Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Maternal Smoking In Kentucky And Effect Of The Giving Infants And Families Tobacco-Free Starts Pilot Project On Smoking Cessation And Birth Outcomes, Joyce Madeline Robl

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Smoking during pregnancy remains a significant public health issue despite knowledge about the adverse maternal and fetal health effects. This research had six purposes: identifying effective smoking cessation strategies for low income pregnant women; identifying characteristics of Kentucky women who smoke during pregnancy; estimating the role of smoking on birth outcomes in Kentucky; exploring the impact of tobacco reduction on birth outcomes; identifying the characteristics of women participating in the Giving Infants and Families Tobacco-free Starts (GIFTS) pilot program; and evaluating the impact of GIFTS on smoking status and birth outcomes.

Seven randomized controlled trials targeting low income women with …

Measuring Job Satisfaction Among Kentucky Head Principals Using The Rasch Rating Scale Model, Xavier J. Webb

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

The continued expansion of principals' responsibilities is having a detrimental effect on their job satisfaction; therefore, it is increasingly challenging to retain these important leaders. Effective principals can impact student learning and other vital outcomes; thus, it is important to be able to retain effective school leaders. Examining the perceived sources of principals’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with their work has strong implications for policies and practices that can be implemented to increase principal retention.

The purpose of this study was to measure the job satisfaction of head principals in Kentucky. The research conducted was an exploratory study using survey research …

The Decline In Trust In The European Union, Nathan Donald Price

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

After twenty years, the European Union is undoubtedly at a crossroads, as its institutions try to manage the sovereign debt crisis in member states and the uncertainty surrounding the future direction of the project. The challenges the European Union has faced, and the response to them, have drawn considerable attention on the capacity of the European Union to manage the interests of the Europeans. In this dissertation, I discuss the process of Europeanization and why it has resulted in suboptimal outputs. Additionally, I discuss the perception of a democratic deficit in the European Union. The purpose of this is to …

Alfred Von Waldersee, Monarchist: His Private Life, Public Image, And The Limits Of His Ambition, 1882-1891, Wade James Trosclair

LSU Master's Theses

In the decades following the Second World War, historians writing about militarism and politics during the German Empire have often mentioned Count Alfred von Waldersee (1832-1904), the army’s Quartermaster-General (1882-1888) then Chief of the General Staff (1888-1891), portraying him as a stereotypical warmongering Prussian political general who sought to enhance his own influence, especially by aspiring to the chancellorship. They have typically viewed Alfred von Waldersee within the contexts of civil versus military relations and the era and entourage of Wilhelm II (r. 1888-1918), but these frameworks do not help accurately explain the man, his motivations, how he saw himself, …

A City And Its River: An Urban Political Ecology Of The Loop And Bridgeport In Chicago, Garrett Charles Wolf

LSU Master's Theses

Today’s urban environment is produced, both physically and perceptually, by a myriad of factors. Through a comparative study of two Chicago neighborhoods along the Chicago River, the Loop and Bridgeport, I construct the network of political, social, and economic factors that create the urban environment of the Chicago River in and along these places. I explore residents’ perception of who controls the production of the urban environment as it relates to the Chicago River, and how the socio-environment is created. In this study, I utilize an urban political ecology approach that recognizes that environments produced simultaneously by social and physical …

Where Are The Cosbys: An African American Literacy Study Examining African American Recognition And Representation In Contemporary Young Adult Literature, Tremaine Monee' Sanders

LSU Master's Theses

The African American literacy crisis has been well documented. Many researchers have sought to find a remedy for the disparity in literacy rates between African American readers and white American. This study explores the potential role of young adult literature (YAL) in this crisis. More specifically, this study examines the recognition that African American works receive in contemporary YAL. This study also investigates the African American experiences represented in those works receiving national recognition. A list of fifty-one books was compiled from the winners (2000-present) of national awards such as Michael L. Printz award and the Coretta Scott King Book …

Molecular Approaches To Detect And Control Cercospora Kikuchii In Soybeans, Ashok Kumar Chanda

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cercospora leaf blight (CLB) caused by Cercospora kikuchii, has become a troublesome disease in the southern United States. C. kikuchii produces a non-hostspecific phytotoxin and a pathogenicity factor known as cercosporin during infection of soybean. A quantitative real-time PCR assay was developed for detection and quantification of C. kikuchii. The sensitivity of detection is 1 pg of genomic DNA. The assay detected the presence of C. kikuchii in soybean leaves long before the appearance of disease symptoms. C. kikuchii DNA levels in soybean leaves increased slowly during early soybean development, followed by a quick increase at late reproductive stages. Results …

Interventions In The Middle School Mathematics Classroom: Raising Standardized Test Scores By Diminishing Stereotype Threat, Elizabeth Stockwell Kirkindoll

LSU Master's Theses

Stereotype threat is a situational concern in which persons have uneasiness or worries about confirming a negative presumption about their social group. This apprehension affects the performance of those suffering this threat in recursive cycles, causing continuing underperformance in the threatened domain. This document reviews the research on stereotype threat, its causes, characteristics and effects, and describes how stereotype threat affects learning and undermines academic performance. Attention is focused on the role that stereotype threat plays in the underachievement of females in mathematics. A report on an experiment that attempted to reduce math-related stereotype threat among middle school females is …

Wedding Belles And Enslaved Brides: Louisiana Plantation Weddings In Fact, Fiction And Folklore, Cherry Lynne Levin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Wedding Belles and Enslaved Brides: Louisiana Plantation Weddings in Fact, Fiction and Folklore Dissertation directed by Professor John Wharton Lowe, Robert Penn Warren Professor of English Pages in dissertation, 380, Words in Abstract, 234 Abstract Along with rites of passage marking birth and death, wedding rituals played an important role in ordering social life on antebellum Louisiana plantations, not only for elite white families but also for the enslaved. Louisiana women's autobiographical accounts of plantation weddings yield considerable insights on the importance of weddings for Louisiana plantation women before, and especially during, the Civil War. Moreover, information contained within the …

Between Bodies: (Re)Constructing The Corps Québécois In Roch Carrier's La Guerre, Yes Sir!, Tara Beth Smithson

LSU Master's Theses

Published during Québec’s Révolution Tranquille, but set during the final phase of World War II, Roch Carrier’s novel La guerre, yes sir! (1968) chronicles how one community copes with the sober homecoming of its first “son of the village” to die in the war. The novel centers on the fallen Corriveau’s repatriation to what was then considered French Canada. The body’s passage from one realm, in Europe, associated with French Canada’s multi-layered, quasi-colonial control, to another, in soon-to-be Quebec, associated with the province’s self-definition and burgeoning sense of sovereignty, offers an allegorical commentary on the Québécois people’s passage from a …

A Syntax-Based Reading Intervention For English As Second-Language Learners, Christina Tausch

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Students with English as second language (ESL) are typically behind monolingual peers in reading comprehension even when phonemic awareness skills, phonics and word recognition are at grade level. The lack of syntactic awareness is one of the reasons cited in multiple studies (August & Shanahan, 2010; Da Fountoura & Siegel, 1995; Lesaux & Siegel, 2003; Lesaux et al., 2006; Chong, 2009). This study investigated the effects of a six week intervention designed to increase syntactic awareness, including meta-awareness of key structures of English for young ESL students in the upper elementary grades. Twenty typically developing ESL students in the fourth …

Design And Analysis Of Peer 2 Peer Operating System, Anudeep Meka

LSU Master's Theses

The peer to peer computing paradigm has become a popular paradigm for deploying distributed applications. Examples: Kadmelia, Chord, Skype, Kazaa, Big Table. Multiagent systems have become a dominant paradigm within AI for deploying reasoning and analytics applications. Such applications are compute-intensive. In disadvantaged networks the ad-hoc architecture is the most suitable one. Examples: military scenarios, disaster scenarios. We combine the paradigms of peer-to-peer computing, multiagent systems, cloud computing, and ad-hoc networks to create the new paradigm of ad-hoc peer-to-peer mobile agent cloud (APMA cloud) that can provide the computing power of a cloud in “disadvantaged” regions (e.g., through RF using …

Palladio's Religious Architecture In Venice, Katherine Fresina

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the three churches designed by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio in Venice: San Francesco della Vigna, San Giorgio Maggiore, and Il Redentore. Separate chapters devoted to each of these buildings explore multiple issues, among them Palladio’s awareness of the city, its civic rituals, and architectural traditions; his sources of inspiration in the buildings of classical antiquity, especially ancient Roman baths and temple façades; his relationship to the architecture of the recent past, especially in Venice but also on the terraferma; and his ability to adapt his style to suit the requirements of private, public, and monastic …

An Extensible And Scalable Pilot-Mapreduce Framework For Data Intensive Applications On Distributed Cyberinfrastructure, Pradeep Kumar Mantha

LSU Master's Theses

The volume and complexity of data that must be analyzed in scientific applications is increasing exponentially. Often, this data is distributed; thus, the ability to analyze data by localizing it will yield limited returns. Therefore, an efficient processing of large distributed datasets is required, whilst ideally not introducing fundamentally new programming models or methods. For example, extending MapReduce - a proven effective programming model for processing large datasets, to work more effectively on distributed data and on different infrastructure (such as non-Hadoop, general-purpose clusters) is desirable. We posit that this can be achieved with an effective and efficient runtime environment …

Color Locality, Michael Frederick Secor

LSU Master's Theses

Secor, Michael, B.A. Art, Centre College, 2006 Master of Fine Arts, Spring Commencement, 2012 Studio Art Color Locality Thesis directed by Professor John Malveto Pages in thesis, 10. Words in abstract, 188. ABSTRACT I go outside to make small drawings and sketches of the local landscapes. My paintings are created in my studio. I use the lines and shapes from the drawings as a guide in making a design of color and space. This practice allows me to relate my enjoyment of the outdoors to my interest in color relationships. It is very important to me to spend time outside, …

Book Review. Legal Education In Asia: Globalization, Change And Contexts, Carole Silver

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Academic Sailers: The Ford Foundation And The Efforts To Shape Legal Education In Africa, 1957-1977, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This study examines a major law-and-development project in Africa undertaken by the New York-based Ford Foundation in the decades following the Second World War. By the 1960s, many countries in Africa freed themselves of colonial rule, and Ford eagerly sought to assist these newly emerging states in the nation-building process. One area towards which Ford contributed considerable resources was legal education. Labeling its program ‘SAILER’ – or the Staffing of African Institutions of Legal Education and Research – Ford engaged in a range of initiatives, including sending American lawyers to teach in several different African countries and bringing Africans to …

Queer Utopian Geographies And Cold War Poetry, Brigitte Natalie Mccray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Queer Utopian Geographies and Cold War Poetry intervenes in the general narrative about Cold War culture, made even more famous by such recent popular shows like Mad Men and Pan Am, that describes the era as a repressed society in desperate need of liberation. While indeed Cold War America was a time of paranoia and loyalty oaths, even before the Stonewall Riots of 1969 gay men and lesbians found subtle ways to resist popular media and government discourse that perpetuated the myth that the homosexual was the anti-citizen. A number of gay men and lesbians traveled extensively to escape this …

Is This The Beginning Of The End Of The Second Reconstruction?, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article discusses the history, present, and possible future of the Voting Rights Act.

Can The Rule Of Law Survive Judicial Politics?, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

British Identity And The German Other, William F. Bertolette

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

British identity evolved through conscious comparisons with foreigners as well as through the cultivation of indigenous social, economic and political institutions. The German other in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain, like the French other in previous centuries, provided a psychological path toward unity against a perceived common enemy. Because German stereotypes brought into sharp focus what the British believed themselves not to be, they provided a framework for defining Britishness beyond Britain’s own internal divisions of race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and politics. Post-World War II devolution and European integration have since revived British internal national divisions. The image of innocuous …

Using A Collaborative Inquiry Process And Data To Affect Curriculum In An Independent School, Sheri Lyn Pastor Goings

LSU Master's Theses

Literature clearly supports the use of data to support and drive school policy. Data can be immensely informative; however test scores are not the sole indicator of school effectiveness. To successfully implement a plan for data use, it is imperative to a provide climate of teacher buy-in and collaboration. Multiple sources of data should be considered collectively prior to making any judgment(s) about students, teachers, curriculum, or schools. Data use for effective decision-making is an on-going process that requires strategic planning and a long-term commitment. Over the past year, I have led the math department through a modified version of …

Educational Looping And Retention In The Middle School Setting, Mary Elizabeth Feighery

LSU Master's Theses

Educational looping is an educational method where teachers remain with the same core group of students over multiple academic years. The current research on this topic shows a strong positive correlation between the effects of looping and the growth of personal relationships between students and teachers, but neglects to examine the connection between looping and student educational growth. This paper explores the relationship between looping and academic gains, as well as between looping and retention of content material over time. This paper explores both the relationship between looping and academic gains and between looping and retention of content material, and …

Assessing Effectiveness Of Concept Map As Instructional Tool In High School Biology, Ritchie Adlaon

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis emphasizes on an alternate instructional tool called “Concept Map”. The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of using concept maps in improving the science achievement of 10th -grade students and compare it with a traditional approach for a Biology unit. Furthermore, the interaction of the student’s concept mapping ability and their learning gains was investigated. Both the control and the experimental groups were required to take a pre test before instruction and a posttest at the end of three weeks. The test consisting of 31 questions was used to assess learning gains on a Biology …

Judicial Mindsets: The Social Psychology Of Implicit Theories And The Law, Victor D. Quintanilla

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article introduces Dr. Carol Dweck’s seminal and significant line of psychological research on the phenomenon of implicit theories and draws on this research as a lens through which we might better understand judicial decision-making. In particular, the article focuses on the implications of two types of implicit theories – whether people believe that phenomena are static and fixed versus dynamic and malleable. By introducing this research, this article aims to forward a research agenda designed to examine how social, contextual, and situational forces influence judicial behavior.

An entity theory reflects the mindset that phenomena are fixed and unlikely to …

Moonlight Shadows And Night Thoughts (Symphony No. 1) And An Analysis Of Qigang Chen's Extase Ii, Wennan Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation is divided into two parts. Part One is an original composition: Moonlight Shadows and Night Thoughts (Symphony No.1). The symphony is composed of two movements. This work employs elements of two diverse cultures: (a) Chinese folk music and (b) contemporary Impressionist music by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Toru Takemitsu most prominently. The musical imageries of the piece come from two Chinese poems, one written by Zhang Ji and the other written by Li Po. The beautiful sceneries in both Poems are associated with the word “moonlight.” The processing of time and the timbres is the focus of …

Unit Assessments For High School Geometry, Damayanthi Srimathi Jegart

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract Eight unit tests closely aligned with the Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum for high school geometry were developed. Five of these were administered, each to the same 115 students spanning all ability and attainment levels in a magnet school in a semi-rural Louisiana district. The results were analyzed to determine the quality of the questions as well as to glean information about student-learning. The test scores were compared to the results of the state-administered end-of-course test for high-school geometry. The main findings were as follows: a) most students do not communicate their reasoning or justification unless directed to do so, and …

An Investigation Into Urban Elementary Teachers' Educational Beliefs In Regards To Teaching Writing: Comparing Experiences And Self-Reported Beliefs To Teacher Practices, Shalanda Stanley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This six week study investigated six urban elementary teachers’ educational beliefs in regards to teaching writing, comparing their personal histories as writers with their self-reported beliefs on writing and teaching writing, with that of their teacher practices. A further analysis examined how closely aligned their teacher practices were to research-validated practices. During this ethnographic case study, three questions were explored. These questions were: (a) How do teachers’ personal histories with writing inform their beliefs regarding writing in general, as well as their beliefs on teaching writing?, (b) How do teachers’ educational beliefs in regards to teaching writing inform their instructional …

Shadow Citizens: Felony Disenfranchisement And The Criminalization Of Debt, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

The disenfranchisement of felons has long been challenged as anti-democratic and disproportionately harmful to communities of color. Critiques of this practice have led to the gradual liberalization of state laws that expand voting rights for those who have served their sentences. Despite these legal developments, ex-felons face an increasingly difficult path to regaining the franchise. This article argues that, for ex-felons in particular, criminal justice debt can serve as an insurmountable obstacle to the resumption of voting rights and broader participation in society. This article uses the term “carceral debt” to identify criminal justice penalties levied on prisoners, “user fees” …

Evading Legislative Jurisdiction, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the last few years, and mostly unnoticed, courts have adopted a radically different approach to issues of legislative jurisdiction. Instead of grappling with the difficult question of whether Congress intended a law to reach beyond U.S. borders, courts have side-stepped it entirely. Courts have done so by redefining the definition of extraterritoriality. Significant and contentious decisions in the Ninth and D.C. Circuits paved the way by holding that not all regulation of overseas foreign conduct is extraterritorial. And then suddenly, last term, the U.S. Supreme Court breathed life into the practice. In its landmark Morrison v. National Australia Bank …