Digital Commons Network^™

Mapping The Monster: Locating The Other In The Labyrinth Of Hybridity, Jill Kristine Harper

Master's Theses

By the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Great Britain led the European contest for imperial dominion and successfully extended its influence throughout Africa, the Americas, South East Asia, and the Pacific. National pride in the world's leading empire, however, was laced with an increasing anxiety regarding the unbridled frontier and the hybridization of Englishness and the socio-ethnic and cultural Other. H. Rider Haggard's She, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Richard Marsh's The Beetle, three Imperial Gothic novels, personify the monstrosity of hybridity in antagonists who embody multiple races and cultures. Moreover, as representatives of various ancient …

Environmental Education As A Catalyst For Changing Students' Environmental Attitudes: A Survey Of Ten Universities In The Tokyo Bay And San Francisco Bay Areas, Minako Nishiyama

Master's Theses

Environmental education has been internationally recognized as a key tool to counter increasing threats to the environment. Previous studies have found that environmental values and beliefs are the fundamental factors that shape various pro-environmental behaviors. This study aimed to increase our understanding of how environmental education during childhood and university periods influence students' sense of connectedness to nature and ecological worldview. Two measures, the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) and the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, were used for this purpose. A total of 1,266 students in 10 universities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Tokyo Bay Area participated …

Foreword: Conference On Religious Legal Theory: Rlt Iv: Expanding The Conversation, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In this article, the author introduces the articles published in the Symposium Issue of the Touro Law Review, which is a compilation of selected excerpts from the fourth annual Conference on Religious Legal Theory (“RLT”) held April 10-12, 2013. By introducing each article, the author shows a sampling of the variety of topics and disciplines explored and the range of perspectives represented at the Conference, which revolved around the theme RLT IV: Expanding the Conversation. The author provides the background of the panelists to give context to each article, and then briefly discusses the relevance and main ideas.

How Often Do Cities Mandate Smart Growth Or Green Building?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Much has been written about the role of government regulation in facilitating automobile-oriented sprawl. Zoning codes reduce walkability by artificially segregating housing from commerce, forcing businesses and multifamily landlords to surround their buildings with parking, and artificially reducing density. The “smart growth” movement seeks to reverse these policies, both through regulation and through more libertarian, deregulatory policies. The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent cities have in fact chosen the former path, and to discuss the possible side effects of prescriptive smart growth and green building regulations. In particular, this paper focuses on attempts to make …

Food Deserts And Migrant Farmworkers: Assessing Food Access In Oregon's Willamette Valley, Katie Grauel, Kimberlee J. Chambers

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Food insecurity, often correlated with “food deserts,” affects migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) at greater rates than other populations. Our research evaluates the food desert experiences of MSFW communities in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Through GIS mapping, interviews with MSFW, and food retailer inventories, our research helps elucidate the degree to which the geographical distribution of food retailers and the products they carry affects MSFW. Access to food retailers was assessed for distances of 0.25, 1.5, 5, and 10 miles. Mapping locations of registered MSFW labor camps (n = 62) and food retailers (n = 215) in the Willamette Valley revealed …

The Presumption Against Expensive Health Care Consumption, Christopher Robertson

Faculty Scholarship

This essay, as part of a symposium in honor of Professor Einer Elhauge, starts with his recognition that, for both epistemic and normative reasons, it remains profoundly difficult to regulate particular uses of medical technologies on the basis of their cost-benefit ratios. Nonetheless, this essay argues in favor of a general regulatory presumption against consumption for the most expensive medical technology usages, which drive most of aggregate healthcare spending. This essay synthesizes twelve facts about the ways in which medical technologies are produced, regulated, studied, and consumed to suggest that it is quite unlikely that the most expensive usages of …

Capital Defenders As Outsider Lawyers, Kathryn A. Sabbeth

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Quantitative, Qualitative, And Collaborative Methods: Approaching Indigenous Ecological Knowledge Heterogeneity, Jeremy Spoon

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

I discuss the use of quantitative, qualitative, and collaborative methods to document and operationalize Indigenous ecological knowledge, using case studies from the Nepalese Himalaya and Great Basin. Both case studies applied results to natural and cultural resource management and interpretation for the public. These approaches attempt to reposition the interview subjects to serve as active contributors to the research and its outcomes. I argue that the study of any body of Indigenous knowledge requires a context-specific methodology and mutually agreed upon processes and outcomes. In the Nepalese Himalaya, I utilized linked quantitative and qualitative methods to understand how tourism influenced …

Community Media As A Forum For Resistance: The Case Of The Romero Theater Troupe, Michael Kilman

Anthropology Theses

Over the past several decades, mainstream mass media is increasingly becoming a conduit for the consolidation of political power and not as a vehicle to support and maintain democracy. Representing aspects of a western homogenous culture, mainstream mass media often lacks a means for local representation and can obscure coverage of important local and community issues related to social justice and the effects of structural violence. The Romero Theater Troupe in Denver, Colorado serves as an example of community media that acts as a network of local resistance. The Troupe uses community members instead of actors and a consensus model …

Efficacy Of Hybrid Coursework On Retention Rate In Online Higher Education, Kevin Struble

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Recent developments and technological advances in online education have provided the adult learner with new opportunities to obtain a college education. However, online coursework offers new challenges particularly for online student retention, as these rates are lower than traditional students on a college or university campus. The following research outlines a quantitative study for the perceived effect of social learning for adult online learners through hybrid coursework on undergraduate retention rates through two research questions using a causal-comparative design for research question one and a correlational design for research question two. This study examined retention theory in regards to social …

African American Female Narratives And Identity Development: A Case Study Of Language, Literacy, And Identity Development In The Beauty Salon, Felicia C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This four-month case study explored the connections among language, literacy, and identity development of five African American women as they shared narratives within a beauty salon context. The questions that guided the study were: (a) What language and literacy practices are enacted in the beauty salon? (b) In what way do African American women narrate their experiences? (c) What stories are shared by African American women in the salon? (d) What are the effects on the listeners of the narratives shared in the salon? and (e) How are social and cultural identities (co)constructed and performed in the narratives?

The narratives …

Application Of Ce-Qual-W2 On Tigris River In Iraq, Muhanned Al-Murib

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers in Iraq. Two big rivers pass through Iraq, Mesopotamia. Tigris and Euphrates Rivers with their tributaries form a major river system in the Middle East. Four riparian countries, Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, share the Tigris River basin area and Iraq has the majority of this basin area. The total length of the Tigris is 1850 km from which 1418 km is within Iraq. A study area of 880 km from Mosul dam to Kut barrage is modeled using a water quality CE-QUAL-W2 model. CE-QUAL-W2 is a two-dimensional …

Natural Isoscapes Of Louisiana: Stable Isotope Analysis Of Oxygen, Carbon, And Strontium, Miley Jackson

LSU Master's Theses

Stable isotope analysis has been used by archaeologists and anthropologists to better understand time, provenience, and diet of past humans, but the utility of stable isotope analysis in modern humans has not been fully explored. Forensic anthropologists today primarily identify human skeletal remains, and stable isotope analysis of bone may narrow down the possible identities of an individual. Determining the natural variability within the state of Louisiana is the first step in determining whether individuals from different areas of the state are distinguishable from one another. This thesis investigated the natural isotopic variability in Louisiana with respect to oxygen (δ18O), …

Inferences Of Subsistence Activities Using Musculoskeletal Stress Markers Of Humerii From Two Louisiana Archaeological Populations, Brian M. Thibodeaux

LSU Master's Theses

Wolff’s Law states that bone is laid down where it is needed; therefore, mechanical factors, including subsistence-based activity patterns, play a role in bone biology. One of bone’s responses to strain is the development of musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs) at entheses, or the sites in which soft tissues, including tendons and ligaments, attach to bone. MSMs have been used by bioarchaeologists to make inferences about past population’s activity patterns and subsistence behaviors. The following study scores eight MSMs of the proximal humerii from the Tchefuncte (16ST1) and Greenhouse (16AV2) sites in Louisiana. The MSMs were segregated into muscle groups and …

Model-Based Tests Of Historical Demography And Species Delimitation In The Caribbean Coral Reef Sponge Callyspongia, Melissa Barrett Debiasse

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coral reefs are the most productive and species rich ecosystems in the ocean yet we lack knowledge about the distribution of genetic variation the within and among reef species, particularly for the sponges (Porifera). My dissertation describes how genetic variation at mitochondrial and nuclear genes is partitioned among and within species in the sponge genus Callyspongia. I compared patterns of genetic diversity and population subdivision in the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes of one species, C. vaginalis, in Florida (Chapter 2). Previous work revealed three divergent mitochondrial lineages, but nuclear alleles did not correspond to either mitochondrial clade or geography. Coalescent …

Spatial And Temporal Analysis Of Selected Birth Defects And Risk Factors In The Baton Rouge, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, Aimee H. Moles

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

About three percent of all infants are born with a congenital defect each year ranging from minor variants to life threatening abnormalities. The investigation and treatment of these problems is both costly and emotionally trying for all involved. Finding their origins is a complex process. Birth defects create the ultimate mystery in terms of trying to tease out the various influences created by the environment of both the infant and the mother. Two genetically different individuals are simultaneously affected both by their individual makeup and by the outside world impacting the air they breathe, the food they eat, and the …

A Comparison Of Capacity For Resilience Among Coastal Communities In The Northeast U.S. And The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Region, Emily Gootee

LSU Master's Theses

Coastal communities face many threats from their surrounding environment, including floods and severe storms. These threats are exacerbated by climate change and sea level rise, which may cause increased frequency and severity of these events. Despite these hazards, population density along the coasts continues to rise. These areas of dense population and infrastructure are highly vulnerable to extreme weather events. Hurricane Sandy of 2012 was a powerful demonstration of the impact that severe storms can have on coastal populations. In the face of this reality, coastal communities must adapt and become more resilient to environmental changes. In order to assess …

Digital Image Analysis Of Selected Tchefuncte And Alexander Series Ceramics, Peter Albert Cropley

LSU Master's Theses

In this study, I used digital image analysis to quantitatively describe and detail the prehistoric pottery associated with the coastal Tchefuncte culture (ca. B.C. 800—100 A.D.). The first step was to select and procure samples of Tchefuncte Plain var . Tchefuncte, var. Mandeville, Baldwin Plain var. O’Neal, and two decorated Alexander series wares from the Tchefuncte site. Two samples of var. Tchefuncte from the Bayou Jasmine site (16SJB2) and two Alexander series samples from the Tennessee-Tombigbee area were included for comparison. The sites represented by the samples from the Tennessee-Tombigbee region are the Kellogg Village Site (22CL527) and the Sanders …

Assessment Of Habitat Quality For Red Snapper, Lutjanus Campechanus, In The Northwestern Gulf Of Mexico: Natural Vs. Artificial Reefs, Brittany Dawn Schwartzkopf

LSU Master's Theses

Habitat quality of natural and artificial reefs for red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) is important as this area is home to the majority of the Gulf’s artificial reef system, in the form of oil and gas platforms, in addition to the largest extent of high vertical relief natural habitat. This study sought to assess habitat quality of natural reefs of varying habitat complexity and an artificial reef complex located on the LA continental shelf. Habitat quality was assessed by comparing red snapper diets and foraging patterns, and nutritional condition using the liver-somatic index (LSI) …

Decomposition At Three Aquatic And Terrestrial Sites In Southern Louisiana, Paul Max Bangs

LSU Master's Theses

To compare decomposition potential variability in geographically distinct sites, this project deposited six pigs of comparable size to adult humans in pairs at three sites within southern Louisiana. These sites were: the east bank of the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge, “Red Pass” in the Bird Foot Delta near Venice, Louisiana, and the Grande Isle and Grand Terre Islands in the Gulf of Mexico. After partial decomposition of the three pairs of remains, one pig was placed onto land to simulate beaching by tidal action or recession of flood water. Each pig was allowed to continue decomposition. Despite geographic distance …

Place, Race, And The Politics Of Identity In The Geography Of Garinagu Baündada, Doris Garcia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Garinagu, who are commonly referred to by the name of their language, Garifuna, emerged out of the historical geographical processes of colonialism and capitalism on Saint Vincent Island in the Lesser Antilles. Exiled by the British to New Spain’s Captaincy General of Guatemala in 1797, the Garinagu formed communities and cultural bonds to the land, namely, but not exclusively, along the north coast of the territory that would become part of the Honduran nation-state in 1821. Today, the Garinagu are rapidly becoming a landless population. Since the mid-1970s, the Honduran government has pursued the expansion of tourism on the …

A Data-Driven Storm Surge Analysis For The U.S. Gulf Coast, Harold Francis Needham

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation provides the first empirical storm surge analysis for the U.S. Gulf Coast. Data are provided by SURGEDAT, a comprehensive storm surge database. A global storm surge literature review provided more than 700 observations in six ocean basins. The most severe storm surges have occurred in the Bay of Bengal, and the most frequent low-magnitude surges have occurred in East Asia. The U.S. Gulf Coast experiences the second highest frequency of low- and high- magnitude storm surges. Two Gulf Coast studies revealed that storm surge heights correlate better with pre-landfall tropical cyclone conditions, such as maximum wind speed and …

Adapting Resilience To A New Hazard: Oil And Oysters In Coastal Louisiana, Audrey Maass

LSU Master's Theses

Inherently resilient practices are one mechanism that communities engage in to cope with disruptive events. A community retains and passes down the practices associated with inherent resilience in their collective memory. The inherent resilience of a community is developed over time, yet the explanation provided by Colten et al. lacks a genesis of how this process developed particularly in relation to the oil industry’s entry into Louisiana. The foundations of these practices will be explored through historic court documents to find encounters between oystermen and oil spills. In addition to legal resources, I also investigate newspaper articles and other historic …

More Than Met The Eye: Industry In The Antebellum Gulf South, Michael Sean Frawley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

1860 was a census year. Census marshals spread out across the United States to record many different aspects of American society, including information on population, agriculture and, most importantly for this study, manufacturing. The antebellum Gulf South has traditionally been viewed as a region with little industrial development. But, both contemporaries and historians based their view of industry in the Gulf South on what was recorded in the census schedules. Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas were portrayed in the census as areas with little industrial development. But, as many historians have discovered, there were errors in the 1860 census, especially errors …

Production, Discard, And Urban Life At The Early Horizon Center Of Caylán, Coastal Peru, Jacob Pate Warner

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis I examine material production, discard, and trash flow at the Early Horizon urban center of Caylán (800 – 1 cal. BC) on the Peruvian North-Central coast. Trash (or garbage, refuse, litter, or waste) is a central source of information for archaeologists examining prehistoric lifeways in Peru. Despite frequent use of trash as a source for radiocarbon samples, cultural material, and dietary evidence, few studies utilize the transportation and concentration of trash to examine human behavioral patterns. The Early Horizon, as a transitional period in Peruvian prehistory, presents an opportunity to test the utility of trash deposits in …

Touching Plantation Memories : Tourists And Docents At The Museum, Eddie Arnold Modlin Jr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Plantations are one of the long-standing symbols of the U.S. South. Today, almost four hundred former plantation sites are museums. Over the last fifteen years a sustained, critical consideration of how slavery is remembered at these sites has developed in the academic literature. Geographers have argued that remembering slavery at these sites is geographic not only because most of these sites are in the South, but also because the public spatializes memory in certain ways at these historic places. To date, much of the memory literature about plantation museums focuses on the roles of these museums and their staff in …

Liberalism And Globalization: An Essay On Montesquieu, Tocqueville, And Manent, Trevor Shelley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Many in the West today talk about the emergent unity of humanity, as social scientists examine the world through “global values,” assessing “global opinion”; economists study the “global economy” and “global finance”; historians write of “universal history;” legal scholars speak of “global domestic politics” and “world society,” while advocating “transnational justice”; political pundits announce the death of the nation-state. One could list additional examples illustrating the same apparent fact: a growing sense of global unity, and a universalist perspective on things social, economic, legal, historical, and political. To what extent, however, is this phenomenon—often referred to as “globalization”—an extension of …

The Copyright Act And The Frontier Of Television: What To Do About Aereo, Thomas M. Cramer

Vanderbilt Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Historical And Theoretical Look At The Percussion Ensemble Work 'October Mountain' By Alan Hovhaness, Joe Willie Moore Iii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

October Mountain (1942) is one of the standard early works written for the percussion ensemble. There has, however been little examination of the work theoretically. The primary focus of this document is to study the composer, Alan Hovhaness, the compositional structure of the piece, and to provide a guide for performance as well as a historical and theoretical reference for performers, conductors, and pedagogues in the field of percussion. My research included Hovhaness’s life, his compositional styles, and the influence of cultural identity on his compositions. This required the study of compositional techniques used by Hovhaness, particularly in his percussion …

Caves And Class: Excavations At The Lang-Jourdan House In Mandeville, Louisiana, Matthew James Chouest

LSU Master's Theses

Jean Baptiste Lang, a divorced tobacco merchant from Belgium, constructed a summer home in Mandeville, Louisiana, in the mid-1850s. The most noteworthy feature of this house (16ST248) is its cave, a semi-subterranean room which he likely used as a wine cellar. The house was continuously occupied for over a century and remained one of few examples on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain of an original Anglo-Creole cottage. There are very few extant examples of caves in Louisiana due to the difficulty in maintaining such structures. The principal research questions addressed were (1) Can the cave be identified in the …