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A Linear Programming Model And Partial Budget Analysis To Optimize Management Strategies Of Western Flower Thrips In Greenhouse Impatiens Production, Xiaohua Yue Jan 2013

A Linear Programming Model And Partial Budget Analysis To Optimize Management Strategies Of Western Flower Thrips In Greenhouse Impatiens Production, Xiaohua Yue

LSU Master's Theses

The research problem of this thesis was to compare strategies and costs of protecting impatiens in greenhouse culture from western flower thrips that would provide a plant of acceptable quality to the market and would address the issue of development of resistance to commonly used pesticides by evaluating biopesticides. Partial budgets based on alternative strategies were identified. Six control strategies were identified from a combination of commercial growers, research experts and biopesticide recommendations from product distributors. The research-recommended strategy 6 had the highest total production cost ($197.44), while one of the grower strategies based on conventional pesticides had the lowest …


Micro & Nano Scale Mechanical Testing And Assembly With Applications To Metal Based Microsystems, Ke Chen Jan 2013

Micro & Nano Scale Mechanical Testing And Assembly With Applications To Metal Based Microsystems, Ke Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Metal-based high-aspect-ratio microscale structures (HARMS) are fundamental building blocks for functional metallic micro devices. This dissertation focuses on addressing several problems in fabrication and assembly of metal based microchannel devices. First, the materials’ responses to mechanical deformation at micro & nano scales, namely the mechanical “size effect”, have been explored by molding single crystal Al with long rectangular diamond punches and long wedge shaped indenters. It is noticed that the contact pressure of rectangular punches pressed into single crystal Al strongly depends on the punch width, while that of long wedge shaped indenters depends on the included wedge angle. We …


A Calvinist View Of Visual Art In Seventeenth-Century Holland : The Iconography Of Esther In Post-Reformation Dutch Painting, Sarah Grafton Peaster Jan 2013

A Calvinist View Of Visual Art In Seventeenth-Century Holland : The Iconography Of Esther In Post-Reformation Dutch Painting, Sarah Grafton Peaster

LSU Master's Theses

The Book of Esther, found in the Old Testament, has been represented in a variety of ways throughout history. In a sweeping tale of love, honor, and sacrifice, the Jewish maiden queen, Esther, is a heroine to the oppressed. Dutch Protestants in the Golden Age felt a kinship to this subject, particularly after the Protestant Reformation and the new religious freedom gained in Holland during the sixteenth century, which continued in the seventeenth century. These men and women saw many parallels between Esther’s experience and their own, both as the covenant people of God and as the remnant preserved by …


The Influence Of Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, And Employee Engagement On Intent To Leave Among Public School Teachers In South Louisiana, Stephen T. Bond Jan 2013

The Influence Of Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, And Employee Engagement On Intent To Leave Among Public School Teachers In South Louisiana, Stephen T. Bond

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employee engagement on the intent to leave of public school teachers in South Louisiana. The teachers were described on those psychological measures as well as the demographic characteristics of age, gender, marital status, education level, years’ experience in education, years’ experience in their current school system and years until eligible for retirement. In order to collect the necessary data, the following instruments were utilized: the Job Descriptive Index/Job In General, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, the Utrecht Work and Well Being Survey, three-point Intent to …


The Effect Of Audit Market Concentration On Audit Pricing And Audit Quality : The Role Of The Size Of The Audit Market, John Daniel Eshleman Jan 2013

The Effect Of Audit Market Concentration On Audit Pricing And Audit Quality : The Role Of The Size Of The Audit Market, John Daniel Eshleman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The GAO has recently expressed concern that audit market concentration (i.e., not client concentration) could result in greater audit fees and lower audit quality. However, the extant literature finds that local audit markets with higher concentration have lower audit fees (Numan and Willekens 2012) and fewer accounting restatements (Newton et al. 2013). In this study, I show that the effect of audit market concentration on the level of audit fees depends on the size of the audit market (i.e., the size and/or number of clients in the local geographic area). When the audit market contains fewer clients and/or those clients …


Her Voice Has Life: The Myth Of Echo In Psychoanalysis And Deconstruction, And The Acoustic Vision Of A New Subjectivity, Christian Lacroix Mecham Jan 2013

Her Voice Has Life: The Myth Of Echo In Psychoanalysis And Deconstruction, And The Acoustic Vision Of A New Subjectivity, Christian Lacroix Mecham

LSU Master's Theses

Taking seriously Ovid’s claim that Echo’s voice has life, this thesis examines the use of the myth of Echo and Narcissus, as presented in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in 20th century literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, especially as to how it pertains to the creation of the human subject. I argue in favor of John Hollander’s restoration of the trope of metalepsis, and show how that trope is connected to a variety of topics, including, but not limited to, the imagery of echo in Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves; how the myth relates to the Freudian notions of primary and secondary …


Functional Significance Of Unique Sequences In Mycobaterium Smegmatis Ku Proteins, Ambuj Kumar Kushwaha Jan 2013

Functional Significance Of Unique Sequences In Mycobaterium Smegmatis Ku Proteins, Ambuj Kumar Kushwaha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ku is central to the non-homologous end-joining pathway of DNA double strand break repair, first discovered in eukaryotes and more recently in prokaryotes and archaea. This study concerns the importance of two unique sequence features of Ku protein from Mycobacterium smegmatis that include a lysine-rich extension at the C-terminus and a zinc-binding motif in the DNA-binding bridge-region. The unique C-terminal tail of M. smegmatis Ku contains several lysine-rich low-complexity PAKKA repeats that are absent from homologs encoded by obligate parasitic mycobacteria, but present in other mycobacterial proteins such as histone-like proteins. Removal of the lysine-rich extension from Ku decreased thermal …


The Influence Of Selected Perceptual And Demographic Characteristics On The Attitude Toward Mental Health Of Students Among Faculty A Public Universities In The Southeastern United States, Shannon Kuehne Walsdorf Jan 2013

The Influence Of Selected Perceptual And Demographic Characteristics On The Attitude Toward Mental Health Of Students Among Faculty A Public Universities In The Southeastern United States, Shannon Kuehne Walsdorf

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected personal and professional demographic characteristics on the attitudes toward and perceptions of selected mental health issues among currently employed faculty of four year public universities. Faculty members at two universities in Southeastern Louisiana were invited to participate in an online survey designed by the researcher to assess attitude toward mental health, willingness to help students with mental health issues, ability to identify students with mental health issues, ability to help students with mental health issues, along with a variety of personal and professional demographic characteristics. A total …


The Rhetorical Strategies Of Don Quixote And Sancho Panza, David T. Tarvin Jan 2013

The Rhetorical Strategies Of Don Quixote And Sancho Panza, David T. Tarvin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the rhetorical components of the famous novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes’ novel continues to be celebrated around the world four hundred years later. His two main protagonists epitomize opposite virtues, but their love for one another, and the promise of an ínsula, creates a bond that overcomes their differences. Don Quixote, the mad knight, values lofty ideas idealized in chivalric romance. Conversely, Sancho, the simple squire, values tangible materials he can see and touch in his own life. While the two characters first appear to be contrary in nature, by the journey’s end, as …


Spectral Breast Ct : Effect Of Adaptive Filtration On Ct Numbers, Ct Noise, And Ct Dose, Justin Silkwood Jan 2013

Spectral Breast Ct : Effect Of Adaptive Filtration On Ct Numbers, Ct Noise, And Ct Dose, Justin Silkwood

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: Adaptive filtration facilitates spectral breast CT by decreasing count rate and dynamic range requirements of photon counting detectors. This project investigated the effect of adaptive filtration on beam hardening, CT numbers, noise, and dose in dedicated breast CT. Methods: Adaptive filters were simulated to provide a flat fluence at the detector surface when used with a 14 cm breast phantom at 120 kVp. Beam hardening with each filter type was measured against increasing x-ray beam half-fan angle.. Breast CT images were simulated with and without an adaptive filter in the beam at multiple tube voltages. CT number, noise, and …


High Resolution Tephra And U/Pb Chronology Of The 3.33 – 3.26 Ga Mendon Formation, Barberton, Greenstone Belt, South Africa, Nicholas Burns Decker Jan 2013

High Resolution Tephra And U/Pb Chronology Of The 3.33 – 3.26 Ga Mendon Formation, Barberton, Greenstone Belt, South Africa, Nicholas Burns Decker

LSU Master's Theses

The Mendon Formation in the Barberton Greenstone Belt of South Africa marks the boundary between the Onverwacht and Fig Tree Groups. These groups are characterized by mafic to ultramafic volcanism and felsic volcanism with related epiclastic sedimentation, respectively. This transition marks the end of komatiitic volcanism in the Barberton Greenstone Belt and is accompanied by numerous impact-related spherule layers. This study characterizes the upper Mendon Formation texturally and geochemically over a wide areal extent and across structure and facies change in an attempt to better understand the evolution of tectonic processes at this boundary. A suite of whole rock and …


Membership-Based Fundraising Within Higher Education : A Strategic Marketing Management Perspective, Joshua Paul Garland Jan 2013

Membership-Based Fundraising Within Higher Education : A Strategic Marketing Management Perspective, Joshua Paul Garland

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis provides a comprehensive approach to launching a successful parent membership-based fundraising program, an exploration of best practices in the United States, and a complete development plan for parent fundraising for a large public university. The research discussed is applicable to many different organizations who wish to start a parent fundraising program, with the strongest relevance on parent fundraising within large public universities. This thesis is intended for an audience familiar with the intricacies of fundraising; however, primary, secondary, and other higher education markets may be strongly interested in the research discussed.


An Etho-Conventional Decision-Making Model For Sport Managers, Adam G. Pfleegor Jan 2013

An Etho-Conventional Decision-Making Model For Sport Managers, Adam G. Pfleegor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The need for an ethically conscious sport management workforce is evident in contemporary athletics (Simon, 2010). As the complexities of regulations continue to increase, the intricacy of ethical-decisions faced by managers similarly intensifies. Interestingly, future sport managers are rarely prepared with appropriate ethical decision-making education (Malloy & Zakus, 1995). This lack of education is problematic due to the far-reaching implications that managerial decision-makers have on firms. The aim of this investigation was to develop a novel ethical decision-making model for sport managers that can be practically implemented to resolve ethical dilemmas that they may encounter on a daily basis. The …


Organization Benefits - The Panacea For All That Ails You? A Dyadic, Dual-Earner Investigation Of Organization-Offered Benefits And Their Effect On Individuals And Their Partners, Suzanne Marie Booth-Ledoux Jan 2013

Organization Benefits - The Panacea For All That Ails You? A Dyadic, Dual-Earner Investigation Of Organization-Offered Benefits And Their Effect On Individuals And Their Partners, Suzanne Marie Booth-Ledoux

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In an effort to attract and retain top talent, organizations often offer and implement various organization benefits. The focus of this dissertation is on the outcomes of those offered organization benefits on employees and their partners. Three types of organization benefits were assessed: family-friendly benefits, financial and compensation benefits, and health care and wellness benefits. Additionally, the connection between the offering of these benefits with family-supportive organization perceptions was also examined. Family-supportive organization perceptions was shown to directly and indirectly link to individual-level outcomes including work-to-family conflict and psychological wellbeing. Moreover, because individuals do not exist in a vacuum (i.e., …


Walter Burle Marx's Cello Concerto, Pedro Augusto Huff Jan 2013

Walter Burle Marx's Cello Concerto, Pedro Augusto Huff

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract Brazilian pianist, conductor, and composer Walter Burle Marx (1902-1990) is an important musical personality from Brazil whose works and contributions to the introduction of Latin American concert music throughout the world have yet to be fully recognized. In addition to providing a brief biography of Walter Burle Marx, this monograph focuses on his Violoncello Concerto. The concerto is dated 1984, and dedicated to his cellist daughter, Madalena. It was premiered in July 18th, 2006 by cellist Dennis Parker in Brasília (Brazil), with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional, conducted by João Guilherme Ripper. I was introduced to this piece …


A Preliminary Investigation Of The Demographic, Systematic Risk, And Systematic Promotive Factors That Influence Higher Educational Attainment Among Foster Care Youths And Young Adults Who Age Out Of The Foster Care System, Dana R. Hunter Jan 2013

A Preliminary Investigation Of The Demographic, Systematic Risk, And Systematic Promotive Factors That Influence Higher Educational Attainment Among Foster Care Youths And Young Adults Who Age Out Of The Foster Care System, Dana R. Hunter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this explanatory-descriptive study was to investigate the demographic, systematic risk, and systematic promotive factors that best predicted higher educational attainment among foster care youths and young adults who exit the foster care system. The researcher conducted a secondary data analysis on National Youth in Transition Data (NYTD) and child welfare administrative data collected by a child welfare agency in the southern region of the United States. The survey participants in this study consisted of a sample of 1,266 current foster care youths and 157 young adults who aged out of care between the ages of 14 and …


Burn, Boil & Eat : An Intersection Analysis Of Stereotypes In The Most Influential Films Of All Time, Roslyn M. Satchel Jan 2013

Burn, Boil & Eat : An Intersection Analysis Of Stereotypes In The Most Influential Films Of All Time, Roslyn M. Satchel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research builds upon the work of Entman & Rojecki (2001) in examining the ways the most influential movies use racial stereotypes in media frames. The results of this study contribute to the rather limited mass media research and body of knowledge regarding the media content that attracts the largest and most enduring audiences in the new media landscape. As ten of the films that have generated the most revenue, the movies in this sample constitute a genre of movies that are also a prime feature of on-going publishing, cable, internet, digital gaming, DVD, and movie sequel franchises. If, as …


Musical Achievement And Attitude Of Beginning Piano Students In A Synchronous Videoconferencing Lesson Environment, Rebecca Carter Bellelo Jan 2013

Musical Achievement And Attitude Of Beginning Piano Students In A Synchronous Videoconferencing Lesson Environment, Rebecca Carter Bellelo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to examine the effects of an online synchronous lesson environment on beginning piano students’ musical achievement, time spent in target behaviors across the study period, and attitude toward piano lessons. Beginning piano students (N = 19) between ages 6-9 with no prior private music instruction served as participants, receiving 30-minute weekly lessons throughout a 7-month period. Participants were grouped into one of the two lesson groups: a face-to-face traditional lesson group or distance lesson group. Pre-treatment assessments included a beginner readiness assessment and online attitudinal survey. The post-treatment musical achievement tasks (a prepared performance …


Development And Evaluation Of Molecular-Based Assays For Detecting Salmonella Serovars In Various Food Commodities, Qianru Yang Jan 2013

Development And Evaluation Of Molecular-Based Assays For Detecting Salmonella Serovars In Various Food Commodities, Qianru Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As a leading cause of foodborne illnesses and outbreaks, Salmonella poses a major public health risk in the United States and worldwide. Various food commodities including meat and poultry, eggs, and fresh produce can serve as the transmission vehicles for Salmonella infections. To better ensure the safety of these products and protect public health, rapid, accurate, and reliable detection methods for Salmonella are needed. Molecular-based methods like loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), have gained wide applications in Salmonella detection, owning to their rapidity, specificity, and sensitivity. However, there is a paucity of data on the robustness of these assays. And very …


Subsurface Stratigraphic Architecture Of Pleistocene Sediments In The Greater New Orleans Area, James Ayrer Jan 2013

Subsurface Stratigraphic Architecture Of Pleistocene Sediments In The Greater New Orleans Area, James Ayrer

LSU Master's Theses

A major environmental and economic problem currently faces the New Orleans area, in southeastern Louisiana, stemming from salinization of freshwater aquifers that are important resources for the community. Major pumping of these aquifers has altered the potentiometric flow, allowing saltier bodies of water to flow into the region. The impact of pumping wells on encroachment of saltwater and the time as well as the route for saltwater to travel from the current saltwater-freshwater interface to pumping centers is not well constrained. Water planners need additional information to make decisions about future management of groundwater resources. The most effective way to …


The Refusal Speech Acts Of Two Generations Of Korean Women : Mother-In-Law And Daughter-In-Law In Interaction, Saem Han Jan 2013

The Refusal Speech Acts Of Two Generations Of Korean Women : Mother-In-Law And Daughter-In-Law In Interaction, Saem Han

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study is to analyze and interpretate the refusal speech acts of two generations of Korean women: mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. To be specific, it examines if daughters-in-law’s use of strategies were dependent on the age difference/ hierarchies and to see if there was any difference in the type of strategies used by daughters-in-law depending on whether mothers-in-law have social power or not. The data were collected from three soap operas. Compared with previous data collection methods, such as discourse completion tests or role-plays, this data collection method has advantages for a pragmatics study. The results indicated that …


To Speak As A Human, A Modern And As An American : Blues Rhetoric In Cornel West's Prophetic Pragmatism, Raquel M. Robvais Jan 2013

To Speak As A Human, A Modern And As An American : Blues Rhetoric In Cornel West's Prophetic Pragmatism, Raquel M. Robvais

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines Cornel West’s description of the human condition and the works of art produced in three particular ways. First, there is being human which is a universal condition that speaks to all people and their struggles in the face of death and fallibility. Second, there is the condition of being modern, which speaks to people in a particular age in which power must be challenged with intelligence. Third, there is the idea of being American, which is to confront historical legacies of injustice through political action and agency. Rhetoric speaks to these existential crises and draws its resources …


Technology Argument Frames : Examining The Impact Of Argumentation On The Development Of A Health Information Exchange Initiative, David Murithi Murungi Jan 2013

Technology Argument Frames : Examining The Impact Of Argumentation On The Development Of A Health Information Exchange Initiative, David Murithi Murungi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation applies the Technology Frames of Reference (TFR) theoretical lens to examine the implementation of a health information exchange (HIE) initiative in southeast USA. It extends the TFR lens by developing Toulminian argument maps to depict frame structure and employing the argument theories of Toulmin, Habermas and Perelman Olbrechts-Tyteca to help analyze the role that argumentation plays in the emergence and development of the technology frames that characterized this HIE endeavor. The argument maps developed in this dissertation helped to assess the level of argumentation within frames and to compare argumentation across frame domains. The argument maps were also …


Examining The Differential Effects Of The Mystery Motivator Intervention Using Chosen Versus Unknown Reinforcers, Natalie Marie Robichaux Jan 2013

Examining The Differential Effects Of The Mystery Motivator Intervention Using Chosen Versus Unknown Reinforcers, Natalie Marie Robichaux

LSU Master's Theses

Disruptive classroom behaviors are among the most prevalent of childhood problems and are associated with reduced instruction time, poor academic achievement, and persistent behavior problems throughout childhood. Class-wide interventions, such as the Mystery Motivator, are an easy and time efficient way to increase the level of classroom management and remediate disruptive behavior patterns. Although the effectiveness of class-wide interventions is well documented, the literature is still inconsistent as to which type of reinforcement is more effective when using behavioral interventions. Some research suggests individuals prefer a choice in reinforcement, while other research suggests choice is just as preferred as reinforcement …


Exploring The Learnability Of Numeric Datasets, Di Lin Jan 2013

Exploring The Learnability Of Numeric Datasets, Di Lin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

When doing classification, it has often been observed that datasets may exhibit different levels of difficulty with respect to how accurately they can be classified. That is, there are some datasets which can be classified very accurately by many classification algorithms, and there also exist some other datasets that no classifier can classify them with high accuracy. Based on this observation, we try to address the following problems: a)what are the factors that make a dataset easy or difficult to be accurately classified? b) how to use such factors to predict the difficulties of unclassified datasets? and c) how to …


Poultry Litter Ash As A Phosphorus Source For Greenhouse Crop Production, Daniel Evan Wells Jan 2013

Poultry Litter Ash As A Phosphorus Source For Greenhouse Crop Production, Daniel Evan Wells

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for all life forms, including plants, but is a limited agricultural resource whose future availability is in question. Therefore, identification of alternative forms of P fertilizers is important. Poultry litter ash (PLA), a byproduct of bioenergy production, contains high concentrations of P comparable to conventional fertilizers. Forms of P contained in PLA have been characterized as having low water solubility. Nutrient losses during containerized plant production are high due to excessive inputs of water and nutrients and low nutrient sorption capacities of common horticultural substrate components. Environmental concerns over reduced water quality intensify this …


Academic Self-Monitoring In College Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Mindy C. Scheithauer Jan 2013

Academic Self-Monitoring In College Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Mindy C. Scheithauer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Self-monitoring is an intervention that can result in behavior change by having individuals observe and record their own behavior. Self-monitoring has received empirical support in changing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) related behaviors in children, but there is scarce research regarding self-monitoring with adults with ADHD. The current study implemented a self-monitoring intervention aimed at improving academic behavior and medication adherence in college students with ADHD. The self-monitoring intervention included study skills training, goal-setting, identification of individualized self-monitoring behavior, and follow-up meetings to discuss progress. The participants were asked to monitor their behavior on a daily basis using an electronic system. Compared …


Assessing The Efficiency Of Alternative Best Management Practices To Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution In The Broiler Production Region Of Louisiana, Bryan Gottshall Jan 2013

Assessing The Efficiency Of Alternative Best Management Practices To Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution In The Broiler Production Region Of Louisiana, Bryan Gottshall

LSU Master's Theses

The Louisiana broiler production region is located in North Central and Northwestern Louisiana. The region consists of twelve parishes in Northwestern and North Central Louisiana. The broiler production region is a significant contributor of nonpoint source (NPS) pollution to nearby waterways. This pollution is a consequence of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus runoff caused by agricultural production. NPS pollution is difficult to mitigate due to uncertainties in its point of origin as well as a host of other factors ranging from rainfall to topographical parameters. Best Management Practices (BMPS) have been shown to be a reliable method for reducing nonpoint source …


Finite Element Methods For Fourth Order Variational Inequalities, Yi Zhang Jan 2013

Finite Element Methods For Fourth Order Variational Inequalities, Yi Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this work we study finite element methods for fourth order variational inequalities. We begin with two model problems that lead to fourth order obstacle problems and a brief survey of finite element methods for these problems. Then we review the fundamental results including Sobolev spaces, existence and uniqueness results of variational inequalities, regularity results for biharmonic problems and fourth order obstacle problems, and finite element methods for the biharmonic problem. In Chapter 2 we also include three types of enriching operators which are useful in the convergence analysis. In Chapter 3 we study finite element methods for the displacement …


Suspensory Filaments, Santiago Pineda Jan 2013

Suspensory Filaments, Santiago Pineda

LSU Master's Theses

The interrelationships between vision, desire, and language are the elements that drive my artistic practice. “What is seeing?” “How is seeing related to desire?” These questions are at the base of my interests. I recognize optics as a subset of perception, yet I strive to reform them into interchangeable components. My interest in optics is based on doubt. I’m not interested in optic’s correctness, clinical orientation, or current sophistication, but rather in undermining its limitations. Our culture still struggles to absorb the notion of the sentient being, one example is our acuity of vision being standardized to 20/20. Within my …