Digital Commons Network^™

The Relationship Between Traffic Signals And Pedestrian, Bicyclist And Transit User Exposure In Urban Areas, Courtney Natasha Slavin

Dissertations and Theses

Improving the efficiency of traffic operations along arterials is currently a priority for many agencies as their roadway infrastructure is built out to the largest possible capacity within the urban environment. Many advanced systems are being implemented to optimize traffic signal timing. Air quality is typically not a consideration when these decisions are made. The relationship between exposure to air pollution and traffic signal timing has not been fully explored by other researchers. This study is the first research effort to combine detailed traffic signal timing data (at 5 second intervals) and air pollutant exposure data. Results show that longer …

Development Of Dynamic Thermal Performance Metrics For Eco-Roof Systems, Seth Sinclair Moody

Dissertations and Theses

In order to obtain credit for an eco-roof in building energy load calculations the steady state and time-varying thermal properties (thermal mass with evapotranspiration) must be fully understood. The following study presents results of experimentation and modeling in an effort to develop dynamic thermal mass performance metrics for eco-roof systems. The work is focused on understanding the thermal parameters (foliage & soil) of an eco-roof, further validation of the EnergyPlus Green Roof Module and development of a standardized metric for assessing the time-varying thermal benefits of eco-roof systems that can be applied across building types and climate zones. Eco-roof foliage, …

Portland, Oregon's Long Hot Summers: Racial Unrest And Public Response, 1967-1969, Joshua Joe Bryan

Dissertations and Theses

The struggles for racial equality throughout northern cities during the late-1960s, while not nearly as prevalent within historical scholarship as those pertaining to the Deep South, have left an indelible mark on both the individuals and communities involved. Historians have until recently thought of the civil rights movement in the north as a violent betrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of an inclusive and integrated society, as well as coinciding with the rise, and subsequent decline, of Black Power. But despite such suppositions, the experiences of northern cities immersed in the civil rights struggle were far more varied …

Representation For The Accused: Haiti's Thirst And A Role For Clinical Legal Education, Kate Bloch

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Assessing A Need For A One-Stop Shop Disaster Management Mobile Application By Identifying The Perceptions And Utilization Of Current Disaster Preparedness Resources In Southern Louisiana, Regina B. Leingang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed method study was to assess the need for a “one-stop shop” disaster management mobile application. This was done by identifying the perceptions and utilization of current disaster preparedness resources in the southern region of the United States. The perceptions and utilization levels were measured by obtaining statistical, quantitative results from the Leingang Disaster Preparedness and Utilization survey. Individuals at four universities in the Southern disaster prone area of Louisiana were surveyed. The survey yielded a preparedness score for each survey participant. The preparedness score was achieved based on subsequent scores in three categories: …

Mass Incarceration At Sentencing, Anne R. Traum

Scholarly Works

Courts can address the problem of mass incarceration at sentencing. Although some scholars suggest that the most effective response may be through policy and legislative reform, judicial consideration of mass incarceration at sentencing would provide an additional response that can largely be implemented without wholesale reform. Mass incarceration presents a difficult problem for courts because it is a systemic problem that harms people on several scales-individual, family, and community-and the power of courts to address such broad harm is limited. This Article proposes that judges should consider mass incarceration, a systemic problem, in individual criminal cases at sentencing. Sentencing is …

A Revised View Of The Judicial Hunch, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Judicial intuition is misunderstood. Labeled as cognitive bias, it is held responsible for stereotypes of character and credibility. Framed as mental shortcut, it is blamed for overconfident and mistaken predictions. Depicted as flashes of insight, it takes credit for unearned wisdom. The true value of judicial intuition falls somewhere in between. When judges are making judgments about people (he looks trustworthy) or the future (she will be the better parent), the critics are correct: intuition based on past experience may close minds. Once a judge recognizes a familiar pattern in a few details, she may fail to see the whole …

What About The Black Greeks? : Supporting Nphcs At Pwis, Aleidra Allen

LSU Master's Theses

Many Black Greek-Letter organizations (BGLOs) were founded at historically black colleges and universities. However, subsequent chapters were chartered at various institutional types, including predominately White institutions (PWIs). Nine BGLOs make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), their umbrella organization. At PWIs, this council is typically housed in the same office as the predominately White fraternity and sorority councils. Still, there are many attributes of NPHC that make it unique from the others. To best direct this study, existing literature was reviewed. Few scholars examined NPHC specifically and little attention was given to institutional types. The purpose of this study is …

Pringle: Legal Reasoning, Text, Purpose And Teleology, Paul Craig

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The CJEU's judgment in Pringle saved the European Stability Mechanism from invalidity. The result was unsurprising, given that the contrary conclusion would have precipitated further crisis in the financial markets. The judgment is nonetheless highly interesting and not merely for those concerned with this aspect of EU law. This is because it contains much that is of more general relevance for the very nature of legal reasoning, and the blend of text, purpose and teleology that informs legal discourse. This article addresses two of the central claims made in the case.

The first was that the ESM was in reality …

What You Attend To Is What You Remember : Investigating The Unit Of Representation In Visual Working Memory, Amanda Elaine Van Lamsweerde

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The unit of representation in visual working memory (VWM) is a matter of some debate. The object benefit occurs when more features are remembered when they are combined into fewer objects. This has been used to support the perspective that objects are the unit of representation in VWM. However, the object benefit occurs only for two features from different dimensions (e.g., a blue circle: color and shape) but not two features from the same dimension (e.g., a red-and-blue bi-colored square: two colors). This suggests that both objects and features may be important in determining VWM capacity. The purpose of this …

An Examination Of The Stimuli Used In And The Theories Behind The Cross-Modal Stroop Task, Danielle A. Lutfi-Proctor

LSU Master's Theses

The classic Stroop task, during which one names the ink color of color words, has long been used as a measure of selective attention (Stroop, 1935). Selective attention generally refers to our ability to attend to one stimulus (a target) while ignoring another (a distractor). Since its initial creation, many variations of the classic Stroop task have been developed. One of these variations is cross-modal Stroop, which uses visual colored targets and auditory distractor color words. However, whether the same mechanisms and processes are used while completing the two tasks has yet to be determined. The following thesis examined cross-modal …

Quizzing And Retention In The High School Science Class, Donell Debacker Evans

LSU Master's Theses

There is a need to identify educational tools and methods that are easily assimilated into a secondary science education classroom. The use of testing as an educational tool, rather than as a summative assessment only, has emerged as a possible solution. Test-enhanced learning is attributed to the testing effect (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). The testing effect refers to the higher probability of recalling an item resulting from the act of retrieving the item from memory (testing) versus additional study trials of the item (Craney et al., 2008). A comparison of frequent testing/quizzing versus no quizzing outcomes were studied to determine …

The Role Of Foreign Authorities In U.S. Asylum Adjudication, Fatma E. Marouf

Scholarly Works

U.S. asylum law is based on a domestic statute that incorporates an international treaty, the U.N. Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. While Supreme Court cases indicate that the rules of treaty interpretation apply to an incorporative statute, courts analyzing the statutory asylum provisions fail to give weight to the interpretations of our sister signatories, which is one of the distinctive and uncontroversial principles of treaty interpretation. This Article highlights this significant omission and urges courts to examine the interpretations of other States Parties to the Protocol in asylum cases. Using as an example the current debate over social …

Metaphor And Analogy: The Sun And Moon Of Legal Persuasion, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Drawing on recent studies of social cognition, decision making, and analogical processing, this article recommends that lawyers turn to novel characterizations and metaphors to solve a particular kind of persuasion problem that is created by the way judges and juries think and decide. According to social cognition researchers, we perceive and interpret new information by following a process of schematic cognition, analogizing the new data we encounter to the knowledge structures embedded in our memories. Decision-making researchers differentiate between intuitive and reflective processes (System 1 and System 2), and they agree that in System 1 decision making, only the most …

Analysis Of Protein Aggregates And Synthetic Nanoparticles Using Capillary Electrophoresis With Light Scattering And Fluorescence Detection, Suresh Chandra Regmi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of the research presented in this dissertation is to develop capillary electrophoresis (CE) based analysis techniques for the characterization of individual particles including amyloid beta (Aâ) peptide aggregates and to apply these methods to study the aggregation of Aâ peptides. Protein self-assembly into ordered aggregates is a common and important process in normal biological function, but this process is also involved in several diseases. Amyloid beta peptide aggregation is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Thioflavin T (ThT) has been used as a fluorescent probe for the detection of Aâ aggregation. Based on previous observations of false positive fluorescent signals …

Treatment Effects Of Attention Process Training For An Individual With Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease, Kristen Michelle Ferguson

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the treatment efficacy of the Attention Process Training (APT; Sohlberg & Mateer, 2005), a therapeutic protocol designed for individuals who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), on a person with Parkinson’s disease to determine if improvement of various attention processes and memory recall could be improved. Methods: We designed a phase I, multiple baseline A1-B-A2-A3, single-subject study with one participant diagnosed with idiopathic PD and self-reported attention impairments. We used Attention Process Training (APT) protocol (Sohlberg & Mateer, 2005) to train attention process 120-minutes per session, one time per week …

Using Writing Assignments In High School Geometry To Improve Students' Proof Writing Ability, Amanda Choppin Mcallister

LSU Master's Theses

The Common Core State Standards encourage the use of writing in mathematics classrooms. This study was designed to create a template for high school teachers to use in a geometry class to improve students’ proof writing ability. The students enrolled in the class were asked to complete journal and expository writing assignments throughout the course. The assignments were scored with a rubric. To assess if growth was made in proof writing, the students were all given a test four times throughout the school year. All four tests were assessed using the same rubric. We provide evidence that the template was …

Concussion And Football: Failures To Respond By The Nfl And The Medical Profession, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Fda’S Graphic Tobacco Warning And The First Amendment, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

General Jurisdiction And The Transnational Law Market, Donald Earl Childress Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

No abstract provided.

Res Ipsa Loquitur (Or Why The Other Essays Prove My Point), Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Cognitive Dissonance Tells Us About Tone In Persuasion, Kathryn M. Stanchi

Scholarly Works

This Article takes the first step in thinking about where good advocacy should draw the line between zeal and coercion. Legal advocates differ about how to navigate that line.' Is the best service to the client to be found in the most aggressive, strongest, hard-line approach? Or is a more tempered, reasonable approach most likely to produce the best results?

This Article looks at cognitive science for guidance on this question. One cognitive process that seems to be integral to tone is cognitive dissonance, a concept I will explain in Part II. I then take a close look at two …

The Effects Of Implementing The Cooperative Learning Structure, Numbered Heads Together, In Chemistry Classes At A Rural, Low Performing High School, Daniel Paul Baker

LSU Master's Theses

Due to the positive academic results in numerous studies on cooperative learning and the need and desire to improve academic results in East Feliciana High School Chemistry classes, the implementation of a cooperative learning structure called “numbered heads together” was studied during the spring 2013 semester at this rural, low performing high school. Numbered heads together was utilized during three units of a Chemistry class with 24 students and three units of an AP Chemistry with 11 students after completion of two units taught without the use of any type of cooperative learning structure. Using pre- and post-tests, learning gain …

Teaching Social Justice, Expanding Access To Justice: An Introduction, Ngai Pindell, Jackie Gardina

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Hispanic Paradox And Older Adults’ Disabilities: Is There A Healthy Migrant Effect?, Esme Fuller Thomson, Amini Nuru-Jeter, Dawn M. Richardson, Ferrah Raza, Meredeth Minkler

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

The “Hispanic Paradox” suggests that despite rates of poverty similar to African Americans, Hispanics have far better health and mortality outcomes, more comparable to non-Hispanic White Americans. Three prominent possible explanations for the Hispanic Paradox have emerged. The “Healthy Migrant Effect” suggests a health selection effect due to the demands of migration. The Hispanic lifestyle hypothesis focuses on Hispanics’ strong social ties and better health behaviors. The reverse migration argument suggests that the morbidity profile in the USA is affected when many Hispanic immigrants return to their native countries after developing a serious illness. We analyzed data from respondents aged …

Evaluating High School Students' Constitutional And Civic Literacy: A Case Study Of The Washington, D.C. Chapter Of The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, Maryam Ahranjani, Caleb Medearis, Jeff Shook

Scholarly Works

The United States maintains a reputation as a vibrant, participatory democracy. Yet, paradoxically, formal civics education has essentially disappeared from America's public high schools, particularly urban public schools serving low-income and minority students. The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, which is offered at almost zero cost to public schools and districts, developed as a response to the need for civics education in high schools and as a way to train future lawyers in public speaking, leadership, and counseling. To support the growth of the Marshall-Brennan project all over the country, the authors of this Essay came together to study the Marshall-Brennan …

Narrative Versus Nonnarrative: The Role Of Identification, Transportation And Emotion In Reducing Health Disparities, Sheila T. Murphy, Lauren B. Frank, Joyee S. Chatterjee, Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research empirically tests whether using a fictional narrative produces a greater impact on health-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intention than presenting the identical information in a more traditional, nonfiction, non-narrative format. European American, Mexican American, and African American women (N = 758) were surveyed before and after viewing either a narrative or non-narrative cervical cancer-related film. The narrative was more effective in increasing cervical cancer-related knowledge and attitudes. Moreover, in response to the narrative featuring Latinas, Mexican Americans were most transported, identified most with the characters, and experienced the strongest emotions. Regressions revealed that transportation, identification with specific characters, …

What's Left To Remedy Wage Theft? How Arbitration Mandates That Bar Class Actions Impact Low-Wage Workers, Nantiya Ruan

Scholarly Works

For low-wage workers who suffer “wage theft” – employers illegally withholding portions of their wages – the dollars missing from their paychecks violate existing law and significantly impact the well-being of individuals, families, and communities. Despite this dire societal problem, the Supreme Court continues “closing the courtroom doors” in two ways: allowing employers to force workers out of court and into private arbitration; and prohibiting aggregate claims. Such trends, in combination, silence wage theft, leaving many claims unheard while unscrupulous employers gain direct advantage.

This Article explains how various procedural rulings have combined to prevent meaningful redress for wage theft. …

Interpreting Individual Classifications Of Hierarchical Networks, Will Landecker, Michael David Thomure, Luis M.A. Bettencourt, Melanie Mitchell, Garrett T. Kenyon, Steven P. Brumby

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hierarchical networks are known to achieve high classification accuracy on difficult machine-learning tasks. For many applications, a clear explanation of why the data was classified a certain way is just as important as the classification itself. However, the complexity of hierarchical networks makes them ill-suited for existing explanation methods. We propose a new method, contribution propagation, that gives per-instance explanations of a trained network's classifications. We give theoretical foundations for the proposed method, and evaluate its correctness empirically. Finally, we use the resulting explanations to reveal unexpected behavior of networks that achieve high accuracy on visual object-recognition tasks using well-known …

Inverted Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy And The Fundamental Diagnostic Role Of Echocardiography, Arantza Manzanal, Lara Ruiz, Jose Madrazo, Majesh Makan, Julio Perez

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is characterized by the development of transient focal wall-motion abnormalities that involve the apical and midventricular segments, in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease. A variant, inverted takotsubo cardiomyopathy, was described in 2010. We report 3 cases in which each patient's transthoracic echocardiogram revealed the characteristic basal and midventricular segmental akinesis of this variant. This pattern is not associated with coronary artery distribution, and it therefore can be differentiated from coronary artery disease with the use of echocardiography, by evaluating the distribution and temporal changes of akinetic areas.