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The Relationship Among Frontline Quality' Performance,Their Personality Traits And Their Perception Of The Work Environment., Yichun Cao

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although effective management of frontline employees has been commonly considered a key element in quality management in both practice and academia, the predominant focus has been on work force training, development, empowerment, involvement, and incentive systems, without utilizing the benefit of understanding the frontline worker's personality and perception of the work environment. This paper utilized the 16 Personality Inventory (16PF) and Work Environment Scale (WES) to explore the relationship of frontline employee's personality and perception of the work environment to their quality assurance performance ratings in a mediumsized manufacturing company in America. By using 16PF and WES Real Form, Vigilance …

Library Services In U.S. Immigration Detention Facilities, Stephanie Lan Chin

Master's Theses

The thesis explores the current state of library services in facilities in which U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) houses immigrant detainees, including (1) Bureau of Prison (BOP) facilities, (2) contracted detention facilities (CDF), (3) ICE-owned facilities (often called Service Processing Centers, or SPC's), and (4) Intergovernmental Service Agreements (IGSA) facilities. The study was based on a survey that was mailed to 356 facilities that detain immigrants by or on behalf of ICE. The results of the survey were used to determine the current status of library services in immigration detention facilities as well as to identify issues or problems …

Autumn Garden, Les Brady

Master's Theses

Autumn Garden is a novel using a semi-omniscient third-person narrator who conveys the perspectives of ten-year-old Nick Lucera, his mother, Mary, and father, Tony. The story challenges conventional beliefs of mortality as Nick confronts the greatest loss of his young life, his mother's impending death. The novel is set in 1970's coastal California.

Two characters influence how Nick processes events in his life: seventeen-year-old neighbor, Brian, an evangelical Christian, and Sal Amato, an acquaintance of Nick's parents, whose insights range from the curious to the fantastic. Brian's friendship is a refuge for Nick, who suffers regularly from the bullying inflicted …

Voltaire Et Le Sauvage Civilisé, Christopher J. Barros

Master's Theses

This thesis explores Voltaire's interpretation of human nature, society, and progress vis-à-vis the myth of the "noble savage," an image that was widespread in the literature, imagination, and theater of the 17th and 18th centuries. For many people at that time, the "bon sauvage" embodied a certain happiness, simplicity, and equality that were lost when humankind exited its "primitive" state and became "civilized." Rousseau's "Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes," which was vehemently criticized by Voltaire, greatly popularized the myth of primeval bliss, a myth which is still with us today.

In various works by …

Characterization Of Protein Residue Surface Accessibility Using Sequence Homology, Radhika Pallavi Mishra

Master's Theses

Residues present on the surface of the proteins are involved in a number of functions, especially in ligand-protein interactions, that are important for drug design. The residues present in the core of the protein provide stability to the protein and help in maintaining protein structure. Hence, there is a need for a binary characterization of protein residues based on their surface accessibility (surface accessible or buried). Such a classification can aid in the directed study of either residue type.

A number of methods for the prediction of surface accessible protein residues have been proposed in the past. However, most of …

The Effect Of A Planned Instructional Program On The Empathy Levels Of Registered Nurses At A Metropolitan Hospital In Southern Louisiana, Deborah K. Charnley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The professional nurse’s role focuses on two distinct provisions of expert care involving the science and art of caring for patients. Nurses must attain and maintain a high level of scientific, clinical expertise. In addition, nurses must continuously seek to understand, relate to and connect with the patients with whom they work whether it is at the hospital bedside or in other arenas where healthcare services are provided. The nurse plays a critical role in supporting patients through their most vulnerable times by empathizing and understanding where they are and where they want and need to be from a physiological …

Determination Of The Economic Optimal Cycle Length For Major Sugarcane (Saccharum Spp.) Varieties In Louisiana, Juan Steer Nunes

LSU Master's Theses

The general objective of the study was to determine the economically optimal crop cycle length for major sugarcane varieties currently being produced in Louisiana. The specific objectives of the project included the specification of the mathematical acreage relationships which directly impact the production of a vegetatively propagated perennial crop in a whole farm context; the development of producer decision rules to be used to determine breakeven sugar levels on third stubble sugarcane crops for major varieties in the state; the evaluation of the impact of changes in production factors on developed crop replacement rules; and the optimal cycle length for …

1337 W4yz Of {Dollar}P34king: Toward A Unifying Pragmatic Theory Of Virtual Speech Community Building, Tracy Rene Leblanc

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Building a speech community requires building a shared history of communicative interaction. Within a virtual medium, speech community members employ accommodations for the lack of shared physical space that face-to-face interactions provide. These accommodations, amassing through extended discourse, bring to light the communicative strategies that virtual interlocutors employ in order to build community. Drawing from a corpus of unscripted, naturally occurring discourse of a particular virtual speech community, I engage three frames of linguistic analysis in order to recognize the communicative strategies that constitute speech community building. Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson 1995) accounts for the individual cognitive work involved …

Volcanological And Petrogenetic Characteristics Of Komatiites Of The 3.3 Ga Saw Mill Complex, Weltevreden Formation, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa, Matthew Stephen Huber

LSU Master's Theses

The Saw Mill Complex (SMC) is a 1275 m thick layered komatiitic sequence in the 3.3 Ga Weltevreden Formation, uppermost stratigraphic unit of the Onverwacht Group in the northern part of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. A series of ultramafic complexes in the Weltevreden Formation have been interpreted as layered ultramafic intrusions, consisting of thick, layered ultramafic units of peridotite, pyroxenite, dunite, and gabbro. However, recent work on the Pioneer complex of the Weltevreden Formation has demonstrated an extrusive origin of komatiites and tuffs. The Weltevreden Formation has been less studied than other Onverwacht Group units. It is likely …

Getting Right Without Lincoln, Daniel W. Hamilton

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Nanomechanics Of Muscovite Subjected To Nanoindentation And The Pertinent Indentation Size Effect, Hang Yin

LSU Master's Theses

Two groups of nanoindentation experiments, including repeated loading tests and monotonic loading tests, were performed on muscovite with a sharp indenter tip and loading direction normal to the basal plane. By varying the maximum load in the first group of repeated experiments, influences of the load level can be examined on the modes of nanoscale deformation and the resulting estimation of hardness and elastic modulus. The incipient kink band concept was employed to interpret the observed dispersed loading-unloading hysteresis loops by considering formation and annihilation of IKBs. Furthermore, the material’s contact stiffness behavior was characterized by comparing the normalized unloading …

Hydroacoustic Survey And Point Sampling Of Macrophytes In Diamond Lake 2009, Joseph Eilers, Benn Eilers, Mark D. Sytsma, Rich Miller

Center for Lakes and Reservoirs Publications and Presentations

MaxDepth Aquatics, Inc. was contracted to conduct a hydroacoustic survey of macrophyte distribution in Diamond Lake in 2009. The survey essentially repeated surveys conducted in 2002 and 2007, allowing for a detailed assessment of conditions in 2009 and comparisons among previous years. In addition, Portland State University was contracted to conduct a depth stratified random point sample survey of macrophyte species presence and absence. The point sample survey was similar to surveys conducted in 2005 and 2007. The results of the 2009 hydroacoustic survey showed that macrophytes were widely distributed throughout the lake at depths less than 8 meters, although …

The Effects Of Self-Assessment On Student Learning Of Mathematics, Daniel James Hotard

LSU Master's Theses

Self-assessment can be defined as students judging their own work, based on evidence and explicit criteria, for the purpose of improving future performance. Many researchers agree that implementation of student self-assessment in the classroom is an important tool for improving academic performance and self-efficacy. In this thesis, I investigated the effects of student self-assessment on learning gains of 81 alternative high school Algebra I students. This study took place over the course of two units of instruction. Classes were divided into two groups. One group of students utilized rubrics to self-assess their own work for the first unit, while the …

Academic Freedom And Academic Responsibility, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

In this review of Matthew W. Finkin & Robert C. Post, For the Common Good: Principles of Academic Freedom (Yale University Press 2009), I examine Finkin & Post's study of academic freedom in U.S. higher education institutions and link the issues surrounding academic freedom to the issues surrounding shared governance. I argue that the problems with shared governance can create a race to the bottom in academic units.

Fabrication Of Receptor-Modified Microfluidic Surfaces For Applications In Glycoprotein Screening, Jennifer Macalindong De Guzman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Glycoproteins have long been identified to have a profound association with human pathological processes, and they are much sought after as potential biomarkers to aid in the early diagnosis and clinical prognosis of cancers and diseases. There is currently high demand for high-throughput and low–limit–of–detection techniques that can afford profiling of the glycoproteome. Micro-total analysis systems (µTAS) based on microfluidics have the potential to fulfill these requirements, but in order to reduce the complexity of the protein pool, the µTAS devices must contain a pre-isolation and enrichment component. The research project undertaken here involved derivatization of microfluidic …

Minimizing The Harm Of State Fiscal Volatility, David Gamage, Jeremy Bearer-Friend

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This report’s primary concern is how U.S. state governments should respond to the fiscal volatility created by their balanced budget constraints. Applying the principles of risk allocation theory to this recurring problem, we conclude that states should primarily adjust the rates of broad-based taxes as their economies cycle, rather than fluctuating public spending.

Managing Fiscal Volatility By Redefining "Tax Cuts" And "Tax Hikes", David Gamage, Jeremy Bearer-Friend

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This report analyzes how states should cope with fiscal volatility at the level of institutional-design policy. We propose that states reconsider how they define terms like ‘‘tax cuts’’ and ‘‘tax hikes.’’ By adopting a new baseline for defining those terms, states can increase the likelihood of using tax rate adjustments to cope with fiscal volatility rather than more harmful spending fluctuations.

The Legal Writing Institute: Celebrating 25 Years Of Teaching & Scholarship, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

Professor Beazley joins a panel of the elite of legal writing professors at Mercer University, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Legal Writing Institute in this transcript of the proceedings.

Ethnic Composition And The Dynamics Of Civil War: A Subnational Analysis Of India And Pakistan, Caroline Lee Payne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Scholars, policymakers, and the media present a conflicting picture of the relationship between ethnicity and civil conflict. In order to clear up the confusion and better establish this relationship, I argue that it is necessary to: (1) distinguish between different types of ethnic composition; (2) conceptualize and measure ethnic composition as not only a static phenomenon but a dynamic one in which population changes alter group security calculations and therefore their decision making; (3) consider the unique mobilization capacity of ethnic groups; and (4) examine the effect of ethnic composition at the subnational level of analysis. In doing so, this …

Effective Lesson Planning: Field Trips In The Science Curriculum, Cynthia Rau Rieger

LSU Master's Theses

Science field trips can positively impact students and motivate them into future studies in various science fields. However, if a field trip is not executed properly, it can result in a loss of valuable educational time and could promote misconceptions in the students. This study was undertaken to determine if a classroom lesson before an out-of-the-classroom activity would affect learner gain more or less than a lesson after the activity. The students were divided into two different groups. The groups differed based on the sequence of activities that they received. The activities involved in this study included visiting an immersive …

Testing Models Of Biological Diversification: Morphological Evolution And Cladogenesis In The Neotropical Furnariidae (Aves: Passeriformes), Santiago Javier Claramunt Tammaro

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I explored the processes that generated high species diversity in a continental adaptive radiation of passerine birds: the family Furnariidae. Although there is a vast amount of information on the microevolutionary mechanisms that generate speciation and adaptation, much less is known about the processes underlying large-scale patterns of diversity. I used new techniques that exploit information contained in phylogenetic trees to investigate the diversification process in Furnariidae at a macroevolutionary scale. First, I conducted the first quantitative study that demonstrated that the Furnariidae constitute a case of rapid diversification in both species numbers and morphology as compared …

Is A Student's Conceptual Knowledge Affected By Their Vocabulary Instruction?, Daniel C. Cox

LSU Master's Theses

The following paper explores the possible relationship between the manner in which a student is taught vocabulary in a high school physics classroom and the ability of those students to correctly answer physics conceptual questions. Two high school physics classes taught by the same teacher (eight or nine students in one and seventeen in the other) received identical instruction throughout multiple units with the exception of vocabulary instruction. Differences were observed in the students’ ability to correctly answer conceptual questions in only one topic, heat. The students did not get better at answering a question concerning a phase change or …

Quantum Light For Quantum Technologies, William Nicholas Plick

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this thesis we will theoretically investigate three potentially useful physical systems, after first developing the theoretical framework necessary for studying them. First, we will study the multiphoton absorption properties of maximally path entangled number (N00N) states. This is directly relevant to quantum lithography, and beating the Rayleigh diffraction limit. Next, we will develop a new scheme for quantum interferometry: dubbed coherent-light boosted super-sensitive quantum interferometry, which has the potential to reach below the shot noise limit for high photon fluxes, and requires no esoteric detection protocol, or technological elements that have yet to be developed. Finally we propose a …

Target Eccentricity Effects For Defensive Responses, Taegyong Kwon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Defensive actions involving goal-directed responses to visual stimuli presented in different parts of the viewing field commonly include movements either toward (TOWARD) or away from (AWAY) the actual stimulus. One can categorize the type of defensive movements by outcome or the level of stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility, where a congruent response corresponds to a response in the TOWARD condition and an incongruent response corresponds to a response in the AWAY condition. In an effort to better understand defensive responses, which have received less attention in the literature than offensive movements regardless of their importance in combative situations, we studied the responses …

Task And Relationship Conflict In Subordinates And Supervisors Relations: Interaction Effects Of Justice Perceptions And Emotion Management, Sungwon Choi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the antecedents and outcomes of task and relationship conflict in subordinates and supervisors relations. Based on abusive supervision studies and the justice framework, I proposed that the relationship between abusive supervision and task conflict is mediated by procedural justice, and that the relationship between abusive supervision and relationship conflict is mediated by interactional justice. Based on emotional intelligence theory, I also proposed that these mediation processes are moderated by an individual’s emotion management ability (EMA). Finally, I anticipated that relationship conflict elicits more detrimental effect on employees’ organizational citizenship and workplace deviance behaviors. A total of 310 …

Computer Simulation Of Ion-Induced Nucleation In The Presence Of Single Ions And Ion Pairs, Samuel Keasler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Atmospheric aerosol particles play an important role in climate and human health. Despite their importance, the mechanisms of their formation are still poorly understood. Ion-induced nucleation may play a role in the process, but details are lacking about how the nucleation rate depends on the size, charge, and number of ions in the cluster. In order to better understand the role that ions might play in new particle formation, we have performed a series of AVUS-HR simulations of the water nucleation in the presence of both single ions and ion pairs. These simulations have shown that the location of the …

The Adoption Of Best Management Practices In The Louisiana Crawfish Industry, Narayan P. Nyaupane

LSU Master's Theses

Agricultural production can have result in environmental deterioration in cases where proper management practices have not been implemented. Louisiana, one of the tropical states, has a significant agricultural base with more than 1,600 farmers raising crawfish. Large volumes of waste water containing environmental pollutants result significant environmental problem in the state. Voluntary adoption of a number of best management practices (BMPs) that are considered to be environmentally and economically beneficial is encouraged in Louisiana. The major objectives of this study are to investigate farmer adoption of 18 selected Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) cost share eligible BMPs and the reasons …

Quantification Of Energy Intake Using Food Image Analysis, Sertan Kaya

LSU Master's Theses

Obtaining real-time and accurate estimates of energy intake while people reside in their natural environment is technically and methodologically challenging. The goal of this project is to estimate energy intake accurately in real-time and free-living conditions. In this study, we propose a computer vision based system to estimate energy intake based on food pictures taken and emailed by subjects participating in the experiment. The system introduces a reference card inclusion procedure, which is used for geometric and photometric corrections. Image classification and segmentation methods are also incorporated into the system to have fully-automated decision making.

Country Natural Beef: A Maturing Co-Op At The Crossroads, Madeleine E. Pullman, Victoria Villa-Lobos, Zhaohui Wu

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

A Business Base Study of a Group of Northwest Cattle Ranchers that Formed a Co-op to Market Natural Beef Products, in the Face of economic uncertainty and the rise of corporate farms and ranches. Provides an overview of the cattle ranching industry, the history of the co-op, its economic outlook, and future challenges.

The Influence Of A State Law Enforcement Training Academy On Future Performance Of Law Enforcement Officers In A Southeastern State Of The United States, Cary Allen Caro

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the influence of the state police law enforcement academy on the performance of commissioned officers in the field training officer (FTO) program in a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The law enforcement training academy is paramount in preparing cadets for the roles, responsibilities, and activities that graduates assume independently in the field. As such, it is important to understand the value added to future performance in the field through adequate preparation in the training academy. This dissertation analyzes a sample of officers in the Southeastern region of the United States and explores the …