Digital Commons Network^™

Optimizing Peak Gust And Maximum Sustained Wind Speed Estimates From Mid-Latitude Wave Cyclones, Timothy Andrew Joyner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Wind storms cause significant damage and economic loss and are a major recurring threat in many countries. Maximum sustained and peak gust weather station data from multiple historic wind storms occurring over more than three decades across Europe were analyzed to identify storm tracks, intensities, and areas of frequent high wind speeds. Wind surfaces for maximum sustained and peak gust winds were estimated based on an anisotropic (directionally-dependent) kriging interpolation methodology. Overall, wind speed magnitudes and high intensity locations were identified accurately for each storm. Directional trends and wind swaths were also consistently located in appropriate locations based on known …

Beach-Dune Interactions And A New Cycle Of Foredune Evolution, Gulf County, Florida, Michael Bitton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coastal foredunes are important natural resources that serve as nature’s first line of defense against powerful storms, protecting inland development and human populations. With the ever-increasing possibility of sea-level rise and the potential for increased frequency of major tropical storms, coastal mapping and understanding foredune development are important tools that coastal stakeholders can use to aid in policy planning. The currently predominant beach-dune interaction models are inadequate as comprised and do not apply globally. The models currently in use lack sufficient quantitative data and have poorly defined variables to support their underlying concepts, and as a result, they are difficult …

How Native American Women Perceive Their Unique Lived Experiences : Three Women Tell Their Stories, Marjorie Larson Kopacsi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Qualitative research that explores and further examines the lived experiences of Native American women is an important, yet a frequently neglected, part of the history of the United States (US). This is an important avenue of investigation, as historians have traditionally marginalized many groups within U.S. society, including women and groups that can be viewed as part of the fabric of U.S. culture, yet exist as subcultures. Native Americans (indigenous peoples, ‘Indians’) should share a special place within U.S. society as First Americans; however, qualitative studies of Native American women, offered through a feminist lens as keepers of tradition …

Examining Neotropical Primate Community Structure At Regional And Local Scales : Insights From Taxonomic And Phylogenetic Approaches, Maria Mercedes Gavilanez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding mechanisms underlying distribution of biodiversity remains a central issue in ecology. I integrate ecological and phylogenetic information at multiple spatial scales to better understand neotropical primate distribution and community structure. I investigate the variation within species ranges in relation to species richness and patterns of species relatedness. Results suggest positive associations among species throughout their distributions, whereby species tend to present higher richness within their ranges than average richness for the entire taxon. However, comparing empirical distributions to a null model of range cohesion suggests mechanisms other than dispersal are setting a limit to the number of species capable …

Investigating "Experimentalism" : A Case Study Of The Tuba And Its Repertoire, Andrew Brian Larson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The extant repertoire for the tuba serves as a landmark for how the tuba was perceived at that moment in time by that composer. This document contains a brief analysis of the tuba “experiment” that has been ongoing since its invention. In addition, it contains a brief parallel case study of the saxophone and how this instrument, invented at about the same time as the tuba, has embraced experimentalism and modern performance. This document contains five major sections. The first provides a brief history of the tuba and its predecessors. The second introduces numerical data representing the performance frequency of …

Melancholic Epistolarity : Letters And Traumatic Exile In The Novels Of Three Francophone Women, Rosemary Harrington Courville

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In her 1982 groundbreaking work on the epistolary form in novels, Janet Gurkin Altman gives a working definition of epistolarity which will be a guiding concept for this project; she defines it simply as: “the use of the letter’s formal properties to create meaning…” (Altman 4). Of course, to create meaning is a complicated endeavor. How does one create meaning from the letter’s formal properties? The contemporary authors who engage with epistolarity do so on several levels from the thematic to the structural. From novels that have several characters engaging in letter dialogues to one-sided exchanges that bear more resemblance …

Private Memorials On Public Space: Roadside Crosses At The Intersection Of The Free Speech Clause And The Establishment Clause, Amanda Reid

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Economics And The Bible, Roger S. Nam

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

At its essence, economics is the study of how societies make decisions on the allocation of limited resources. Whether subsistence, capitalist, socialist, or totalitarian, each society faces complex choices regarding the distribution of goods and utilities. In making such choices, economics involves the study of the various allocation processes such as production, consumption, exchange, forecasting, scarcity, and risk. But in all of these activities, economics is observable only through human behavior. Consequently, efforts to isolate economic behavior from social spheres are heuristic at best, misleading at worst. Economic decisions reflect deeper ideological values, hierarchies, and positions of power, often revealed …

Archaeology Of The Early Eighteenth-Century Spanish Fort San José, Northwest Florida, Julie Rogers Saccente

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Spanish Fort San José, located on the St. Joseph Peninsula, was occupied from 1719 until 1723. This site is significant as it preserves key details on Spanish settlement, trade, and ethnic diversity on the northern Gulf Coast and relationships with aboriginal and other European peoples of the region. The first archaeological testing of this site was conducted in the 1960s, but limited information exists on this work, and the fort's structural remains are now gone. My research examines a recently discovered artifact collection from this site and combines the new data with information from extant collections from Florida State …

Archaeological Site Distribution In The Apalachicola/Lower Chattahoochee River Valley Of Northwest Florida, Southwest Georgia, And Southeast Alabama, Adam M. Schieffer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines and compares the distributions of archaeological sites and materials in order to investigate native settlement patterns and resources use throughout 12,000 years of prehistory and protohistoric time within the Apalachicola/Lower Chattahoochee River valley of northwest Florida, southwest Georgia, and southeast Alabama. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used to map the distributions of sites from different time periods and to explore their relation to various environmental characteristics that are now available in digital format. I employ tools now available in GIS to examine several longstanding research questions and expand upon archaeological interpretations within this region, where the University …

Turning Water Into Wine: The Political Economy Of The Environment In Southern California's Wine Country, Jason Simms

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines questions of water sustainability in contexts of wine production and state-led neoliberal development in the Temecula Valley, southern California, where wine tourism is at present being harnessed as an engine of economic growth. Natural and anthropogenic forces, such as global climate change, desertification, urban development, and the marketization and commodification of natural resources, affect the distribution and availability of water throughout the globe. As a result, the use of water, and associated political and environmental processes and consequences, in the production of global commodities, including wheat, citrus, and coffee, recently have come under increased scrutiny. Given wine's …

Becoming A Teacher In Multiple Voices: An Exploration Of Teacher Identity Formation Among Teachers Of Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Mary E. Wilt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the formation of teacher identity among four teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and my own by examining our perspectives, influences, and experiences at different points in our careers and determining the similarities and differences that exist in our professional and educational experiences. This study focused on how teacher identity is defined within the field of education, the current literature on teacher identity formation, and the importance of understanding the formation of teacher identity among teachers of children with autism, as well as how my own teacher identity has been …

A Critical Ethnography Of Globalization In Lesotho, Africa: Syndemic Water Insecurity And The Micro-Politics Of Participation, Cassandra Lin Workman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In spite of decades-long development programs, Lesotho faces an ongoing problem of water insecurity with far- reaching individual and social impacts. The purpose of this research was to understand how women in Lesotho are impacted by the synergistic epidemics, or syndemics, of water insecurity and HIV/AIDS and how they respond to these forces. Little has been done to address how water insecurity, defined in terms of both sufficient amount and quality of water, catalyzes the syndemic impact on the people of Lesotho. Access to safe and reliable sources of water is crucial for all individuals, particularly those who have been …

Exploring Potential Risk Factors Of Fetal Origins Of Diabetes: Maternal Stressors During Pregnancy And Birth Outcomes Among Women In A Hospital In The Municipality Of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Juan Pablo Arroyo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Puerto Rico has the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes, low birth-weight, and the second highest prevalence of preterm-birth in all the U.S. and its non-incorporated territories. These conditions are related. Birth-weight at both ends of the spectrum and preterm-birth are associated with an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes and immune-inflammatory dysregulations. Maternal psychosocial stressors during pregnancy have also been recognized as potential risk factors for type 2 diabetes, and have been consistently associated with preterm-birth and low birth-weight across populations. Current evidence points toward epigenetic fetal metabolic-programming as the mechanism that underlies the increased risk for the …

Curriculum Gatekeeping In Global Education: Global Educators' Perspectives, Robert Wayne Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teaching social studies from a global perspective has been resisted by many since its inception (Kirkwood, 2009). Critics have labeled the theory anti-American and unpatriotic (Schlafly, 1986; Burack, 2001). Others are concerned with its shifting perspectives and apparent lack of core facts (Finn, 1988). Over time, some critics have changed their stance on global teaching and now endorse the idea (Ravitch, 2010). This qualitative case study sought to identify the barriers seven self-proclaimed global educators faced while teaching global themes and to identify the effective gatekeeping strategies for circumventing such obstacles. The goal was to provide a rich, compelling account …

The Hopewellian Influence At Crystal River, Florida: Testing The Marine Shell Artifact Production Hypothesis, Beth Blankenship

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Crystal River site (8CI1) in west-central Florida is famous as the southernmost major participant in the Hopewell Interaction Sphere, and certainly has the most Hopewellian goods of any Woodland site in Florida. Sharon Goad (1978), among others, proposed that Crystal River secured this position by controlling the production and exchange of marine shell ornaments and cups. I test this hypothesis through the analysis of marine shell recovered from previous excavations, recent surface finds, and shell debris from 58 core samples extracted from the Crystal River mounds, plaza, middens, and surrounding marshland. The analysis reveals an abundance of shell ornaments …

African Americans And Hospice: A Culture-Centered Exploration Of Disparities In End-Of-Life Care, Patrick Dillon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the United States' population ages and grows more diverse, scholars and practitioners have grown increasingly concerned about persistent disparities in the cost and quality of end-of-life health care, particularly with regard to African Americans. Although a variety of factors may influence these disparities, most scholars agree that the underutilization of hospice care by this population is an important contributor. Drawing from the culture-centered approach to health communication and narrative theory, the present study explores African American patients and caregivers' experiences with hospice care and takes an initial step toward addressing disparities in end-of-life care. I begin this study, first, …

Accidental Detention: A Threat To The Legitimacy Of Venezuelan Democracy, Mabel Gabriela Durán-Sánchez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main argument of this thesis is that the penitentiary crisis in Venezuela is brought about an inept criminal justice system whose functioning (or lack thereof) further exacerbates overcrowding in penitentiary facilities as well as violates the most basic human rights. More elaborately, I argue that the unintentional (mis)use of pre-trial preventive detention, one of the consequences of the inept criminal justice system, further exacerbates the overcrowding in prisons and creates serious human rights implications. The purpose of this study is to establish a connection between the penitentiary crisis in Venezuela, with a focus on pre-trial preventive detention, and the …

Exploring The Motives, Perceptions And Constructed Identities Of The Facilitators For One Regional Council Of A Positive Youth Development Program: Girls On The Run, Ashley Ann Gallentine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the coaches' perceptions, motives and constructed identities by participating in a regional physical activity-based positive youth development program. There is growing evidence that suggests the success of positive youth development (PYD) programs depend on the environment that is created by caring adult mentors. These coaches are the delivery vehicles for these programs and play an essential role in the development of participating youth. As a result, the characteristics these coaches possess are critical to the success of the PYD implementation. Based on the application of anthropological methods and theory, this study seeks …

Unbearable Weight, Unbearable Witness: The (Im)Possibility Of Witnessing Eating Disorders In Cyberspace, Kristen Nicole Gay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that the recent erasure of digital pro-anorexia ("pro-ana") narratives by websites such as Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram represents an attempt to silence female self-starvers and reify the authority of medical associations to speak for female bodies. I draw parallels between these attempts and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's theory of epistemic violence, since the experiences of women are effectively discredited, through metaphors that render the thin body dangerous, to shore up professional medical authority. As an attempt to privilege the experiences of the self-starvers, I analyze one Tumblr blog with eating disorder content to listen to the letters users …

Circulating Ceramics In The Eighteenth Century Colonial Circum-Caribbean: Towards An Archaeological Model For Inter-Site Comparison, Daniel B. Hughes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the Caribbean, the eighteenth century symbolized a period of shifting powers in the region. Spain abandoned control of many of the smaller islands in the Caribbean, which were quickly taken over and subsequently controlled by the three major European competitors: England, France, and the Netherlands. These islands would be traded as prizes during various European conflicts that would always spread into the region. Unfortunately, most of the archaeological work that has occurred within the Caribbean has tended to largely focus on the micro-scale analysis. While development of a macro-scale analysis to assist an understanding of the past in the …

Examining The Ontoepistemological Underpinnings Of Diversity Education Found In Interpersonal Communication Textbooks, Tammy L. Jeffries

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the ontoepistemological underpinnings of diversity education in the field of communication by focusing on the points where diversity, pedagogy and communication intersect. In this study I seek to understand how we come to know what we know about diversity, or the social construction of differentness, and how we share this information with others. I analyzed three popular interpersonal communication textbooks, examining the patterns revealed in the text, in order to address these questions.

This study uses three complimentary methods to reveal the number of occurrences that center on diversity in the text (content analysis), to interpret themes …

Fertile Ground For A Social Movement: Social Capital In Direct Agriculture Marketing, Elizabeth A. Murray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Building from existing literature on anthropology of food, political economy of food and consumption, and social movement theory, I examine the direct agriculture network of Tampa Bay Florida through a mixed-method ethnography. The research consisted of one year of field-work, with 6 months and over 100 hours of active participant observation, open-ended interviews with eight local producers, and short surveys with 100 market patrons. This thesis is an analysis of the results of this rigorous qualitative and quantitative work and, perhaps more importantly, an account of my own personal struggles in joining the direct agriculture network and my ultimate commitment …

Impacts Of U.S. Foreign Policy And Intervention On Guatemala: Mid-20th Century, Patricia M. Plantamura

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

International Relations theory includes realist concepts of sovereign nation-states interacting in an anarchic world as they rationally determine their own national interests based upon ever-changing competition for power. In this interplay for power, nation-states may affect each other politically, economically, ideologically or militarily. This thesis focuses on effects of U.S. foreign policy and U.S. intervention in Guatemala in the time period surrounding the Guatemalan Revolution (1944-1954), with its "liberation" in 1954, and then into the early 1960s as the Guatemalan state began to be militarized. In this thesis I will answer the following question:

How did the United States affect …

Cultivating Local: Building A Local Food System In Western North Carolina, Allison S. Perrett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines a movement in Western North Carolina to build a local food system, one grounded in the conditions and relationships of place. In 2000, Mountain Family Farms launched the Local Food Campaign to raise public awareness about the region's farms and farming heritage, to educate consumers about the benefits of buying food grown by local farms, and, ultimately, to build markets for locally grown food to sustain the region's farms. The campaign sparked a social movement and over a decade later local farms and locally grown food are a palpable feature of life in the mountains of Western …

The Elimination Of Blindness: An Ethnographic Exploration Of The Fight Against Trachoma In Niger, Kelley Cosby Sams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to explore specialized and popular cultural models of trachoma, and the interaction between the trachoma elimination program and its target audience in one trachoma hyper-endemic intervention community. Eighty four million people worldwide, mainly children, are infected with active bacterial trachoma. For some, this will lead to painful and progressive corneal opacity and eventual blindness. The disease is most commonly spread by person-to-person contact or by flies, and affects very specific populations living in resource-poor areas such as rural Niger, which has one of the highest prevalence rates worldwide.

The World Health Organization formed an …

Sense Of Place In An Unincorporated Community:, Samuel Scott Sanderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Residents of communities that are at the edge of the rural-urban divide are likely to have many senses of place reflective of the changes occurring around them. As the place where they have resided in and identify with becomes transformed by changes in land use and social composition, these residents may be forced to either adapt or leave. Often overlooked, these individuals may feel as if the place where they have long resided is no longer their home. As the familiar routes, stores, and neighborhoods give way to new highways, big name stores, and exclusive subdivisions, their understanding of …

The Post- 9/11 Aesthetic: Repositioning The Zombie Film In The Horror Genre, Alan Edward Green, Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores a body of films produced after the events of 9/11, and while examining this specific point of departure, the author presents the argument on the vast cultural relevancy of the omnipresent zombie. These films are interrogative and complex, offering the viewing audience a rich tapestry of interwoven meanings. Furthermore, the author suggests that the zombie trope has, in fact, left the genre altogether, reinserted into a style of films he labels as "non-zombie appropriation." Chapter 1 introduces the zombie genre as both part of the larger horror genre aesthetic and as its' own legitimate subgenre. The zombie …

Prehispanic Water Management At Takalik Abaj, Guatemala, Alicia E. Alfaro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Land and water use at archaeological sites is a growing field of study within Mesoamerican archaeology. In Mesoamerica, similar to elsewhere in the world, landscapes were settled based partially upon the characteristics of the environment and the types of food and water resources available. Across Mesoamerica, landscape concepts were also important to religious beliefs and ritual activity in a manner that may have had the potential to influence the power dynamics of a site. This thesis focuses on the management of water at the site of Takalik Abaj in Guatemala during the Middle to Late Preclassic periods (c. 1000 B.C. …

The Political Economy Of Maternal Health In A Medically Pluralistic Environment: A Case Study In The Callejón De Huaylas, Isabella Chan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines maternal decision-making regarding prenatal care and childbirth in the rural, north-central Andes in the province of Carhuaz. Semi-structured interviews (n=30) and participatory action research workshops (n=7) were conducted with local women to elucidate how they conceptualize, experience, and negotiate the shifting landscape of prenatal care and childbirth practices and providers. Semi-structured interviews with obstetricians, midwives, and social workers (n=9) were also conducted to compare perspectives and identify disconnects in knowledge and practices existing between these two groups in order to facilitate an open conversation on how to jointly improve the maternal experience and reduce maternal mortality and …