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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Need For New Priorities: The National Organization For Women And College Campuses, Katherine May May 2006

The Need For New Priorities: The National Organization For Women And College Campuses, Katherine May

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Life And The Death Penalty: Passing Life Without Parole Legislation In Texas, Future Implications, And An Examination Of Texas’ Death Row, Adam Chase Parker May 2006

Life And The Death Penalty: Passing Life Without Parole Legislation In Texas, Future Implications, And An Examination Of Texas’ Death Row, Adam Chase Parker

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


The Double Threat Of Terrorism: Terrorism’S Effect On Restrictions Of Human Rights By Governments, Christen Tave Romero May 2006

The Double Threat Of Terrorism: Terrorism’S Effect On Restrictions Of Human Rights By Governments, Christen Tave Romero

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Implementation Of Supreme Court Policy: School Prayer In Louisiana Secondary Schools, Adelaida M. Hernandez Apr 2006

Implementation Of Supreme Court Policy: School Prayer In Louisiana Secondary Schools, Adelaida M. Hernandez

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Immanuel Kant & Bernard Williams: Discovering The Foundations Of Morality, Jonathan Comish Apr 2006

Immanuel Kant & Bernard Williams: Discovering The Foundations Of Morality, Jonathan Comish

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Are Enzymes Accurate Indicators Of Postmortem Interval?: A Biochemical Analysis, Karly Laine Buras Jan 2006

Are Enzymes Accurate Indicators Of Postmortem Interval?: A Biochemical Analysis, Karly Laine Buras

LSU Master's Theses

There are numerous ways to estimate postmortem interval (PMI), or time since death, including body temperature, rigor mortis, insect activity, and decomposition. Individually, many of these indicators are prone to inaccuracy due to the influence of the external environment upon them. This study proposed that in addition to or in conjunction with these and other indicators, certain enzymes could be used to accurately determine PMI, namely aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), creatine kinase (CK), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). In this project, 18 rats were studied postmortem to determine how ethanol consumption and different environments affect decomposition and enzyme activity. …


Detecting The Socioeconomic Conditions Of Urban Neighborhoods Through Wavelet Analysis Of Remotely Sensed Imagery, Guiyun Zhou Jan 2006

Detecting The Socioeconomic Conditions Of Urban Neighborhoods Through Wavelet Analysis Of Remotely Sensed Imagery, Guiyun Zhou

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Wavelet analysis is an efficient approach to studying textural patterns at different scales. Artificial neural networks can learn very complex patterns in the data and could be an efficient classifier. However, whether wavelet analysis, in combination with artificial neural networks or other classifiers, can be used to detect the social-economic conditions of urban neighborhood is a key research question that needs further study. The hypotheses of this study were: 1) neural networks yielded higher classification accuracy than linear discriminant analysis and the minimum-distance classifier based on wavelet measures of urban land covers; 2) wavelet textural measures could be used to …


Evaluating The Spatial Ecology Of Anthrax In North America: Examining Epidemiological Components Across Multiple Geographic Scales Using A Gis-Based Approach, Jason Kenna Blackburn Jan 2006

Evaluating The Spatial Ecology Of Anthrax In North America: Examining Epidemiological Components Across Multiple Geographic Scales Using A Gis-Based Approach, Jason Kenna Blackburn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the spatial ecology and potential pathways of infection of anthrax, Bacillus anthracis, in North America. A multi-scale approach was used to evaluate the components required for disease agent survival in the environment, interactions with wildlife, and the potential role that vectors play in anthrax transmission. First, ecological niche modeling with the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP) was used to predict the geographic distribution of anthrax in the continental U.S. using case data from outbreaks between 1957 and 2005. These results were then used to produce the first quantitative, continental scale predictions of anthrax in Mexico. At …


Socrates As Citizen?: The Implications Of Socratic Eros For Contemporary Models Of Citizenship, Jeremy John Mhire Jan 2006

Socrates As Citizen?: The Implications Of Socratic Eros For Contemporary Models Of Citizenship, Jeremy John Mhire

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates the appropriateness of using Socrates as a model for contemporary citizenship. I examine the question of Socrates' civic character by inquiring about the relation of the philosopher (or political scientist) to the city (that is, to political life) without taking for granted that they share a common aim or purpose. Instead, I prepare the discussion with an examination of the treatment of Socrates by the comic poet Aristophanes in the Clouds. I suggest that Socrates' famed eros, his unwavering love of wisdom, was a problem, one that threatened the very foundations of political society. By conceiving of …


Re-Examining The Subculture Of Violence In The South, Timothy Curt Hayes Jan 2006

Re-Examining The Subculture Of Violence In The South, Timothy Curt Hayes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Southern region of the United States historically has a high rate of violent crime, especially homicide. This has led to a number of studies tackling the issue by relying on subcultural theory or by using structural correlates of crime to account for the South versus non-South difference in homicide. Macro level research has focused on pitting culture (usually measured by a dummy variable for South) against structural characteristics such as poverty and measures of income inequality, but suffers from a lack of direct cultural measures needed to successfully evaluate the subcultural thesis. Micro level research tends to focus on …


The Influence Of A School-Based Substance Abuse Prevention Program In Reducing Smoking Among Sixth Grade African American Students In Louisiana, Alan J. Nichols Jan 2006

The Influence Of A School-Based Substance Abuse Prevention Program In Reducing Smoking Among Sixth Grade African American Students In Louisiana, Alan J. Nichols

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Youth tobacco smoking is one of the major public health problems of this society. Although, by some reports, adult cigarette smoking has been declining, teen smoking rates continue to remain unacceptably high. Current data indicates that smoking rates among minority youth which had declined in the past few years are beginning to rise again. The current increase in teen smoking and subsequent health dangers associated with smoking demonstrates a need for more effective, empirically based youth smoking prevention strategies. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a substance abuse prevention program in reducing smoking among sixth …


Income Inequality And Economic Growth, Nor Azam Abdul Razak Jan 2006

Income Inequality And Economic Growth, Nor Azam Abdul Razak

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A central issue in the growth literature is whether initial conditions matter for income disparity among nations. If they don't, then countries will converge to a single regime once the structural features of the economies are controlled for. If they do, then countries will converge to multiple regimes even if the structural features are controlled for. This dissertation is designed to investigate whether the world is characterized by a single or multiple regimes. The first paper investigates whether the predictions of a particular multiple-regime model due to Galor and Zeira (1993) are borne out by the data. The baseline analysis …


The Rate Of Decline Of Social Skills Across Dementing And Non-Dementing Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities: A Longitudinal Study, Julia D. Lott Jan 2006

The Rate Of Decline Of Social Skills Across Dementing And Non-Dementing Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities: A Longitudinal Study, Julia D. Lott

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study sought to establish rate of decline of adaptive skills in a population of individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and dementia compared to similar persons without dementia, as well as examining the variability of positive and negative social behaviors across diagnostic classes. Among the general population, differential rates of functional decline have been established for normal aging and dementia. This knowledge assists in making differential diagnoses of dementia, establishing prognosis, and long-term planning. For this study, participants in each group were individually matched for age, gender, Down’s syndrome status, and level of ID. Participants in the matched control group …


Impact Of A Stage-Matched Weight Loss Intervention On Stage Of Change Progression In Predominantly African-American Female Primary Care Patients, Jamie Sue Bodenlos Jan 2006

Impact Of A Stage-Matched Weight Loss Intervention On Stage Of Change Progression In Predominantly African-American Female Primary Care Patients, Jamie Sue Bodenlos

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Obesity is associated with several chronic medical conditions. Certain individuals are at higher risk for obesity including low-income African American females. Despite the many benefits to weight loss, many individuals do not seek treatment. Individuals are likely to attend primary care appointments where obesity can be targeted. Although stage matched interventions based on the Transtheoretical Model (TM) have been used successfully to aid in health behavior change, few studies have examined the use of stage matched weight loss interventions in African American females. There is also a paucity of research examining the effects of stage matched weight loss interventions on …


Development Of Spanish L2 Competence In A Synchronous Cmc (Chat Room) Environment: The Role Of Visually-Enhanced Recasts In Fostering Grammatical Knowledge And Changes In Communicative Language Use, Francisco Ramon Lluna-Mateu Jan 2006

Development Of Spanish L2 Competence In A Synchronous Cmc (Chat Room) Environment: The Role Of Visually-Enhanced Recasts In Fostering Grammatical Knowledge And Changes In Communicative Language Use, Francisco Ramon Lluna-Mateu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Taking into consideration some gaps observed in SLA research –noticing, recasts, input enhancement (IE),…– and in CALL/CMC research, a study was conducted among 12 advanced FL Spanish learners to assess whether and how, by communicating with a Spanish native speaker in 5 chat-room sessions, their language competence would develop in the following areas: 1) communication strategies; 2) communicative acts; and 3) grammatical knowledge of verb tense-aspect-mood (TAM) assignation. Subjects were assigned to a specific feedback condition/group (A: +recast, -enhancement; B: +recast, +enhancement; and C: no feedback) under which their TAM errors were treated in the sessions. Few research studies have …


Essays On Group Lending: Evidence From Jordan, Moh'd Al-Azzam Jan 2006

Essays On Group Lending: Evidence From Jordan, Moh'd Al-Azzam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Group lending has received a great attention from economists and policymakers for its successful delivery of credit to poor borrowers and its role in alleviating poverty in the developing countries. The success of group lending in providing credit to poor borrowers has been attributed to its ability to mitigate the asymmetry of information and enforcement problems in credit markets. The ability of group lending institutions to overcome the asymmetry of information and enforcement problems has been theorized to be the driving force behind their outreach to the poor, their sustainability, and their repayment performance. While there is a host of …


How Cue-Dependent Is Memory?: Internal Reinstatement And Cueing Effects In Recognition And Source Memory, Jeffrey Joseph Starns Jan 2006

How Cue-Dependent Is Memory?: Internal Reinstatement And Cueing Effects In Recognition And Source Memory, Jeffrey Joseph Starns

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored the role of internal context reinstatement in masking the effects of external context cues on recognition and source memory. Participants studied words paired with pictures of male and female faces. Following the study phase, participants completed either a source test in which they decided whether each test word was studied with a male or female face (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) or a recognition test in which they decided whether each test word appeared in the study phase (Experiment 2). On selected trials, a studied face was reinstated at test to serve as a cue for the …


Public Affairs Advertising: Corporate Influence, Public Opinion And Vote Intentions Under The Third-Person Effect, Anita Grace Day Jan 2006

Public Affairs Advertising: Corporate Influence, Public Opinion And Vote Intentions Under The Third-Person Effect, Anita Grace Day

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined corporate public affairs and brand awareness advertising under the third-person effect. Third-person effect studies examine the interaction between the media and its effect on public opinion. Past research in third-person effect indicates that individuals perceive that the media is more influential on others than oneself. However, recent studies find a reverse effect, where individuals perceive a greater effect on oneself when compared to others when media messages are positive and desirable to be influenced by. Findings from this study indicate that ExxonMobil public affairs advertisements are found to be socially desirable to be influenced by and that …


Essays On The Bayesian Estimation Of Stochastic Cost Frontier, Xia Zhao Jan 2006

Essays On The Bayesian Estimation Of Stochastic Cost Frontier, Xia Zhao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays that focus on a Bayesian estimation of stochastic cost frontiers for electric generation plants. This research gives insight into the changing development of the electric generation market and could serve to inform both private investment and public policy decisions. The main contributions to the growing literature on stochastic cost frontier analysis are to 1. Empirically estimate the possible efficiency gain of power plants due to deregulation. 2. Estimate the cost of electric power generating plants using coal as a fuel taking into account both regularity restrictions and sulfur dioxide emissions. 3. Compare costs of …


Investigating The Influence Of Anti-Racist Education In Achieving Prejudice Reduction Among Secondary Education Students, Joseph Edward Wilson Jan 2006

Investigating The Influence Of Anti-Racist Education In Achieving Prejudice Reduction Among Secondary Education Students, Joseph Edward Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the influence of participation in an anti-racist educational (ARE) program upon the perceptions of, critical assessments of, and self-reported behaviors toward institutional racism in a sample of 11th-grade students enrolled in a public school district that had recently undergone compulsory, court-ordered desegregation. This quasi-experimental study measured hypothesized differences between the scores of a group of high school students on a quantitative data-gathering instrument before their participation in an Undoing Racism curriculum, with their scores on that same instrument re-administered three months after their completion of that course. It then compared the degree of pre-intervention/ post-intervention changes in …


The Intersection Of News Frames: Examining The Top Two Health Problems In The United States, Lesa D'Anne Hatley Jan 2006

The Intersection Of News Frames: Examining The Top Two Health Problems In The United States, Lesa D'Anne Hatley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research tests the public health model of reporting to discover if changing the way newspaper stories frame the top two health concerns in the United States – cancer and obesity – affects readers’ view of the problem. Using an experimental design, this study manipulated the context of newspaper stories about cancer and obesity. Applying thematic (broader context) and episodic (individual or event) framing concepts and gains (emphasizes benefits – e.g. lives saved) and losses (emphasizes costs – lives lost), this research revealed how the differences in framing affect public opinion about cancer and obesity. This research expands framing theory …


How African-American And Hispanics Perceive Their Racial Equality In American Advertising, Denise Michele Pallais Jan 2006

How African-American And Hispanics Perceive Their Racial Equality In American Advertising, Denise Michele Pallais

LSU Master's Theses

This study focuses on how African-Americans and Hispanics perceive their racial equality in American advertising. A survey was conducted to find out the African-American and the Hispanic perceptions about how these ethnic groups saw themselves depicted, and the way they are stereotyped by the U.S. media. Overall, the study found that there was no difference between race and the level of perception between these two ethnic groups. However, age appears to be the only demographic variable that affects the African-American and Hispanic perception of discrimination. In addition, the study also exposed that African-Americans are mostly portrayed in the athletic advertising …


Green Hydrogen: Site Selection Analysis For Potential Biomass Hydrogen Production Facility In The Texas-Louisiana Coastal Region, Bryan Michael Landry Jan 2006

Green Hydrogen: Site Selection Analysis For Potential Biomass Hydrogen Production Facility In The Texas-Louisiana Coastal Region, Bryan Michael Landry

LSU Master's Theses

Hydrogen and the “Hydrogen Economy” are increasingly becoming buzzwords in discussions regarding future U.S. energy scenarios. Hydrogen energy offers a multitude of economic and environmental advantages over the current world energy structure. Despite this attention, there have been very few geographical studies of a possible transition to a hydrogen system. Even these studies have been limited in scope to demand-side analyses. This thesis attempts to rectify this situation by broadening the scope of geographical studies of hydrogen through the analysis of supply-side scenario. This study is a site selection model for a biomass hydrogen facility in the Gulf Coast of …


The Relationship Of Crime And Oil Development In The Coastal Regions Of Louisiana, Asha D. Luthra Jan 2006

The Relationship Of Crime And Oil Development In The Coastal Regions Of Louisiana, Asha D. Luthra

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project examines the relationship between patterns of crime and the development of the oil and gas extraction industry in the coastal regions of Louisiana. The suggestion of a link between these phenomena has often been made, but little systematic research has been conducted to determine if there is indeed a crime-oil development nexus. Limited previous research has focused primarily on the issue of “boom and bust” cycles on some forms of deviant behavior, but the data and the methods used were inadequate, and thus, the resulting conclusions were often misleading or possibly erroneous. During the course of this project, …


Do Overweight Inactive Parents Raise Overweight Inactive Children? Examination Of The Influence Of The Home Environment On Weight Status Of Children Over Time, Emily York-Crowe Jan 2006

Do Overweight Inactive Parents Raise Overweight Inactive Children? Examination Of The Influence Of The Home Environment On Weight Status Of Children Over Time, Emily York-Crowe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary aim of this study was to test whether body mass index (BMI), psychosocial, and behavioral parental variables were associated with similar variables in children at baseline, and whether these variables also served as significant predictors of overweight status in children after two years. While there have been several cross-sectional studies examining the impact of parental behaviors and characteristics on similar variables in children, and several longitudinal studies predicting weight status, BMI percentile, and risk factors of disease in children over time, there is a paucity of research that has identified (cross-sectionally) and then tested (longitudinally) significant parental variables …


Jack Kerouac's Spontaneous Prose: A Performance Genealogy Of The Fiction, Justin Thomas Trudeau Jan 2006

Jack Kerouac's Spontaneous Prose: A Performance Genealogy Of The Fiction, Justin Thomas Trudeau

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study analyzes Jack Kerouac’s writing method of spontaneous prose and articulates how the method can be understood as performative writing. Kerouac’s “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose,” On the Road, Visions of Cody, and Doctor Sax are explored to evaluate both the successes and failures of the author’s attempts to break literary boundaries and create a new writing method based upon spontaneous tenets. These three novels, which were written in succession from 1950 to 1953 when Kerouac was in his most productive period, represent both the emergence and dissent of the author’s use of performative writing. To explicate the cultural genesis …


Target Audiences And Communication Channels Of Lighten Up Programs In The United States, Nancy Leah Borden Jan 2006

Target Audiences And Communication Channels Of Lighten Up Programs In The United States, Nancy Leah Borden

LSU Master's Theses

Several Lighten Up programs around the United States were qualitatively studied in efforts to determine their target audiences and the communication channels used to reach these audiences. To guide this study, principles from the social marketing framework and the diffusion of innovations theory were applied. Several Lighten Up program executive directors and other high-ranking individuals in charge of the programs were interviewed in-depth to answer questions pertaining to target audiences and communication channels. Inductive data analysis illustrated that programs did not segment their target audiences, that more programs depended on interpersonal and group communication than mass communication, and finally, that …


Vegetational Change And Land Degradation In The Lake Baringo Area, Kenya, During The Late Holocene: Evidence From The Paleorecord And Remote Sensing, Lawrence Morara Kiage Jan 2006

Vegetational Change And Land Degradation In The Lake Baringo Area, Kenya, During The Late Holocene: Evidence From The Paleorecord And Remote Sensing, Lawrence Morara Kiage

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the history of vegetational changes and land degradation in the Lake Baringo area, Kenya, East Africa, during the Late Holocene. It uses 14C -and 210Pb-dated fossil pollen, fungal spores, microscopic charcoal, and stratigraphic record from lake-sediment cores to reconstruct the paleoenvironment in the East African region. More recent changes in the Lake Baringo are examined using remote sensing imagery. These data provide one the first high-resolution late Holocene pollen records from the semi-arid region of Kenya (and one of only a handful from East Africa in general). Lake Baringo records a sedimentation rate of 1 cm yr-1, …


An Analysis Of The Relationship Between City Typology, Interactivity And Advertising Message Strategies Of American Municipal Web Sites, Jeremy John Starr Jan 2006

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between City Typology, Interactivity And Advertising Message Strategies Of American Municipal Web Sites, Jeremy John Starr

LSU Master's Theses

This study became to first to scientifically explore the relationship between city typology and the use of advertising message strategy and interactivity within municipal web sites. The study used Taylor’s six-segment strategy wheel to analyze message strategies and previous scales of interactivity to analyze structural interactivity. Medium-size cities and cities within the South and West geographic regions more likely used sensory strategies within their web sites. Cities with racially diverse populations more likely used sensory strategies within their web sites as well. Large cities and central cities, both with large populations, used the most interactive strategies within their sites compared …


An Examination Of The Differential Outcomes Effect When Teaching Discriminations To Children With Autism And Other Developmental Disabilities, Laura Addison Jan 2006

An Examination Of The Differential Outcomes Effect When Teaching Discriminations To Children With Autism And Other Developmental Disabilities, Laura Addison

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The differential outcomes effect (DOE) refers to the finding that performance in discrimination training improves when different behaviors produce different reinforcers. In the current study, the effects of two DOE procedures on the acquisition of receptive language skills were compared. Participants were four children with autism and/or developmental delay/speech and language impairment. The children were presented with two toy or food items and asked to give the experimenter the item named. The names consisted of three-letter nonsense syllables. Correct responses were followed by one of the following consequences: (a) The opportunity to manipulate or consume the item to which the …