Digital Commons Network^™

A Case Study Analysis Of Web 2.0 Technology Use In Higher Education: Effects Of Using A Wiki On Outcomes And Attitudes In Legal Education, Patrick Allan Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using a case study methodology with descriptive and qualitative techniques at a major law school in the South, this research study explored factors that contribute to the perceived pedagogical value of wiki technology in legal education, as well as attitudes and perceptions of law faculty and students regarding the effectiveness of using wikis as a productivity tool for improving outcomes in authentic group activities in a collaborative environment in legal education. This study also explored the dynamics of the interactions that occurred among users while utilizing wiki technology over a 6-week period. The results suggest that law students exhibit a …

New Approaches To Smart Grid Security With Scada Systems, Bixiang Tang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The use of information technology in electric power grid introduces the vulnerability problem looming the future smart grid. The supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)is the first defense, which itself is undermined by potential malicious attacks. This dissertation studies two particular security threats facing the smart grid and SCADA systems: the unobservable attack and the replay attack. The former is well known in fault detection of the power grid and has received renewed interest in the past a few years, while the latter is motivated by the Stuxnet worm allegedly used against the nuclear facilities in Iran. For unobservable attacks, …

Tweeted Out: Management Tools To Prevent Social Media From Monopolizing Your Time, Ashley A. Ahlbrand

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Writing (And Reading) Appellate Briefs In The Digital Age, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

In this essay, Professor Beazley briefly reviews a slice of the voluminous research about how human beings read digital as opposed to paper text. In particular, she discusses studies of knowledge workers (defined to include those who use or generate knowledge in their work)4 and those who engage in active reading (defined as a reading process that includes nonsequential reading, searching a text, comparing texts, annotating, bookmarking, and the like).She concludes by making suggestions for legal readers, legal writers, courts, and database providers as to how best to accommodate the process of digital reading.

Can You Hear The People Sing: Community Theater, Play And The Middle Class, Heather Marie Moats

LSU Master's Theses

Over the last century community, or “little”, theaters have popped up all over the United States as a way for amateur actors to perform. Academic research in both anthropology and theater studies have greatly overlooked and dismissed these theaters. Using data collected via ethnographic methods over the course of two musical productions, approximately seven months total, at a community theater in Baton Rouge, Louisiana I hope to demonstrate both why individuals, predominately within the middle class, with limited leisure time choose to spend it volunteering at a community theater as well as some of the social and interpersonal benefits it …

A Toolkit For Tracking And Mediating Parametric Objects Upon Commodity Mobile Devices, Shantanu Thatte

LSU Master's Theses

The large number of mobile devices introduced in the market in recent years provide numerous interaction opportunities. We used commercially available products to create an interface for interaction with diverse datasets. We extended this scenario to include multiple physical instances, realizing a real-time multi-party interaction session. Tangibles act as tools and containers, in a fashion that requires their physical location and orientation to be evaluated continuously during a session. We present a technique to detect an object using only the touchscreen of a mobile device as an input, by means of touch patterns created on the screen. This helps avoid …

Letting Go Of Old Ideas, William D. Henderson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Graviora Manent: Heavier Things Remain, Andrea Laborde Barbier

LSU Master's Theses

The photographic collection Graviora Manent addresses the complexities and deciphering of human relationships, intensified through the decisive acts of obscuring or revealing formal information. The pictures are made using an alternative French photographic method called mordançage, which physically alters the surface of the gelatin silver print using a combination of chemistry and water. The images frequently include recurring elements of my own dreams, as well as figures set in recognizably interior or exterior environments. Recurring themes in the series include what is public vs. what is private, voyeurism, familiarity, and the unknown.

Examining The Psychometrics Of The Psychopathology Inventory For Mentally Retarded Adults-Ii For Adults With Mild And Moderate Intellectual Disabilities, Brian Christopher Belva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With growing recognition of the occurrence of psychological disorders in individuals with intellectual disability (ID), researchers and clinicians alike have placed emphasis on developing measures to assess for psychopathologies in this population. Despite an increased interest in the topic, there is still a dearth of psychometrically robust measures available to assess for psychopathology in adults with mild and moderate ID. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a revised measure for psychopathology in individuals with mild and moderate ID, the Psychopathology Inventory for Mentally Retarded Adults – Second Edition (PIMRA-II). Internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and …

Leader Benefits: Exploring How Leaders Benefit From Lmx, Jeffrey Muldoon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Leader Member Exchange (LMX) theory has emerged as one of the most prominent leadership theories over the last thirty years. Scholars found that subordinates with elevated levels of LMX experience higher degrees of job satisfaction and work motivation, experience lower levels of burnout and turnover intentions, and demonstrate stronger contextual and focal job performance. Yet the work outcomes for supervisors have not been heavily researched. Scholars assume, but have not demonstrated, that supervisors gain cognitive and affective benefits beyond job performance from their relationships with subordinates. These benefits are crucial because they are common to social exchange and differentiate supervisor/subordinate …

The Effect Of Habituation And Changes In Cognition On Anxious Children's Performance On The Wisc-Iv, Franziska Noack

LSU Master's Theses

Researchers have shown that children with anxiety disorders perform worse on intelligence tests than children with no diagnosable disorders. At this point, two theories have been put forth to describe the direction of this relationship: anxiety results in lowered test performance, and underlying cognitive deficits result in the development of anxiety. Lowered test performance as a result of anxiety may either be due to attention-deficits due to state anxiety or anxiety-elicited difficulties with long-term retention and learning. The purpose of this study was to further examine the first theory: that clinical levels of anxiety can hamper intelligence test performance in …

Modeling Near Surface, Gas-Induced Seafloor Deformation Using Thin Plate Mechanics In The Thunder Horse Oil Field, Gulf Of Mexico And Ninilchik Field, Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska, Michael I. Thoma

LSU Master's Theses

Seabed topographic expressions such as pockmarks and domes caused by the vertical migration and accumulation of methane are found in muddy, cohesive sea beds around the world. These surface features range from 10-1000 m in diameter and 1-20 m in relief (Judd and Hovland, 2007). The mechanics of soft, cohesive sediment deformation due to overpressure from rising gas is not well understood or quantitatively defined despite the hazards they present to offshore drilling. Shallow gas pockets and overpressured sediments formed by the migration of subsurface gas to the seafloor can cause drilling blowouts, resulting in the release of large amounts …

A Comparative Assessment Of Crowded Source Travel Time Estimates: A Case Study Of Bluetooth Vs Inrix On A Suburban Arterial, Fahad Fasha Alhajri

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Travel time is one of the most widely used measures of traffic performance monitoring for the transportation systems. It is a simple concept that refers to the time required to traverse between two points of interest. Travel time is communicated and used by a wide variety of audience such as commuters, media reporters, and transportation engineers and planners. Recent developments within the wireless communication area made it possible to collect travel time data at a relatively low cost. These emerging technologies include mobile phone based technologies, in-vehicle navigation technologies and automatic vehicle identification technologies. Although these technologies offer a great …

Stroke And Aphasia Quality Of Life Scale-39: Investigating Preliminary Content Validity Of Picture Representations By People With Mild To Moderate Aphasia, Lea Jane Heise-Jensen

LSU Master's Theses

Speech-language pathologists must consider the clients’ quality of life (QoL) to provide effective and meaningful evidence-based treatment (ASHA, 2005). Quality of life assessment goes beyond language impairments and is often a key part of planning intervention. However, few QoL measures exist for people with aphasia (PWA). The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39; Hilari, 2003) is one of the few valid and reliable measures used to assess QoL in people with mild to moderate aphasia. However, the validity and reliability of the SAQOL-39 has not been established for individuals with severe aphasia who are unable to read and …

Coworking: Crafting Lives Alongside Each Other, Claire Frances Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coworking is a form of alternative work arrangement in which communities of individuals share common office and work space but are most often employed by different employers within different fields/industries (Foertsch, 2011). Despite its growing prevalence, coworking is nearly absent from the organizational literature. The present mixed methods study introduced and defined the construct of extent of coworking. Extent of coworking is conceptually defined in this research as the degree to which an individual spends her/his workweek coworking. Qualitative literature review was conducted to establish this construct, and qualitative interview data provided support for the definition. Using job crafting and …

Untangling Earth System Responses Recorded In Sulfate's Sulfur And Oxygen Isotopes At The Dawn Of Multicellular Life And Today, Bryan Alan Killingsworth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Major Earth system perturbations in the deep past and today are recorded in sulfate sulfur and oxygen isotopes, as examined here in three cases. (1) Sedimentary sulfate record of the “Marinoan Oxygen-17 Depletion” (MOSD) event, implies ultra-high CO2 atmosphere at ~635 Ma after global glaciation. MOSD duration is constrained by correlating its most complete record to radiometric dates. Barium sulfate layers in South China sediments show the MOSD in lower layers but persistently absent up section. Carbon-13 correlation locates the MOSD within dated intervals from other sites, yielding a 0 - 0.99 Myr duration. Thus, sedimentary constraint on this non-steady-state …

Characterization Of A Water Soluble, Non-Ionic, Helical Poly(Α-Amino Acid), Wayne Huberty

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A water soluble, non-ionic, rodlike polymer, PEGL, was synthesized and characterized in efforts to synthesize a novel model polymer to study stiff polymers in solution. The rodlike system is likely stiff due to a high relative percent helicity in water up to 50 °C, measured by circular dichroism, the observation of liquid crystalline domains in water, and from the slope measured from conformation plots supplied by GPC/MALS; however, it also apparent the system is aggregating in both a 2 mM azide solution and a buffer (200 mM NaNO3 + 20 mM NaH2PO4 + 2 mM NaN3), in corroboration of negative …

Advanced Control Of Small-Scale Power Systems With Penetration Of Renewable Energy Sources, Shaghayegh Kazemlou

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Stability, protection, and operational restrictions are important factors to be taken into account in a proper integration of distributed energy. The objective of this research is presenting advanced controllers for small-scale power systems with penetration of renewable energy sources resources to ensure stable operation after the network disturbances. Power systems with distributed energy resources are modeled and controlled through applying nonlinear control methods to their power electronic interfaces in this research. The stability and control of both ac and dc systems have been studied in a multi-source framework. The dc distribution system is represented as a class of interconnected, nonlinear …

Bells In Tower At Evening Toll : A Performer's Guide To The Songs Of David P. Rossow On The Texts Of William Shakespeare And A. E. Housman For Baritone Voice And Piano, Matthew Joseph Daniels

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

David P. Rossow (b. 1975) is a contemporary American composer and arranger of choral works, music for jazz ensemble, and most recently, songs for solo voice and piano. This document serves as a performer’s guide to Rossow’s songs for baritone/low male voice and piano, Three Shakespeare Sonnets and Three A.E. Housman Songs. Chapter 1 is comprised of relevant biographical information about the composer from early childhood to present (2014). Chapters 2 and 3 are performance guides to Three Shakespeare Sonnets and Three A.E. Housman Songs, respectively. Included in these chapters are the following: date of composition; source of poetry; harmonic …

Development Of An Optical Sensor For Real-Time Weed Detection Using Laser Based Spectroscopy, Arie Jacobus Paap

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The management of weeds in agriculture is a time consuming and expensive activity, including in Australia where the predominant strategy is blanket spraying of herbicides. This approach wastes herbicide by applying it in areas where there are no weeds. Discrimination of different plant species can be performed based on the spectral reflectance of the leaves. This thesis describes the development of a sensor for automatic spot spraying of weeds within crop rows. The sensor records the relative intensity of reflected light in three narrow wavebands using lasers as an illumination source.

A prototype weed sensor which had been previously developed …

Space-Time Statistical Analysis Of Malaria Morbidity Incidence Cases In Ghana: A Geostatistical Modelling Approach, Simon K. Appiah

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Malaria is one of the most prevalent and devastating health problems worldwide. It is a highly endemic disease in Ghana, which poses a major challenge to both the public health and socio-economic development of the country. Major factors accounting for this situation include variability in environmental conditions and lack of prevention services coupled with host of other socio-economic factors. Ghana’s National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) risk assessment measures have been largely based on household surveys which provided inadequate data for accurate prediction of new incidence cases coupled with frequent incomplete monthly case reports. These raise concerns about annual estimates on …

The Outcomes Of New Teachers Being Reflective, John Whittington Seddon

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

New university teachers are typically advancing scholars who have recently commenced academic teaching duties. Referred to as neophytes in this study, these teachers are usually early career academics, postgraduate students or sessional lecturers who begin teaching with little more training than attendance at short professional development courses or seminars. Their teaching and learning theories are generally naive and their practice is often limited. In view of the already substantiated connections that have been found between teachers’ conceptions of teaching (COTs) and their practical approaches to teaching, the COTs held by neophytes are of consequence, as they are usually indicative of …

De Concentv Amisso Qvaerendo: An Investigation Into The Relative Benefits Of Three Different Types Of Ambient Music On The Observed Agitated Behaviour And Quality Of Life Of Dementia Sufferers In Residential Aged Care Facilities, Peter Wilkinson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

There is an increasing body of research evidence to support the use of music as a therapeutic modality in reducing the agitated behaviour frequently associated with late-stage dementia. Although much of this evidence suggests that music interventions are most effective when they are “individualized”, this type of intervention is often difficult to implement in large, busy, aged care facilities where residents may be located together in communal areas during the day. The challenge therefore is to try and identify a particular musical genre which, when played as “ambient” or “background” music, demonstrates a consistent capacity to reduce agitated behaviour in …

Redefining Internal Audit Performance: Impact On Corporate Governance, Razimah Binti Abdullah

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

One of the preventive measures to situations akin to world financial crises increasingly forwarded is effective internal audit function (IAF) (e.g., Imhoff, 2003; Mohamad & Muhamad Sori, 2011). Internal audit, a component of corporate governance, continues to evolve due to changes in business strategies and requirements placed on it by legislators. The roles of internal auditors and audit committees (ACs), the key personnel in IAFs, are changing to a more value-added approach as business strategies move towards corporate sustainability and organisational excellence. Suggestions forwarded to improve the performance or determining the quality of IAF include effective involvement of ACs in …

Fatherhood In Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia, Japan, And Australia, David W. Shwalb, Barbara J. Shwalb

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

This article illustrates that the roles of fathers are highly variable and context-dependent. Research data from five diverse societies (Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia, Japan, and Australia) show that fathers, fathering, and fatherhood differ within societies according to eight types of contextual influence. Examples are provided of each contextual factor: (1) geographical location (e.g., dispersion of fathers across huge land masses in Russia and Australia; impact of dense populations in Japan and Bangladesh); (2) long-term historical legacies (centuries of patriarchy in Brazil) and short-term historical events (fall of communism in Russia); (3) family characteristics (joint, extended families of Bangladesh; small Japanese families); …

Exploring The Role Of Parents In Supporting Recreational Book Reading Beyond Primary School, Margaret K. Merga

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Levels of aliteracy have been found to rise in adolescence, and this article explores the potential influence of parents on this trend. The views of adolescent students who took part in semi-structured interviews for the West Australian Study in Adolescent Book Reading (WASABR) provide insight into how parental support may change in the adolescent years. Student perspectives support earlier findings that there is an expiration of parental encouragement in many cases, though this sometimes occurs as children are avid readers and thus the support is no longer deemed necessary. The experiences of students with parents who provided continued encouragement into …

Altered Cytological Parameters In Buccal Cells From Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Alzheimer's Disease, Maxime François, Wayne Leifert, Jane Hecker, Jeffrey Faunt, Ralph Martins, Philip Thomas, Michael Fenech

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Previous studies have shown that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may be reflective of the early stages of more pronounced neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). There is a need for a minimally invasive and inexpensive diagnostic to identify those who exhibit cellular pathology indicative of MCI and AD risk so that they can be prioritized for primary preventative measures. The hypothesis was that a minimally invasive approach using cytological markers in isolated buccal mucosa cells can be used to identify individuals of both MCI and AD. An automated buccal cell assay was developed using laser scanning cytometry (LSC) to …

Contrasting Biogeochemical Cycles Of Cobalt In The Surface Western Atlantic Ocean, Gabrial Dulaquais, Marie Boye, Rob Middag, Stephanis Owens, Viene Puigcorbe, Ken Buesseler, Pere Masque´, Hein J. De Baar, Xavier Carton

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Dissolved cobalt (DCo; 0.2μm; 10%) to the DCo stock of the mixed layer in the equatorial and north subtropical domains. Biotic and abiotic processes as well as the physical terms involved in the biogeochemical cycle of Co were defined and estimated. This allowed establishing the first global budget of DCo for the upper 100m in the western Atlantic. The biological DCo uptake flux was the dominant sink along the section, as reflected by the overall nutrient-type behavior of DCo. The regeneration varied widely within the different biogeochemical domains, accounting for 10% of the DCo-uptake rate in the subarctic gyre and …

Motherless Mothers: Maternally Bereaved Women In Their Everyday Roles As Mothers, Bethwyn Rowe, Bronwyn A. Harman

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Motherless mothers are women who lose their mothers to death prior to having their children, and therefore raise their children without the maternal support and guidance afforded to many women whose mothers are still alive (Edelman, 2006). A qualitative research design was used to gain an in-depth understanding of the everyday experiences faced by motherless mothers. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 motherless mothers. Four major themes emerged including grief, support, absence of knowledge, and changes to self following loss. Results provide insight into the ongoing influence a mother's death can have on a daughter's life and draw distinction …

Undergraduate Perceptions Of The Development Of Team-Working Skills, Denise Jackson, Ruth Sibson, Linda Riebe

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose: The ability to working effectively with others (WEWO) is critical yet industry continues to lament deficiencies in new graduates. Progress in developing this highly valued skill in undergraduates is impeded by a lack of conceptual clarity and evidence of how best to measure it, and a tendency to adopt an outcomes-focused, rather than process-oriented, approach. This paper aims to investigate undergraduate perceptions of how well a stand-alone employability skill development programme, operating in an Australian Business Faculty, is fostering the WEWO skill set and which pedagogical practices are considered to add most value. Design/methodology/approach: The study examines undergraduate perceptions …