Digital Commons Network^™

Leave It To The People: Position And Positioning Of Stakeholders In Top-Down Sustainable Development And Risk Reduction Frameworks From Global To Local Levels, Bethany Bille Garfield

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Dissertation concerning design, contents, priorities, and outcomes of development and disaster risk reduction (DRR) global indicator frameworks. Historical review of United Nations (UN) multilateral agreements and organizational dynamics precedes analysis of indicator data reported for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets shared by the 2015 Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR). Background on the planning of UN frameworks is considered along with results of indicator data analysis to identify actors and processes that steer the focus of frameworks hence influence selection of targets and indicators, and corresponding framework agendas. Fundamental flaws in resolution frameworks preventing global goal …

Evaluation Of Louisiana Farm To School Programming: Harvest Of The Month And Local Food Procurement, Arin M. Shaffer

LSU Master's Theses

Farm to school is a growing movement that is beginning to draw serious interest in different parts of the United States due to its ability to connect communities with their local producers while providing many benefits. Farm to school entails three main components: school gardening, education and curriculum, and local food procurement. The farm to school movement is relatively new to the state of Louisiana and very little research has been conducted to evaluate the impact of the farm to school programs on local food procurement and the effect on school food environments. Case studies of three Louisiana parish school …

Service Gifts, Collective Social Connection And Reciprocity, Yihui (Elina) Tang, Christian Hinsch, Donald J. Lund, Husni Kharouf

Faculty Publications

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the process of service gifting (i.e. unexpected upgrades or benefits) and examine why service gifts do not always result in firm-beneficial reciprocal behaviors from consumers. Design/methodology/approach: Through a series of three studies including both scenario-based and game-theory-based experiments, this research proposes and empirically validates a conceptual model that examines the effect of service gifts on firm-beneficial reciprocal behaviors, and the role of collective social connection and norm of positive reciprocity (NPR) in this process. Findings: The findings of this research show that the consumer’s feelings of collective social connection mediate the link between the …

Demographic Impacts Of Climate-Induced Migration And Environmental Shocks And Stressors In Cameron Parish, Louisiana, John Green Iii

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Correlation Analysis Of Precipitation And River Flow With The Injection And Discharge Of The Three Gorges Dam And Reservoir, Lirong Yin

LSU Master's Theses

The Yangtze River has been the primary support of the resources and transportation of China. Its basin covers an area of 1.8 million square kilometers. The Three Gorges Dam and Reservoir on the Yangtze River is one of the world's largest dams. After the dam construction in 1997, the reservoir started injecting the reservoir to a size of over 600 km². The influence caused by the dam and reservoir on the river system has been overwhelming and destructive. The possible influence of this vast water body and the operation to maintain this waterbody's size and water level on …

Using Spatial Analysis And Machine Learning Techniques To Develop A Comprehensive Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Consolidation Model, Samira Soleimani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The safety of highway-railroad grade crossings (HRGC) is still an issue in the United States of America (USA). The grade crossing is where a railroad crosses a road at the same level without any over or underpass. To improve the safety of crossings, the crossings’ condition should be explored from several aspects such as engineering design (speed limit, warning signs, etc.), road condition (number of lanes, surface markings, etc.), rail design (the type of track, ballast, etc.), temporal variables (weather, visibility, time of day, lightning, etc.), social variables (population, race, etc.), and last but not least, spatial variables (the type …

Development Of Corrosion Inhibiting Geopolymers Based Cement For Transportation Infrastructure, Homero Castaneda, Miladin Radovic, Changkyu Kim, Oscar Huang

Publications

Geopolymers are gaining attention as affordable, sustainable, and eco-friendly replacement for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) in concrete civil structures. More importantly, Geopolymer-based Cement (GPC) provide sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to OPCs as GPC can be processed at room temperatures from aqueous solutions of waste materials (e.g., fly ash) or abounded natural sources (e.g., clay) and thus reduce significant CO₂ production associated with processing of OPC. Although, a lot of work has been done on improving mechanical properties of GPC over the last two decades, there are only a few studies on effects of GPC concrete on steel rebar …

Urban Crime Mapping And Analysis Using Gis, Alina Ristea, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reimagining Assessments In The Postpandemic Era: Creating A Blueprint For The Future, Keena Arbuthnot

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Antarctica And The Southern Ocean, Jessica Blunden, Derek S. Arndt, E. Povl Abrahamsen, Sandra Barreira, Cecilia M. Bitz, Amy Butler, Kyle R. Clem, Steve Colwell, Lawrence Coy, Jos De Laat, Marcel D. Du Plessis, Ryan L. Fogt, Helen Amanda Fricker, John Fyfe, Alex S. Gardner, Sarah T. Gille, Tessa Gorte, L. Gregor, Will Hobbs, Bryan Johnson, Eric Keenan, Linda M. Keller, Natalya A. Kramarova, Matthew A. Lazzara, Jan T.M. Lenaerts, Jan L. Lieser, Hongxing Liu, Craig S. Long, Michelle Maclennan, Robert A. Massom, François Massonnet, Matthew R. Mazloff

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Protestant Experience And Continuity Of Political Thought In Early America, 1630-1789, Stephen Michael Wolfe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The debate on the continuity of American political thought from the 17^th century Puritan settlements to the 18^th century American founding assumes a bipolar spectrum, ranging from strong continuity to strong discontinuity. The degree that scholars recognize distinctively Christian, theological, or Protestant ideas operating in the founding era determines where they are placed on the spectrum. The most popular view today is the “amalgam” thesis, which is a moderate view, resulting from decades of debate. Amalgam theorists argue that the founders' political theory relied on a variety of sources, from classical to Protestant. The current debate centers on …

Southwest Pacific Tropical Cyclone Frequency And Intensity Related To Observed And Modeled Geophysical And Aerosol Variables, Rupsa Bhowmick

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation focuses on western region of Southwest Pacific Ocean (SWPO)

basin (135E - 180, and 5S - 35S) tropical cyclone (TC) climatology using observed

and modeled data. The classification-based machine learning approach

identifies the synoptic geophysical and aerosol environment favorable or unfavorable

for TC intensification and intensity change prior to landfall incorporating

observational and satellite data. A multiple poisson regression model with varying

temporal monthly lags was used to build a relationship between the number of

monthly TC days with basin wide average dust aerosol optical depth (AOD), sea

surface temperature (SST), and upper ocean temperature (UOT). This idea …

Intermittent Fasting And Metabolic Health: From Religious Fast To Time-Restricted Feeding, Kristin K. Hoddy, Kara L. Marlatt, Hatice Çetinkaya, Eric Ravussin

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Over the past 10 to 15 years, intermittent fasting has emerged as an unconventional approach to reduce body weight and improve metabolic health beyond simple calorie restriction. In this review, we summarize findings related to Ramadan and Sunnah fasting. We then discuss the role of caloric restriction not only as an intervention for weight control, but importantly, as a strategy for healthy aging and longevity. Finally, we review the four most common intermittent fasting (IF) strategies used to date for weight management and to improve cardiometabolic health. Weight loss is common after IF but does not appear to be different …

Antimicrobial Strategies For Topical Applications, Kelsey Marie Lopez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Bacteria can thrive in diverse environments and are often harmless or beneficial. Bacteria in digestive tracts is one example of beneficial bacteria; however, bacteria can be harmful and when this type proliferates, it can cause infections within hosts. Bacterial infections are easily treated with antibiotics in most cases. However, bacteria are also capable of developing mutations which could cause them to become multi-drug resistant and eventually, “superbugs.” Therefore, the development of novel antimicrobial agents and materials capable of combating drug-resistant bacteria is necessary. Research presented in this dissertation focuses on different strategies for minimizing and preventing topical bacterial infections using …

Reconsidering The Obstetrical Dilemma: Correlations Between Head And Pelvic Size, Kelsey Catrice Fox

LSU Master's Theses

The Obstetrical Dilemma (OD) theory has become canon in biological anthropology. The OD posits that i] dystocia results from bipedal mothers and encephalized infants, ii] contrasting selection for bipedality and obstetrics hinders locomotive efficiency, and iii] the contradicting requirement of the fetus being small enough to pass through the birth canal yet being cognitively advanced enough to cling to its mother after birth. Females, theoretically, exhibit deficient gait efficiency for the sake of successful childbirth. An obstetric advantage theory has been posited where taller individuals with a larger head size have larger pelves. If the distance between the acetabulae increases …

Estimating The Onset And Extent Of Dieback Of Phragmites Australis Using The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index And Remotely Sensed Land Cover Classifications, Aimee M. Beaudette

LSU Master's Theses

Phragmites australis is cosmopolitan plant species with an invasive variety present throughout most of North America. In the Balize Delta, Louisiana, USA, P. australis plays an important role in combatting subsidence, maintaining navigation channels, and protecting interior fish and wildlife habitat from waves and storm surge. In 2016 a dieback of P. australis was reported by wetland managers, coinciding with the appearance of an invasive Asian scale insect (Nipponaclerda biwakoensis), though the specific cause is still unknown. Two previous efforts attempted to identify the onset of dieback conditions met with limited success. Using Landsat images from 1985 to …

Spatial Production And Nomadic Subjectivities In A Buddhist Learning Space, Chau Bao Le

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Space and place are an integral part in the geographies of education, therefore, knowledge about culturally complex and ethnically diverse transnational communities could inform curricular innovations that meet the needs of individual students. This year-long ethnographic study challenged the prevailing realities that U.S. schools continue to devalue the experiences and cultural backgrounds of immigrant youth, which caused students from ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and religious minority groups to feel structurally excluded and marginalized. Through examining the spatial production and nomadic subjectivities enacted over time in a transnational, diasporic space of a Buddhist temple in a U.S. southern state, the study …

Evaluating Temporal Approximation Methods Using Burglary Data, Lukas Oswald, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

Law enforcement is very interested in knowing when a crime has happened. Unfortunately, the occurrence time of a crime is often not exactly known. In such circumstances, estimating the most likely time that a crime has happened is crucial for spatio-temporal analysis. The main purpose of this research is to introduce two novel temporal approximation methods, termed retrospective temporal analysis (RTA) and extended retrospective temporal analysis (RTAext). Both methods are compared to six existing temporal approximation methods and subsequently evaluated in order to identify the method that can most accurately estimate the occurrence time of crimes. This research is conducted …

Data For Wetlandscapes And Their Changes Around The World, Navid Ghajarnia, Georgia Destouni, Josefin Thorslund, Zahra Kalantari, Imenne Ahlén, Jesús A. Anaya-Acevedo, Juan F. Blanco-Libreros, Sonia Borja, Sergey Chalov, Aleksandra Chalova, Kwok P. Chun, Nicola Clerici, Amanda Desormeaux, Bethany B. Garfield, Pierre Girard, Olga Gorelits, Amy Hansen, Fernando Jaramillo, Jerker Jarsjö, Adnane Labbaci, John Livsey, Giorgos Maneas, Kathryn Mc Curley Pisarello, Sebastián Palomino-Ángel, Jan Pietroń, René M. Price, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Jorge Salgado, A. Britta, Samaneh Seifollahi-Aghmiuni, Ylva Sjöberg, Pavel Terskii, Guillaume Vigouroux

Faculty Publications

Geography and associated hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes determine the states and dynamics of wetlands and their ecosystem services. The influences of these controls are not limited to just the local scale of each individual wetland but extend over larger landscape areas that integrate multiple wetlands and their total hydrological catchment-the wetlandscape. However, the data and knowledge of conditions and changes over entire wetlandscapes are still scarce, limiting the capacity to accurately understand and manage critical wetland ecosystems and their services under global change. We present a new Wetlandscape Change Information Database (WetCID), consisting of geographic, hydrological, …

Baton Rouge Slam!: An Obituary For Summer 2016: A Critical Performance Ethnography Of Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam, Joshua Hamzehee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This critical performance ethnography presents the theory, methodology, and practice surrounding the fieldwork, scripting, and performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. As participant-observer, director, and co-performer, I unpack social drama, performance ethnography, and slam culture by employing a lens rooted in critical race theory. Local poets permitted me to de- and re-contextualize their interviews into ensemble scenes and theatricalize their slam poems about the recent summer’s charged events. One year later, this involved and embodied process of ethnographic bricolage became the ensemble cast performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. Community members and …

Comparison Of Terrestrial Lidar, Sfm, And Mbes Resolution And Accuracy For Geomorphic Analyses In Physical Systems That Experience Subaerial And Subaqueous Conditions, Taylor Rowley, Mick Ursic, Kory Konsoer, Eddy Langendon, Mike Mutschler, Josh Sampey, Pawel Pocwiardowski

Faculty Publications

This study provides a systematic comparison of lidar, Multibeam Echo Sounders (MBES), and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) derived datasets collected over a fixed surface contained within a large outdoor flume converted to a 15 × 2.5 × 1.5 m tank. The surface incorporated various morphological features and structures for measurement technique comparison over varying surface type and geometries. Two lidar scans and two photograph sets (used in SfM) capture the subaerial surface within the experimental tank before and after the tank was filled for MBES measurements. MBES surveys at varied frequencies (200 and 400 kHz), swath widths (90° and 150°), and phase/amplitude …

Moche Juvenile Burial Patterns, Audrey J. Deluca

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines Moche juvenile burial patterns as documented in the published literature. Reports of cemeteries and other burial excavations were compiled in order to identify the position of children in Moche society as well as ideology surrounding children and childhood. The data collected spans six valleys and fourteen archaeological sites along the north coast of Peru. This investigation revealed 191 juvenile burials dating from A.D. 200 – 850. The variables documented for each burial include site, period, age, sex, burial position, orientation, burial encasing, and description of grave goods, as well as documenting adult individuals buried with juveniles. This …

Analyzing Climate Risk To Maritime Cypress Swamps And Pine Savannas Of The Gulf Of Mexico Coastal Plain, Clay Stephens Tucker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As sea levels rise, coastal trees are increasingly stressed by saltwater inundation, and stressed trees are ideal for studying changes in the environment through time. Dendrochronology has been used for more than a century to explain changes in past environments using tree rings. Using ring widths and stable isotopes from coastal trees, the effects of tropical cyclones and freshwater moisture availability are shown in regard to tree growth and ultimately are discussed in terms of change to the environment as a whole. Changes in tree growth as they relate to various climate parameters are measured using superposed epoch analysis, moving-window …

The Siltcatcher: A Sediment-Capture System For Wetland Creation And Coastal Protection In Western Lake Pontchartrain, Andrew M. Wright

LSU Master's Theses

The West Lake Pontchartrain region faces a number of long-term environmental challenges due to anthropogenic climate disturbance and landscape modification, including sea level rise, increased storm surge risk, shoreline erosion, and wetland degradation. In response, this thesis applies recent research in the fields of landscape architecture and civil engineering to propose a dynamic, natural-systems solution for wetland creation and shoreline protection. The project envisions a series of breakwater-like structures in western Lake Pontchartrain positioned to slow water released from the nearby Bonnet Carré Spillway, causing suspended sediment to settle and create self-building and self-sustaining wetlands capable of keeping pace with …

Thiết Kế Cho Gia Tài Nông Nghiệp: Cho Khu Tôi Ở Nu Ô Linh Đông - Designing For A Living Agricultural Heritage: For My Vietnamese Neighborhood In New Orleans East, Nguyệt Nguyễn

LSU Master's Theses

ABfdSTRACT

Versgggailles in New Orleans East is home to one of the densest populations of Vietnamese outside of Việt Nam. Following the Việt Nam War in 1975, thousands of refugees fled the country and several hundred were resettled in this neighborhood. Over time, community members rooted in a sense of home through tangible and intangible means in the landscape. Elders grow vegetables, herbs and fruit from Việt Nam in yards and vacant lots. Neighbors and and amenities are within walkable distance. The Catholic church is a focal community hub. Language and tradition are practiced at the family and the community …

Automatic Features Extraction From Time Series Of Passive Microwave Images For Snowmelt Detection Using Deep-Learning – A Bidirectional Long-Short Term Memory Autoencoder (Bi-Lstm-Ae) Approach., Bienvenu Sedin Massamba

LSU Master's Theses

The Antarctic surface snowmelt is prone to the polar climate and is common in its coastal regions. With about 90 percent of the planet's glaciers, if all of the Antarctica glaciers melted, sea levels will rise about 58 meters around the planet. The development of an effective automated ice-sheet snowmelt monitoring system is therefore crucial.

Microwave remote sensing instruments, on the one hand, are very sensitive to snowmelt and can see day and night through clouds, allowing us to distinguish melting from dry snow and to better understand when, where, and for how long melting has taken place. On the …

Night Of The Witch: Alternative Spirituality, Identity And Media, Andreana Tarleton

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis works to understand the relationships witches and conjurors have with the film and television depictions of them. Employing the method of film critique, I argue that the witch stands as a cultural symbol in the US of women and femmes with power, and that their stories serve as lessons to these populations about what it means to be an acceptable woman or femme, while simultaneously creating and perpetuating stereotypes of magic practitioners. Then, using the combination of hashtag ethnography, in-person and video interviewing and internet surveys, I argue that #witchblr and #witchesofcolor, as well as the space of …

An Atmospheric And Spatiotemporal Examination Of Lightning-Initiated Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes Detected By The Fermi Satellite And Tetra Ii, Deirdre Colleen Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) are sub-millisecond bursts of the highest naturally occurring light-energy found within Earth’s atmosphere. TGFs are associated with the electric fields produced in thunderstorms and are geolocated by coincident sferics from lightning strokes. Though billions of lightning strokes occur globally each year, fewer than 1,000 TGFs are detected via satellite and ground-based sensors and only a small fraction are geolocated via sferics.

To date, few studies have focused on individual thunderstorms and climates that produce TGFs. This dissertation examines TGFs from two differing data samples: 1) NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (2013-2018) and 2) The TGF and …

A Case Study Of Two Preservice Elementary Music Teachers As Culture-Bearers, Julius Kyakuwa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The integration of music from unfamiliar cultures in music classrooms is part of education curriculums around the world. International music education organizations also have goals for using a variety of musics in music education programs as one way of educating students to meet the 21st century global education targets. In the American education practice, the concept and principles of multiculturalism have been prominent in classroom subjects for over 50 years. In music education, multicultural approaches continue to be included in music standards and curriculum guides across the United States. Music educators, likewise, often use culture-bearers to expose their students to …

Estimation Of Age From The Auricular Surface Of The Ilium Through The Utilization Of 3d Scanning And Gis, Krista Bennett

LSU Master's Theses

The ability to produce age estimations for adult skeletons has been a focus of forensic anthropologists for decades. Most age estimation methods for adult remains provide age ranges that are too narrow, too broad, or too vague. This project sought to combine 3D scans with GIS to produce morphological maps of the auricular surface of the os coxa in order to identify quantifiable characteristics for age assessment that could be used for generating narrower age range estimates for older adult remains.

A NextEngine ™ HD Desktop 3D scanner was used to scan the auricular surfaces of 384 os coxae from …