Digital Commons Network^™

Voices From The Coolest Corner Of Hell: A Content Analysis Of Slave Narratives In The Study Of Creolization In The Education Of 19th Century African American Slaves, Gina M. Rizzuto

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The general argument made by Southern historian, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips in 1918, is that the plantation functioned as a type of school for the slave. Similarly, in 1976, Anthony Gerald Albanese examined the plantation system as an institution that conditioned the behaviors of both slaves and slave owners. I maintain that the plantation system was not only an educative agency that conditioned behaviors, but also a conduit for the creolization process. The focus of this study is creolization in the education of African American slaves in the nineteenth century. This is a mixed methods content analysis of African American slave …

Explaining Strategic Firm Responsiveness To Institutional Processes In The Evolution Of Corporate Governance Systems : The Reform Of Director Remuneration Reporting In Germany, Mario Krenn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to economic and social globalization processes, the boundaries of national systems of corporate governance have become more permeable for the transfer of ideas and practices from other institutional contexts. I derive hypotheses from a multitheoretical framework to explain strategic firm responsiveness to national level pressures for corporate governance reform. This framework integrates institutional, resource dependence, social network, upper echelon, and organizational learning perspectives and portrays corporate governance reform as institutional change. I test hypotheses derived from this framework in the context of the issuance of the German corporate governance code. The code provision of interest recommends that German firms …

Toward Digitizing The Human Experience : A New Resource For Natural Language Processing, Jerry Scott Weltman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A long-standing goal of Artificial Intelligence is to program computers that understand natural language. A basic obstacle is that computers lack the common sense that even small children acquire simply by experiencing life, and no one has devised a way to program this experience into a computer. This dissertation presents a methodology and proof-of-concept software system that enables non-experts, with some training, to create simple experiences. For the purposes of this dissertation, an experience is a series of time-ordered comic frames, annotated with the changing intentional and physical states of the characters and objects in each frame. Each frame represents …

Causes And Consequences Of Conflict : Exploring The Influence Of Honor-Based Norms And Values On The Experience Of Intimate Partner Violence In The United States, Michelle Elaine Pence

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The three studies in this dissertation were posed with the common goal of revealing possible explanations for variations in the causes and consequences of interpersonal violence across regional cultures of the United States. Study 1 posed and tested two hypotheses related to the distribution of male-perpetrated intimate partner homicide across regions of the United States. The South and West, two regions characterized in full (the South) or in part (the West) by honor cultures, emerged as the regions with the highest rates of argument- and conflict- related, male-on-female intimate partner homicides in single victim/single offender incidents. Explanations provided at the …

A Study On The Cleaning And Modification Of Metal Surfaces By Direct Current Cathodic Electrolytic Plasma Process, Jiandong Liang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The processes of surface treatments or surface modifications, more formally known as surface engineering, tailor the surfaces of engineering materials. The treatments are usually intended to change physical properties such as thermal or electrical conductivity, modify the surface dimensions, i.e. roughness, etc. A novel surface treatment method, Electrolytic Plasma Process (EPP), was developed for coating purposes, in its early developmental stage. In this work, the major effort is to avoid using any environmental hazardous chemical (coatings) and to extend such its application to some new fields. The general response of the substrate material under electrolytic plasma process was summarized including …

Socially Oriented Negative Self-Referent Cognition : The Development And Validation Of A Measure, Brittany Moree Rudy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Social phobia, a debilitating disorder among children and adolescents, is thought to be made up of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological components. However, in children, the cognitive component of this disorder has been largely neglected by researchers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to create and validate a new instrument, the "Socially Oriented Negative Anxious Statement (SONAS) scale,” that assesses socially oriented negative self-referent cognition in a younger population. Measurement validation procedures including, reliability, validity, and factor analysis, were utilized to examine the proposed questionnaire. Results indicated that the SONAS scale demonstrated good psychometric properties, including a sound two-factor structure …

Challenging Behaviors In Autism Spectrum Disorders : Differences Across Childhood And The Relationship With Autism Symptomatology, Alison Marie Kozlowski

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Challenging behaviors (CBs) are remarkably prevalent in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and can have a number of severe consequences. While it is believed that CBs reach their peak in childhood followed by a general abatement throughout adolescence and adulthood, the exact trend of CBs during childhood is unknown. Furthermore, the impact of changes in autism symptomatology on CBs during childhood has seldom been explored despite a positive correlation between autism symptomatology and CBs having been established. Therefore, the purpose of these studies was to determine where significant differences in both autism symptomatology and CBs occur throughout childhood, and …

Investigating "Experimentalism" : A Case Study Of The Tuba And Its Repertoire, Andrew Brian Larson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The extant repertoire for the tuba serves as a landmark for how the tuba was perceived at that moment in time by that composer. This document contains a brief analysis of the tuba “experiment” that has been ongoing since its invention. In addition, it contains a brief parallel case study of the saxophone and how this instrument, invented at about the same time as the tuba, has embraced experimentalism and modern performance. This document contains five major sections. The first provides a brief history of the tuba and its predecessors. The second introduces numerical data representing the performance frequency of …

Melancholic Epistolarity : Letters And Traumatic Exile In The Novels Of Three Francophone Women, Rosemary Harrington Courville

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In her 1982 groundbreaking work on the epistolary form in novels, Janet Gurkin Altman gives a working definition of epistolarity which will be a guiding concept for this project; she defines it simply as: “the use of the letter’s formal properties to create meaning…” (Altman 4). Of course, to create meaning is a complicated endeavor. How does one create meaning from the letter’s formal properties? The contemporary authors who engage with epistolarity do so on several levels from the thematic to the structural. From novels that have several characters engaging in letter dialogues to one-sided exchanges that bear more resemblance …

Laser Ablation Sample Transfer For Mass Spectrometry, Sung-Gun Park

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this research, a new ambient sampling technique for mass spectrometry was developed that uses an infrared laser to ablate materials under ambient conditions that are captured in a solvent or on a surface. An infrared optical parametric oscillator (OPO) laser system at 3 μm wavelength was focused onto samples for ablation at atmospheric pressure. The ablated materials were transferred to a solvent or surface. For off-line electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) analysis, the ablated material was captured in a static solvent droplet that was deposited on a MALDI target or flow-injected into a nanoelectrospray source. The …

Creating An Sli Performance Profile With Load, Christy Marie Seidel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this body of work was to gain a clearer understanding of the potential cognitive factors that may contribute to Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This study attempted to simulate a performance profile of SLI in typically developing children within a grammaticality judgment task, featuring structures historically difficult (third person singular –S and auxiliary BE) and easy (plural –S and progressive –ING) for individuals with SLI. Cognitive load was manipulated through the length of the sentences to be judged, and individual differences in phonological short term memory (PSTM) and working memory were measured (WM). For a successful simulation to …

Effect Of Candidate Spending On Vote Share, Charles Denowh

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research on the effect that candidate spending has on vote share has produced conflicting results, with some research finding that only spending by challenger candidates has an effect on the vote outcome and other research finding incumbent and challenger spending roughly equally effective. The paper explores two suspected causes of the discrepancy in prior results: measurement error and endogeneity in the spending variables. Using new spending data from the Federal Election Commission that can readily be categorized into different spending types, I find evidence of significant amounts of inconsequential spending that should be excluded from candidate spending totals. Additionally, …

Venture Capital Vs. Trade Credit Financing: Is There A Bias In Favor Of Venture Capital And What Is The Impact On Students?, Thomas Allen Clement

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine whether entrepreneurship education demonstrates a bias favoring venture capital (VC) financing while marginalizing trade credit financing. The effect of this perceived bias was also explored to determine the impact on students studying entrepreneurship.

In the history of entrepreneurial studies, literature revealed VC was a relatively new and rare source of financing that impacted a very small percentage of entrepreneurial ventures. In contrast, trade credit existed for thousands of years and was shown to benefit virtually every type of business model, from start-up to maturity.

The research questions posed were addressed using two …

Conflict In Couples Therapy: Enhancing Relationships Through A Video Tape Feedback Intervention Intending To Develop Effective Conflict Communication Skills, Chasidy I. Faith

Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the effectiveness of a Gottman-based intervention (2007) aimed to increase effective conflict communication. The study utilized a single case design to examine two couple's conflict interactions through the use of a video tape feedback intervention and psychoeducation about effective and ineffective conflict communication. Couples completed a four week pre-test measurement phase, three sessions of video tape feedback, and four week post-test measurement phase. Through visual analysis, the study investigated the effect that this conflict management intervention had on relational satisfaction and adjustment, life satisfaction, overall distress levels, and conflict abilities. Findings of the current study were …

Molecular Simulation For Neurodegenerative Diseases: From Modelling Alpha-Synuclein In Aqueous Solutions To Drug Delivery Systems, Erica Ann Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

Using computer simulations, we developed a better understanding of some key chemical steps of alpha-synuclein aggregation as well as amantadine for drug delivery systems. The aggregation and fibrillation of alpha-synuclein, a brain protein of 140 residues, has been linked to several neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Using molecular dynamics, alpha-synuclein, at various temperatures of 293 K, 310 K, 323 K and 348 K, was shown to undergo rapid conformational change. The non-amyloid- β component (NAC) of alpha-synuclein that is not sterically hindered is suspected to undergo aggregation.

Amantadine has been shown to help regulate the symptoms of Parkinson's …

Targeted Overexpression Of Metallothionein In Endothelial Cells Mitigates Pulmonary Alveolar Basement Membrane Thickening In Transgenic Diabetic Ove Mice: An Unbiased Tem Morphometric Analysis, Holly M. Hewitt

Theses and Dissertations

Damage to small blood vessels in diabetes mellitus (DM) is largely the result of hyperglycemia-driven oxidative stress. This is manifested morphologically by capillary basement membrane (BM) thickening, the hallmark feature of chronic complications of DM. In an effort to demonstrate pulmonary alveolar BM (PABM) thickness increase in DM and to demonstrate for the first time, mitigation of the increase utilizing antioxidant therapy, we crossed the severely diabetic transgenic mouse (OVE) with Jtmt, our recently developed transgenic animal model that overexpresses the antioxidant metallothionein (MT) in endothelial cells. Unbiased TEM morphometry demonstrated that PABM widths in diabetic (OVE) mice were significantly …

Cultural Hybridization: Bicultural Self-Efficacy And Resilience In Northern Plains American Indians, Kyle Xavier Hill

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined bicultural self-efficacy and its relationship to resilience in Northern Plains American Indians. American Indians in the Northern Plains, like many tribes in the United States, experienced a calamitous history marked by interactions with the federal government that were often fatal to the Indigenous peoples of North America, and found to contribute to a conflicted individual and collective well-being of these people within the Northern Plains region. As such, the investigation sought to identify the relationships between that of cultural identity, resilience, and negative life events, or risk, to measures of psychopathology. To that end, efforts involved …

Performance Comparison Between Music And Esprit Algorithms For Direction Estimation Of Arrival Signals, Samira Kharel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines and compares the performance of Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) and Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Techniques (ESPRIT) for the estimation of Direction of Arrival (DOA) of incoming signals to the smart antenna. The comparison of these two algorithms was done on the basis of parameters like number of array elements, number of incoming signals, angle difference between the incoming signals, number of the samples taken of signal, processing time and SNR ratio.

These two algorithms were implemented with MATLAB and SIMULINK for the experimental purpose. After all the experiments performed, it was analyzed that results …

Interprofessonal Education: Two Analyses Of Revised Instruments, Comparisons Of Professions, And Effectiveness Of An Interprofessional Health Care Course, Andrew Knight

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of study #1 were to assess the reliability of the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS-2010, Parsell & Bligh, 1999) instrument that was used in an Interprofessional Health Care (IPHC) course at University of North Dakota from 2010-2012 and compare students by discipline. The IPHC course curriculum team includes the director of Interprofessional Education, a course coordinator, and one faculty representative from medicine, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social work, music therapy, communication science and disorders, and nutrition/dietetics. The purposes of study #2 included an analysis of the reliability of a different version of the RIPLS (called RIPLS-2013) …

Mobile Vehicle Road And Weather Observation Quality Check Methods, Daniel Raymond Koller

Theses and Dissertations

Today State Departments of Transportation rely more and more on road weather data to make maintenance decisions. Inaccurate data can result in wrong treatment applications or inadequate staffing levels to maintain the roadway at the desired level of service.

Previous methods of road condition data reporting have been limited to static in situ sensor stations. These road weather information systems (RWIS) provide varied data about precipitation, winds, temperature, and more, but their siting does not always provide an accurate representation of weather and road conditions along the roadway. The use of mobile data collection from vehicles travelling the highway corridors …

Women's Use Of Intimate Partner Violence: An Examination Of Attachment, Coping, And Gender Ideology, Theresa Elizabeth Magelky

Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, much of the research on intimate partner violence has focused primarily on male aggressors. However, research has increasingly indicated that women use violence against male intimate partners at higher rates than previously suspected. Significant controversy exists with regard to the context, motivation, and types of violence used by women. The current study explored the degree to which female aggressors' attachment styles are associated with and predictive of their use of intimate partner violence against men. In addition, coping processes and feminine ideology were studied, particularly in combination with attachment style, to determine their relationship with use of partner …

Comparison Of United States Aia First-Inventor-To-File With Chinese First-To-File, Jing Wang, Weidong Liu, Lei Zhang, Lei Han, Ningling Wang, Stacy Lewis, Christina N. Gervasi, Tom Irving

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Based On National Origin And Ancestry: How The Goals Of Equality Have Failed To Address The Pervasive Stereotyping Of The Appalachian Tradition, Matthew H. Walker

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

Student Newspapers At Public Colleges And Universities: Lessons From The United States, Charles J. Russo, Terry L. Hapney

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

An on-campus activity of enduring interest in the United States that is present elsewhere in the English-speaking world, but that has yet to yield reported litigation or academic writing in Great Britain, concerns free speech issues associated with student newspapers in higher education. Student newspapers have long occupied a significant role in their dual functions of informing members of their campus communities and as preparation grounds for future journalists. Against this background, the remainder of this article is divided into three major sections. The first part examines the nature of student newspapers and related issues while the second examines key …

Bullying, The Law, And Safe Schools, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Few issues have generated more interest from educators in the last decade than bullying. And with good cause: various sources report that approximately 160,000 students avoid school every day for fear of being physically or emotionally abused by their peers.

Prevention strategies are difficult to develop without first understanding why bullies act as they do. Research suggests that bullies may be influenced by such factors as the personal characteristics and physical appearances of their victims, including their race, clothing, size, gender, sexual orientations (actual or perceived), general “look,” and family socioeconomic status. Some bullies, who typically lack social skills and …

International Adoption Discourse Analysis : Interdisciplinary Approaches To Media Discourse, Youngae Lee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research is focused on media discourse analysis with interdisciplinary perspectives in language, culture, and gender studies. The purpose of this study is to analyze the media discourse of live interpreter-mediated events with distinctive perspectives involving socio-cultural, structural, and linguistic approaches. The discourse used as data is collected from a live Korean TV program called “I Miss That Person” (IMTP). From IMTP, I titled the first clip “Han, Youngwoong’s Discourse” as Data 1 and the second clip “Lee, ChunShik’s Discourse” as Data 2. Two clips of each data can be seen at www.youtube.com. The analysis of the media discourse is …

Examining The Effect Of Innovation On The Market Structure Of The U.S. Media Industry, Thomas Edward Vizcarrondo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines if and how technological innovation influences market structure of the media industry. The empirical focus is twofold: 1) to measure and quantify the level of ownership concentration and competition (i.e., market structure) of the U.S. media industry, and 2) to examine the market structure of the media industry as a function of the adoption of three different media technologies, including television, cable television, and the Internet. OLS regression analysis is employed to address the following research question: How do technological innovations affect the market structure of the media industry? Results of the study provide support for the …

A Hybrid Framework Of Iterative Mapreduce And Mpi For Molecular Dynamics Applications, Shuju Bai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Developing platforms for large scale data processing has been a great interest to scientists. Hadoop is a widely used computational platform which is a fault-tolerant distributed system for data storage due to HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System) and performs fault-tolerant distributed data processing in parallel due to MapReduce framework. It is quite often that actual computations require multiple MapReduce cycles, which needs chained MapReduce jobs. However, Design by Hadoop is poor in addressing problems with iterative structures. In many iterative problems, some invariant data is required by every MapReduce cycle. The same data is uploaded to Hadoop file system in …

"It's Easier If You Have A System" : Analysis And Applications Of The Milanov Violin Method, Paula Farias Bujes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to analyze the historical context, philosophic basis, and teaching principles of Trendafil Milanov’s violin method, as well as practical applications for violin pedagogy. This qualitative case study incorporated narrative and material culture components and utilized ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews. The participants were members of the Milanov family who were raised in that tradition and an American student using the Milanov method at the time of the study. An analysis of Milanov’s last published method, First Violin Lessons (1981), was completed to complement interview and observation data. Emergent themes related to the method’s pedagogical …

On-The-Fly Tracing For Data-Centric Computing : Parallelization, Workflow And Applications, Lei Jiang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As data-centric computing becomes the trend in science and engineering, more and more hardware systems, as well as middleware frameworks, are emerging to handle the intensive computations associated with big data. At the programming level, it is crucial to have corresponding programming paradigms for dealing with big data. Although MapReduce is now a known programming model for data-centric computing where parallelization is completely replaced by partitioning the computing task through data, not all programs particularly those using statistical computing and data mining algorithms with interdependence can be re-factorized in such a fashion. On the other hand, many traditional automatic parallelization …