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Consumer Assessment Of Healthcare Providers And Systems (Cahps) Surveys: Assessing Patient Experience, Lisa Sprague

National Health Policy Forum

This publication provides an overview of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) family of surveys, which are widely used by both public and private health plans and providers to assess the patient's experience of health care. Included is information on survey contents, how surveys are tailored to different users, and how the resulting information is collected, reported, and used to help consumers make choices and providers carry out quality improvement, as well as its role in pay-for-performance reimbursement.

Digital Finger Painting: A Qualitative Exploration Of The Tablet Computer And Its Artistic Implications In An Early Childhood Setting, Sarah Nicole Ackermann

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to better understand the implications of the tablet computer for learning and, specifically, in the art classroom. A qualitative study was designed following grounded theory measures for data analysis in order to explore timely questions regarding the tablet computer and how young children react to such technology as a drawing tool. An early childhood center was accessed for this research, and 30 children between the ages of three and five years old consented to participate. Four educators and 35 parents were also enlisted in an effort to elicit substantive perspectives regarding the tablet and …

Visions Of The Amistad: American Public Engagement With The Amistad Story, Samuel Perkins

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Steven Spielberg’s movie Amistad, released in 1997, is considered to be a good movie. The New York Times published a very favorable review of the film when it came out stating that it provides “tough, sobering depictions of the captives’ ordeal.” It has all of the ingredients of a great historical motion picture; it is interesting, exciting at times, and educational. Amistad is a go to film for many high school history teachers to begin discussion on the Amistad case. While the movie follows the movements of high profile characters from the Amistad story such as Martin Van Buren, Cinque, …

Developing A Book Buddies Curriculum For English Language Learners, Melissa M. Cieto

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Bamc To Pay ‚¬ 127 Million In Government Bonds To Banka Celje Before Year End, Bank Assets Management Company (Bamc)/Družba Za Upravljanje Terjatev Bank, D.D. (Dutb)

Documents

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Dopamine On The Magnitude And Duration Of The Placebo Effect, Steve T. Brewer

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A placebo effect is a real and beneficial psychobiological phenomenon following the administration of a substance or procedure that has no inherent power to produce an effect. Nocebo effects, on the other hand are genuine and detrimental psychobiological phenomenon following the administration of and inert substance or procedure. These effects have been extensively studied but are not well understood. Central to the development of a placebo effect is the anticipation of benefit or the anticipation of harm. Indeed, expectancy and conditioning are thought to be the two primary mechanisms involved in the acquisition of the placebo effect. The neurotransmitter Dopamine …

The Narratives Of Young Women With Brca 1/2 Gene Mutation: A Qualitative Analysis, Drew D. Reilly

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A narrative qualitative research design was used to understand the stories of young women diagnosed with BRCA1 and BRCA 2 genetic mutation. Four participants were selected who met the following criteria: (a) the participant is diagnosed with BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation, b) is within the age range of 18 to 35, (c) is without a cancer diagnosis, and is (d) not currently pregnant and does not have children. The four participants were interviewed through open-ended inquiry. The participants’ narratives proved both similar and dissimilar. The themes were organized into within-case narratives and across-case narratives. The narratives revealed that young …

Man Without A Blueprint, Brendan Frost, Brendan Gaquin Frost

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Garnet Line In Oxford County, Maine Pegmatites., Myles Mathew Felch, Myles M. Felch

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The garnet line is a planar fabric occuring within the intermediate and core zone in many of the Oxford County, Maine pegmatites. This study focuses primarily on the textural and chemical characteristics of the garnet line within the Mt. Mica and western Mt. Apatite quarries. Smaller, but similarly textured garnet line analogs from the Bennett, Emmons, Havey and Tamminen quarries are also investigated. All of these textures represent specific fractionation events within their respective dikes. In some of these locations, multiple stages of crystallization occur and appear to be post-magmatic, related to late stage metasomatism. These late stage fluids are …

An Empirical Study Of Semantic Similarity In Wordnet And Word2vec, Abram Handler

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis performs an empirical analysis of Word2Vec by comparing its output to WordNet, a well-known, human-curated lexical database. It finds that Word2Vec tends to uncover more of certain types of semantic relations than others -- with Word2Vec returning more hypernyms, synonomyns and hyponyms than hyponyms or holonyms. It also shows the probability that neighbors separated by a given cosine distance in Word2Vec are semantically related in WordNet. This result both adds to our understanding of the still-unknown Word2Vec and helps to benchmark new semantic tools built from word vectors.

The Role Balance Experience Of Black Female Counselor Education Doctoral Students Maintaining Full-Time Employment And Significant Relationships, Ariel Encalade Mitchell

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological research study explored the role balance experience of five Black female counselor education doctoral students who were balancing education, full-time employment, and significant relationships. Purposeful and snowball sampling were used to elicit participants who met these criteria: enrolled as a full-time doctoral student, employed full-time (30 or more hours weekly), and involved in a self-defined significant relationship.

The participants in this study individually provided insight into their respective perceived role balance experiences of balancing education, work, and significant relationships. The primary research question for the study was: “What is the role balance experience of Black female counselor …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis Of An Ideal Anguilliform Swimming Motion, Charles Rogers

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

There is an ongoing interest in analyzing the flow characteristics of swimming fish. Biology has resulted in some very efficient motions and formulating these motions is of interest to engineers. One such theory was written by Dr. William Vorus and Dr. Brandon Taravella involving ideal efficiency. It is therefore interesting to test the calculations to see if it is possible to design a motion that can create thrust without necessarily creating vorticity. The computational fluid dynamics software of ANSYS Fluent was used to calculate the resulting flow field of the eel motion to compare with the theoretical values.

A Computational Study Of Procyanidin Binding To Histatin 5 And Thermodynamic Properties Of Hofmeister-Anion Binding To A Hydrophobic Cavitand, Joshua Shraberg

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Various studies suggest tannins act as antioxidants, anticarcinogens, cardio-protectants, anti-inflammatory agents, and antimicrobials. However, more investigation is needed to examine the bioavailability of tannins. Tannins bind to salivary peptides by hydrophilic and hydrophobic mechanisms. Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (ESI-MS) has been used to assess both hydrophilic and hydrophobic components of protein complexes. ESI-MS could potentially be an effective tool for screening the bioavailability of tannins. Weaker binding tannins are predicted to be more highly absorbed by the body, and should therefore exhibit greater bioavailability. Rannulu and Cole have used ESI-MS to measure binding affinities of procyanidin tannin stereoisomers for salivary …

The Association Between Trauma Exposure, Maladjustment, And Aggression In Detained Boys, Kelli R. Thompson

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated an association between violence exposure and aggression; however, research exploring the association between violence exposure and the forms and functions of aggression is scarce. The aim of this study was to explore the associations between trauma exposure with both reactive and proactive functions of aggression by examining two potential mediators (e.g., psychopathic traits and emotional dysregulation). Participants included 132 male juvenile offenders mandated to treatment in a residential facility (M = 16.78 years old; SD = 1.25). Results indicate emotional dysregulation partially mediated the association between trauma exposure and reactive aggression while controlling for proactive …

Parallel Computing Of Particle Filtering Algorithms For Target Tracking Applications, Jiande Wu

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Particle filtering has been a very popular method to solve nonlinear/non-Gaussian state estimation problems for more than twenty years. Particle filters (PFs) have found lots of applications in areas that include nonlinear filtering of noisy signals and data, especially in target tracking. However, implementation of high dimensional PFs in real-time for large-scale problems is a very challenging computational task.

Parallel & distributed (P&D) computing is a promising way to deal with the computational challenges of PF methods. The main goal of this dissertation is to develop, implement and evaluate computationally efficient PF algorithms for target tracking, and thereby bring them …

Commencement Program, December (2014), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Soundings 2014-12-18, N/A N/A

Soundings

No abstract provided.

Time To Take A Look At The Bamc From The Outside, Bank Assets Management Company (Bamc)/Družba Za Upravljanje Terjatev Bank, D.D. (Dutb)

Documents

No abstract provided.

Shape Matters, Thomas A. Baumgardner

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

An analysis of the production of the University of New Orleans thesis film, Shape Matters, a period film, written and directed by Thomas Baumgardner. The film is concerned with the practice of Phrenology and follows a nervous preacher who becomes entangled in the bizarre "science" and a local murder. This paper describes the director's experiences and details the challenges encountered, and lessons learned, from attempting to bring the project to fruition.

The Croatian Community Of Southeastern Louisiana: Immigration, Assimilation And The Retention Of Ethnic Identity, Renee Danielle Bourgogne

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This work is a study of a community of Croatian immigrants to Southeast Louisiana in the twentieth century. Drawn from a multidisciplinary approach that included spatial analysis of settlement patterns, quantitative analysis of seafood industry data, the records of voluntary associations, and guided by the oral histories of men and women of Croatia who immigrated to Louisiana, this work reveals a community that has managed to maintain close ties despite its distribution both in urban New Orleans and rural coastal Louisiana through links created by and supportive of the state’s seafood and restaurant industries. The study points out how the …

Educational Modeling For Fault Analysis Of Power Systems With Statcom Controllers Using Simulink, Tetiana Brockhoeft

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The analysis of power systems under fault condition represents one of the most important and complex tasks in power engineering. The study and detection of these faults are necessary to ensure that the reliability and stability of the power system do not suffer a decrement as a result of a critical event such as fault. The purpose of this thesis is to develop and to present an educational tool for students to model FACTS devices using Simulink. Furthermore, the development of this thesis provides the means for students to model different types of faults. The development is based on presenting …

Electrochemical Disinfection Of Municipal Wastewater Using Alternating Current, Xavier A. Chavez Reyes

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on chlorine-free disinfection of wastewater by complying with today's regulations. The equipment used was a continuous flow electrochemical reactor connected to an alternating current (AC) power supply. The electrodes used were made out of titanium coated with iridium oxide. To determine the inactivation of Escherichia Coli, a bacterial count method based on the USEPA method 1603 was used.

After several experiments it was determined that electrochemical disinfection using AC was not efficient and economic enough to be classified as a viable alternative to chlorine disinfection. It was demonstrated that chlorine can be produced by electrolysis using AC …

Site Visitation: School Leaders' Perceptions Of A Diagnostic Tool For School Improvement, Mary Shannon C. Chiasson

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This case study explored the use of site-visitation as a diagnostic tool for school improvement. Nine charter schools in New Orleans were selected for the study. Based on qualitative research and systems theory, a within- and cross-case analysis of nine semi-structured interviews with school leaders were conducted. The school leaders’ experiences with the state-run site-visitation model and their use of the findings for school improvement was explored. The findings led to the development of a hybrid accountability model that encompasses the components school leaders believe will lead to school improvement. This study aims to assist educators, policy makers, and researchers …

Attentional Blink: An Antecedent To Binge Eating Behavior, Gregory Denke

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how attentional sub-processes contribute to binge-eating. Dense-array EEG and a version of the canonical attentional blink task were used to ascertain the neural correlates underlying the attentional sub-processes that comprise the Posner model of attention (alerting, orienting, and executive control) and how attentional activation differs for binge-eaters vs. non-binge eaters. Furthermore, we examined a number of the event-related potentials (ERP), including P2 activation, which has been linked with orientating of attention, and N2 activation which has been linked with attentional conflict. We found decreased P2 activation for binge-eaters, in the negative condition, for incorrect target 2 (T2) …

Parents’ Concerns About Their Gay And Lesbian Children: An Attachment Perspective, Danielle Desnoyers

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the concerns of parents upon learning about their children’s gay or lesbian sexual orientation from the conceptual framework of attachment theory. Personal and contextual factors such as parents’ attachment anxiety and avoidance, parent and child gender, length of time since disclosure, and parents’ prior interpersonal contact with gay and lesbian person(s) were examined to see how they influence parents’ concerns. Members of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) support groups were electronically surveyed using the Experiences in Close Relationships - Short Form (ECR-S; Wei, Russell, Mallinckrodt & Vogel, 2007) and …

Crescent City Nightingales: Gender, Race, Class And The Professionalization Of Nursing For Women In New Orleans, Louisiana, 1881-1950, Paula A. Fortier

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Through the examination of primary sources largely overlooked by historians, this dissertation traces the professionalization of nursing in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1881 to 1950 while placing this localized history within the context of national trends. In the late nineteenth century, nursing developed into a middle class profession for women inspired by the careers of Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton. This dissertation investigates the process by which women became professional nurses while a complex intersection of issues related to gender, race, and class at times advanced, and at other times, hindered their progress towards professionalization. New Orleans serves as a …

Two Essays In Financial Economics, Line Valerie Goss

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1 of this study investigates the link between a firm’s capital structure and their industry competitive behavior. Given the competitive behavior in certain markets, Cournot or Bertrand, we investigate if there are any inborn characteristics of these markets’ competitive behavior that would create an incentive for Cournot firms to have a different strategic debt level than Bertrand firms. Related theories argue that any industry’s competitive behavior, whether it is Bertrand or Cournot would typically consist of a certain type of debt and pursue a certain type of competitive strategy, based on its classification. In this study, we investigate the …

Choose Your Own Oz, Tommy R. Jamerson Ii

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Labor In A Hopeless Land: The Daughters Of Charity And Hansen's Disease Patients At The Louisiana Leper Home, 1896-1926, Reagan Laiche

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Miracle of Carville, as the late 1930’s and 1940’s have been called, is considered the pivotal point for those isolated with leprosy at the National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana. Scholars, researchers and folklorists alike have grappled with these decades as providing the environment in which patient reform was cultivated and eventually sown without a serious consideration of the labor and advocacy of the Sisters missioned there.

Understanding the multiple roles of the Sisters at the Louisiana Leper Home, those of home makers, care takers and patient advocates, provides the foundation for the patient reforms won during the Miracle of …

In Service, Spencer R. Kancher

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.