Digital Commons Network^™

Bias Correction And Downscaling Of Climate Model Outputs Required For Impact Assessments Of Climate Change In The U.S. Northeast, Kazi F. Ahmed

Master's Theses

Global Climate Models (GCMs) are the typical sources of future climate data required for impact assessments of climate change. However, GCM outputs are related to model-related uncertainties and involve a great deal of biases. Bias correction of model outputs is, therefore, necessary before their use in impact studies. The coarse resolution of GCM simulations is another hindrance to their direct use in fine-scale impact analysis of climate change. Although downscaling of GCM outputs can be performed by dynamical downscaling using Regional Climate Models (RCMs), it requires large computational capacity. When daily climate data from multiple GCMs are required to be …

Differences In Body Image: Comparing Asian American Ethnic Groups And White Americans, Alefiyah Z. Pishori

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Role Of Pseudomonas Produced Hydrogen Cyanide In Biological Control Of Plant-Parasitic Nematodes, Haytham Aly

Dissertations

Plant-parasitic nematodes are among the most devastating pests world-wide, causing extensive damage to important agriculture crops. The management of nematodes is challenging. Current methods used for nematode control rely mostly on using chemical nematicides and naturally resistant plants. Because of serious health and environmental problems associated with chemical control and over use of resistant plants resulting in resistant breaking strains of nematodes, alternative nematode-control methods are needed. Several potential nematode-biocontrol agents, including bacteria and fungi, have been studied for their antagonistic effect toward plant-parasitic nematodes. However, a concise picture about the biological agent’s mechanisms used to antagonize nematodes remains elusive. …

From Individual Salvation To Social Salvation: Why Evangelist B. Fay Mills Changed His Revival Message, Constance P. Murray

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Rev. B. Fay Mills was a popular, late nineteenth century Protestant evangelist whose fame approached that of the eminent Gospel preacher, Dwight L. Moody. Preaching to audiences in large urban settings, Mills’ revivals captured headlines and significant column space as he preached sermons of individual salvation from sin from the perspective of Christian orthodoxy. Yet, just as he was reaching the very top of the field of itinerant evangelists, he changed his message to reflect his growing interest in and association with the Social Gospel movement. This thesis investigates the reasons for his shift in theological viewpoint and public proclamations. …

Fall Commencement Program, December 17, 2011, Coastal Carolina University

Commencement Programs

Program of Commencement Exercises at Coastal Carolina University.

A Technology Assessment Of On-Farm Renewable Energy Carbon Mitigation Strategies, Laura Kossey

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This project explores whether the Shenandoah Valley can achieve its 25x.25 (25% from renewable energies by 2025) goals on farms in the agricultural sector. Solar photovoltaic electric power production was assessed to be the most feasible renewable energy technology for such farms. After a review of the barriers to the adoption of renewable energy by agricultural operations, estimations of the potential rates of adoption and energy output using US data from the US Census of Agriculture were calculated. Multiple scenarios were explored, including the ¡°maximum theoretical¡± contribution of renewable energy to the agricultural sector as well as scenarios of farm …

162nd Commencement, Fall

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Healthy Eating, Activity, Reinforcement, And Training (Heart): A Program For The Meeting Place Clubhouse, Casey Nguyen, Alexis Rogriguez, Lindsey Treankler, Kristen Zucht

Program Design and Evaluation

An assessment of HEART program which includes...

- Program Design & Methodology

- Social Marketing Plan

- Evaluation Plan

- Budget

College Readiness Of African-American Student Athletes, Carol Bos, Grace Chaidez, Andrew Nunn-Miller, Daisy Rodriguez

Program Design and Evaluation

Research project of The Larry English Foundation- Leading Education to Athletes for their Dreams, focusing on African-American student-athletes.

Young Adults With Mental Illness In North San Diego County - Yami, Ellen Frudakis, Jessica Hanson York, Evan Holland, Colleen Kollar Smith, Vi Nguyen

Program Design and Evaluation

Research project on young adults with mental illness in North San Diego County for YAMI. Includes a needs assessment, program design, social marketing plan, evaluation plan and budget.

Visualizing The Present: Current Issues Within Contemporary Visual Sami Art - An Analysis Of Sami Artists And Their Art In Oslo, Norway, Birte Marie Horn-Hanssen

Arctic and Northern Studies

Until recently, contemporary visual Sami art has been little studied. However there is continuous activity within the Sami art world that is evident from the large amount of contemporary visual Sami art exhibits in northern Scandinavia. This paper provides an exploratory analysis of the current issues and artistic language contemporary visual Sami artists who live in Oslo, Norway are concerned with. Through contextualizing the artworks within a post-colonial framework highlighting the dominant Sami historical, political and societal narratives from the 1970s until now, and contrasting them with the official Norwegian image of Norway as a unified "oil and gas nation," …

A Content Analysis Of Reliability In Advertising Content Analysis Studies., Weize Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Content analysis is a systematic research method for examining symbolical content in communication by recording or transcribing these messages into categories. Reliability is one of the most distinctive attributes of content analysis methodology comparing to other techniques in communication. A content analysis was conducted by analyzing the method sections of published journal articles in Communication Abstracts from January 2006 through January 2011 by searching "advertising" and "content analysis". Results suggested that television is still the most focused medium in advertising content analysis research. Most of the content analysis studies employed 2 coders for coding reliability assessment data and final data. …

Expectations And Experiences Of Black Students At Two Predominantlywhite High Schools In Southern Appalachia., Lori J. Price

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addressed the academic, cultural, and social expectations and experiences of 20 Black students at 2 predominantly White high schools in the Southern Appalachian region of the United States. The participants' experiences revealed how institutional practices promoted or obstructed their successful experiences at high school.

Qualitative ethnographic methodology guided the study. The data collected included the stories of the Black students based on individual interviews, focus groups, and document reviews. The data showed the positive and negative experiences of the Black students in predominantly White high schools and the negative impacts of racism and racist behaviors on Black students' …

Mentors And New Teachers: A Qualitative Study Examining An East Tennessee School Systems Mentoring Program., Nikki Lynn Manning

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With almost half of all new teachers leaving the profession in the first few years, it is imperative that school systems find ways to support and retain these new teachers. Formal mentoring is a growing necessity. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the effectiveness of one school system's mentoring program.

This study included 4 sets of mentor and mentee teachers. Each set consisted of a beginning teacher in her 1st year of teaching and an experienced teacher trained by the school system to serve as a mentor. This study was conducted in a rural East Tennessee School …

2011 Fall Commencement, Harding University

Commencement Programs

Program for the Commencement on December 17.

Commencement Speaker: Brant Bryan

Oscar James Dunn: A Case Study In Race & Politics In Reconstruction Louisiana, Brian Mitchell

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The study of African American Reconstruction leadership has presented a variety of unique challenges for modern historians who struggle to piece together the lives of men, who prior to the Civil War, had little political identity. The scant amounts of primary source data in regard to these leaders’ lives before the war, the destruction of many documents in regard to their leadership following the Reconstruction Era, and the treatment of these figures by historians prior to the Revisionist movement have left this body of extremely important political figures largely unexplored. This dissertation will examine the life of one of Louisiana’s …

Investing In Citizenship: Free Men Of Color Of Color And The Case Against Citizens Bank ~ Antebellum Louisiana, Hannah J. Francis

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Despite the popularity of free people of color in New Orleans as a research topic, the history of free people of color remains misunderstood. The prevailing view of free people of color is that of people who: engaged in plaçage, attended quadroon balls, were desperately dependent upon the dominant population, and were uninterested or afraid to garner rights for themselves. Contemporary historians have endeavored to amend this stereotypical perception; this study aims to be a part of the trend of revisionist history through an in-depth analysis of the co-plaintiffs in Boisdoré and Goulé, f.p.c., v. Citizens Bank and …

Voluntary Environmental Programs: An Examination Of Program Performance And The Role Of Institutional Design, Jessica Ll Sims

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Many studies exist on whether Voluntary Environmental Programs (VEPs) improve firms’ environmental performance. Furthermore, the literature on VEPs theorizes that specific features contribute to program performance. This study examines the ability of Voluntary Environmental Programs to reduce emissions and the role of institutional design on their performance. Specifically, this study aimed to identify if specific features influence performance more than others do. The indicator of performance focuses on the overall emission reductions of firms across years 2007-2009. To analyze performance and features, the study examines the emission data and design features of each program. The results reveal the ability of …

Contextual Risk And The Association Between Sensitive Parenting And Social Competence During Early Childhood, Moira R. Riley

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Both contextual risk and sensitive parenting have been associated with children’s social skills in early childhood (Brody, Stoneman, Smith & Gibson, 1999; Connell & Prinz, 2002; Oravecz, Koblinsky & Randolph, 2008, Trentacosta, 2008). However, it is not clear how sensitive parenting might impact children’s social skill development in the context of accumulation of risk. The current study tests two possible models. The first model, based on Rutters’ (1979) tests the theory that cumulative risk may moderate the relationship between sensitive parenting and social skills. The second model based on The Family Stress model (Conger, Conger, Elder, Lorenz, Simons & Whitbeck, …

Multivariate Models And Algorithms For Systems Biology, Lipi Rani Acharya

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Rapid advances in high-throughput data acquisition technologies, such as microarraysand next-generation sequencing, have enabled the scientists to interrogate the expression levels of tens of thousands of genes simultaneously. However, challenges remain in developingeffective computational methods for analyzing data generated from such platforms. In thisdissertation, we address some of these challenges. We divide our work into two parts. Inthe first part, we present a suite of multivariate approaches for a reliable discovery of geneclusters, often interpreted as pathway components, from molecular profiling data with replicated measurements. We translate our goal into learning an optimal correlation structure from replicated complete and incomplete …

Playing House With Coward’S “Hay Fever”, Sarah M. Klocke

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A retired actress and her quirky family trap four guests in elaborately woven games in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. Within the concept of “playing house,” the glamour of Coward’s work lives on through scenery, costumes, and lighting, while his quirkier side is highlighted in hopes of making his Comedy of Manners accessible to a new audience.

And Then Okay, Summer Dorr

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Land Use Planning After A Natural Disaster, Walter E. Lundin

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Recovery from a natural disaster is difficult, expensive, and can take ten years or more. Many contend that recovery planning can be ordered, knowable, and predictable and that the destruction of buildings and displacement of the population provide an opportunity to build back better. This thesis examines the complexity of recovery through the lens of land use planning. Land use planning serves as the central focus because land provides an individual or family their livelihood and its use underlies the economy. The thesis considers two planning models -- rational comprehensive and incremental. The thesis concludes that incremental planning is more …

Baptized In Blood, Peter B. Keith-Slack

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Understanding Uplift Of The Ethiopian Plateau From Longitudinal Profile Analysis Of The Blue Nile Drainage System, Prabhat Chandra Neupane

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Ethiopian Plateau is one of the few tectonically-active regions on Earth that is situated in continental rift zones. About 1.6 km deep gorge of the Nile was carved by the Blue Nile River on the Ethiopian Plateau, as the plateau has been experiencing continuous uplift and exhumation in the Cenozoic. Here, we used quantitative analysis of longitudinal rive-profile forms and parameters (knickpoint and normalized steepness-index k_sn) of the Blue Nile tributaries to tease out regional tectonic signals.

244 knickpoints were examined in the tributaries, majority (>80%) of which are unassociated with lithology or geological structures. Knickpoint …

Black Policemen In Jim Crow New Orleans, Vanessa Flores-Robert

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Although historians have done in-­‐depth researched on Black police in the South, before the Civil War and during Reconstruction, they seldom assess black policemen’s role in New Orleans between the Battle of Liberty Place and 1913. The men discussed here argue that despite the hardening racial attitudes in Post-­‐ Reconstruction South, in New Orleans opportunity still existed for Blacks to serve in positions of authority, perhaps a heritage of the city’s earlier tri-­‐partite racial order. The information obtained from primary sources such as police manuals, beat books, and newspapers, counters the widely held belief that African American presence in the …

Merely Misunderstood: Expressive, Receptive, And Pragmatic Language In Children With Disruptive Behavior Disorders, Monica L. Gremillion

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD), including Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) have poorer language skills compared to typically developing children; however, language as a potential risk factor for DBD has received little empirical attention or evaluation. Receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language skills in preschoolers with DBD were examined. Participants were 82 preschool-age children and their primary caregivers. Primary caregivers completed a semi-structured interview and symptom and language questionnaires. Preschoolers completed measures of receptive and expressive language. Results indicated that preschoolers with DBD were more impaired on receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language compared to non-DBD children. Pragmatic …

An Information Value Approach To Route Planning For Uav Search And Track Missions, Ryan R. Pitre

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation has three contributions in the area of path planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Search And Track (SAT) missions. These contributions are: (a) the study of a novel metric, G, used to quantify the value of the target information gained during a search and track mission, (b) an optimal planning horizon that minimizes time-error of a planning horizon when interrupted by Poisson random events, and (c) a modified Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for search missions that uses the prior target distribution in the generation of paths rather than just in the evaluation of them.

UAV route planning …

The Restinga, Valerie Harbolovic

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Restinga explores dysfunctional sexual relationships in the familiar context of a love triangle, but it is set in the exotic African landscape of pre-war colonial Angola in 1960, where the author spent her childhood. The Restinga evolved from a short story presented at a graduate fiction workshop led by Joseph and Amanda Boyden at the University of New Orleans’ Madrid campus in the summer of 2007.

Research for this project included:

• Many interviews with the author’s parents
• Compilation and review of family home movies made at the time
• Interview with Richard J. Houk, author of the article: “The Hotel …

Synthesis And Applications Of Luminescent Quantum Dots In Bioassays, Venkata Ramana Kethineedi

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Luminescent quantum dot (QD) based probes have gained significance in the last decade for optical imaging of cells, tissues and in bioassays as alternatives to conventional organic fluorophores. The main objective of my PhD dissertation was to develop luminescent quantum dot based bioassays for real time monitoring of enzyme activity and simultaneous detection of several biomarkers. The quantum dot based bioassays developed will be potential tools in identification and diagnosis of several ailments that interfere with normal living conditions of human beings.

In Chapter 2 new liposome encapsulated quantum dot based fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) probes have been fabricated …