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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

An Object-Based Image Analysis Approach For Detecting Urban Impervious Surfaces, Amit Kulkarni Jan 2012

An Object-Based Image Analysis Approach For Detecting Urban Impervious Surfaces, Amit Kulkarni

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Impervious surfaces are manmade surfaces which are highly resistant to infiltration of water. Previous attempts to classify impervious surfaces from high spatial resolution imagery with pixel-based techniques have proven to be unsuitable for automated classification because of its high spectral variability and complex land covers in urban areas. Accurate and rapid classification of impervious surfaces would help in emergency management after extreme events like flooding, earthquakes, fires, tsunami, and hurricanes, by providing quick estimates and updated maps for emergency response. The objectives of this study were to: (1) compare classification accuracy between pixel-based and OBIA methods, (2) examine whether the …


Urban Population Density And Environmental Quality In Port-Au-Prince, Haiti: A Geo-Statistical Analysis, Myrtho Joseph Jan 2012

Urban Population Density And Environmental Quality In Port-Au-Prince, Haiti: A Geo-Statistical Analysis, Myrtho Joseph

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation revolves around three issues on the urban area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti: the population distribution pattern, its estimation from remote sensing images, and its relationship with environmental quality. It follows a three-paper format. Paper 1 examines the population density pattern by the monocentric and polycentric models, based on the 2003 census data. The regression results show a poor fitting power of monocentric functions, and improved but less than satisfactory R2 by polycentric functions. A five-sector conceptual model is proposed to capture the urban structure shaped by the absence or lack of institutional enforcement of land use regulations and urban …


Using Behavior Screening Data To Predict Scores On Statewide Assessments, Jeffrey Steven Chenier Jan 2012

Using Behavior Screening Data To Predict Scores On Statewide Assessments, Jeffrey Steven Chenier

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Federal and state initiatives (No Child Left Behind, 2001) require schools and districts to set high standards for student growth and achievement. Currently, student growth and progress are measured in Louisiana via statewide achievement tests. In 4th and 8th grades these assessments are considered to be ‘high-stakes’, as promotion and retention decisions are made based on how well students perform on these assessments. Making day-to-day decisions based on one assessment per year is not best practice (Jenkins, Deno, & Markin, 1979); therefore, screening instruments known as curriculum based measures (CBMs) were devised and tailored for school-based implementation. CBMs of academic …


Essays On Social Networks, Emre Unlu Jan 2012

Essays On Social Networks, Emre Unlu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The first chapter provides a way of evaluating a player's contribution to their team and relates their effort to their market values. We extend the work of Ballester et al. (2006) by incorporating a network outcome component in the players' payoff functions. As an illustration of the theory, we create a unique data set from the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament. To capture the interaction between players, we create the passing network of each team. This all allows us to identify the key player and key groups of players for both teams in each game. We then use our measure to …


Korean Parents' Attitudes, Motivations, And Home Literacy Practices Toward Bilingualism Between Korean And English In Korea, Byunghyun Jang Jan 2012

Korean Parents' Attitudes, Motivations, And Home Literacy Practices Toward Bilingualism Between Korean And English In Korea, Byunghyun Jang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to examine Korean parents’ attitudes, motivations, and home literacy practices toward their children’s participation in bilingualism in Korean and English in Korea. The success of foreign language learning is influenced by positive attitudes and the level of motivation regarding the target language. Language learners’ attitudes and motivations toward a target language are closely related to their development of language proficiency, and children are often strongly influenced by their parents. The present study was conducted by the survey that was comprised of four-part Likert-type statements. The participants consisted of parents who have children enrolled in …


"Faith Is Life": A Qualitative Study Of Christian Faith And Chinese Immigrant Families, Yaxin Lu Jan 2012

"Faith Is Life": A Qualitative Study Of Christian Faith And Chinese Immigrant Families, Yaxin Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on religion and family in the United States has increased in the last two decades. With the increasing immigrant population, studies on minorities including Chinese immigrant families are also important. Religious faith has significant influences on some Chinese immigrant families. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between Christianity and Chinese immigrant families. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-two highly religious Chinese Christian couples in the Southern United States. Twenty-two open-ended questions were asked to understand their conversion processes and how the Christian faith influenced the participants’ marriage and family life. Most of the participants …


Composing A Method: Écriture Féminine As Performance Practice, Brianne Waychoff Jan 2012

Composing A Method: Écriture Féminine As Performance Practice, Brianne Waychoff

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The overall aim of this project is to theorize and invent a method of performance based on écriture féminine. This method is meant to be useable, generative, and transferable to other practitioners. Following a heuretic practice of reading selected texts for what they suggest about making new texts, writerly method that invites expansion in future research is revealed. This project is but a beginning of an articulation and proposes only one path through these texts. The tracking of the process of reading and experimenting with performance provides a space for reflection that illuminates gaps to be explored in future work. …


En(Gendering) Policy: Gender Policies In Former Soviet Republics, Natasha Lachelle Bingham Jan 2012

En(Gendering) Policy: Gender Policies In Former Soviet Republics, Natasha Lachelle Bingham

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines gender policies in former Soviet republics. Gender policies are depicted as traditional policies (including such policies as child support, spousal support, and inheritance rights), violence against women policies (domestic violence, marital rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment), and human trafficking policies. It builds upon previous works with a multi-methodological approach (content analysis, logistical regression, and qualitative survey analysis). The focus here is on the factors that influence adoption of formal policies in former Soviet republics from 1993-2008. I explore variance across both countries and policy areas, assessing whether (and why) certain post-Soviet states are more likely to …


Mechanisms Of Urban Influence On Precipitation In The Southeastern United States: Precipitation Enhancement, Storm Bifurcation, And Synoptic Characteristics, Anna Marie Trevino Jan 2012

Mechanisms Of Urban Influence On Precipitation In The Southeastern United States: Precipitation Enhancement, Storm Bifurcation, And Synoptic Characteristics, Anna Marie Trevino

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The continual growth of urban areas increasingly affects the environment on various spatial scales. Land cover changes, combined with decreasing vegetative cover and addition of atmospheric aerosols, potentially lead to growing urban heat islands that alter the local moisture fluxes directly or indirectly, which in turn play a role in precipitation initiation and development. Some studies suggest that a region of enhanced rainfall exists downwind of the main urban area and that frontal systems decelerate as they reach areas of high urban development. Six urban areas within the southeastern United States were examined for possible urban precipitation enhancement: Atlanta, Birmingham, …


Measurement Of Pain, Pain Disability, And Pain Beliefs Of Morbidly Obese Adults, Brooke Louise Barbera Jan 2012

Measurement Of Pain, Pain Disability, And Pain Beliefs Of Morbidly Obese Adults, Brooke Louise Barbera

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Both obesity and pain are pervasive public health problems, contributing to significant disability in the United States and worldwide. Studies have demonstrated a positive association between obesity and pain, with increasing BMI related to increasing levels of pain intensity; however, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not well understood. The present study assessed the presence of pain, pain-related disability, and pain beliefs in a morbidly obese (BMI > 40 kg/m2) sample participating in a medically-supervised, nonsurgical weight loss intervention. After controlling for demographic variables and depression, pain was reported in 36.7% of the sample (N = 390). Results indicated that greater …


Natural Hazards, Risk Analysis And Emergency Preparedness: Applying Spatial Methods In Disaster Risk Management Applying Spatial Methods In Disaster Risk Management, Henrike Brecht Jan 2012

Natural Hazards, Risk Analysis And Emergency Preparedness: Applying Spatial Methods In Disaster Risk Management Applying Spatial Methods In Disaster Risk Management, Henrike Brecht

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Losses from natural hazards have been increasing steadily over the last decades. Yet, tools exist that can reduce risks to disasters and prevent hazards from turning into disasters. This study is intended to contribute to a reversal of the staggering economic losses by advancing the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the field of disaster risk management. Organized as a series of papers for publication, the dissertation first sets the stage by presenting a case study on Louisiana and its vulnerability to hurricanes. Thereafter, it examines and contributes to two fields that have proven to save lives and lower …


Regional Effects Of Monetary Policy, Taehee Han Jan 2012

Regional Effects Of Monetary Policy, Taehee Han

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A key element of this dissertation is the examination of the regional and state level effects of monetary policy. The first essay compares two broad approaches to identifying the monetary policy shocks that are used to estimate the regional effects of monetary policy. One approach that has been used in the previous literature assumes that monetary policymakers respond to shocks to regional personal income but do not respond directly to shocks to national income. A second general approach assumes that monetary policymakers respond to shocks to national income but do not respond directly to region-specific income shocks. This assumption is …


The Responsibility Of Clothing Slaves In The United States As Described In Slave Petitions, 1775 To 1867, Ryan Jerel Aldridge Jan 2012

The Responsibility Of Clothing Slaves In The United States As Described In Slave Petitions, 1775 To 1867, Ryan Jerel Aldridge

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The content analysis of eighteenth and nineteenth century slave petitions identified slave dress terms and descriptors by type and frequency and a descriptive analysis of slave dress petitions revealed the following themes: the expense and burden attributed to clothing slaves, slave dress neglect, hiring contracts that included slave dress, the use of slave dress as a reflection of the slaveholders character, compensation for slave dress provided by an individual other than the slaveholder, the quality of slave dress, the distribution of slave dress, and slave dress terminology descriptors. The most frequent specific provision request for slave dress items consisted of …


Intra-Individual Variability In Adult Adhd: An Exploration Of The Viability Of Distinct Purely Inattentive Condition, Daniel Proto Jan 2012

Intra-Individual Variability In Adult Adhd: An Exploration Of The Viability Of Distinct Purely Inattentive Condition, Daniel Proto

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers have suggested that intraindividual variability (IIV), or variation in cognitive testing performance within an individual across a measure or group of measures, may be an endophenotypic marker of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, not all studies have consistently demonstrated significant differences in IIV between individuals with and without ADHD. One potential explanation for this ambiguity is experimental group heterogeneity owing to Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT). Individuals with SCT exhibit behavioral characteristics dissimilar from individuals with ADHD; rather than being impulsive, hyperactive, and aggressive, they tend to be shy, day-dreamy, and cognitively slow. Researchers have hypothesized that the presence of SCT …


Out Of Site But Not Out Of Mind: Submerged Prehistoric Landscapes On The Northwestern Gulf Of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, Amanda M. Evans Jan 2012

Out Of Site But Not Out Of Mind: Submerged Prehistoric Landscapes On The Northwestern Gulf Of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, Amanda M. Evans

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Archaeological sites are more important than simply the artifacts they contain. Locations of human occupation and activity form a pattern that can provide information about perceptions of the landscape, decisions about resources, or preferences. Explaining this “perceived” environment is one of archaeology’s goals in explaining past human behavior. In order to address these goals, archaeologists must first identify elements of the “real” landscape, including the geographical environment, its resources, and evidence of human modification. Only after these real elements have been identified can the perceived environment be explored. On the outer continental shelf of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, formerly …


A Discourse On Geospatial Technology Applications In Predictive Analytics And Evidence-Based Decision Support For Disaster Research And Management, Steven Matthew Ward Jan 2012

A Discourse On Geospatial Technology Applications In Predictive Analytics And Evidence-Based Decision Support For Disaster Research And Management, Steven Matthew Ward

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Continued population growth and development in vulnerable locations across the world are creating a new geography of hazards and disasters. Increasing storm frequencies coupled with unrelenting efforts to control flooding through structural means will undoubtedly intensify the intersection between flood hazards and humans. Accordingly, the baseline capacity of places to prepare for and rebound from disaster events adequately is negatively impacted. Hurricane Katrina brought this reality to the forefront of disaster science and management in 2005. Concurrent with the increased awareness of evolving hazardscapes has been the identification of deficiencies in how components of disasters are studied and managed. The …


Playing The Christ Card: Courting Christians Through Religious Appeals In Political Campaigns, Matthew Lee Thornton Jan 2012

Playing The Christ Card: Courting Christians Through Religious Appeals In Political Campaigns, Matthew Lee Thornton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In spite of a corpus of work over the last three decades acknowledging the centrality of religion in politics, (see e.g. Hunter, 1991; Layman, 2001; Putnam & Campbell, 2010; Wuthnow, 1988), there remains a scarcity of research examining the consequences of religious communication in political campaigns. The current study fills this void through an empirical exploration of the effects of religious campaign appeals on prospective voters. Specifically, this interdisciplinary investigation develops a theoretical framework and subsequent expectations as to how religious appeals are likely to activate individual religiosity thereby influencing the formation of political attitudes. Hypothesized expectations are then tested …


An Investigation Into Technology And Motivational Influences On Creativity And Product Output In Apparel Design Students, Charles Freeman Jan 2012

An Investigation Into Technology And Motivational Influences On Creativity And Product Output In Apparel Design Students, Charles Freeman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of a social psychological theoretical framework to the study of creativity in apparel design, with a focus on technological engagement and motivational factors. A sample of 32 apparel design students from two major southeastern universities were selected to complete a self-report instruments regarding motivation and technological engagement. Students completed the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) as well as a design brief. Design illustrations were evaluated by a panel of expert judges in the field of apparel design using a consensual assessment technique (CAT). Results indicate levels of technology and …


Early Behavior Problems In School, Juvenile Delinquency, And Adult Incarceration: A Longitudinal Examination Of Pathways To Crime Among A Ten-Year Birth Cohort In Louisiana, Xian Guan Jan 2012

Early Behavior Problems In School, Juvenile Delinquency, And Adult Incarceration: A Longitudinal Examination Of Pathways To Crime Among A Ten-Year Birth Cohort In Louisiana, Xian Guan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study utilizes data resources from three state-level departments in Louisiana, Department of Education (DOE), Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ), and Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DOC), during the period 1996-2008. The sample involves 7th- 12th graders in DOE who were born between 1980 and 1989, with a sample size of N = 408,700 in total. There are two major parts in this study: (1) examining the school-level risk factors among four different offending patterns and making two comparisons among them: the early starters of crime (n = 14,346) vs. late starters (n = 17,107), and the adolescent-limiteds (n …


Impact Of Religion And Religious Differences On Political And Economic Cooperation Between Countries, Betul Dicle Jan 2012

Impact Of Religion And Religious Differences On Political And Economic Cooperation Between Countries, Betul Dicle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Studies on economic and political cooperation of countries generally focus on the effects of factors such as geographical proximity, political regime type, and the different fiscal and monetary policies, among others. The impact of religious affiliation, however, stayed mainly as theory. The clash between and/or within religions had important proponents. We provide evidence that religion can have economic union effects. We evaluate whether there is historic economic polarization and whether religions have group dynamics similar to economic unions. Economic convergence, causation and trade cooperation are commonly reported for economic unions. Do these effects exist for countries with the same religion? …


Early Voting In The 2004 Presidential Election, James Michael Siira Jan 2012

Early Voting In The 2004 Presidential Election, James Michael Siira

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The addition of early voting laws has led to the many changes in the US political system. In this dissertation I examine early voting early voting in a number of different contexts. First, how early voting fits in with the larger issue of voter turnout in the U.S. Second, why some states have early voting policies and other states choose to not have those policies. Third, how state-level political parties view the option to cast an early vote. Fourth, the differences between early voters, election day voters, and non-voters. Fifth, what are the determents of casting an early ballot. Sixth, …


Constructing Wilderness: The Nexus Of Preservation And Ocean-Space In The United States, Ryan Orgera Jan 2012

Constructing Wilderness: The Nexus Of Preservation And Ocean-Space In The United States, Ryan Orgera

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The ocean has long played a minor role in human geography; imagining it as natural space rather than an extractive space even less significant. This dissertation explores the most revered kind of American nature preservation: wilderness. Despite the millions of acres set aside as wilderness in the United States, no such designation exists for ocean-space as a discrete entity. Through the analysis of congressional hearings, bills, resolutions, public laws, and maps, this dissertation uncovers the complex constructs of the production of legal wilderness. Furthermore, it uncovers a novel vein of inquiry, that of the ocean as a preserved natural space. …


An Investigation Into The Moderating Role Of Fear Appeals On The Relationship Between Regulatory Fit And Persuasion, Nam Young Kim Jan 2012

An Investigation Into The Moderating Role Of Fear Appeals On The Relationship Between Regulatory Fit And Persuasion, Nam Young Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As one of the ways to persuade young people effectively, several scholars have indicated that using a tailored message that is consistent with individuals’ concerns and interests can influence their attitude and behavioral changes. Among diverse tactics to construct tailored health-messages, this research especially paid attention to individuals’ motivational goals (i.e., regulatory focus) that make them more inclined to a certain outcome. While promotion-oriented individuals primarily focus on how to achieve a desired ending, prevention-oriented individuals mainly focus on avoiding undesirable outcomes (Higgins, 1997; Higgins et al., 2001). Although numerous studies support the positive effects of the congruency between regulatory …


Making News In 140 Characters: How The New Media Environment Is Changing Our Examination Of Audiences, Journalists, And Content, Ashley Elizabeth Kirzinger Jan 2012

Making News In 140 Characters: How The New Media Environment Is Changing Our Examination Of Audiences, Journalists, And Content, Ashley Elizabeth Kirzinger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project answers the following questions: What does political reporting on social media look like? How is political journalists’ use of social media changing their relationships with sources and fellow political journalists? Triangulating qualitative and quantitative research methods (content analysis, social network analysis, and in-depth interviews) in an examination of Twitter, a social media platform popular among journalists, this project provides insight into how changes in media routines are affecting news content.


Examination Of The Reliability And Validity Of A New Observation Measure For Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Autism Spectrum Disorder Observation For Children, Daniene Neal Jan 2012

Examination Of The Reliability And Validity Of A New Observation Measure For Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Autism Spectrum Disorder Observation For Children, Daniene Neal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With increasing attention being drawn to autism spectrum disorders (ASD), specifically with regard to early and accurate diagnosis and treatment, researchers and clinicians alike have placed emphasis on finding assessment tools that can aid in this goal. The purpose of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of a new observation measure for ASD, the Autism Spectrum Disorders-Observation for Children (ASD-OC). The ASD-OC was found to have good to excellent interrater reliability, and excellent internal consistency (ƒÑ = .96). As a result of these initial reliability analyses, nine items were removed from the scale. The resulting 45 item ASD-OC …