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Using Entheseal Length To Infer Locomotor Type, Antonio R. Otero

LSU Master's Theses

An enthesis is a marking (tuberosity or impression) on bone where a muscle or tendon attaches and it can be influenced by age, sex, physical activity, and muscle size. This study ascertains whether entheses, long bones, and their respective ratios can be used as an indicator for mode of locomotion in four primate species: Ateles geoffroyi (Geoffroy’s spider monkey), Colobus guereza (mantled guereza), Hylobates lar (lar gibbon), and Macaca mulatta (rhesus monkey). Seven entheses on four long bones were chosen based on importance of the muscle in relation to specific locomotor types, use in other studies, and …

Monumental Discourse: Elite And Grassroots Disputes Over White Supremacist Monuments In New Orleans, Jude Bumgardner

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis explores elite and grassroots discourse concerning disputes over monument removal in New Orleans, Louisiana. By means of participant observation, narrative ethnography, and critical discourse analysis, I ground this study of political and academic arguments about Confederate monuments in the context of grassroots concerns regarding white supremacist symbols to inquire about how these divergent discourses relate to inequality in New Orleans. Ultimately, I argue that what is most at stake in each case studied here is speakers’ control over the “public mind” via their control over dominant narratives (van Dijk 1993a, 44-45). In order to preserve their power, each …

Flood Resilience Assessment Of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina Based On Thermal And Vegetation Index Image Time Series, Yirui Deng

LSU Master's Theses

Resilience is a concept with increasing importance in modern risk management because of its role in reducing risks of unpreventable disasters. Previous resilience assessment studies often require extensive surveys of various social, economic, and psychological data or incorporate remote sensing data as one of the complicated physical and social parameters for assessment models. Limited data accessibility to such data due to funding, time, and labor intensity is a major challenge for their wider applications. Therefore, this study proposes the hypothesis that the overall resilience of an urban area to disturbances of natural disasters can be reflected through the time series …

Climatology, Variability, And Return Periods Of Tropical Cyclone Strikes In The Northeastern And Central Pacific Basins, Nicholas S. Grondin

LSU Master's Theses

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the most destructive meteorological phenomena and impact the lives of people who reside along the coast. The American Pacific Coastline borders the second most active TC development region in the world, the northeastern Pacific (NE Pac) basin. This region, along with the Central Pacific (C Pac)-bordering Hawaii is home to a growing population and cities engaged in a variety of economic activities, most prominently agriculture, fishing, and tourism. This study analyzes fifty-two (1966-2017) years of NE Pac and C Pac TCs through applying track data from the National Hurricane Center’s HURDAT2 and a TC size …

The Sons Of Emmett Till: Addressing Black Male Masculinity In Urban High Schools In New Orleans, Michael J. Seaberry

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Black boys in New Orleans’ urban high schools develop, define, and do masculinity. Beginning with a narrative literature review, this study provides themes common among the six peer-reviewed articles that are specifically written on the subject of Black boys’ masculinity in urban high schools in the United States. Analyzed using Critical Race Theory, the themes discussed in these six articles were used to formulate interview questions for 10 Black male students in New Orleans high schools. The empirical portion of this study found that Black boys in New Orleans urban high schools develop masculinity at birth, …

The Rhetoric Of Sickle Cell Anemia, Raquel Mcfarland Robvais

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation examines the rhetorical treatment of sickle cell anemia as synecdoche, representing a preoccupation with racialized discourses of disease and the affective registers manifested in public life. From its inception SCA has taken on cultural meanings to satisfy ideological arguments about the nature of black bodies.

It has been appropriated to create “categories of difference and belonging” (Schramm et al). I examine how SCA is gathered by rhetors to serve varying ideological purposes and cultural communities. It is utilized to invite different readings that conceptualize the black body as an object of scientific experimentation, as an agent for resistance …

Use Of A Behavioral Health Framework To Assess Perceptions Of Hurricane Evacuation Support Services In New Orleans, Louisiana, Aubry Kyle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents research conducted during the hurricane seasons of 2017 and 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The research’s purpose was to assess citizen perceptions of evacuation support services offered during mandatory evacuation events. A prospective quantitative survey and qualitative, open-ended, semi-structured interview assessed perceptions. Both research methods were designed and assessed using the constructs of the Health Belief Model, a public health model created to assess perceived barriers, benefits, risks, severity, self-efficacy, and cues to action regarding health programming. Quantitative research yielded 211 surveys, representing opinions of New Orleans residents within 1-km Euclidian distance of an evacuation pick-up marker. …

Vulnerability Of Industrial Facilities In The Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor To Relative Sea Level Rise And Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge, Joseph Blake Harris

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Relative sea level rise (RSLR) and tropical cyclone-induced storm surge are major threats to the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor (LMRIC) which has approximately 120 industrial complexes located within the corridor. Spatial interpolation methods were applied to the 2004 National Oceanic and Atmospheric published Technical Report #50 subsidence dataset and cross-validation techniques were used to determine the accuracy of each method. Digital elevation models (DEMs) were created for the years 2025, 2050, and 2075, based on these predictive surface of subsidence rates. Future DEMs were utilized to model RSLR and determine the extent of storm surge on the LMRIC by …

The Child Ethnographer In The Field: Examples From English, Spanish, And French Caribbean Literature, Emily Ann O'Dell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I consider the child to be an ethnographer in works of fiction and autofiction from the Caribbean islands. Through their liminality as culturally and developmentally betwixt or between, their cultural malleability, their linguistic fluidity, and their curiosity, the child becomes a "native" ethnographer who is capable of translating the culture (both linguistically and culturally) for the reader in order to establish understandings of Caribbean cultures. This is accomplished through the creation of hybridized or creolized texts that have many of the same characteristics as postmodern ethnographies.

In the English Caribbean Xuela provides an ethnographic perspective of Dominican …

The Garbage That We Eat: Metabolizing Food-Waste In New Orleans, Louisiana, Kelly L. Haggerty

LSU Master's Theses

The 2017 Climate Action for a Resilient New Orleans report strives to divert 50 percent of waste by 2030. In the same year, waste companies had only managed to divert 5 percent of the total annual waste in Orleans Parish. Nearly a decade away from 2030, city officials have not even tested or implemented strategies to reach this goal. While city officials scramble to launch pilot projects, community and grassroots organizations center around recovering and transforming garbage and food waste. Using interviews and surveys with food-waste organizers from May to August 2018, this paper reveals that managing food-waste on a …

Reflector Dip Trends In Seismic Sh-Wave Imaging Of A Modern Lower Mississippi River Point Bar, Adam Gostic

LSU Master's Theses

Various studies of ancient point bars have noted that a relationship can be observed between the dip angle and grain size of point bar lateral accretion deposits, with the most mud-rich deposits tending to exhibit the greatest dip. No analysis and only cursory explanations for this relationship have been provided. Additionally, buried mid-channel bars are absent from typical models of point bar architecture.

We successfully image the architecture of late-stage point bar deposits with a near surface 2D seismic SH-wave reflection survey and generate an SH-wave velocity model of the subsurface in the study area in order to interpret the …

Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy For Rapid And Cost-Effective Determination Of Elemental Composition Of Ground Forage, Yadav Sapkota, Louis M. Mcdonald, Thomas C. Griggs, Thomas J. Basden, Brandon Lee Drake

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Analyzing The Population Density Pattern In China With A Gis-Automated Regionalization Method: Hu Line Revisited, Cuiling Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The famous “Hu Line”, proposed by Hu Huanyong in 1935, divided China into two regions of comparable area sizes that drastically differ in population: about 4% in the northwest part and 96% in the southeast. However, the Hu Line was proposed largely by visual examination of hand-made maps and arduous experiments of numerous configurations, and has been subject to criticism of lack of scientific rigor and accuracy. Furthermore, it has been over eight decades since the Hu Line was proposed. During the time, China sustained several major man-made and natural disasters (e.g., the World War II, the subsequent Civil War …

The Comparative Genomics And Complex Population History Of Papio Baboons, Jeffrey Rogers, Muthuswamy Raveendran, R. Alan Harris, Thomas Mailund, Kalle Leppälä, Georgios Athanasiadis, Mikkel Heide Schierup, Jade Cheng, Kasper Munch, Jerilyn A. Walker, Miriam K. Konkel, Vallmer E. Jordan, Cody J. Steely, Thomas O. Beckstrom, Christina Bergey, Andrew Burrell, Dominik Schrempf, Angela Noll, Maximillian Kothe, Gisela H. Kopp, Yue Liu, Shwetha Murali, Konstantinos Billis, Fergal J. Martin, Matthieu Muffato, Laura A. Cox, James Else, Todd Disotell, Donna M. Muzny, Jane Phillips-Conroy, Bronwen Aken, Evan E. Eichler, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Carolin Kosiol

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2019 The Authors, Recent studies suggest that closely related species can accumulate substantial genetic and phenotypic differences despite ongoing gene flow, thus challenging traditional ideas regarding the genetics of speciation. Baboons (genus Papio) are Old World monkeys consisting of six readily distinguishable species. Baboon species hybridize in the wild, and prior data imply a complex history of differentiation and introgression. We produced a reference genome assembly for the olive baboon (Papio anubis) and whole-genome sequence data for all six extant species. We document multiple episodes of admixture and introgression during the radiation of Papio baboons, thus demonstrating their …

Downscaling Smap Soil Moisture Data Using Modis Data, Le Tu

LSU Master's Theses

Soil moisture level is an important index in studying environmental changes. High resolution soil moisture data is in high demand for agricultural and weather forecasting purpose. Current daily large-scale soil moisture projects fail to provide sufficient resolution for medium or small region research. To acquire high-resolution soil moisture data, different kinds of methods are put into practice, including multivariate statistical regression, weight aggregation and so on. In this research, SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) level 3 data with 36-km resolution are successfully downscaled by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) 1-km LST (Land Surface Temperature) product, NDVI (Difference Vegetation Index) product, …

Monitoring Sediment Dynamics And Vegetation Competition Based On Micro-Topography And Terrestrial Lidar For Wetland Restoration, Xukai Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With the ability to attenuate wave and limit erosion, coastal wetlands are important to protect shoreline for coastal communities. Micro-topography in coastal wetlands has a significant influence on hydrology, habitat variability and ecosystem functions. However, when mapping micro-topography by terrestrial LiDAR in coastal environments, the coverage of dense vegetation leads to a relatively low chance of laser penetration through the canopy to the ground. This dissertation proposes a rapid and flexible terrain mapping solution for the densely vegetated coastal environment by integrating crown structure from terrestrial LiDAR with terrain samples from GPS. The validated results in the study site demonstrate …

Design And Optimization Of An Ionizing-Radiation-Free Dental Imaging Scheme By Near Infrared Fluorescence, Thomas Hartzler

LSU Master's Theses

There is a global need for access to oral health care. Proper oral health care is necessary for physiological and psychological health, as well as social and economic issues. Major oral diseases that must be screened include caries, cracked teeth, and impacted molars. These diseases are screened and diagnosed using a variety of medical imaging methods, computed tomography (CT) X-ray being the most popular and efficient method. The challenges in screening with X-ray technology include financial and time cost as well as health risk, including radiation exposure induced cancer (REIC). This thesis summarizes research to explore the possibility of overcoming …

Supporting Spartina: Interdisciplinary Perspective Shows Spartina As A Distinct Solid Genus, A Bortolus, P Adam, J B. Adams, M L. Ainouche, A Bortolus, M D. Bertness, T J. Bouma, J F. Bruno, I Cacador, J T. Carlton, J M. Castillo, C S. Costa, A J. Davy, L Deegan, B Duarte, E Figueroa, J Gerwein, A J. Gray, E D. Grosholz, S D. Hacker, A R. Hughes, E Mateos-Naranjo, I A. Mendelssohn, J T. Morris, L A. Munoz-Rodriguez, F J. Nieva, L A. Levin, B Li, W W. Liu, S C. Pennings, A Pickart, S Redondo-Gomez, D M. Richardson, A Salmon

Faculty Publications

In 2014, a DNA-based phylogenetic study confirming the paraphyly of the grass subtribe Sporobolinae proposed the creation of a large monophyletic genus Sporobolus, including (among others) species previously included in the genera Spartina, Calamovilfa, and Sporobolus. Spartina species have contributed substantially (and continue contributing) to our knowledge in multiple disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, biogeography, experimental ecology, biological invasions, environmental management, restoration ecology, history, economics, and sociology. There is no rationale so compelling to subsume the name Spartina as a subgenus that could rival the striking, global iconic history and use of the name Spartina for over 200 …

Review Of The Herds Shot Round The World: Native Breeds And The British Empire, 1800—1900, By Rebecca Woods, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Thermal Tolerance And Prediction Of Northern Distribution Of The Crapemyrtle Bark Scale (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae), Zinan Wang, Yan Chen, Rodrigo Diaz

Faculty Publications

© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. Physiological limits of non-native species to environmental factors are critical for their establishment and spread in the adventive range. The crapemyrtle bark scale, Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae (Kuwana), is a major pest of crapemyrtles. Despite concerns on its rapid spread, there is a lack of information on potential distribution range of this scale in the United States. To understand this scale's distribution potential, its thermal tolerance was evaluated using higher and lower thermal limits. Exposure time leading to 50 and 90% mortality (Lt50 …

Impact Report, 2018-2019, Lsu Libraries

Libraries Impact Reports

No abstract provided.

Lsu General Catalog 2019-2020, Louisiana State University And Agricultural And Mechanical College

LSU General Catalog

The LSU General Catalog describes all undergraduate and graduate departments and programs with degree requirements and courses offered for each one. The LSU General Catalog includes information on registration and financial aid as well as academic services offered to all students.

Civil War Obscura: Barracoon: The Story Of The Last “Black Cargo", Meg Groeling

Civil War Book Review

Author and historian/folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who died in obscurity in 1960, is back on the bookshelves in a significant way. Her first book, Barracoon, has finally been published. She completed the work in 1931 but could never interest publishers in the true saga of Cudjo Lewis, thought to be the last living person enslaved in Africa and transported to the United States by the slave ship Clotilda. Part of the reason the book encountered obstacles was the inclusion of dialect in Hurston's interviews with Kossula, Lewis's African name. Another part was the topic itself. Not only is …

Bibliometrics For Faculty Evaluation: A Statistical Comparison Of H-Indexes Generated Using Google Scholar And Web Of Science Data, David J. Dunaway

Faculty Publications

The growing need for quantification of research performance for promotion and tenure

and grant funding decisions has lead many to rely on citation metrics. There are many metrics to choose from but one of the most common is the h-index. While the h-index has been criticized by many, the metric itself is not the only concern. The source of the citation information used to calculate the h-index is also important. In this case study the h-index was calculated using citation data from Clarivate’s Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar (GS) for a selection of faculty working at a large …

War Matters: Material Culture In The Civil War Era, Emily Wells

Civil War Book Review

The Civil War remains a pivotal event in southern history, with many themes resurfacing throughout its long academic life. Yet, one area that Civil War historians tend to ignore is material culture, which could open an entirely new vein of interpretation while also underscoring the intersections between race, class, and gender on the battlefield and home front. War Matters offers a refreshing analysis of the economic, social, political, and cultural nuances of the Civil War era through the use of material culture. Editor Joan E. Cashin and her fellow contributors focus on objects as small as pocketbook bibles and as …

An Analysis Of The Effect Of Tooth Wear On Bovid Identification, Juliet K. Brophy, Gregory J. Matthews, George K. Thiruvathukal

Faculty Publications

Previous research provides a method for reducing the subjectivity in taxonomic identification of species in the family Bovidae by quantifying the occlusal surface of molar teeth using elliptical Fourier analysis. In this current study, we specifically test what effect medium to late tooth wear has on the identification of bovids when using the form (size and shape) of the occlusal surface to classify specimens. To achieve this, the classification results of teeth with ≥85% of their occlusal surface (training data set) were compared with the results of teeth with 87% of the time with both Alcelaphini and Reduncini classifying correctly …

Restorative Justice As A Doubled-Edged Sword: Conflating Restoration Of Black Youth With Transformation Of Schools, Arash Daneshzadeh, George Sirrakos

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

No abstract provided.

Identification Of Experimental And Control Areas For Cctv Effectiveness Assessment—The Issue Of Spatially Aggregated Data, Adam Dabrowski, Piotr Matczak, Andrzej Wójtowicz, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

Progress in surveillance technology has led to the development of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) systems in cities around the world. Cameras are considered instrumental in crime reduction, yet existing research does not unambiguously answer the question whether installing them affects the number of crimes committed. The quasi-experimental method usually applied to evaluate CCTV systems’ effectiveness faces difficulties with data quantity and quality. Data quantity has a bearing on the number of crimes that can be conclusively inferred using the experimental procedure. Data quality affects the level of crime data aggregation. The lack of the exact location of a crime incident in …

Using Deep Learning To Forecast Spatiotemporal Crime Patterns, Shuzhan Fan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The distributional patterns of crime occurrences are closely related to their spatial, temporal, and environmental contexts. It has been a hot topic for researchers and crime analysts to discover such complex relationships in order to forecast crime, both spatially and temporally. Many factors play a role in the occurrences of crimes. Conventional crime forecasting research has primarily relied on historical crime records and socioeconomic data, while ignoring the rich social media and other environmental context data. The large volume of data requires a more appropriate forecasting framework with the ability to take in massive multimodal data and possibly achieve better …

Gauging Support For Macroecological Patterns In Helminth Parasites, Tad A. Dallas, A. Alonso Aguirre, Sarah Budischak, Colin Carlson, Vanessa Ezenwa, Barbara Han, Shan Huang, Patrick R. Stephens

Faculty Publications

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aim: To explore spatial patterns of helminth parasite diversity, and to investigate three main macroecological patterns – (a) latitude–diversity relationships, (b) positive scaling between parasite and host diversity, and (c) species–area relationships – using a largely underutilized global database of helminth parasite occurrence records. Location: Global. Methods: We examined the London Natural History Museum’s collection of helminth parasite occurrence records, consisting of over 18,000 unique host species and 27,000 unique helminth parasite species distributed across over 350 distinct terrestrial and aquatic localities. Results: We find support for latitudinal gradients in parasite diversity and …