Digital Commons Network^™

Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme Polymorphisms, Ace Level And Blood Pressure Among Nigerians, Jamaicans And African-Americans, Nourdine Bouzekri, Xiaofeng Zhu, Yanming Jiang, Colin A. Mckenzie, Amy Luke, Terrence Forrester, Adebowale Adeyemo, Donghui Kan, Martin Farrall, Simon Anderson, Richard S. Cooper, Ryk Ward

Faculty Publications

The genes in the renin-angiotensin system are important physiologic candidates in studies of the genetic susceptibility to hypertension. Limited information has been available in most studies on the extent of variation in the candidate loci or the modifying effects of different environmental settings. We consequently genotyped 13 polymorphisms at the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) locus at an average distance of 2 kb in 2776 family members from Nigeria, Jamaica and an African-American community in the US. Allele and haplotype frequencies were similar in the three populations, with modest evidence of European admixture in the US. Two markers were consistently associated …

Memory In Black And White: Race, Commemoration, And The Post-Bellum Landscape, Paul A. Shackel

Civil War Book Review

Interview with Dr. Paul A. Shackel

by Leah Wood Jewett

The Reach Of Rai: The Modernization And Globalization Of An Algerian Popular Music, Michelle Lynn Ashton

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Informe Técnico De Los Trabajos De Campo Del Proyecto Arqueológico Huambacho-Temporada 2003, David Chicoine, Victor Pimentel

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Digital Facsimiles Of The Paper Issues Of The Cultural Ecology Newsletter, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Special Issue: Native Food Production Knowledge Systems And Practices: Alternative Values And Outcomes-From The Guest Editors, Andrew Sluyter, Alfred H. Siemens

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Los Orígenes Ecológicos Y Las Consecuencias De La Ganadería En La Nueva España Durante El Siglo Xvi, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Geography Militant: Cultures Of Exploration And Empire, By Felix Driver, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Coastal Lake-Sediment Records Of Prehistoric Hurricane Strikes In Honduras And Turks And Caicos Islands Of The Caribbean Basin, Jason Thomas Knowles

LSU Master's Theses

This study seeks to apply the geological method of paleotempestology to reconstruct past hurricane activities for Central America and the Caribbean. Landfalling hurricanes may deposit distinct overwash sand layers in coastal lake sediments through storm surges and tidal overwash processes that can be dated to establish a chronology of past hurricane strikes. Proxy records from lake-sediment cores were taken for this study in the spring and summer of 2003 from Lake Sophie, Providenciales Island, Turks and Caicos, and from Laguna de Los Micos, Honduras. Loss-on-ignition analysis revealed many changes in the sediment stratigraphies for both sites that appear to represent …

Extreme Precipitation Events In East Baton Rouge Parish: An Areal Rainfall Frequency/Magnitude Analysis, Michelle Marie Russo

LSU Master's Theses

Severe rainfall events are one of the most frequent weather hazards in the United States. These events are particularly problematic for the southeastern United States because of its subtropical climate. For these reasons, and because of the recent urban growth in the parish, East Baton Rouge Parish officials are concerned whether the current stormwater drainage system can keep pace with development. As a result, this project evaluated the rainfall frequency/magnitude for parish-wide extreme events and their synoptic forcing mechanisms. To this end, this research mapped parish-wide storms and compared three interpolation techniques. It also compared two methods of areal summation …

Travels In Louisiana: Journeys Into Ethnicity And Heritage By Two Hispanic Groups, Dominica Dominguez Ramirez

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis addresses how the notions of ethnicity and heritage are experienced, negotiated, and displayed by two Hispanic groups in Louisiana. Hispanic identity is a nebulous term anywhere and Louisiana is no exception. In this investigation the two groups- a heritage foundation of descendants of Canary Islanders and descendants of the of the Los Adaes communities- both profess Hispanic heritage, display it, and promote this heritage in divergent ways, with significant differences in the meaning of their heritages. Differences between groups are also reflected in the historical spatial representations of the two groups, with Isleños connecting with a far-away but …

Estimating Impervious Surfaces From A Small Urban Watershed In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Using Landsat Thematic Mapper Imagery, Kurt Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

Many urban areas are using estimations of impervious surfaces as a means for better environmental management. This is because research over the last two decades indicate a consistent, inverse relationship between the percentage of impervious surfaces in a watershed and the environmental problems urban areas are experiencing. Although various methods for estimating impervious surfaces can be identified, few result in accurate and defensible estimations by which environmental problems can be assessed. This is especially important to rapidly expanding urban areas such as Baton Rouge, Louisiana where detailed records and planimetric data are lacking. Numerous studies have shown a potential for …

Excavations At The Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds (16pl159): A Coles Creek Period Mound Complex, Timothy M. Schilling

LSU Master's Theses

The Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds are a large Coles Creek mound group in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Excavations in January 2003 returned materials that allowed the site to be dated. Further analysis also suggests how these materials were used at the mounds. A settlement pattern study was undertaken and the results indicate that the social organization of coastal Coles Creek culture was sharply different than Coles Creek culture in the Lower Mississippi Valley. When viewed together, the material analysis and settlement analysis illustrates the processes and people that built the Bayou Grande Cheniere mounds.

Assessing Increases In Violence: An Analysis Of Homicide Cases From Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Helen Virginia Bouzon

LSU Master's Theses

Analysis of homicides in different cities can provide valuable research information. The information gathered from such an analysis can be used to aid those who are the primary targets of homicide. Such studies can also be used to understand the nature of homicide and what measures can be taken to decrease the rates of homicide. Information on the nature of homicide and who is primarily affected can be used by police departments and public organizations to develop methods to decrease the amount of homicide in any area. This study is an analysis of homicide cases from the Orleans Parish coroner's …

Bayou Boogie: The Americanization Of Cajun Music, 1928-1950, Ryan Andre Brasseaux

LSU Master's Theses

Bayou Boogie by Ryan A. Brasseaux outlines the evolution of Cajun music from 1928 to 1950. This thesis highlights obscure recordings by lesser-known Cajun artists to demonstrate how the Cajun-American discourse took place across Fredrik Barth's ethnic boundaries model. This study acknowledges the complexities of the Cajun experience by examining the regional and national socio-cultural contexts in which commercial Cajun recordings flourished. The birth of commercial Cajun music, John and Alan Lomax's 1934 Louisiana field recordings, and Cajun swing (Cajun inflected-western swing) are all discussed in detail to paint a picture of the complexities that shaped south Louisiana's fertile musical …

Performance As Ministry: An Ethnographic Study Of Three Christian Repertory Theatre Troupes, Webster Ford Drake

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This work seeks to define, explain, and place into historical and social context the phenomena of Christian Repertory Theater (CRT). It does so by examining three CRT troupes: Acts 2 from Nashville, TN, sponsored by Two Rivers Baptist Church; The Company from Fort Worth, TX, sponsored by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Gen X from Clinton, MS, which operated independent of external support . Ethnographic fieldwork was the primary vehicle of information-gathering in this case study analysis. The author experienced each group as either a participant-observer, observer, and/or interviewer. CRT was ultimately defined as an activity wherein a constituted group …

Analysis Of Bacterial Diversity And Biogeography At The Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research (Cap Lter) Site, Brian Anthony Rash

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The limiting factor involved in past assessments of soil bacterial diversity when using culture-independent techniques has often been the lack of sampling and replication. As a result, analyses of community structural shifts across soil environments have lacked statistical power. In this study, 23 16S rRNA gene clone libraries consisting of over 11,000 clones were constructed from soils at the Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) site. Subsequent ARDRA fingerprinting and partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing allowed for a more robust investigation of various components that may explain any observed variations in bacterial species composition. The designated land …

Hidden Landscapes Of The Ancient Maya: Transect Excavations At Arvin's Landing Southern Belize, Bretton Michael Somers

LSU Master's Theses

Transect excavations at Arvin’s Landing in southern Belize revealed evidence of ancient Maya settlement indiscernible from surface inspection. The synthesis of archaeology and geography in field and laboratory methods and analysis provided the framework for this thesis. This study involves a transect survey with systematic shovel tests. Artifacts were recovered and recorded in the field and analyzed in the LSU archaeology laboratory in Punta Gorda, Belize. The entire survey area was mapped by transit and measurements and coordinates were combined with artifact data in a GIS. Prior research at Arvin’s Landing had revealed a Postclassic mound on the bank of …

Faunal Succession Of Necrophilous Insects Associated With High-Pofile Wildlife Carcasses In Louisiana, Erin Jean Grindley Watson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The same entomological criteria used in estimating time of death for humans are applicable for deceased wildlife. Necrophilous insects associated with animal carcasses can provide wildlife law enforcement with valuable information necessary for postmortem interval estimation, and ultimately, to incriminate poachers. The purpose of this research was twofold: to establish species composition, faunal succession patterns, and species and life stage interactions of necrophilous insects associated with three wildlife species; and to identify new methods of evaluating succession patterns using statistical measures. Twenty-one large vertebrate carcasses were monitored throughout decomposition in a mixed flatwood forest in East Baton Rouge Parish, LA …

"Honduran Memories": Identity, Race, Place And Memory In New Orleans, Louisiana, Samantha Euraque

LSU Master's Theses

During the decade preceding the height of the civil rights movement, a small population of Hondurans established residence in the New Orleans area. This Honduran migration was largely due to the trade relationship that existed between Honduras and New Orleans. Honduras was also experiencing political unrest and economic instability due to military coups, fruit company strikes and floods during the late 1950s. In response, the advent of the 1960s brought with it the first wave of Hondurans. According to the 2000 Census there were 64,340 people of Hispanic origin in the four parishes included in the New Orleans metropolitan area, …

The Road To Redevelopment: New Urbanism, Nostalgia, And The Process Of Downtown Revitalization In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jennifer Speights-Binet

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study focuses on a planning process in Baton Rouge, Louisiana called Plan Baton Rouge, which began in the summer of 1998 and continues through the present. The overriding goal of the Plan Baton Rouge process is to revitalize downtown Baton Rouge and promote economic and cultural vitality while implementing the design practices of New Urbanism. New Urbanism is a design methodology that condemns suburban sprawl while promoting denser, early-twentieth-century-style townscapes and urban centers, focusing on mixed land use, pedestrianism, and aesthetic and architectural continuity. Through participant observation, this ethnographic account of New Urbanism in practice provides an in-depth …

The Atchafalaya Basin Proposal For Nomination To The World Heritage Site List, Mitchell W. Coffman

LSU Master's Theses

The Atchafalaya Basin in the Southern United States is a cultural, environmental, historical and natural land region of such universal importance, designation as a World Heritage Site is appropriate. This thesis provides a justification for this designation through compliance with cultural and natural criteria detailed in the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972. The treaty, also known as the World Heritage Convention (WHC) promotes natural and cultural landscape preservation on an international level. This thesis lists the cultural and natural arguments for nominating the Atchafalaya Basin to the World Heritage Site list.

National, …

Assessing The Identity Of Black Indians In Louisiana: A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis, Francis J. Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study shows the existence of Black Indians in Louisiana and investigates whether differences exist between Black Indians who are members of officially recognized tribes and those who do not have any type of recognition. The study examined if a relationship exist between tribal recognition and ethnic identity, subjective well-being, and social support. A cross-sectional survey design was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain qualitative data. The sample consisted of 60 participants. 30 were from recognized tribal groups and 30 were from non-recognized tribal communities. The study specifically examined variables related to the perceptions of Black Indians in Louisiana …

From Oklahomans To "Okies": Identity Formation In Rural California, Toni Ann Alexander

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Throughout the twentieth century difficult economic circumstances have resulted in reduced employment opportunities. In-migrants have long borne the brunt of these limitations, facing open hostilities from residents who felt that these "outsiders" were undeserving of employment and social services. Within the context of the 1930s Depression in the Central Valley of California, such negative public sentiment was often directed at "Okies," the 315,000 former residents of the "Western South" who crossed the California state line in search of employment in the agricultural fields of the Golden State. In this dissertation, I examine the changing conceptualizations of Okie identity throughout the …

A Spatial Analysis Of The Smallpox Epidemic In Sheffield, United Kingdom, 1887-1888, Ann-Marie Cain

LSU Master's Theses

One of today's most fecund fields of research in medical geography involves using historical datasets from past epidemics and contemporary cadastre maps to plot the course of the contagion. The purpose is to study the spatial patterns of diseases that are rare or extinct today but still have large research value. The best example of this problem is smallpox. This project involves taking one of the most complete records of a smallpox epidemic, plotting the cases in a geographic information system (GIS), and exploring the spatial patterns using statistical software. As one of the most contagious and damaging diseases to …

Solving A Locational Distribution Problem Of Non-Toxic Solid Waste On The Island Of Puerto Rico, Sandra A. Soto

LSU Master's Theses

The island of Puerto Rico is confronting a crisis in waste management due to inadequate management from the local government, the decreasing number of landfills available, high population density, and paucity of places for waste disposal. This research develops a least-cost model for the disposal and transportation of non-hazardous solid waste. Location-allocation (LA) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software are used to analyze the efficiency of the present pattern of waste allocation and to identify a near-to-optimal assignment of waste for the landfills in operation today and the landfills that will be open by 2008. The “near-to-optimal” models obtained from …

Minimum Dogma And Religious Toleration, Clinton Bryan Barron

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines issues that emerge from the investigation of the relationship between John Locke's arguments for religious toleration as found in his Letter Concerning Toleration and his construction of a minimum dogma for Christianity in his The Reasonableness of Christianity. The first chapter follows the development of minimum dogma from its origin in the experience Eric Voegelin terms the leap in being, through Xenophanes' concept of "seemliness," to the minimum dogmas of Plato. The second chapter examines the use of minimum dogma in theories of religious toleration by More and Spinoza. The final chapter examines the work of John …

William Faulkner And The Oral Text, Gregory Alan Borse

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The disjunction between the oral and the literate in the works of William Faulkner reveals the different ways these distinct modes of organization combine to structure a text. The oral in Faulkner's fiction makes its presence known not only as offset speech but also as a mode of action and narrative whose logic is conjunctive rather than disjunctive. According to the literate mode, a form organizes novelistic matter. According to the oral mode, forces that function as signs rather than organizers of their form rule the action and narrative. When the disjunction between the oral and the literate is so …

19th And 20th Century French Exoticism: Pierre Loti, Louis-Ferdinand Cé́Line, Michel Leiris, And Simone Schwarz-Bart, Robin Anita White

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study of four 19th and 20th century colonial texts, as well as a later postcolonial novel exposes the cadres exotiques, or exotic frameworks, of literary exoticism. The thesis names and interprets the moods of and reactions to exoticism, including colonial exoticism, antiexoticism, and autoexoticism. Poetic and theoretical interpretations of exoticism, such as Victor Segalen’s Notion du Divers and Edouard Glissant’s Opacité and Poétique de la Relation challenge the prevalent assumptions that the literary practice was only an unfortunate byproduct of colonialism. The first chapter presents literary history and theoretical considerations relating to exoticism: Orientalism, nostalgia, colonial literary history, and …

Hydroclimatic And Circulation Anomalies Associated With The North Atlantic Subtropical High, Brian Taylor Allen

LSU Master's Theses

Hydroclimatic and circulation variability in regions around the Atlantic sector are linked to the intensity, location, and areal extent of the North Atlantic subtropical high (STH). Few analyses focus directly on the influence of the STH on climatic variability. Using sea level pressure (SLP) data from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis dataset, a time series of the STH was produced using principal components analysis (PCA) to describe the temporal variability of the STH from January 1948 to December 2001. A simple area average of SLP across the PCA domain is shown to describe the same phenomena (the dominant mode of the STH …