Digital Commons Network^™

Fearless Children And Fabulous Monsters: Angela Carter, Lewis Carroll, And Beastly Girls, Veronica L. Schanoes

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Justice Stevens And The Chevron Puzzle, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Justice Stevens's most famous decision – Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. NRDC – has come to stand for an institutional choice approach to agency interpretation. But there is no evidence that Justice Stevens shared this understanding. Instead, he followed an equilibrium-preserving approach, which sought to nudge agencies to reconsider decisions the Justice regarded as unreasonable. Although the equilibrium-preserving approach is consistent with what a common law judge would embrace, the institutional choice perspective is probably more consistent with the needs of the modem administrative state, and it appears the Court as a whole is gradually adopting that perspective.

Delineating Interpersonal Communication Networks: A Study Of The Diffusion Of An Intervention Among Female Entertainment Workers In Shanghai, China, Yiyun Chen, Carl Latkin, David D. Celentano, Xiushi Yang, Xiaoming Li, Guomei Xia

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Diffusion of innovation (DOI) is widely cited in the HIV behavior change literature; however there is a dearth of research on the application of DOI in interventions for sex workers. Following a randomized-controlled trial of HIV risk reduction among female entertainment workers (FEWs) in Shanghai, China, we used qualitative approaches to delineate potential interpersonal communication networks and contributing factors that promote diffusion of information in entertainment venues. Results showed that top-down communication networks from the venue owners to the FEWs were efficient for diffusion of information. Mammies/madams, who act as intermediaries between FEWs and clients form an essential part of …

Biological Measurement In Intervention Research, Donna O. Mccarthy

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Stages Of Change In The Trajectory Of Postpartum Weight Self-Management, Jennifer M. Ohlendorf

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objective

To identify women's patterns of readiness to engage in weight self-management behaviors during the postpartum period.

Design

Prospective, longitudinal design with repeated measures, guided by the transtheoretical model of behavior change (TTM).

Setting

A tertiary perinatal center in an urban setting in the midwestern United States with approximately 3,000 births annually.

Participants

One hundred ninety-one (191) adult postpartum women.

Methods

Participants were surveyed in person during their postpartum hospitalizations, and by telephone at 4 and 8 weeks postpartum using the Stages of Change for Weight Management (SOCWM) and the Decisional Balance for Weight Management (DBWM) tools.

Results

There …

Weight-Management Information Needs Of Postpartum Women, Jennifer M. Ohlendorf, Marianne E. Weiss, Polly Ryan

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose: To describe the weight loss information-seeking behaviors of postpartum women.

Study Design and Methods: The study is part of a larger longitudinal descriptive study of factors associated with women's self-management of their gestational weight loss after birth. Participants answered questions about weight loss information they planned to access, had received, wished they had received, and desired sources of information. A total of 250 women were enrolled during the postpartum hospital stay; 179 completed a 4-month follow-up.

Results: A large portion of the sample (53.3% of normal weight women, 79% of overweight women, and 81.4% obese women) identified plans to …

Sleep Characteristics In Patients With Whiplash-Associated Disorders: A Descriptive Study, Jay S. Greenstein, Barton Bishop, Jean Edward, Allen Huffman, Danielle Davis, Robert V. Topp

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Study Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore sleep habits and characteristics of patients with whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) presenting at an outpatient, chiropractic clinic using the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Sleep Scale.

Methods: Fifty-one patients from an outpatient chiropractic and physical therapy clinic specializing in spinal rehabilitation participated in this cross-sectional, descriptive study. Data were collected using a descriptive survey, the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), the Neck Disability Index (NDI), and the self-administered 12-item MOS Sleep Scale. Data analysis included descriptive statistics to describe pain, disability, and sleep characteristics of the study sample, and computation of …

A New Ensemble Learning Method For Temporal Pattern Identification, Wenjing Zhang, Xin Feng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper we present a method for identification of temporal patterns predictive of significant events in a dynamic data system. A new hybrid model using Reconstructed Phase Space (MRPS) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is applied to identify temporal patterns. This method constructs phase space embedding by using individual embedding of each variable sequences. We also employ Hidden Markov Models (HMM) to the multivariate sequence data to categorize multi-dimensional data into three states, e.g. normal, patterns and events. A support vector machine optimization method is used to search an optimal classifier to identify temporal patterns that are predictive of …

A Very Robust Algan/Gan Hemt Technology To High Forward Gate Bias And Current, Bradley D. Christiansen, Eric R. Heller, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Ramakrishna Vetury, Jeffrey B. Shealy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Reports to date of GaN HEMTs subjected to forward gate bias stress include varied extents of degradation. We report an extremely robust GaN HEMT technology that survived—contrary to conventional wisdom—high forward gate bias (+6 V) and current (>1.8 A/mm) for >17.5 hours exhibiting only a slight change in gate diode characteristic, little decrease in maximum drain current, with only a 0.1 V positive threshold voltage shift, and, remarkably, a persisting breakdown voltage exceeding 200 V.

Extending Origami Technique To Fold Forming Of Sheet Metal Products, Ala Qattawi

All Dissertations

This dissertation presents a scientific based approach for the analysis of folded sheet metal products. Such analysis initializes the examination in terms of topological exploration using set of graph modeling and traversal algorithms. The geometrical validity and optimization are followed by utilizing boundary representation and overlapping detection during a geometrical analysis stage, in this phase the optimization metrics are established to evaluate the unfolded sheet metal design in terms of its manufacturability and cost parameters, such as nesting efficiency, total welding cost, bend lines orientation, and maximum part extent, which aides in handling purposes. The proposed approach evaluates the design …

A Mems Photoacoustic Detector Of Terahertz Radiation For Chemical Sensing, Nathan Glauvitz, S. Blazevic, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Michael Kistler, Ivan R. Medvedev, Douglas T. Petkie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A piezoelectric Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) cantilever pressure sensor was designed, modeled, fabricated, and tested for sensing the photoacoustic response of gases to terahertz (THz) radiation. The sensing layers were comprised of three thin films; a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric layer sandwiched between two metal contact layers. The sensor materials were deposited on the silicon device layer of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer, which formed the physical structure of the cantilever. To release the cantilever, a hole was etched through the backside of the wafer and the buried oxide was removed with hydrofluoric acid. Devices were then tested in a custom …

Directive Versus Supportive Approaches Used By Midwives When Providing Care During The Second Stage Of Labor, Kathryn Osborne

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction: Although the risks associated with using sustained and forceful maternal bearing‐down efforts during the second stage of labor have been well documented, most women who give birth in the United States bear down in response to direction from care providers about when and how to push rather than in response to their own physiologic urges. The purpose of this study was to describe the practices used by certified nurse‐midwives/certified midwives (CNMs/CMs) in response to maternal bearing‐down efforts when caring for women in second‐stage labor and to identify factors associated with the use of supportive approaches to second‐stage labor care. …

Reforming Derivative Taxation, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

This brief essay outlines three benchmarks for evaluating alternative ways of taxing capital income, summarizes anticipatory, retroactive, and accrual-based proposals for reforming the taxation of derivatives, and offers guidelines for evaluating more limited reforms. It is intended as an introduction to key concepts, tensions, and ideas for reforming the taxation of financial instruments.

Continuous Time-Varying Biasing Approach For Spectrally Tunable Infrared Detectors, Woo-Yong Jang, Majeed M. Hayat, Payman Zarkesh-Ha, Sanjay Krishna

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In a recently demonstrated algorithmic spectral-tuning technique by Jang et al. [Opt. Express 19, 19454-19472, (2011)], the reconstruction of an object’s emissivity at an arbitrarily specified spectral window of interest in the long-wave infrared region was achieved. The technique relied upon forming a weighted superposition of a series of photocurrents from a quantum dots-in-a-well (DWELL) photodetector operated at discrete static biases that were applied serially. Here, the technique is generalized such that a continuously varying biasing voltage is employed over an extended acquisition time, in place using a series of fixed biases over each sub-acquisition time, which totally …

New Perspective On Passively Quenched Single Photon Avalanche Diodes: Effect Of Feedback On Impact Ionization, David A. Ramirez, Majeed M. Hayat, Graham J. Rees, Xudong Jiang, Mark A. Itzler

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are primary devices in photon counting systems used in quantum cryptography, time resolved spectroscopy and photon counting optical communication. SPADs convert each photo-generated electron hole pair to a measurable current via an avalanche of impact ionizations. In this paper, a stochastically self-regulating avalanche model for passively quenched SPADs is presented. The model predicts, in qualitative agreement with experiments, three important phenomena that traditional models are unable to predict. These are: (1) an oscillatory behavior of the persistent avalanche current; (2) an exponential (memoryless) decay of the probability density function of the stochastic quenching time of the …

Does The Perception That Stress Affects Health Matter? The Association With Health And Mortality, Abiola O. Keller, Kristin Litzelman, Lauren E. Wisk, Torsheika Maddox, Erika Rose Cheng, Paul D. Creswell, Whitney P. Witt

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Moral Rights In The U.S.: Still In Need Of A Guardian Ad Litem, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Over ten years ago, in the pages of this Journal, I inquired whether authors’ “moral rights” had come of (digital) age in the U.S. Ever-hopeful at that time, I suggested that then-recent legislation enacted to enable the copyright law to respond to the challenges of digital media might, in addition to its principal goal of securing digital markets for works of authorship, also provide new means to protect authors’ interests in receiving attribution for their works and in safeguarding their integrity. The intervening years’ developments, however, indicate that, far from achieving their majority, U.S. authors’ moral rights remain in their …

Fantasies And Illusions: On Liberty, Order, And Free Market, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

Critical thinkers have used various terms to describe the collective imaginary that has real effects on individuals, society, and politics. Freud used the term “einer Illusion” to characterize religious belief in his work, The Future of an Illusion, though many others in the psychoanalytic tradition would turn to the notion of fantasy. Marx sometimes used the term illusion and he notoriously deployed the optical illusion and the phantasmagoria in his famous discussion of commodity fetishism. (And Marx, of course, is the father of Ideologiekritic). Foucault at times used the language of fantasy and phantasms, in an early period deployed the …

Disabling Attitudes: U.S. Disability Law And The Ada Amendments Act, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

This is a crucial juncture for U.S. disability law. In 2008, Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), which aims to reverse the courts’ narrowing interpretations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This legislative intervention provides an important lens through which to consider attitudes toward disability, both because the success of the ADAAA will depend on judicial attitudes, and because the changes rendered by the ADAAA shed light on pervasive societal attitudes. This Essay makes three main points. First, the ADAAA intervenes in the developing doctrine on disability discrimination in important ways; in so doing, however, the ADAAA …

Examining Cancer-Related Pain And Quality Of Life In Lehigh Valley Home Care Patients, Linda G. Alley Phd, Rn, Hannah D. Paxton Rn, Mph, Michelle D. Flores Bsn, Rn, Carol A. Foltz Phd, Jen Wike Mph, Mba, Vickie Cunningham Bsn, Rn, Jeffrey Etchason Md

Administration & Leadership

No abstract provided.

Abdominal Compartment Syndrome Presenting As Diuretic-Refractory Cardiorenal Syndrome, Brigid Hallinan Do

Administration & Leadership

No abstract provided.

Constructing Wilderness: The Nexus Of Preservation And Ocean-Space In The United States, Ryan Orgera

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The ocean has long played a minor role in human geography; imagining it as natural space rather than an extractive space even less significant. This dissertation explores the most revered kind of American nature preservation: wilderness. Despite the millions of acres set aside as wilderness in the United States, no such designation exists for ocean-space as a discrete entity. Through the analysis of congressional hearings, bills, resolutions, public laws, and maps, this dissertation uncovers the complex constructs of the production of legal wilderness. Furthermore, it uncovers a novel vein of inquiry, that of the ocean as a preserved natural space. …

Effects Of Fire And Treefalls On Japanese Climbing Fern And Native Species Groundcover In A Restored Longleaf Pine Savanna, Becky Jolene Carmichael

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recurrent disturbances play an important role in maintaining longleaf pine savannas. Windstorms and fires contribute to the heterogeneity of pine savanna understory through generation of canopy gaps and fuel accumulation, distribution and consumption. The combination of windstorms and fires promotes native herbaceous species, but also promotes invasion of Japanese climbing fern (Lygodium japonicum). Lygodium japonicum is an invasive fern with subterranean rhizomes and copious spore production invading pine savannas along the southeastern Gulf Coast Region. This dissertation examines how fire, previous windstorm disturbances, and animal disruptions influence L. japonicum and native species abundance in a restored longleaf pine savanna. Studies …

Total Synthesis Of A Virotoxin And Analogs For Conformational Studies, Benson Jumba Edagwa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation describes the first total synthesis of alloviroidin in trace amounts, along with that of three analogs containing L-proline (Pro), trans-3-hydroxyproline (3-Hyp) or cis-4-hydroxyproline (4-hyp) residue substituting for 2,3-trans-3,4-trans-dihydroxyproline in the natural product. We report herein an efficient strategy that provides a dipeptide containing a (2S,4S)-4,5-dihydroxyleucine (dihyLeu) residue, including a diastereoselective dihydroxylation. Nα-Carbobenzyloxy-(2S)-4,5-dehydroleucine was coupled with valine ethyl ester to give a dipeptide that was subjected to a Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation to introduce the diol. The relative configuration at C4 was assigned as S by X-ray crystallography after derivatization as an α-amino-γ-lactone hydrochloride salt. The preparation of the 2-(methylsulfonyl)tryptophan …

Dynamic Route Choice In Hurricane Evacuation, Meisam Akbarzadeh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this research a framework is developed for modeling route choice in hurricane evacuation. Two behavioral hypotheses are evaluated which together with the route choice model, constitute the contributions of the research. The first hypothesis states that beside congestion, other variables such as familiarity with the route, availability of fuel and shelter, facility class, and length of route have an effect on an evacuees' route choice. The second hypothesis states that as time passes and storm conditions change, the impact each variable has on route choice changes. The logit structure was used for modeling the choice process and stated choice …

A Discourse On Geospatial Technology Applications In Predictive Analytics And Evidence-Based Decision Support For Disaster Research And Management, Steven Matthew Ward

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Continued population growth and development in vulnerable locations across the world are creating a new geography of hazards and disasters. Increasing storm frequencies coupled with unrelenting efforts to control flooding through structural means will undoubtedly intensify the intersection between flood hazards and humans. Accordingly, the baseline capacity of places to prepare for and rebound from disaster events adequately is negatively impacted. Hurricane Katrina brought this reality to the forefront of disaster science and management in 2005. Concurrent with the increased awareness of evolving hazardscapes has been the identification of deficiencies in how components of disasters are studied and managed. The …

The Utilization Of Chemical Communication By Three Species Of Ghost Shrimp, Callichirus Islagrande, Callichirus Major, And Lepidophthalmus Louisianensis, And The Transport Of Chemical Cues Within And Between Burrows, Julie Emily Prerost

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A multidisciplinary study of the factors affecting the potential use of chemical cues by three species of infaunal shrimp was performed in three parts. A set of modified y-maze choice experiments were performed to establish the ability of three species of ghost shrimp, Callichirus islangrande, Callichirus major, and Leptidophthalmus louisianensis, to detect conspecifics via chemical cue. The time budgets for the detection of conspecifics chemical cues differed significantly from controls (no cue) for both animal cues and odor only cues indicating that all three species were able to detect the difference in sex of conspecific chemical cues regardless of cue …

The Effects Of Spatial Confinement And Oxygen Stoichiometry On Complex Metal Oxides, Zhaoliang Liao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Complex metal oxides, such as transition-metal oxides, appearing with exotic properties and optimal functionalities, present formidable challenges in condensed matter physics, while at the same time, immense opportunities in materials science and engineering. The signature of these materials is the multitude of competing ground states that can be tuned or manipulated by doping, structural modification, strain induction, or the application of external stimulus, such as pressure, electric or magnetic fields, etc. The interest in these materials stems from the richness of their novel properties, the complexity of underlying physics, and the promise of technological applications. Novel phenomena emerge by spatial …

Nitrogen And Carbon Export To The Gulf Of Mexico By The Atchafalaya River, A Major Distributary Of The Mississippi River, April Elizabeth Bryantmason

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Summer hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico has been attributed to large nutrient inputs, especially nitrate-nitrogen, from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River system. The 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan calls for river corridor wetland restoration to reduce nitrate loads, but it is largely unknown how effective riverine wetland systems in the lower Mississippi River (MR) are for nitrate removal. This dissertation research examined nitrate and carbon export from the Atchafalaya River (AR) to: (1) determine nitrate processing by a river swamp basin under varied seasons, (2) investigate nitrate retention and processing in the AR during a major flood event, and (3) …

"She Speaks With Wisdom And Faithful Instruction...": The Influence Of A Religio-Spiritual Epistemology On The Academic Knowledge, Pedagogy, And Theorizing Of Black Women University Teachers, Kirsten Tralese Edwards

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT This dissertation conducted a narrative inquiry into the lives of Black women university teachers who self-identify as possessing strong faith commitments within a Christian denomination. Critical Race Theory, Womanism and Womanist Theology, the Theory of the Black Church, and Post-colonial Studies were employed in order to facilitate this inquiry. Every woman was reared in a predominantly Black congregation (PBC), and many still practice their faith in a PBC. The primary focus of this study was to consider the influence a religio-spiritual epistemology has on their academic understandings, theorizing, and pedagogical practices. Data collected for this study included recorded conversations, …