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2006

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Articles 7201 - 7230 of 8226

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Using Web Sites To Achieve Organizational Goals: Are Nonprofits Doing It Right?, Alisha Nicole Tillery Jan 2006

Using Web Sites To Achieve Organizational Goals: Are Nonprofits Doing It Right?, Alisha Nicole Tillery

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines how and to what extent nonprofit organizations are using their Web sites to fulfill their organizational goals and missions through volunteerism and fundraising. Through in-depth interviews of communication/public relations managers and executive directors at nonprofit organizations new information reveals factors that negatively affect nonprofits organizations’ growth in Web site development and technology, as well as those factors that push nonprofits to break the digital divide. Four nonprofit organizations that provide youth services in Memphis, Tennessee were selected.

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Literacy Behaviors Of Preschool Children, Angela Wayne Jan 2006

Literacy Behaviors Of Preschool Children, Angela Wayne

LSU Master's Theses

Research on emergent literacy states that young children learn about reading and writing through experiences with oral and written language. The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency that individual preschool children voluntarily engaged in literacy behaviors during free choice in the classroom. The sample consisted of nine preschool children from low-income families enrolled in three classrooms in an urban preschool program. The classroom environment was assessed using the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO - Smith & Dickinson, 2002), which provides infor- mation on how well the classroom environment supports early literacy development. Literacy behaviors were …

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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. …

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Media Use, Hiv/Aids Knowledge, And Sexual Beliefs: An Exploration Of Differences Between Races, Tarana Hammond Jan 2006

Media Use, Hiv/Aids Knowledge, And Sexual Beliefs: An Exploration Of Differences Between Races, Tarana Hammond

LSU Master's Theses

As the numbers rise among African Americans who are contracting HIV/AIDS, it becomes evident that research is needed to examine where African Americans obtain HIV/AIDS information. This study identified where African Americans obtain HIV/AIDS information and examined how that information affects African Americans’ sexual beliefs about HIV/AIDS. The theoretical foundation for this study was the Health Belief Model (HBM). This study used a survey method. The data analysis demonstrated that race does influence the type of media an individual uses. Race does not impact an individual’s access to health information. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS impacts an individual’s sexual beliefs about HIV/AIDS. …

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The Emerging Culture Of A Community College, Misty Kyle O'Connell Jan 2006

The Emerging Culture Of A Community College, Misty Kyle O'Connell

LSU Master's Theses

This study explores the emerging organizational culture of Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC). Specifically, the study looks at how faculty and key administrators describe the institution’s culture. Qualitative interviews with seven administrators and ten faculty members reveal the two groups had consistent viewpoints on many themes. Findings indicate BRCC exhibits the characteristics of an adhocracy culture. BRCC’s administration and faculty also describe the college’s culture as strong and externally oriented.

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Burn Scar Mapping In The Sabine National Wildlife Refuge Using Landsat Tm And Etm+ Imagery, Chris Pennington Jan 2006

Burn Scar Mapping In The Sabine National Wildlife Refuge Using Landsat Tm And Etm+ Imagery, Chris Pennington

LSU Master's Theses

Marsh fires burn on a regular basis on the Southwestern Louisiana Coast from both natural and anthropogenic ignitions. Remote sensing based studies of these fires are scarce. Several burn scar mapping techniques have been developed and implemented for study of forest fires in the American West but have not been applied to marsh fires. Erdas Imagine and ArcGIS Software was used to process Landsat imagery of the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge in accordance with the most commonly used burn scar mapping spectral indices and tested for accuracy against manually digitized burn scar maps. Indices tested included the Normalize Burn Ratio …

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Verb Aquisition In Students Of English As A Second Language: Language Learning Background And Attitudes, Erin Kyles Rogers Jan 2006

Verb Aquisition In Students Of English As A Second Language: Language Learning Background And Attitudes, Erin Kyles Rogers

LSU Master's Theses

In order to determine how learner background and learner attitudes affected English as a Second Language students’ verb production, eleven ESL learners participated in both oral and written tasks. They were given written surveys to determine what was emphasized more in learning English in their home countries: speaking or writing. Another survey was administered to determine which of these activities that they liked best. Next, the subjects watched a movie clip, wrote about it, and then spoke about it. Their written and spoken total amount of verbs produced and total amount of verbs used correctly were compared and analyzed to …

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Animation In Artificial Grammar Learning: Can Animation Facilitate Learning?, Bill Sallas Jan 2006

Animation In Artificial Grammar Learning: Can Animation Facilitate Learning?, Bill Sallas

LSU Master's Theses

Domangue, Mathews, Sun, Roussel, and Guidry (2004) trained participants to generate valid exemplars from an artificial grammar using either memory-based or model-based processing. Their results showed that learning by memory-based processing resulted in fast but inaccurate performance, while model-based learning resulted in slow but accurate performance. Attempts to integrate both types of training did not result in fast and accurate string generation. Fast and accurate performance was achieved by Sun and Mathews (2004) using a computer animated display to train participants. The current study used a 2x2x2 factorial design to determine why participants who view an animated display of a …

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The Relationship Between Parent-Adolescent Conflict And Academic Achievement, Marie S. Nebel-Schwalm Jan 2006

The Relationship Between Parent-Adolescent Conflict And Academic Achievement, Marie S. Nebel-Schwalm

LSU Master's Theses

Previous research has shown family conflict to have a detrimental effect on the academic functioning of children and adolescents. Most research conceptualizes family conflict as marital distress or divorce. Additional factors that have been shown to effect academic functioning include cognitive ability (i.e., intelligence), academic skills (e.g., homework behaviors), and amount of resources (i.e., socioeconomic status, SES). The present study investigated whether parent-adolescent conflict is related to adolescent academic achievement after accounting for cognitive ability and homework behaviors. Participants include 74 middle school students attending public school in a low-SES urban environment. Prior to conducting analyses, parent and adolescent reports …

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The Response Of The National School Lunch Program And Food Stamp Program In Southern Louisiana In The Wake Of Hurricanes Katrina And Rita, Emily Sashel Whelan Jan 2006

The Response Of The National School Lunch Program And Food Stamp Program In Southern Louisiana In The Wake Of Hurricanes Katrina And Rita, Emily Sashel Whelan

LSU Master's Theses

This study was designed to understand the response of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the Food Stamp Program (FSP) in southern Louisiana during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This study used portions of the PRECEDE/PROCEED model to develop the questions for the interviews and interpret the barriers and enabling and reinforcing factors with regard to changes in policy, budget, reporting, and program administration after the hurricanes. Information collected from this research seeks, not only to contribute to the literature on this topic, but to be made available to policymakers and program administrators to make informed decisions. The effects of …

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An Investigation Of Focus: Local, Regional, And National Newspaper Coverage In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina, Roxanne Kearns Dill Jan 2006

An Investigation Of Focus: Local, Regional, And National Newspaper Coverage In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina, Roxanne Kearns Dill

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the content in coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by local, regional, and national newspapers. Specifically, six newspapers were examined for a variety of items, including topics covered, frame, types of sources cited, types of authorities quoted, geographic focus, and assignment of blame for the devastation and evacuee distress that followed this historic storm. The analysis covered a two-week period, from August 29, 2005, the day Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, to September 11, 2005. The research methods included a content analysis of the 263 articles that appeared on Page 1 of The New York …

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Knowledge Representation Acquired In A Dynamic Process Control Task, Robert Prattini Jan 2006

Knowledge Representation Acquired In A Dynamic Process Control Task, Robert Prattini

LSU Master's Theses

The dissociation between explicit and implicit knowledge has been shown in a number of previous studies utilizing the process control task, where participants would learn to control the system well, but not be able to verbally articulate their knowledge (Berry & Broadbent, 1984; Berry & Broadbent, 1988; Mathews, Buss, Stanley, Blanchard-Fields, Cho, & Druhan, 1989; Roussel, 1999; Sun & Mathews, 2005). This study attempts to advance this basic research in the area of implicit learning by examining the type of mental knowledge representation acquired in implicitly learned tasks, and also assess the transfer of that knowledge to conceptually similar tasks. …

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Modulating Lipolysis For Nutraceutical And Cosmeceutical Applications, Mary Katherine Caruso Jan 2006

Modulating Lipolysis For Nutraceutical And Cosmeceutical Applications, Mary Katherine Caruso

LSU Master's Theses

The first study was conducted to determine if aminophylline cream application to the waist will reduce waist circumference compared to a control. Topical fat reduction from the thigh in women has been demonstrated, but local fat reduction in other areas or in men has not. Fifty men and women were randomized to 0.5% aminophylline cream to the waist twice a day or to no treatment to the waist. At week 12 there was a significant reduction in BMI from baseline that was not different between the groups. The reduction in waist circumference was 11 ± 1.0 cm in the aminophylline …

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The Ability Of Food Stamp Households In Southeast Louisiana To Meet The 2005 Dietary Guidelines For Americans, Laura Stewart Jan 2006

The Ability Of Food Stamp Households In Southeast Louisiana To Meet The 2005 Dietary Guidelines For Americans, Laura Stewart

LSU Master's Theses

Prices of a market basket of 149 foods that could be combined to meet the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) were surveyed in 29 stores in an eight parish area of Southeast (SE) Louisiana. Two-week cycle menus and recipes were planned to meet the 2005 DGA in a culturally acceptable way. Linear Programming (LP) analysis was also performed on the market basket to determine the cost-minimizing combination of foods that will sufficiently meet the 2005 DGA. The study used dietary recommendations for a reference family of four: a 40 year old male, 40 year old female, 9 year old …

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Companion Animals As Being-Objects: The Role Of The Self/Other Binary In The Human-Animal Bond, Amanda Kelly Reed Jan 2006

Companion Animals As Being-Objects: The Role Of The Self/Other Binary In The Human-Animal Bond, Amanda Kelly Reed

LSU Master's Theses

This research project is an investigation into the human-dog bond and the practice of pet adoption and pet surrender at the East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control Center. The human-dog bond is an excellent vehicle for an investigation into how we create categories of other because it is a highly complex and intersubjective relationship with deep evolutionary roots that is often reduced to a relationship between possessor and possessed in which cultural, historical, and biological contexts are not considered. It is a relationship in which constructed meaning is taken for fact. This thesis explores how animal control centers both resist …

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Language Classification And Manipulation In Romania And Moldova, Chase Faucheux Jan 2006

Language Classification And Manipulation In Romania And Moldova, Chase Faucheux

LSU Master's Theses

Linguistic classification is a scientific methodology for categorizing the languages of the world. However, the tools and methods of linguistic classification have been used to various degrees by political entities to further nationalistic agendas. This thesis assesses the role of linguistic classification in nationality and politics, and addresses the disjunct between true linguistic classification, based on genealogical, areal, and typological features, and language designation, based on political and nationalistic motives. This thesis uses the Romanian language as a vehicle for illustrating both linguistic classification methods as well as how these methods have been manipulated for non-linguistic reasons both internally by …

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Nutrient-To-Cost Comparisons Of Daily Dietary Intake, Food Security Status, And Body Mass Index In Female Food Stamp Recipients Residing In Southeast Louisiana, Shanna Lundy Jan 2006

Nutrient-To-Cost Comparisons Of Daily Dietary Intake, Food Security Status, And Body Mass Index In Female Food Stamp Recipients Residing In Southeast Louisiana, Shanna Lundy

LSU Master's Theses

Diets are typically poorer and risk of chronic disease is greatest in low-income populations. A relationship has been established in the literature between food costs and diet quality, where lower cost diets are generally those of the poorest quality. Food group intake, energy/nutrient intake, and diet cost were assessed in 64 female food stamp recipients in Southeast Louisiana. From one 24-hour dietary recall collected at the beginning of the monthly resource cycle (Day 1) and one at the end (Day 2), nutrient intakes and diet costs were able to be analyzed between different time frames. Participants were divided among food …

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Hurricane Katrina: A Content Analysis Of Media Framing, Attribute Agenda Setting, And Tone Of Government Response, Brigette Lynn Brunken Jan 2006

Hurricane Katrina: A Content Analysis Of Media Framing, Attribute Agenda Setting, And Tone Of Government Response, Brigette Lynn Brunken

LSU Master's Theses

This study content analyzed print media coverage of government response from four newspapers in the five weeks immediately after Hurricane Katrina, looking for common frames, attribute agenda setting, and tone. In addition, it assessed week-to-week differences throughout coverage. Findings indicate that the order of Semetko and Valkenburg's (2000) common frames changed, emphasizing human interest first. Conflict, attribution of responsibility, economic consequences, and morality frames followed. Media's use of attribute agenda setting was evident throughout coverage, primarily emphasizing the issues, relief and rescue, economic, negative timeliness, and rebuilding and repairing. Media's tone of government response was moderately neutral with federal tone …

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Government Growth In Latin America, Carlos Eduardo Costa Jan 2006

Government Growth In Latin America, Carlos Eduardo Costa

LSU Master's Theses

The scope of government spending has gained significant attention in comparative politics. Disaggregate level data has allowed researchers to examine the impact of electoral rules and party fragmentation on the nature of government spending. Findings supported by large-N empirical tests suggest that fragmented polities are more likely to observe a shift in government expenditures: away from expenditures on public goods and in the direction of transfers and subsidies. In this paper, I test the applicability of these findings to Latin America. Using empirical evidence based on 13 Latin American countries over a 17 year period, the findings of this paper …

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An Analysis Of The President-Press Relationship In Solo And Joint Press Conferences In The First Term Of President George W. Bush, Susan Billingsley Jan 2006

An Analysis Of The President-Press Relationship In Solo And Joint Press Conferences In The First Term Of President George W. Bush, Susan Billingsley

LSU Master's Theses

A comparative analysis of presidential press conferences was conducted to determine whether the previously established adversarial relationship between the United States president and the American press was alleviated to some degree by the presence of a foreign dignitary. The study applied a system for quantifying adversarial behaviors exhibited by the press to questions asked of President George W. Bush in solo conferences and where he was joined by another head-of-state in joint press conference sessions. Questions from selected conferences during his first term were coded according to four indicators of adversarialness: initiative, directness, assertiveness and adversarialness. Results showed that the …

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Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of A Body Mass Index-For-Age Percentile Health Report In Raising Parent Awareness Of Their Child's Weight Status, Anantha Padmaja Lakkakula Jan 2006

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of A Body Mass Index-For-Age Percentile Health Report In Raising Parent Awareness Of Their Child's Weight Status, Anantha Padmaja Lakkakula

LSU Master's Theses

Overweight in children has become a major health concern. Research suggests that many parents may not be aware of their child’s actual weight status. The objectives of this study were to test the effectiveness of a body mass index (BMI)-for–age percentile report in raising parent awareness of their child’s weight status. Eighteen public elementary schools in southeast Louisiana were pair matched and divided into nine intervention and nine control schools. Children in the intervention and the control schools were divided into two groups 1) healthy weight (BMI ≥ 5th to <85th percentile) and 2) at risk and overweight (BMI ≥ 85th percentile). Forty children were randomly selected from each of the two weight groups from the intervention and the control schools. Parents of children in the intervention group received a BMI-for-age percentile health report along with a short questionnaire. Parents of children in control schools received the questionnaire only. Parents in the intervention group have 4.7 times more accurate perception about their child’s weight compared to the control group (OR: 4.7, 95% of CI: 0.89-24.86, p=0.00 ). After receiving the report, more parents of at risk or overweight children were concerned and only fewer parents of healthy weight children were anxious about their child’ weight. When parents were compared based on their child’s weight regardless whether they got the report, parents of at risk or overweight children were more than five times less likely to perceive the correct weight classification of their child (OR: 1.8, 95% of CI: 0.05-0.62, p=0.00) and less concerned about their child’s weight (OR: 0.98, 95% of CI: 0.32-2.93, p=0.00) when compared to parents of healthy weight children. All parents were willing to help their child follow healthy behaviors regard less of the report and their child’s weight status. A BMI-for-age percentile report appears to be an effective way to increase parent awareness and concern regarding their child’s weight status. With increased awareness, parents may be more likely to encourage their children to achieve a healthy weight.

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Binding Femininity: An Examination Of The Effects On Tightlacing On The Female Pelvis, Katherine Marie Klingerman Jan 2006

Binding Femininity: An Examination Of The Effects On Tightlacing On The Female Pelvis, Katherine Marie Klingerman

LSU Master's Theses

The corset in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe was not merely an article of clothing. The corset was a complex and often contradictory social and cultural symbol. It symbolized both the sensual female body and the chaste virgin; the female control over male desires, and the male’s control over the female body. The ubiquity of the corset in the eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe is an important commentary on historical European society. Reports of women (and men) who have died as a result of the tightness of their corsets abound in the literature. Case studies from medical professionals provide information …

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The Interest Center Choices Of Preschool Children, Andree Schellhaas Jan 2006

The Interest Center Choices Of Preschool Children, Andree Schellhaas

LSU Master's Theses

It is recommended practice for early childhood educators to provide children with extended periods of free play in which children are able to learn through hands-on experiences with the classroom environment (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997; Cryer, Harms, & Riley, 2003; Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 1998). Early childhood educators plan meaningful experiences for each interest center on based on standards and objectives. While some children choose to participate in all the activities provided, other children require additional assistance in choosing between the variety of experiences provided in the early childhood classroom environment. Children that avoid spending time in certain interest centers …

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Whaddya Want? It's Coney Island!: Tourism, Play And Memory In The Illegible City, Elizabeth Healy Matassa Jan 2006

Whaddya Want? It's Coney Island!: Tourism, Play And Memory In The Illegible City, Elizabeth Healy Matassa

LSU Master's Theses

In the post-industrial American city, the question of what urban space means seems far less important then how it is lived through the dynamic struggles of city dwellers to claim these spaces as their own. These struggles to define urban space are not always overtly political and thus must be examined through the more everyday, sometimes unconscious practices of city dwellers. This thesis attempts to valorize the emotional work of cities through an ethnographic study of Coney Island, Brooklyn. Coney Island is examined first as an urban space which allows tourists to move beyond traditional practices of visual consumption, then …

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Media Framing Of Prescription Drug Coverage Following A Recall, Rebecca Ann Hotard Jan 2006

Media Framing Of Prescription Drug Coverage Following A Recall, Rebecca Ann Hotard

LSU Master's Theses

Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs receives significant attention from academic researchers. Advertising, however, is not the only way prescription drugs are discussed in the public sphere. Many Americans learn about science through mass media. Additionally, researchers believe readers place more trust in editorial content than in advertisements. This study took a quantitative and qualitative approach to content analysis of prescription drug coverage to examine the effects of the highly publicized and controversial Vioxx recall on the news. Significant changes in framing, drugs mentioned, and prominence of story placement were shown. There were no changes in sources used in prescription drug …

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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 …

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Albert Camus's Meditative Ascent: A Search For Foundations In The Plague, Brian James Blanchard Jan 2006

Albert Camus's Meditative Ascent: A Search For Foundations In The Plague, Brian James Blanchard

LSU Master's Theses

Albert Camus's concept of absurdity states that human existence is fundamentally chaotic and meaningless. Despite this appraisal of existence, Camus tirelessly campaigned for human rights at a time when many intellectuals ignored the atrocities perpetrated by ideological compatriots. Scholars admire Camus's courage and foresight, but few have attempted to systematically examine Camus's philosophical development of values. Eric Voegelin argues that Camus's writings take the form of a philosophical meditation in which Camus conducted an analysis of existence through the medium of fictional creation. This meditation, which Voegelin likens to a Platonic periagoge, allowed Camus to establish a foundation of values …

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Are You Ready For Some ... Sex, Violence, And Gender Stereotypes?: A Content Analysis Of Monday Night Football Commercials And Programming Promotions, Joel D. Massey Jan 2006

Are You Ready For Some ... Sex, Violence, And Gender Stereotypes?: A Content Analysis Of Monday Night Football Commercials And Programming Promotions, Joel D. Massey

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the content of 200 commercials from the 2004 season of Monday Night Football documenting sexual content, violence, and gender role stereotypes. The data revealed that despite the fact that men appeared twice as often as women, women were more likely to be stereotyped than men. About one quarter of the commercials contained sexual content and about one-fifth contained violence. Beer ads were more sexual than other ads but were not significantly more violent than other ads. There was no clear pattern of variance in the amount of sexual and violent commercials across quarters. Programming commercials were far …

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Assessing The Role Of Institutions In Ensuring Environmental Performance: A Cross-National Study Of Un Framework Convention On Climate Change, Swetasree Ghosh Roy Jan 2006

Assessing The Role Of Institutions In Ensuring Environmental Performance: A Cross-National Study Of Un Framework Convention On Climate Change, Swetasree Ghosh Roy

LSU Master's Theses

Although past research has emphasized the importance of international environmental agreements in redressing environmental degradation, systematic assessments of regime effects are missing. The central focus of this paper is assessing the effectiveness of international environmental agreements: do international environmental agreements actually improve environmental quality? Most of the research in the field of environmental protection has focused on the role of economic development and the political system. Several studies have found that the relationship between a countries wealth and some pollutants follow an inverted U-shaped curve, popularly known in the literature as the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Again scholars have also …

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Integration Of Conceptual Mathematical Relationships Into Constant Time Delay Instruction, Bethany Ann Porter Jan 2006

Integration Of Conceptual Mathematical Relationships Into Constant Time Delay Instruction, Bethany Ann Porter

LSU Master's Theses

There is constant debate over mathematics education in the United States. One central controversy is whether or not the current methods used to teach students mathematics are effective. Some scholars believe that students are not getting enough practice and that they are not getting a good conceptual understanding of mathematics. It has been shown that mathematics equations are rich in patterns and inter-relationships and when children understand these relationships they have higher mathematic skill levels than their peers who do not. This study examined the effectiveness of using an empirically supported, fast paced mastery oriented teaching procedure that promotes automaticity …

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