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LSU Master's Theses

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Reading Between The Vines: Analyzing Climate Change Adaptive Capacity In The Tulbagh Valley Wine Industry, South Africa, Jana Catherine Brady Oct 2017

Reading Between The Vines: Analyzing Climate Change Adaptive Capacity In The Tulbagh Valley Wine Industry, South Africa, Jana Catherine Brady

LSU Master's Theses

There is great concern across the wine industry about the effect climate change will have on wine production and quality. These worries are valid because wine grapes are sensitive to the climatological conditions in which they are grown. However, not all viticultural areas will experience climate change in the same manner and the effects of climate change could vary considerably by region. This thesis examines the potential impact of climate change on the wine industry in the already hot and dry Tulbagh Valley, South Africa. The valley has produced wine since the early 18th century, but today the valley …


Overbank Deposition Of Sand And Mud Within Two Point Bars Bound By The Mississippi River Levee System: Implications For Coastal Restoration Sediment Budgets, Christopher Magliolo Oct 2017

Overbank Deposition Of Sand And Mud Within Two Point Bars Bound By The Mississippi River Levee System: Implications For Coastal Restoration Sediment Budgets, Christopher Magliolo

LSU Master's Theses

As ongoing Mississippi River sediment diversion projects are being developed and planned, the availability of sand and mud for use in the lower Mississippi River Delta is being calculated and budgeted. This project attempts to quantify the amount of sand and mud being lost from the lower Mississippi River past the Old River Control Structure in the remaining unleveed floodplains, an area that encompasses 270 km2. Two land masses were chosen along each bank of this reach of the Mississippi River: Raccourci Island (west bank) and the Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge (east bank). Seventeen sediment cores were …


Analysis Of Cost And Energy Performance Of Geothermal Heat Pump Systems In Southern Louisiana, Claudia De Lourdes Duran Tapia Jan 2017

Analysis Of Cost And Energy Performance Of Geothermal Heat Pump Systems In Southern Louisiana, Claudia De Lourdes Duran Tapia

LSU Master's Theses

In the last three decades of geothermal heat pump (GHP) industry, there has been an urge to present data, especially performance and itemized installation cost, as a plan to reduce the lack of knowledge and trust towards GHP systems for heating and cooling. The potential of GHPs in hot and humid climates is significant [Tao and Zhu, 2012]. However, past research efforts have demonstrated this potential through the use of simulation rather than real-time data. Therefore, the scope of work for this research is to investigate GHP system applications for residential buildings in areas with hot and humid climates. Based …


Ancient Maya Obsidian Trade: Arvin's Landing And Foster Farm, Belize, Kelsey Paige Johnson Jan 2017

Ancient Maya Obsidian Trade: Arvin's Landing And Foster Farm, Belize, Kelsey Paige Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

Arvin’s Landing and Foster Farm are ancient Maya settlements located on Joe Taylor Creek near Punta Gorda in southern Belize. The abundance of obsidian and the number of sources in the artifact assemblage at Arvin’s Landing and Foster Farm indicate the inhabitants of these settlement participated in long-distance trade with other Maya communities. The research was developed to examine the different geographic sources of obsidian as well as the distribution of these sources at both sites. The goal of this research is to determine whether these sites fit with existing trade patterns established by previous research over decades of obsidian …


Composting The Garden: Hybrid Geographies Of Baton Rouge Urban Gardens, Lauren Hull Jan 2017

Composting The Garden: Hybrid Geographies Of Baton Rouge Urban Gardens, Lauren Hull

LSU Master's Theses

Home gardens are intimate spaces of interaction between humans and the natural world. This study examines how relations and practices within gardens both perpetuate and disrupt perspectives on human separateness from nature. Nine Baton Rouge gardeners participated in this study, sharing stories about their lives and garden through interviews and garden walk-throughs. By adopting more-than-human social theory, this study explores these stories to answer three questions: (1) What types of relationships are found between garden inhabitants in Baton Rouge? (2) How do these relationships influence garden practices? And (3) How do relationships and practices create hybrid garden spaces? Garden inhabitants …


Crime Analysis In The City Of Baton Rouge And Brec Park Based On Crime Location Quotient And Hotspot Method, Anliu Jiang Jan 2017

Crime Analysis In The City Of Baton Rouge And Brec Park Based On Crime Location Quotient And Hotspot Method, Anliu Jiang

LSU Master's Theses

City parks provide intrinsic environmental, aesthetic, and recreation benefits to our cities and their inhabitants. Some researchers indicate that City parks serve as places of reduced crime and actually increase the safety of the surrounding area. Other researchers claim that city parks have been seen as contested space. The purpose of this thesis research is to study the relationship between parks and crime or comparing crime types between parks and their cities. First, this thesis research address the difference between crimes in city parks compared to crimes in the entire city. The second research question addresses the impact that parks …


Vertebral Pathologies And Implications For Economic Lifestyle Changes In Two Prehistoric Skeletal Populations, Alyxandra Leigh Stanco Jan 2017

Vertebral Pathologies And Implications For Economic Lifestyle Changes In Two Prehistoric Skeletal Populations, Alyxandra Leigh Stanco

LSU Master's Theses

Little research considers the vertebral column in relation to inter-populational variation and changes in economic lifestyle. Numerous studies have been conducted regarding the influence of activity-related stress on post-cranial elements such as the knees, hips and shoulders, but few studies have considered the vertebral column. This study examined the vertebral columns of two prehistoric skeletal populations. The Indian Knoll site, home to a population of early hunter-gatherers, is located in Ohio County, Kentucky along the Green River. Indian Knoll was first excavated in 1915 by C.B. Moore. The Moundville site, a chiefdom of early agriculturalists, is located in the Black …


Pronoun Marking In African American English-Speaking Children With And Without Specific Language Impairment, Gayatri Ramamoorthy Brown Jan 2017

Pronoun Marking In African American English-Speaking Children With And Without Specific Language Impairment, Gayatri Ramamoorthy Brown

LSU Master's Theses

The present study was designed to describe and quantify patterns of pronoun use by African American English (AAE)-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) relative to their AAE-speaking typically developing (TD) peers. Pronouns were of interest because: they are produced frequently in everyday speech, they are often targeted when a child’s language abilities are evaluated by a speech-language pathologist, and limited pronoun data exists for AAE-speaking children. The data were language samples that had been elicited from 96 children (35 SLI, 61 TD) enrolled in kindergarten. The samples were searched for 11 different pronoun forms, and these were coded as …


Feasting In Florida: Evidence Of Swift Creek Ceremonial Feasting And Multi-Group Interactions At Byrd Hammock South (8wa30), Wakulla County, Fl, Joseph Michael O'Keefe Jan 2017

Feasting In Florida: Evidence Of Swift Creek Ceremonial Feasting And Multi-Group Interactions At Byrd Hammock South (8wa30), Wakulla County, Fl, Joseph Michael O'Keefe

LSU Master's Theses

During the LSU 2015 Summer Field School at the Byrd Hammock South site (8WA30) in Wakulla County, Florida, excavations uncovered a large stratified pit-fill feature (Length 78 cm x Width 65 cm x Depth 136 cm) associated with the Early Swift Creek culture (A.D. 0 – 500). The Swift Creek have been generally identified as a transegalitarian society, and are believed to have participated in the phenomenon known as the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. The feature, Feature 1 (F1), was located approximately 60 meters south of Burial Mound B on the western edge of a semi-circular midden that surrounded a clean …


Non-Metric Cranial Differentiation Between Asian And Native American Populations For Ancestry Assessment, Dominique Marie Bodoh Jan 2017

Non-Metric Cranial Differentiation Between Asian And Native American Populations For Ancestry Assessment, Dominique Marie Bodoh

LSU Master's Theses

Assessing ancestry from skeletal remains provides important information to aid in personal identification. However, trying to specify ancestry for Native American and Asian populations in the United States is a current challenge in laboratory analyses. Both Native American and Asian populations are still often combined in research for a variety of reasons: small sample sizes, skeletal similarities and less emphasis in contemporary literature. Historically, Carlton Coon, in 1939, and Riesenfield, in 1956, refer to this combination of both Native American and Asian populations as “Mongoloid,” a term which is deemed by many as an offensive and inaccurate categorization of both …


A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of River Flow Rates On Decomposition, Maddisen Paige Neuman Jan 2017

A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of River Flow Rates On Decomposition, Maddisen Paige Neuman

LSU Master's Theses

While the general biological processes of decomposition are known to forensic anthropologists, data on aquatic decomposition is in need of refinement. Water composition varies in mineral content, temperature, flow rate, and scavengers; each of these elements can have an effect on the rate of decomposition. This study specifically focuses on the effects of river flow rates on decomposition by comparing the rate of decay of three feral pigs (Sus scrofa) on land (control specimen), in faster flowing water, and in slower flowing water. The hypothesis states that the pig placed in the faster section of the river will decompose more …


Impacts Of Enso On Tornado Frequency, Intensity, And Geography Across The Eastern United States, Coryn Ann Collins Jan 2017

Impacts Of Enso On Tornado Frequency, Intensity, And Geography Across The Eastern United States, Coryn Ann Collins

LSU Master's Theses

Tornadoes are a reoccurring severe weather hazard, with the highest rates globally occurring in the central United States. Despite their high frequency in the U.S., the scientific community’s disagreement of tornado activity during varying phases and intensities of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) justifies a need for further research. In this study, tornado events from 1950 to 2014 in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains were investigated for seven phases of ENSO: strong, moderate, and weak El Niño/La Niña and the neutral phase. A seasonal Niño 3.4 index was used as the definition of ENSO. ENSO influences on …


Pots, Pans, And Politics: Feasting In Early Horizon Nepeña, Peru, Kenneth Edward Sutherland Jan 2017

Pots, Pans, And Politics: Feasting In Early Horizon Nepeña, Peru, Kenneth Edward Sutherland

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis explores Early Horizon (900 – 200 BCE) feasting practices visible through the pottery assemblage at three archaeological complexes in the lower Nepeña Valley, north-central coast of Peru. Ceramic vessels were used for production, transportation, and storage of foods consumed for daily subsistence and during feasting events at the settlement of Caylán, a large town or city interpreted as the primary center of a multi-tiered polity. Secondary settlements at Samanco, a small coastal town, and Huambacho, an elite ceremonial center, indicate the complexity of this polity. Analysis of ceramic rim sherds reveals the types of vessels used at these …


Language Use In Forensic Settings, Emily Faith Wiegers Jan 2017

Language Use In Forensic Settings, Emily Faith Wiegers

LSU Master's Theses

Understanding what constitutes proper communication is an important component of interaction for forensic science professionals. Using concepts from linguistic anthropology, this thesis recognizes patterns of discourse and register among individuals working within a forensic setting. Data collected from a survey distributed to members of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and from interviews with forensic professionals working in the state of Louisiana were used to analyze individual perceptions of language use in professional settings. Results show that variation among individuals within the forensic disciplines affects speech. Other determinants of proper speech include audience and the space within which the communication …


Lightning Flash Rate In The Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela Related To Sea Surface Temperatures And Tropospheric Air Flow, Deirdre Smith Jan 2016

Lightning Flash Rate In The Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela Related To Sea Surface Temperatures And Tropospheric Air Flow, Deirdre Smith

LSU Master's Theses

Northern Venezuela's Lower Maracaibo Basin (LMB) has the highest lightning flash rate (LFR) density in the world. The area receives approximately 200 flashes per km^2 annually. Local topography as well as local and global scale climate drivers have been shown to influence the frequency of the lightning storms, known as "Catatumbo Lightning". This research focuses on influences on LFR in the LMB by local and global sea surface temperatures and elements of local tropospheric air from 1996--2015. Sea surface temperature and tropospheric air data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are used in Spearman rank correlations to determine relationships …


The Photodegradation Of 2,6-Dichloro-4-Nitroaniline (Dcna) In Freshwater And Saltwater, Emily Noelle Vebrosky Jan 2016

The Photodegradation Of 2,6-Dichloro-4-Nitroaniline (Dcna) In Freshwater And Saltwater, Emily Noelle Vebrosky

LSU Master's Theses

The fungicide 2,6-dichloro-4-nitroaniline (DCNA) is applied to crops grown in areas near both freshwater and saltwater bodies and it can enter the surface waters where it is susceptible to photolysis; limited information is published on the photodegradation of DCNA. It has been shown that the salinity of seawater can influence both the overall rate of degradation of chemicals and impact the distribution and types of photoproducts generated during the photodegradation processes of a pesticide. The photodegradation of DCNA was measured in distilled water, artificial seawater, estuarine water, and phosphate buffer to determine the degree of differences in the degradation rate …


Detecting The Spatial Patterns Of Blue-Green Algae In Harsha Lake Using Landsat 8 Imagery, Jing Huang Jan 2016

Detecting The Spatial Patterns Of Blue-Green Algae In Harsha Lake Using Landsat 8 Imagery, Jing Huang

LSU Master's Theses

The incidence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) caused by blue-green algae has been increasing in coastal and freshwater ecosystems of the United States in recent years, and has had great influence on ecosystem, economic, and public health. This thesis aims at testing the feasibility of using machine learning methods in comparison to traditional regression models to detect and map the blue-green algae distribution in low-medium biomass waters (Chl-a < approx. 20 μg/L) from a Landsat 8 image with the support of some in situ Chl-a measurements in Harsha Lake, Ohio. Two algorithms were compared: one is the conventional empirical method – Stepwise Multiple Linear Regression – to see if there is a strong linear relationship between measured Chl-a concentrations and the Landsat 8 spectral data in the study area, and the other is one of the most popular machine learning methods–Random Forests. Major findings include: (1) both a conventional linear regression model and a Random Forests model worked well in mapping the extent and biomass of blue-green algae in Harsha Lake on September 21, 2015, but the Random Forests model outperformed the linear regression model; (2) the prediction surface from the Random Forests method illustrated that 89.30% of Harsha Lake’s area had Chl-a values less than 10 µg/L on the sampling date, while only 10.70% of the entire study area had Chl-a concentrations between 10 µg/L and 20 µg/L. Higher Chl-a values (especially for Chl-a larger than 10 µg/L) were mostly distributed in the mouths of rivers or streams, which might be caused by the influx of nutrients from agricultural or urban land use by rivers and streams. The results show the utility of the Random Forests approach based on Landsat 8 imagery in detecting and quantitatively mapping low biomass HABs, which is considered to be a challenging task.


Metric Variation In The Human Sacrum: Costal Process Length Among Black And White South Africans, Christy Rose Wayne Jan 2016

Metric Variation In The Human Sacrum: Costal Process Length Among Black And White South Africans, Christy Rose Wayne

LSU Master's Theses

Considerable attention has been given to the measureable differences that exist between different human populations in the size and shape of the pelvis, with Africans having a narrower pelvis than Europeans. By collecting data on sacral breadth from a South African skeletal population, this study (1) tests the hypothesis that African blacks possess a narrower sacrum, and by inference pelvis, than whites and (2) considers whether the size variation between blacks and whites is due to nutritional, historical and social differences, to a genetic basis related to climatic adaptation, or to both. White South Africans were found to possess a …


Facts Are Stubborn Things: The Foundation Of Alfred Russel Wallace's Theories, 1823-1848, Sabrina Rae Cervantez Jan 2016

Facts Are Stubborn Things: The Foundation Of Alfred Russel Wallace's Theories, 1823-1848, Sabrina Rae Cervantez

LSU Master's Theses

Alfred Russel Wallace, a Victorian naturalist, firmly believed that based on his own extensive research there were theories that could effectively provide a means of studying the natural world and improving society. Although he became a respected naturalist his interests in mesmerism, socialism, and spiritualism disconnected him from the mainstream scientific community. Following the tradition of early nineteenth-century naturalists, Wallace was self-trained and self-educated, traits that allowed him to study multiple fields of interests and conduct personal experimentations. In these formative years, he was influenced by British popular culture, interactions with the working class and the latest trends of intellectual …


A Climatological Exploration Of Land Change And Land Use On Lightning Patterns Over Louisiana, Nicholas James Sokol Jan 2016

A Climatological Exploration Of Land Change And Land Use On Lightning Patterns Over Louisiana, Nicholas James Sokol

LSU Master's Theses

Lightning is one of the most impactful weather phenomena but yet little precise and accurate information is known about how its frequency is impacted climatologically by changes in land use/land cover (LULC). This is unfortunate because LULC changes occur ubiquitously as the human influence on the environment proceeds. This research uses NOAA’s gridded annual lightning data from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN), and LULC classification data from the NOAA coastal change analysis program (C-CAP) to analyze frequency changes in lightning across a swath of Louisiana, coastal Mississippi, and coastal east Texas over the years 1995–2011. Results suggest that urban …


Effects Of Weather Hazards On Traffic Volume: A Case Study Focused On Atlanta, Ga, Thana-On Punkasem Jan 2016

Effects Of Weather Hazards On Traffic Volume: A Case Study Focused On Atlanta, Ga, Thana-On Punkasem

LSU Master's Theses

Severe weather events can have a significant impact on transportation networks. Many previous studies tried to analyze and explore the tremendous impact of extreme weather events on traffic behavior, speed, travel time and capacity. The purpose of this research was to analyze and discuss the impact of precipitation, temperature, visibility and wind speed on hourly weekday traffic flow volume in Atlanta, Georgia. This study focused on investigating which weather variables affect traffic volume, developing a machine learning based predictive technique to derive weather-traffic volume decision rules, and building a decision support tool. The correlation between extreme weather events and traffic …


Mass Incarceration By Design: The Impacts Of Urban Renewal And Landscape Architecture's Absence On The Prison Industrial Complex And The Use Of Landscape Architecture As An Antidote To Mass Incarceration, Abigail P. Phillips Jan 2016

Mass Incarceration By Design: The Impacts Of Urban Renewal And Landscape Architecture's Absence On The Prison Industrial Complex And The Use Of Landscape Architecture As An Antidote To Mass Incarceration, Abigail P. Phillips

LSU Master's Theses

The work of landscape architects has both positive and negative social impacts and landscape architects can strive to intentionally design for positive social impact. This paper utilizes mass incarceration as a lens for discussing the social impact of landscape architecture. The crossroads of mass incarceration and design offer a unique opportunity for Landscape Architects to examine the impact of many urban renewal efforts on marginalized communities, the benefits of landscape architectural involvement in prison design, and the use of design as protest against inhumane structures. This paper is separated into three sections, one detailing the history of social justice and …


Fresh Flow: Where The City Meets The Sea, Wanqin Su Jan 2016

Fresh Flow: Where The City Meets The Sea, Wanqin Su

LSU Master's Theses

The significance of this site lies in its location. It is three miles away from French Quarter, the heart and origin of the city, and eight miles away from Lake Borgne, as well as the Gulf. Regardless of the size, it distinguishes itself on the map as a wedge of green space inserted sharply into densely developed urban space. The site was prosperous cypress swamp six decades ago, too dense to identify lands and water underneath. However, after the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was dug in the 1960s, it took less than 30 years for it to transformed into brackish …


Modeling Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge And Wind Induced Risk Along The Bay Of Bengal Coastline Using A Statistical Copula, Nazla Bushra Jan 2016

Modeling Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge And Wind Induced Risk Along The Bay Of Bengal Coastline Using A Statistical Copula, Nazla Bushra

LSU Master's Theses

High winds, torrential rain, and storm surges from tropical cyclones cause massive destruction to property and cost the lives of many people. Among the coastal areas affected by these major natural calamities, the coastline of the Bay of Bengal (BoB) ranks as one of the most susceptible to tropical cyclone storm surge risk due to its geographical setting and population density, Bangladesh suffers the most. The purpose of this study is to describe the relationship between storm surge at the BoB and peak reported wind and describe the dependency structure between wind speeds and storm surges at that location. Various …


Turning The Table Over: Collaboration And Critique At The New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival, Erin Colleen Jordan Jan 2016

Turning The Table Over: Collaboration And Critique At The New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival, Erin Colleen Jordan

LSU Master's Theses

In the late 1970s, the African American Jazz Coalition responded to the marginalization of black vendors at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival by partnering with the Festival to create the Koindu Marketplace, now known as Congo Square. Whereas much public representation of the Festival suggests a transcendence of racial boundaries inside Festival grounds, the content and structure of contemporary interviews with the activists reflect continued racial tensions, power dynamics, and resentment. This thesis analyzes oral histories with the founders of the Afrikan American Jazz Coalition stored at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive. Critical discourse analysis …


A Review Of The Dominican Cocoa Industry: Determining Advantages And Factors To Improve, Glorianni Viviana Estrella Jan 2016

A Review Of The Dominican Cocoa Industry: Determining Advantages And Factors To Improve, Glorianni Viviana Estrella

LSU Master's Theses

Cocoa is one of the commodities with great tradition and consumption around the world. The cocoa industry produces billions of dollars at the global level and contributes significantly to the employment of thousands of people in the countries that have acquired relevant consumption habits as well as in developing countries that produce cocoa. The Dominican Republic has been blessed and belongs to the latter group. It is the top ninth producing country worldwide and the second of the Americas. The DR has been exporting over 50,000 metric tons of cocoa per year for the past twelve years, which is destined …


Glue Sticks And Gaffs: Disassembling The Drag Queening Body, Ray Siebenkittel Jan 2016

Glue Sticks And Gaffs: Disassembling The Drag Queening Body, Ray Siebenkittel

LSU Master's Theses

Drag queening men, typically gay men who perform femininities for entertainment, use makeup, padding, injections and other tools to change their bodies for performance. I focus on the backstage activities of drag performers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, rather than conventional observations from the audience, to explore the negotiation, construction and implications of these bodies, both physically and discursively. Through autoethnographic accounts and participating in my own drag performance, I highlight the often unseen, less frequently discussed aspects of drag queening in order to lessen the distance between the efforts of performers and the stage. Drag queening men’s bodies are a …


Effects Of Landscape Fragmentation On Land Loss, Weijia Cheng Jan 2016

Effects Of Landscape Fragmentation On Land Loss, Weijia Cheng

LSU Master's Theses

Coastal Louisiana, the seventh largest delta on earth, is one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in the United States of America (USA) because of its land loss problem. Coastal land loss is usually caused by many complicated factors. With the rapid increase in human activities, more studies on land loss have focused on the anthropogenic elements, but less on the pattern of the landscape. It is expected that the type of spatial arrangement, such as high degree of fragmentation, would affect the degree of land erosion. A quantitative evaluation of coastal landscape fragmentation and its influences on land loss …


Decolonizing World History: Mis-Representations Of The Middle East In Secondary Social Studies Textbooks, Amanda Megan Schellhaas Jan 2016

Decolonizing World History: Mis-Representations Of The Middle East In Secondary Social Studies Textbooks, Amanda Megan Schellhaas

LSU Master's Theses

This study utilizes content analysis to evaluate three United States High School World History textbook’s coverage of the Middle East since 1945 in order to determine if an authentic global approach to history is being utilized. This was determined by analyzing the amount of coverage that was dedicated to the Middle East, the focus of the narrative, and the portrayal of the Middle East. Analysis of the narrative content of the texts showed that coverage of the Middle East overall did not receive an equitable representation in comparison to other regions. The focus of this coverage centered on defining the …


A Statistical, Data-Driven Assessment Of Climate Extremes And Trends For The Continental U.S., Xinbo Huang Jan 2016

A Statistical, Data-Driven Assessment Of Climate Extremes And Trends For The Continental U.S., Xinbo Huang

LSU Master's Theses

Climate extremes are meteorological events that can have significant impacts on human and natural systems. Weather hazards, such as heat waves, drought, heavy thunderstorms, floods, hurricanes, occur frequently, and are a threat to human lives and property. Climate data observations spanning over 100 years are an important asset in understanding climate extremes and trends. This research uses daily climate data observations from more than 3000 climate stations in the continental U.S. to assess the climate trends and extremes, including temperature, precipitation, and snowfall. The climate data measurement sites were grouped by climate divisions and each climate division was statistically assessed …