Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Do Bloggers Doan Average Day On An Average Political Blog, Laura Mckenna, Antoinette Pole

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study investigates whether average political bloggers engage in four distinct activities: informing readers, checking the media, engaging in political advocacy, and gathering money for charitable causes. Findings show that most bloggers inform their readers about articles in the media or to draw attention to key posts on other blogs. Somewhat less frequently, most bloggers write posts that detect errors or biases in the media. Bloggers use their blogs to pursue activist and philanthropist activities even less often. Ideology and traffic levels slightly affect the content and purpose of blog posts.

From The Mountains To The Podium: The Rhetoric Of Fidel Castro, Brent C. Kice

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the rhetoric utilized by Fidel Castro that Castro used in order to maintain his tenure as the sole leader of Cuba for almost 50 years. Castro employs identification through division with an enemy, and he is able to perpetuate this division through an ongoing, dynamically perceived narrative. This narrative takes shape in the form of “the revolution,” a rhetorical construction designed to create a collective Cuban identity, which, in turn, is furthered through ideology by Castro’s elimination of competing points of views. Castro’s unique role as narrator has allowed him to adapt to events and maintain this …

A Critical Item Analysis Of The Qabf: Development Of A Short Form Assessment Instrument, Ashvind Nand Singh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the relative inability of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) to provide an accurate and reliable self-report, assessment in this population is more difficult than with individuals in the general population. As such, assessment procedures must be adjusted to compensate for the relative lack of information that the individual can provide and rely more on the behavioral expression of communication. One method commonly used is the indirect functional assessment that utilizes behavior rating scales that have been developed to gather behavioral data in a short time. One of the few empirically derived and psychometrically sound is the QABF, a …

Revolutionary Industry And Digital Colonialism, Dylan E. Wittkower

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Copyright-based industries have become revolutionary. That is, the machinery of production of digital wares has itself taken on the role of the revolutionary class within the political economy of digital production. The progress of capitalist production in this industry has undermined the conditions of its own possibility, not because it has driven the proletariat to rise against an oppressive system, but because the means of production, through digital media, have simultaneously made communist production possible, and the continued separation of the means of production from the laborer impracticable.

Blogging About Feminist Lnterdisciplinarity In The Study Of Communication, Language, And Gender, Cynthia Berryman-Fink, Janet Bing, Deborah Cameron, Amy Sheldon, Anita Taylor

English Faculty Publications

This article provides information about several blog posts discussed during a round-table discussion on feminist interdisciplinary studies in relation to communication, language, and gender. Topics under discussion include the nature of interdisciplinarity and its relevance to feminist studies, intercultural communication, and the study and teaching of gender in women's studies programs in higher education.

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of The Relationship Between Wnv Dissemination And Environmental Variables In Indianapolis, Usa., Hua Liu, Qihao Weng, David Gaines

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Background: This study developed a multi-temporal analysis on the relationship between West Nile Virus (WNV) dissemination and environmental variables by using an integrated approach of remote sensing, GIS, and statistical techniques. WNV mosquito cases in seven months (April-October) of the six years (2002–2007) were collected in Indianapolis, USA. Epidemic curves were plotted to identify the temporal outbreaks of WNV. Spatial-temporal analysis and k-mean cluster analysis were further applied to determine the high-risk areas. Finally, the relationship between environmental variables and WNV outbreaks were examined by using Discriminant Analysis.

Results: The results show that the WNV epidemic curve reached its peak …

A Study Of The Distribution And Abundance Of The Adult Malaria Vector In Western Kenya Highlands, Li Li, Ling Bian, Guiyun Yan

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Background: A sharp rise in the malaria mortality rate has been observed recently in western Kenya. Malaria is transmitted by mosquito vectors. Malaria control strategies can be more successful if the distribution and abundance of mosquito vectors is predicted. However, how mosquito vectors are distributed in space remain poor understood, and this question is rarely studied using spatial methods. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the distribution and abundance of mosquito vectors. To achieve this objective, spatial and non-spatial methods were employed. The data on the distribution of adult mosquitoes, and mosquito breeding habitats in a study …

Warning: Sex Offenders Need To Be Supervised In The Community, Brian K. Payne, Matthew Demichele

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The article explains the need for the training of officers so that they may properly supervise sex offenders returning to a community. It is suggested that officers need to be objective, be informed of laws against sexual offending and aware of common characteristics of sex offenders. It is inferred that a combined effort from different government agencies is needed to be able to effectively supervise sex offenders. Several steps to ensure the safety of the supervisors are also discussed.

The Politicization Of Everyday Life In Cleave's Weekly Police Gazette (1834-36), Edward Jacobs

English Faculty Publications

With circulation as high as 40,000, Cleave's Weekly Police Gazette, published 1834–36, was one of the first and most popular unstamped newspapers to mix political news with coverage of non-political events like sensational crimes, strange occurrences, and excerpts from popular fiction. Scholars have differed widely in their interpretations of the fact that the paper's mixture of radical politics and "entertainment" outsold unstamped papers that offered undiluted political news, such as Hetherington's Poor Man's Guardian (1831–35), whose circulation peaked at around 16,000. Some, like Louis James and Virginia Berridge, argue that Cleave's helped to co-opt legitimate working-class political discourse by …

Identification Of Factors In Road Accidents Through In-Depth Accident Analysis, Mouyid B. Islam, Kunnawee Kanitpong

CUTR Faculty Journal Publications

The rising trend of motorization and improving socio-economic status of Thai people directly influences the aggravating road safety situation with fatalities and permanently disabled injuries of about 130,000 and 500,000 respectively over the past decades. An estimated annual cost from road crashes amounts to about US$2,500 million, 3.4 percent of Gross National Product (GNP), undoubtedly inflicts Thailand with a burning public health concern in the South East Asian region. This paper addresses an in-depth study through crash investigation and reconstruction which has not yet been practised in Thailand to identify the contributory factors in road crashes by the concerned authorities. …

Branching Out: Communication And Collaboration Among Librarians At Multi-Campus Institutions, Tim Bottorff, Robbin Glaser, Andrew Todd, Barbara Alderman

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Communication and collaboration are vital aspects of 21st century librarianship, particularly for librarians in branch and regional settings who are often separated from their system colleagues by both physical distance and administrative structures. For this study, the authors conducted an exploratory survey to examine collaboration, communication, and networking behaviors and perceptions among librarians in multi-campus academic library systems. Results of this investigative study will lead to better understanding of these issues within the profession, suggest possible approaches and solutions for better models of communication and collaboration, and lay the groundwork for future research on these topics.

The Relationship Between Early Cumulative Caregiver Sensitivity And Children's Later Self-Perception Of Cognitive Competence And Cognitive Performance, Jenna Rae Watson

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between children’s experiences of caregiver sensitivity during the first three years of their life and their later self-perceptions of cognitive competence and cognitive performance. Caregiver sensitivity was measured using data that had been collected with the Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS, Arnett, 1989) during an earlier longitudinal study, the Baton Rouge Early Care Study (BRECES; Pierce & Benedict, 2007). Measures of cognitive competence were derived using the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (Harter & Pike, 1984) and measures of cognitive performance were derived using the …

Processes And/Of Performance: Difference, Memory, And Experimentation, Benjamin Daniel Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study enacts performance analyses by combining experimental and avant-garde performance practices of artists or art movements such as John Cage, Jerzy Grotowski, Dadaism, and Eugenio Barba with the differential philosophies of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. By focusing on the ways that performance practice informs understandings of “the ghost” and différance in Derrida’s theories, and processes of production and experimentation in Deleuze’s, this study examines performance as a process of negotiating practice and theory that continues to produce rather than disappear. To reinforce the productive capacity of performance, this study looks at three different sites and the processes at …

A Trinity Of Beliefs And A Unity Of The Sacred: Modern Vodou Practices In New Orleans, Elizabeth Thomas Crocker

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis explores the ways in which Vodou is practiced in New Orleans today. Tourism has capitalized off the exotic appeal of Vodou but that does not rule out the actual practice of the religion in these public retail settings. Generations of New Orleanians have been raised in the religion and while their practices are often secret, Vodou lies beneath the surface of spaces and events going on in the city. Immigrants and converts that have been trained in Haitian Vodou have come into New Orleans, influencing and interacting with the spirituality of the Crescent City. These practices separate themselves …

The Energy Challenge–Gone Today, Back Tomorrow: Maine’S Key Role, William H. Hastings

Maine Policy Review

World energy trends suggest that increased demand for fossil fuels is likely to continue, even as producers are not replacing what is being used. William Hastings argues that in spite of this, Maine is poised to potentially become an energy leader in the near future. He points out that a surprising number of new projects are increasing the diversity of the state’s energy supply.

Confronting Global Warming: Maine’S Multi-Sector Initiatives, 2003–2008, David P. Littell, Gary S. Westerman, Malcolm C. Burson

Maine Policy Review

David Littell, Gary Westerman and Malcolm Burson describe Maine’s pioneering efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting energy efficiency, and developing less carbon-intensive and more sustainable energy sources. They discuss in particular the goals and accomplishments of the state’s Climate Action Plan and Maine’s participation in several multi-state and regional efforts, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

Caring For Caregivers: An Hiv/Aids Workplace Intervention For Hospital Staff In Zambia—Evaluation Results, Karusa Kiragu, Mutinta Nyumbu, Thabale J. Ngulube, Panganani Njobvu, Chilufya Mwaba, Arthur Kalimbwe, Spike Bradford

HIV and AIDS

The Horizons Program collaborated on a Caring for Caregivers initiative in Zambia whose objective was to develop and test a risk-reduction workplace program for hospital staff. This was motivated by the recognition that hospital workers are often overlooked in HIV programming, and yet many are infected or affected by HIV. It was also motivated by the fact that hospital staff are heterogeneous, with both clinical and non-clinical staff having varying levels of understanding regarding HIV transmission. Caring for Caregivers was a peer education program targeted at hospital staff and implemented in two hospitals in Zambia, with a combined staff of …

Strengthening Health And Family Planning Services In Low Performing And Hard-To-Reach Areas Of Bangladesh: Workshop Report, Ubaidur Rob, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder

Reproductive Health

Although Bangladesh has established a comprehensive physical infrastructure to deliver health and family planning services with a network of primary health care facilities in rural areas, the impact of this health service network has been much less than expected because services do not reach all regions effectively. Two divisions, Sylhet and Chittagong, remain the most disadvantaged in terms of health and population outcomes and access to services, compounded by poor utilization of facilities in these areas. Moreover, the current health and population sector programs are beset with human resources and infrastructural problems. The Population Council organized a workshop to find …

Development Of A Quality Assurance Procedure For Reproductive Health Services For District Public Health Systems: Implementation And Scale-Up In The State Of Gujarat, M.E. Khan, Anurag Mishra, Vivek Sharma, Leila Caleb-Varkey

Reproductive Health

This project was carried out in India, in two districts each in Gujarat and Maharashtra states. It confirmed that quality assurance (QA) checklists and an implementation manual, developed by the USAID-funded Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) Program of the Population Council in collaboration with UNFPA/India, are useful and effective tools that the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHFW) can use to monitor the quality of services provided by health facilities. It also demonstrated that this QA mechanism can be easily institutionalized at the district level management. One key lesson has been the critical role that the commitment of state …

Taking Critical Services To The Home: Scaling-Up Home-Based Maternal And Postnatal Care, Including Family Planning, Through Community Midwifery In Kenya, Annie Mwangi, Charlotte E. Warren

Reproductive Health

With support from USAID, the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) project supported the scaling up of a community-based model in Kenya that enabled women to give birth safely at home or be referred to a hospital when attended by a self-employed skilled midwife living in the community. To strengthen the sustainability of this approach FRONTIERS engaged a microfinance NGO to develop a training curriculum on basic business skills and financial literacy, and encouraged the community midwives (CMs) to form clusters or informal associations so that they could be trained in business skills. Following these interventions, CMs proved more …

Regional Workshop To Use The Findings From Operations Research To Increase The Access, Quality And Integration Of Contraceptive Services In Latin America And The Caribbean, M. Estela Rivero-Fuentes, Antonieta Martin

Reproductive Health

In October 2007, the Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) program held a three-day regional workshop in La Antigua, Guatemala, to disseminate results of its operations research projects. During the workshop, participants received contraceptive technology updates, and learned about effective strategies tested by FRONTIERS to increase access to the IUD and vasectomy; and about integration of family planning with postpartum, postabortion, and PMTCT. Researchers discussed study results, program managers explained how they were used, and practitioners talked about implementing the interventions—a combination of perspectives that successfully transmitted the message that the interventions were not difficult to apply, could have a great …

Extending Prevention Of Mother-To-Child Transmission Through Postpartum Family Planning In Lesotho, Charlotte E. Warren, Semakaleng Phafoli, Bosielo Majara, Thato Tsukuluet

Reproductive Health

Recognizing the need to improve the care and follow up of mothers and infants in the postpartum period, the Lesotho Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW), with technical support from the Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) of Population Council and funding from PEPFAR/RHAP/USAID, carried out an operations research project to strengthen the existing postpartum care services. This study had a specific focus on strengthening linkages with existing PMTCT follow-up and family planning services during the postpartum period by changing the number, timing, and content of postpartum consultations that a woman and her newborn should receive. The key findings indicated …

Improving Communication Between Parents And Adolescents On Reproductive Health And Hiv/Aids, Nafissatou J. Diop, Alioune Diagne

Reproductive Health

Cette recherche opérationnelle avait pour but d’évaluer la fonctionnalité et l’efficacité d’un modèle d’intervention destiné à prendre en charge les besoins d’informations des adolescent(e)s en matière de santé de la reproduction et cela à travers le renforcement et l’amélioration de la communication entre les parents et les enfants/adolescent(e)s. Les résultats ont montré la faisabilité de mettre en place un programme qui est spécifiquement destiné à améliorer le niveau et la qualité de la communication entre les parents/tuteurs et les adolescent(e)s sur les questions de SR/VIH/SIDA et cela malgré le caractère encore sensible de cette question dans le contexte socioculturel sénégalais. …

Developing Comprehensive And Evidence-Based Policy And Guidelines For Antenatal And Postnatal Care In Kwazulu-Natal, Prudence Ditlopo, Mantshi Menziwa, Saiqa Mullick, Saumya Ramarao, Janet Dalton, Dolly Nyasulu, Mags Beksinska, Busi Kunene

Reproductive Health

In May 2004, the Maternal Child and Women’s Health department of Kwazulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa requested technical assistance from the Population Council’s USAID-funded FRONTIERS project for developing standardized and comprehensive antenatal and postnatal (ANC/PNC) care policies and guidelines and supportive training and educational materials. The aims and objectives of this project were to: support the development of a comprehensive evidence-based antenatal and postnatal care program in KZN; consolidate lessons learned and evidence around delivery of comprehensive ANC and PNC; revise provincial guidelines to enable comprehensive ANC and PNC services that address PMTCT, partner involvement, syphilis screening, focused visits, and antiretrovirals; …

Legal Anthropology: An Introduction, James M. Donovan

Law Faculty Books and Chapters

LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION offers an initial overview of the challenging debates surrounding the cross-cultural analysis of legal systems. Equal parts review and criticism, the author outlines the historical landmarks in the development of the discipline, identifying both strengths and weaknesses of each stage and contribution. LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY suggests that future progress can be made by treating as the distinguishing feature of law the perceived fairness of structural inequalities of social systems, rather than the traditional emphasis upon sanction or dispute resolution.

Idhini Fahamishi Katika Majaribio Ya Kikliniki Ya Ukingaji Wa Virusi Vya Ukimwi, Population Council

HIV and AIDS

Brief adapted from the report of the workshop co-hosted by the Population Council and Family Health International in May 2005. The brief focuses specifically on tools and strategies presented at the workshop that are being used in HIV-prevention trials to facilitate informed consent, explain difficult concepts, and assess comprehension among trial participants. Illustrative examples from completed and ongoing trials are highlighted. This brief will be useful for an audience of local researchers, advocates, and clinical trial staff.

Obstetric Fistula: Can Community Midwives Make A Difference? Findings From Four Districts In Kenya, Charlotte E. Warren, Annie Mwangi

Reproductive Health

As part of the UNFPA Global Campaign to End Obstetric Fistula, the Population Council and UNFPA built on Kenya’s Community Midwifery Approach to develop a comprehensive community midwifery intervention strategy that aimed at increasing skilled attendants at birth and prevention of obstetric fistula. This report seeks to understand the experiences of women affected by fistula and whether community midwives can contribute to preventing obstetric fistula in rural settings in Kenya. The key recommendations emerging from this report are to: update health facility midwives in maternal and neonatal health (MNH) skills including prevention, treatment, and care of obstetric fistula; train more …

Strengthening Emergency Contraception In Nepal, Mahendra Pd. Shrestha, Sharif M.I. Hossain, M.E. Khan

Reproductive Health

A national workshop on emergency contraception was organized in Nepal by the Family Health Division within the Ministry of Health in 2004, with technical assistance provided by the FRONTIERS program of the Population Council. Among many conclusions from the workshop, one recommendation was that emergency contraceptive pills (ECP) should be introduced through the government family planning program to assist in reducing unwanted pregnancies. Based on the Population Council’s past experiences with introducing and mainstreaming ECP services in Bangladesh and India, a phase-wise introduction of ECP in Nepal was recommended. The project findings suggest that Nepalese women continue to face an …

Mapping Selective Logging In Mixed Deciduous Forest: A Comparison Of Machine Learning Algorithms, Christopher D. Lippitt, John Rogan, Zhe Li, J. Ronald Eastman, Trevor G. Jones

Geography

This study assesses the performance of five Machine Learning Algorithms (MLAS) in a chronically modified mixed deciduous forest in Massachusetts (USA) in terms of their ability to detect selective timber logging and to cope with deficient reference datasets. Multitemporal Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper-plus (ETM+) imagery is used to assess the performance of three Anificial Neural Networks - Multi-Layer Perceptron, ARTMAP, Self-Organizing Map, and two Classification Tree splitting algorithms: gini and entropy rules, MLA performance evaluations are based on susceptibility to reduced training set size, noise, and variations in the training set, as well as the operability/transparency of the classification process. …

Flow-Performance Relationship And Tournament Behavior In The Mutual Fund Industry, Baoling Ma

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In this paper, we interpret the flow-performance relationship as an incentive scheme implicitly given to mutual fund managers by mutual fund investors. We show that the flow-performance relationship varies not only with economic activity but also across fund attributes. We provide evidence that the degree of convexity of the flow-performance relationship has a positive effect on the magnitude of tournament behavior. Different from the conventional tournament hypothesis, we show that although the convexity of the flow-performance relationship does produce implicit incentives for fund managers to modify risk-taking behavior as a function of their prior performance, whether or not the mid-year …