Rise And Fall In The United States, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Turn-Taking And Gaze Behavior Among Cajun French And Cajun English Speakers In Avoyelles Parish, Andrew Mandell Riviere

LSU Master's Theses

Languages are the verbal and non-verbal codes of a culture. A culture houses a language(s) and is comprised of the gaze and distance/use of personal sphere. Linguists and anthropologists have long since argued over which takes priority: culture or language. French and Louisiana are synonymous: it is unimaginable to picture Louisiana without French because French constitutes the culture in Louisiana. Since linguists have debated the priority of language or culture, looking at Louisiana within the confines of this debate proves informative.

The language shift forced upon the residents of South Louisiana by the 1921 State Legislature made English the sole …

Framework For Operability Assessment Of Production Facilities: An Application To A Primary Unit Of A Crude Oil Refinery, Sampath Yela

LSU Master's Theses

This work focuses on the development of a methodology for the optimization, control and operability of both existing and new production facilities through an integrated environment of different technologies like process simulation, optimization and control systems. Such an integrated environment not only creates opportunities for op¬erational decision making but also serves as training tool for the novice engineers. It enables them to apply engineering expertise to solve challenges unique to the process industries in a safe and virtual environment and also assist them to get familiarize with the existing control systems and to understand the fundamentals of the plant operation. …

Sophisticated Denial-Of-Service Attack Detections Through Integrated Architectural, Os, And Appplication Level Events Monitoring, Ran Tao

LSU Master's Theses

As the first step to defend against DoS attacks, Network-based Intrusion Detection System is well explored and widely used in both commercial tools and research works. Such IDS framework is built upon features extracted from the network traffic, which are application-level features, and is effective in detecting flooding-based DoS attacks. However, in a sophisticated DoS attack, where an attacker manages to bypass the network-based monitors and launch a DoS attack locally, sniffer-based methods have difficulty in differentiating attacks with normal behaviors, since the malicious connection itself behaves in the same manner of normal connections. In this work, we study a …

Inside The Red Box: North Korea's Post-Totalitarian Politcs, Patrick Mceachern

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation proposes a radically new understanding of North Korean politics under Kim Jong Il and carefully tests this theoretical proposition. Current models describe North Korea as some form of a highly centralized state: totalitarian, personalistic, or corporatist. By contrast, I argue that these monolithic ideal types fail to capture the institutional pluralism that helps distinguish the younger Kim’s rein from his father’s. While Kim Il Sung’s rule can be described as totalitarian, Kim Jong Il governs through a more decentralized post-totalitarian, institutionally plural state. Kim Jong Il’s government is highly centralized, but it is less centralized than his father’s. …

A Comparison Of Foreign News Coverage In The Mercantile And Popular Press Of The 1830s, Virgil Ian Stanford

LSU Master's Theses

The rise of the American penny press in the 1830s is thought of as a crucial moment in journalism history that precipitated changes in newspapers that are still evident today. Yet, many specific characteristics of the transition from a predominantly elite mercantile and partisan press to the popular penny press remain unknown, including the changes that occurred in foreign news coverage. This study will examine four newspapers, two mercantile and two penny, printed in New York City from 1830 to 1842. It will use quantitative content analysis of five variables – frequency, length, prominence, content, and presentation style – to …

Effects Of An Audience Response System On Student Learning Outcomes In An Applied Kinesiology Course, Katherine Krieg

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using audience response systems (ARS) on student learning outcomes and learning processes, when the instructional strategy of using sequentially challenging questions and collaborative discussions were held constant across both treatment and control conditions. A quasi-experimental AB alternating research design was employed. Two sections of a Functional Anatomy and Kinesiology course at a small faith-based college participated in the study. One section served as control and the other section as treatment groups until midsemester, when the roles of the groups switched. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. …

A Study Of The Relationship Of Teachers' Self-Efficacy And The Impact Of Professional Learning Community As An Organizational Structure, Dana Elaine Nolan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The study was conducted to explore the characteristics of and interrelationships between teachers’ self-efficacy and professional learning community. Specifically, this study presents a quantitative study of ten Louisiana public schools participating in the second year of the Louisiana 9th Grade Redesign Initiative. Bandura’s (1977, 1986) social cognitive learning theory of self-efficacy provides the theoretical framework for the construct of self-efficacy under study. Hord’s (1998) dimensions of professional learning community provide the framework for the exploration of professional learning communities in this study. The School Professional Staff as Learning Community (SPSLCQ) instrument developed by Shirley Hord (1997) and the Teacher Efficacy …

The Assessment Of And Differences Among Intellectually Disabled Adults With Comorbid Autism Spectrum Disorders And Epilepsy, Kimberly Robin Michelle Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this study was to systematically examine group differences among those with intellectual disabilities (ID) and comorbid Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and epilepsy in an adult population through a detailed exploration of the characteristics that these disorders present in the areas of psychopathology, behavior problems, and impaired social behavior. Previous studies indicating that individuals with ID have comorbid ASD and neurological conditions tend to stop short of addressing these disorders’ impact on the full range of psychosocial issues, particularly in adult samples. Assessments of psychopathology, behavior problems, and impaired social behavior were made with the ASD-Comorbidity-Adult Version and …

(Im)Possible Encounters, Possible (Mis)Understandings Between The West And Its Other: The Case Of The Maghreb, Tanja Stampfl

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My work deals with what I call (im)possible encounters, possible (mis)understandings between the West and the Rim of the World (in my case The Maghreb). I focus on writers (such as Paul Bowles, Patricia Highsmith, Edith Wharton, Tayeb Salih, Ahlam Mosteghanemi, Ahdaf Soueif) who stepped across the cultural dividing line to claim a voice of their own; a voice that enabled them to represent and at times misrepresent the host culture they chose to live in, and which acts as a “lieu” and at times “milieu de mémoire.” It is what the late Edward Said aptly called “intertwined histories, overlapping …

An Empirical Analysis Of Lateral Lawyer Trends From 2000 To 2007: The Emerging Equilibrium For Corporate Law Firms, William D. Henderson, Leonard Bierman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

An Ethnography Of "Hang It Out To Dry", Danielle Sears Vignes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study is an ethnography of a performance ethnography. The performance “Hang It Out To Dry” explores the experiences of residents from Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This dissertation traces “Hang It Out To Dry” from the beginning of fieldwork to the aesthetic staging of collected narratives and through two years of community building as the performance toured the nation. Particularly, I develop methods for collecting materials from fieldwork for adaptation to the stage. The study demonstrates the intellectual work of performance composition in scripting and staging a performance ethnography. In doing so, I mark …

Constitutionalism Before Constitutions: Burma's Struggle To Build A New Order, David C. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

People, Sheep, And Landscape Change In Colonial Mexico: The Sixteenth-Century Transformation Of The Valle Del Mezquital, Richard Hunter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The causes of central Mexico’s environmental degradation are poorly understood. Scholarly contention centers on the role of introduced livestock as agents of soil erosion. This dissertation explores New Spain’s sixteenth-century livestock ecology by drawing upon archival and field data to reconstruct the spatio-temporal characteristics of sheep ranches in a southeastern section of central Mexico’s Valle del Mezquital. The introductory chapter outlines a scholarly disagreement from the 1990s that underscored differences between historical and geographical approaches to studying historical landscape transformations. On one side of this debate, geographer Karl W. Butzer finds in the sixteenth-century Mexican Bajío little evidence for environmental …

Measuring The Impact Of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Intervention On Perceived Stress And Study Skills Of Social Work Graduate Students, Margot H. Hasha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This multi-component study incorporated the following: (1) an integrated study measuring the impact of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction intervention (MBSR) on potential stressors, appraised stress levels and adaptation to stress of MSW students enrolled in the Louisiana State University School of Social Work through a pretest posttest group design using time-series data to evaluate meditation practice; (2) a pretest posttest group design which examined changes in self-regulated learning skills; and (3) a cross-sectional survey which explored students self-reported reasons for not participating in the MBSR randomized control group study offered prior to the current study. Sample size for the integrated …

Quantum Nonlinear Optics: Applications To Quantum Metrology, Imaging, And Information, Ryan Glasser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The fields of quantum and nonlinear optics have given rise to a variety of nonclassical states of light that have been proven to surpass certain limitations set by classical physics. Namely, certain squeezed and entangled states have been shown to beat the shot-noise limit when making precision phase measurements in interferometry, as well as write lithographic patterns that are smaller than classically allowed by the Rayleigh diffraction limit. Additionally, single-photon sources and entangled photon pairs have given rise to provably secure quantum key distribution for cryptography. Producing these quantum states of light has proven a difficult task. Nonlinear crystals, when …

Using The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (Ados) To Discriminate Between Children With Autism And Children With Language Impairments Without Autism, Whitney Nicole Dolan

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to learn about the diagnostic accuracy of Module 1 of the ADOS-G. Specifically, this study was designed to determine how well the ADOS-G differentiates children with autism from children with language impairments without autism. Data for this study were obtained from 10 children who were recruited from speech, language and hearing clinics in the metropolitan area of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Visual inspection and statistical analyses indicated that the means of the ADOS-G scores for all domains (Communication, Social Interaction, and Communication + Social Interaction Score) were higher for the autism group than for the …

The Pasquale Amato Correspondence At Louisiana State University, Sarah Wells Kaufman

LSU Master's Theses

Italian baritone Pasquale Amato (1878-1942), who sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1908–1921, was regarded by critics and colleagues as a leading baritone of the early twentieth-century. Amato appeared in several United States and world premieres, most notably as Jack Rance in Giacomo Pucinni’s La fanciulla del West (1910), and often performed alongside Enrico Caruso. After leaving the Met in 1921 and touring Europe until 1926, Amato returned to the United States. His struggle to find substantial work eventually led to his pursuing teaching. In 1935, having secured a position as director of the opera department at …

The Correlation Between Creativity And Burnout In Public School Classroom Teachers, Patricia Landeche

LSU Master's Theses

Landeche, Patricia, B.A., University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1960 Master of Social Work, Summer Commencement, 2009 Major: Social Work The Correlation Between Creativity and Burnout in Public School Classroom Teachers Thesis directed by Assistant Professor Elaine M. Maccio Pages in thesis 48. Words in Abstract 162. ABSTRACT Burnout of teachers in the public schools is affecting the quality of education the students are getting. Incorporating creativity into one’s life on a regular basis produces has the potential to heal both physical and emotional complaints. The hypothesis of this study is that there is a negative correlation between creativity and the intensity …

Federal Payroll, Gift, And Prepaid Card Developments: Fdic Deposit Insurance Eligibility And The Credit Card Act Of 2009, Sarah Jane Hughes

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Prepaid and other stored-value products have grown into major tools for making retail payments and payments of wages to employees. This article discusses two major developments in federal law that pertain to stored-value products - the November 2008 - revision of primary guidance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on the scope of eligibility of payroll cards for deposit insurance, and Congress’ May, 2009 enactment of the CARD Act, which takes effect on February 22, 2010. The CARD Act is the first effort by the federal government to regulate gift cards. It established federal standards relating to subjects on which …

Survivable Mesh-Network Design & Optimization To Support Multiple Qop Service Classes, Hoang N. Nguyen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Every second, vast amounts of data are transferred over communication systems around the world, and as a result, the demands on optical infrastructures are extending beyond the traditional, ring-based architecture. The range of content and services available from the Internet is increasing, and network operations are constantly under pressure to expand their optical networks in order to keep pace with the ever increasing demand for higher speed and more reliable links.

Undressing And Redressing The Harlequin: An Australian Designer's Perspective, Julie Parsons

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In undressing and redressing the Harlequin from an Australian designer’s perspective, the question is why has the Harlequin costume endured for over 500 years and in locations far away from its country of origin? Why do we associate its lozenge pattern with energetic joyous mischief? What are the Harlequin costume codes and how have they been manifested in Australia? The thesis components are divided as follows: The Designer’s Notebook is a pictorial and historical review of the iconic costume, which is made up of a complex patchwork of triangles where colour placements form a diamond pattern called a lozenge. The …

Regulating The Notes : A Case Study Into The Impact Of Government Regulation On The Live Music Performances Of Perth's Original Contemporary Musicians, Christina Ballico

Theses : Honours

The impact of the government's regulation of the live music industry is a relatively new field of research, with studies traditionally investigating the issue from the perspective of venues. Studies such as Vanishing Act (2003) and Live Music Revolution' (2008), conducted into the New South Wales and the other states of Australian live music industries respectively, have provided insight into how regulation can impede the ability for licensed premises to host music. These earlier studies however, have failed to engage with musicians. Instead these studies have investigated how the government regulation impacts on the ability for venues to host live …

An Exploratory Study On Reaction Time To Valenced Memories: The Importance Of Individual Differences, Emrah Ates

Theses : Honours

It is commonly accepted that valence has influences on long-term memory, but there are diverse results concerning methodology and the effect size. The literature is mixed with some authors reporting evidence consistent with negativity bias, others reporting evidence consistent with positivity bias and still others reporting no effect of valence on certain types of memory. This review argues that while there are divergent results for recall rate studies, reaction time studies and emotional Stroop task studies showed predominant negativity bias in long term memory. Moreover, many of the studies reviewed were solely concerned with group effects, rather than individual differences. …

The Impact Of Centre Based Respite On Occupational Performance For People With Dementia, Kristy Ness

Theses : Honours

Dementia affects occupational performance by restricting one's ability to carry out valued roles and activities. Centre based respite has been described as one intervention to maintain or improve occupational performance and prevent or delay institutionalisation for people with dementia. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of centre based respite on occupational performance components as outlined by the Occupational Performance Model (Australia) for people with dementia. Five spousal caregivers, recruited through Alzheimer's Australia WA, participated in semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed using framework analysis techniques. Findings revealed centre based respite attendance can positively influence marital relationships, mood, …

Memory For Music And The Implications Of Expertise For Music Recall: A Review ; Memory For The Recall Of Popular Songs: A Comparative Study Of Musicians And Nonmusicians, Simon Maclachlan

Theses : Honours

How people remember music is not only a practical concern for musicians, it also poses an interesting challenge for psychological theory (Wallace, 1994). One question that has often been overlooked is what occurs during the time that elapses between the stimulus onset (hearing music) and the generation of a response (an indication that the song has been remembered). While there is evidence to show that memory for song may be biased in a forward direction (Sibma, 2003), the role of expertise on memory for song may provide a deeper understanding of the nature of our memory for music. This review …