Digital Commons Network^™

Degradation Behavior Of Shape Memory Polymer Due To Water And Diesel Fuel, Mohammad Nazmul Hasan Nahid

LSU Master's Theses

Shape memory polymers (SMP) are smart materials, which have the ability to memorize the original or permanent shape. Owing to this characteristic SMP can be used as a sensor, a transplant, as well as structural materials in wide range of applications. Despite its importance, its degradation behavior is still not completely known; and only a limited amount of work has been reported in the literature. In this thesis, the experiments have been carried out to evaluate the degradation behavior of Veriflex- SMP (industry supplied SMP samples) upon exposure to two different types of liquids; water and diesel fuel separately. It …

Investigation Of A Classroom-Based Reading Intervention Strategy For Older Elementary Students With Poor Decoding Skills, Shara Brinkley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using a response to intervention framework, this study investigates the efficacy of a classroom-based intervention for struggling readers with decoding deficits in the upper elementary grades. Twenty two students in the fourth and sixth grades from four classrooms in low-performing schools received either a short 20-minute intervention delivered by their teacher or access to the lessons for an equivalent amount of time but no teacher instruction. Using three orthographic patterns, the 24 lessons consisted of a series of ten minimally contrasted words differing by one letter. The students in the experimental group decoded the words using a visual alphabet (Phonic …

Thermal Conductivity And Its Effects On The Performance Of Pcc Pavements In Mepdg, Upender Kodide

LSU Master's Theses

This study developed a standard thermal conductivity test procedure to test concrete specimens and studied factors influencing those specimens. The thermal conductivity of concrete is significantly affected by moisture content, type, and percentage of coarse aggregate; this finding was confirmed statistically by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The study also developed a model for predicting the thermal conductivity of concrete that varies with moisture content and the coarse aggregate percentage. To understand the effect of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), this study also measured thermal conductivity of control and ternary mixtures. An increase in thermal conductivity percentage due to increase in moisture …

Developing And Building Collaborations Between A Cooperative Extension Service And A Local School And Its Community, Robin Boudreaux Landry

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships and collaborations that have been established between a southern Louisiana parish Cooperative Extension Service and a low socio-economic school and its community as measured by the number of collaborations created and new programs launched, that has created a school and community partnership with the school with the planning, implementing and planting of a school garden. A qualitative study using the interview method was used to gather data. Analysis consisted of examining data for themes and discriminate cases. Guiding questions that centered on specific data were developed. Personal interviews were conducted …

A Viable Entry Level Into Practice: Factors Determining Diploma Nursing Program Success, Linda M. Markey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Entry level into the practice of registered nursing has been a controversial topic in the profession of nursing since the American Nurses Association (ANA) Position Statement in 1965, which stated that entry level into practice should be at the baccalaureate degree level. The oldest and most traditional type of nursing program is the diploma nursing program. Diploma nursing programs have proven to score at or above the national mean on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) required by all nursing graduates to pass to obtain licensure for the practice of nursing, regardless of educational preparation. The purpose …

An Economic Analysis Of Cover Crops In Corn-Dominated Production Systems, Sukirti Nepal

LSU Master's Theses

A survey data by Singer et al. (2007) was used to study the factors affecting the adoption of cover crops by the producers at the Corn Belt area of the United States. Data was collected from four states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota. Two binomial logit models were used for the econometric analysis. The first logit model was used to observe the factors affecting the adoption of cover crops by the producers. The second logit model was used to analyze the factors affecting the adoption of cover crops by producers in recent years, specifically, in past five years. The result …

An Adaptable Group Communication System, Vikram Reddy Kayathi

LSU Master's Theses

Existing group communication systems like ISIS, Spread, Jgroups etc., provide group communication in a synchronous environment. They are built on top of TCP/IP or UDP and guarantee virtual synchrony and consistency. However, wide area distributed systems are inherently asynchronous. Existing group communication systems are not suitable for wide area deployment. They do not provide persistent communication; i.e., if a node gets temporarily disconnected, all messages directed to that node during that period are lost. Hence such systems are not suitable for deployment in disadvantaged networks. While, according to Brewer’s CAP theorem, it is impossible for a distributed computer system to …

Agenda Preference Deliberations, David Pulliam

LSU Master's Theses

Currently the public is relegated to the electoral process, surveys and polls, and group participation in order to voice their agenda preferences. Various literatures describe the decreasing influence of the general public within the agenda setting portion of the policymaking process. This thesis assesses the agenda setting and public policy literatures in order to determine how issues become part of the policy agenda, looks to the public opinion literature to determine how capable the public is in being part of the policymaking process, and utilizes the deliberative democracy literature to construct deliberations that make it possible to get the public …

Applicability And Integration Of Plasma Sprayed Hydroxyapatite Coated Ao Cortical Bone Screws In Equine Bone, Timm Gudehus

LSU Master's Theses

To compare insertion temperatures and torques of Hydroxyapatite (HA) coated and uncoated 5.5 mm AO cortical screws in equine third metatarsal bones (MTIII) in vitro, and to compare insertion and extraction torques of HA coated and uncoated screws after 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks of healing in equine third metacarpal bones (MCIII) in vivo. No significant temperature differences were recorded in cadaveric bones for AO and HA coated screws. Insertion torques were significantly higher for HA coated implants compared to uncoated screws. In vivo, the AO screws lost 50% of their initial stability within 4 weeks of healing and …

Deterrents To Participation In Web-Based Graduate Nursing Programs, Suzanne H. Carpenter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe what a sample of registered nurses in the state of Louisiana, who are members of the Louisiana State Nurses' Association (LSNA), identify as deterrents to participation in web-based graduate nursing programs. Two hundred and eighty one RNs participated in the study. The 54 item four point Likert - type interval scale Deterrents to Participation in Web-Based Graduate Nursing Programs Survey Instrument was utilized to measure what LSNA member RNs identified as deterrents to participation in web-based graduate nursing programs. Eighteen items assessed demographic information about the respondents. A factor analysis revealed a …

In The Shadow Of Josephinism: Austria And The Catholic Church In The Restoration, 1815-1848, Scott M. Berg

LSU Master's Theses

In the 1780s, Emperor Joseph II implemented reforms of the Catholic Church in Austria. By the time of his death in 1790, Joseph had cut off the Austrian Church from Rome, dissolved one-third of the monasteries in the Habsburg Empire, made marriage a state matter, granted toleration to Protestants, controlled clerical education, and restricted many religious activities. After the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815), Europe retreated toward conservatism, and reform in Austria ended. Yet most of the religious changes in the 1780s, aptly labeled Josephinism, remained in the Austrian Church. This thesis will examine the persistence of Josephinism in …

Principals' Perceptions Of Meeting Vision And Collaboration Standards In Alternative Schools, Perry Dicarlo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The present research was designed to address principals’ perceptions of meeting vision and collaboration standards in alternative schools. A multiple case study was used to accomplish the goals of this study. The objective and questions of this research pertains to school leaders’ behavior, knowledge, and performance within the context of a school leadership situation. Ecological theory framed this study as it refers to a student’s life within and outside of the school walls. The six research questions were formed and the basis of this exploration of two alternative school principals and contributes to an eventual portrait of the importance of …

Geothermal Resource Assessment Of The Gueydan Salt Dome And The Adjacent Southeast Gueydan Field, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, Taylor Austin Gray

LSU Master's Theses

The fluids heated by the high thermal conductivity and vertical geometry of salt domes in South Louisiana have the potential to be an economic source of geothermal energy. The Gueydan dome is a piercement salt diapir in Southwest Louisiana lying along the Vermilion and Acadia Parish border. Isotherms indicate a thermal anomaly at the crest of the dome with formation temperatures of 62 ˚C recorded at 1346 m, which is too cold for a geothermal prospect. The shallowest salt encountered is at a depth of 1475 m, and the surrounding strata are Cenozoic sand and clay deposits. Previous geothermal assessments …

The Rise Of The Surgical Age In The Treatment Of Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Case Study Of The Mississippi State Sanatorium, Ashley Baggett

LSU Master's Theses

The historiography of tuberculosis, “TB,” covers four periods in the United States. During the Victorian Age, TB was classified as consumption. After Robert Koch’s discovery of the tubercle bacillus in the 1882, the germ theory took precedence. The early 1900s saw the rise of the Sanatorium Age, and finally, the antibiotic revolution of the 1940s and 1950s began the current understanding of the disease. Missing from this periodization is an era in which surgery took precedence as the preferred treatment for tuberculosis. This study corrects the historiography by arguing for a recognizable Surgical Age in the 1930s and 1940s. With …

A Study Of The Elongation Of Fibrils Of The Alzheimer's Amyloid Beta Protein With A Coarse-Grained Force Field, Ana Rojas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a brain disorder named after the German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer, who first described the disease in 1906. AD is a form of dementia, characterized by impairment of memory and other intellectual abilities, caused by the loss of neurons and synapses (the structures that permit communication between neurons) in certain regions of the brain. Although the mechanism by which neurons are affected is not yet well understood, research points to a small protein, the beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta), as the first suspect. Ab chains are present in the brains of healthy individuals, but in AD patients, they associate …

An Exploration Of Strategy-Based Reading Instruction Using Expository Science Text In Grades 2-5, Carol Fetters

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored reading strategy-based reading instruction using science expository text between grades 2-5. The exploration revealed that elementary teachers used a variety of reading strategies using expository text for science instruction in grades 2-5, and that time barriers exist for strategy-based instruction using informational text. Spradley’s (1980) Developmental Reading Sequence, interviews, observations, and case studies of elementary science teachers in grades 2-5 were research techniques utilized for this study. This study centered on case studies of six elementary teachers and how they used reading strategies during science instruction. The findings of the study revealed that although the teachers’ use …

Effect Of Management Awareness Of Safety Climate Concept On Organizational Safety Climate, Christopher Michael Holzner

LSU Master's Theses

Safety research and practice have shifted focus away from accident rates and accident causal information to a more proactive approach that may predict organizational safety trends. This proactive approach involves the concept of an organizational safety culture and the use of surveys to measure organizational safety climate or „snapshot‟ of the organizational safety culture. Surveys were administered to line workers, supervisors, and managers at a modular home manufacturing company before and after safety climate information was presented to supervisors and managers in an attempt to measure the effect of the supervisors‟ and managers‟ increased awareness of the factors that define …

Christian Community And The Development Of An Americo-Liberian Identity, 1824-1878, Andrew N. Wegmann

LSU Master's Theses

By the mid-nineteenth century, two separate visions of civilization and Christianity existed in Liberia. On the one hand, the settlers – the emigrants sent from the United States to Liberia by the American Colonization Society starting in 1822 – worshiped the external appearance of a Christian mind and “civilized” western body. They revered those citizens who spoke the best American English, lived in the grandest wood-framed houses, and wore the best American clothes. They required total indoctrination of natives into the “religion of the tall hat and frock coat” to maintain a stable, “civilized” American society. On the other hand, …

A Four-Cysteine Zinc Finger In Carboxyltransferase Structurally Links The Functions Of Enzymatic Activity And Negative Feedback Regulation Of Translation, Glen D. Meades

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase is the first and committed step of de novo fatty acid synthesis in all organisms. In Escherichia coli, the enzyme is expressed as separate proteins for the three functional components: a biotin carboxylase, a biotin carboxyl carrier protein, and a carboxyltransferase. The carboxyltransferase enzyme has an α2β2 heterotetrameric quaternary arrangement. The crystal structure of the β subunit revealed a zinc-binding domain, a feature common among nucleic acid-binding proteins. Carboxyltransferase preferentially binds mRNA coding for its two subunits over other nucleic acids, suggesting a means by which the enzyme can regulate its own expression. In the first study, the …

Framing Jewell: A Discourse Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage In The Aftermath Of The Atlanta Olympics Bombing And Discussion Of Legal And Ethical Standards For Such Practices, Anne L. Songy

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the newspaper coverage of Richard Jewell during the weeks after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. Jewell, a security guard working in the Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, was initially hailed as a hero due to his discovery of a bomb minutes before the explosion. After Jewell’s name was leaked to the press as an FBI person of interest in the case, many reporters began to frame Jewell in a negative light and, in some instances, even implied his guilt. Through a discourse analysis of news stories published between the date of the bombing and the date …

Does Choosing To Live In A Discipline-Based Residential College Make A Difference In The Engagement Of University Freshmen?, Jody Allen Hammett

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of housing arrangement and selected personal and academic characteristics on the engagement of full-time university freshmen. A sample of 1,119 full-time freshmen was used in the study. A 14-item Likert-type scale, the Student Academic/Social Interaction Questionnaire, was used to measure the engagement level of the students. Housing information was also self-reported, but all ther demographic and academic information was obtained from the institution’s registrar’s office. When compared to the overall mean engagement score, there were five significant findings. Significant differences were found between living off-campus, living off-campus with family, living …

The Conserved Deda Family Of E. Coli Membrane Proteins: Genetic And Topological Analysis, Kandi Sheral Thompkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ludox density gradients were used to enrich for Escherichia coli mutants with conditional growth defects and alterations in membrane composition. A temperature-sensitive mutant named Lud135 was isolated with mutations in two related, nonessential genes: yghB and yqjA. yghB harbors a single missense mutation (G203D) and yqjA contains a nonsense mutation (W92TGA) in Lud135. Both mutations are required for the temperature-sensitive phenotype: targeted deletion of both genes in a wild-type background results in a strain with a similar phenotype and expression of either gene from a plasmid restores growth at elevated temperatures. The mutant has altered membrane phospholipid levels, with elevated …

The Reunification Of American Methodism, 1916-1939: A Thesis, Blake Barton Renfro

LSU Master's Theses

In 1844 American Methodists split over the issue of slavery, and following the Civil War the regional churches took two paths toward accommodating African Americans. Northern whites put their faith in the ideology of racial uplift and believed freed persons could only rise through society through organic relations with their white brethren. Southern whites, however, contended that blacks should maintain their own racially segregated churches. Thus, by the 1870s, southern Methodism became an all white institution. Between 1916 and 1939 northern and southern Methodists debated a path to reunite American Methodism, and the role of African Americans in the church …

Evaluating Different Health Communicatioin Theories To Deter College Binge Drinking: A Look At Promising Directions For Future Research, Kristen Meyer Sunde

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

For more than 30 years, college administrators and health communicators have used binge drinking prevention campaigns on university campuses to deter students from this dangerous and life-threatening habit.

Despite the prevalence of such campaigns (Wechsler, Seibring, Liu & Ahl, 2004), binge drinking remains the top public health threat for this population (Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995).

In this study, the researcher conducted an experiment using fear appeals to see if these messages were more effective than social norms messages, which are often used in college binge drinking prevention campaigns (Real & Rimal, 2007), at prompting higher message credibility …

Carprofen-Induced Oxidative Stress In Mitochondria Of The Colonic Mucosa Of The Dog, Lynne A. Snow

LSU Master's Theses

Objectives 1) To measure conductance and permeability of canine colonic mucosa exposed to increasing concentrations of carprofen. 2) To compare conductance and permeability of canine colonic mucosa exposed to carprofen or 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) and tempol blockade. Design In vitro randomized block design Animal 20 mixed breed dogs Methods Conductance, mannitol flux, and histology were evaluated in colonic mucosa mounted in Ussing chambers. Mucosa was first exposed to increasing concentrations of carprofen. Mucosa was then exposed to either carprofen (200 μg/ml) or DNP (0.25mM) +/- tempol (1mM) pretreatment. Conductance over time, mannitol fluxes, and frequency of histologic categories were analyzed for …

Quantifying Tarnished Plant Bug, Lygus Lineolaris (Palisot De Beauvois), Resistance To Acephate In Louisiana, Josh T. Copes

LSU Master's Theses

The tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), is one of the most yield- limiting insect pests attacking cotton in the Mid-Southern region of the U.S. This pest is almost exclusively managed with chemical control strategies. The organophosphate insecticide, acephate, has been one of the most important insecticides recommended to control tarnished plant bugs. In recent years, reports of unsatisfactory acephate performance have become common and actual field rates have been increased to improve control. The objective of this study was to survey acephate susceptibility in Louisiana populations of tarnished plant bug using laboratory bioassays and evaluate acephate efficacy …

Signaling Of Integrin Lower Leg And Transmembrane Domains, Wei Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Integrin conformational changes mediate integrin activation and signaling triggered by intracellular molecules or extracellular ligands. Even though it has been shown that TM and/or cytoplasmic α and β domains associate in the resting state and separation of these domains is required for integrin signaling, it is still not clear how this signal is transmitted from the transmembrane domain through two long extracellular legs to the ligand-binding headpiece. In addition, integrin TM homomeric association was also observed. But the role of this interaction remains elusive. In this work, the platelet integrin, αIIbβ3, has been used to elucidate the roles of integrin …

The Relationship Between Social Skills And Challenging Behaviors In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jonathan Wilkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are among the most serious and debilitating conditions with onset in early childhood. Deficits in social interaction skills are considered to be the hallmark set of symptoms and are given the most weight in current diagnostic systems. Although not considered among the core symptoms of ASD, challenging behaviors in the form of physical aggression, property destruction, and self-injury also commonly occur. Challenging behaviors of this nature are a salient feature of ASD because of their potential to cause harm to self and others as well as limit a child’s access to opportunities in community and …

The Effect Of Task Difficulty On Preschoolers' Problem-Solving And Emotion-Regulation Strategy Use, Courtney Marie Snyder

LSU Master's Theses

Although there has been a lot of research on problem-solving and emotion-regulation independently, little work has been done on how these constructs are related. The current investigation sought to explore differences in problem-solving, emotion-regulation, emotion-dysregulation and help-seeking based on task difficulty. Preschool children between 3-5 years of age participated in six frustration-inducing problem-solving tasks, three of which were possible (but difficult) and three of which were impossible for them to solve. Problem-solving, emotion-regulation, emotion-dysregulation, and help-seeking behaviors were coded for each task. I hypothesized that children’s behavior in each of these four areas would vary according to task difficulty, as …

Conceptualizing The Consumer-Brand Relationship As A Truly Dyadic Process, Jamye Foster

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The consumer-brand relationship (CBR) has gained interest in recent years, but as currently conceptualized, it is limited to a parasocial relationship where the role of the brand is not acknowledged. In order to better understand the CBR, we have to ask several key questions: (1) What is the CBR? (2) What are consumer-brand interactions (CBIs)? And (3) How can we measure CBIs? The objective in Essay 1 is to develop a better understanding of the conceptual foundation of the CBR. This was accomplished through extensive review of relevant literature, which highlighted the need to consider the CBR as a truly …