A city cannot exist without its geographic context. This is an irrefutable statement; a city is a singular place, founded upon its location relative to organic and constructed resources. New Orleans is no exception to this rule, yet the chasm between the modern city and its geographic framework has consistently proved to be detrimental to its progress. The ecological conditions that exist are unique to the region yet are often in direct opposition with the trajectory of urban development. This dichotomy can be catastrophic when faced with a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated neighborhoods across the greater New Orleans area, the Lower Ninth Ward in particular. Due to its low elevation and close proximity to the vulnerable Industrial Canal, the storm surge completely inundated the neighborhood and left its recovery up to outside sources. Ironically, a natural historic buffer exists adjacent to this neighborhood: the Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle. Years of sediment diversion and salt water filtration have left the formerly fresh water swamp a brackish marsh, weakening its role in the surrounding ecosystem and diminishing its capacity to protect the Lower Ninth Ward. Focusing on the parallel relationship between the degradation of Bayou Bienvenue and the slow road to recovery of the Lower Ninth Ward, this thesis aims to explore the historical implications of this connection, while proposing that the future of both these integral pieces of New Orleans can only be achieved through a relationship of reciprocity. By linking the process of wetland reforestation with a dynamic, intrinsic approach to community involvement, a platform emerges that allows for both to not only stabilize but thrive. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

MENVSC (Ecology and Resource Management) / See the attached abstract below

Reading comprehension assessments often vary from one measure to another related to the response format required, passage length and other variables. Yet, these measures purport to assess the same skill of reading comprehension, and they are often used interchangeably. Over the last decade some reading researchers have raised concerns that the variability in reading comprehension assessments may mean these measures are assessing different components of reading comprehension instead of consistently assessing one well-defined, complex skill. This study compared two commonly used reading comprehension assessments: the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test- Reading Comprehension (WIAT-RC) subtest, which requires examinees to read longer passages and answer open ended questions, and the Woodcock Johnson Passage Comprehension test (WJ-PC), which requires examinees to read very short passages and fill in the one word that is missing. This study was designed to test whether performance on these two measures is predicted by the same underlying language and executive functioning skills (a form of convergent validity) and whether these two measures are commensurate in predicting performance on a ‘real-world’ reading comprehension task (GRE verbal questions), with the latter being a test of ecological validity. Results suggested that the two measures varied in their ability to predict performance on the GRE verbal questions, where the WJ-PC significantly predicted performance on these questions, while the WIAT-RC did not. None of the executive functioning skills included in analyses significantly predicted performance on either the WJ-PC or the WIAT-RC, so no difference was found there; however, there were differences in how the language skills predicted performance on the two measures. Both vocabulary and word reading predicted significantly more variance in performance on the WJ-PC than the WIAT-RC. Overall, these results suggest there are important differences between these two reading comprehension measures, related to which underlying skills influence performance on each measure and the two tests’ ecological validity. These differences raise concerns about how well the reading comprehension construct has been defined and how consistently that complex skill is assessed across different measures. In addition, the differences between these two tests should be considered by clinicians who use and interpret scores on these measures in clinical settings.

<p> This project studies the applicability of two ordination methods, principle component analysis and correspondence analysis, and one classification method, mode analysis, for a specific ecological data set. The differences between techniques are discussed and the results are compared.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Parking lots can no longer be the inhospitable, pedestrian-minimalizing, environmentally-degrading uses of valuable open space that are accepted and tolerated as the "norm". The open space that makes way for parking lots is too precious to be wasted on places that provide little or no comfort to the user while also contributing to the degradation of the environment. By inserting a fantastical landscape — one which engages the senses through color, texture, and smell — into the mind-dulling landscape of a large surface parking lot, the resulting comparison is a waking call about the missed opportunities of celebrating beauty and the environment. This gives value to the landscape in today's mobile society where the natural world appears to be losing ground to the automobile. This thesis proposes a series of landscape structures over a vast surface parking lot — Potomac Yard Shopping Center in Alexandria, Virginia — that provide open space,the ecological benefits of absorbing storm water runoff and preventing UV bounce back, while ultimately repositioning and rejoining the pedestrian with the landscape. The project does not set out to eradicate parking. Rather, the project recognizes the need for parking in today's mobile society but prioritizes the important connection that must exist between people and nature within that context. / Master of Landscape Architecture

This dissertation explores the prospects for Christian-Muslim dialogue regarding the ecological crisis. It compares the views of Sallie McFague and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, leaders in ecological theology and ethics. In 1990, at the Spirit and Nature symposium at Middlebury College, they dialogued unsuccessfully. They could not understand each other across the ideological gulf of McFague's postmodernism and Nasr's traditionalism. However, beneath an outer shell of significant differences, McFague and Nasr share profound common ground. They both understand the ecological crisis as a result of the desacralization of nature in human perception. They believe that Western Christianity's failure to cultivate a spiritual vision of nature set the stage for the development of a thoroughly mechanistic and desacralized worldview in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. They both articulate visions for the resacralization of nature. While unique, these visions both image the world as a body animated by the Spirit of God rather than as a lifeless machine. Furthermore, both authors find insights to support human harmony with the natural world in the mystical wisdom of their traditions. The dissertation models a process of dialogue that unveils McFague's and Nasr's common ground. The first two chapters explore their stories and contexts, modeling the importance of getting to know one's interlocutor. In chapters three and four, their overall ecological theologies are outlined. Only in chapter five, in a dialogical setting in which both authors' ideas are viewed empathetically, are their differences engaged. Chapter six looks at their common ground, tracing how it grows out of their mutual ecological concerns. Finally, chapter seven creatively synthesizes their ideas, especially their proposals for the reintegration of nature into cities and their descriptions of the mystical understanding of the God-world and human-world relationships. The dissertation explores how the mystical consciousness of the unity of the human body with the body of the world needs to be cultivated more widely, and extended into the practice of interfaith dialogue. Christians, Muslims, and all others concerned about the ecological crisis need to become more aware of our unity and see through the illusion that we are separate.

Pesquisas em que se procura investigar a relação entre os fatores ambientais e o comportamento dos consumidores são ainda embrionárias no Brasil, o que constitui uma oportunidade para estudos que relacionam o comportamento de compra dos consumidores com as questões ambientais. Nessa perspectiva, o objetivo da presente pesquisa foi verificar se existe correlação entre os construtos: conhecimento ecológico, afeto ecológico, preocupação ecológica, normas subjetivas e o comportamento de compras verdes. Na busca do alcance dos objetivos propostos, adotou-se uma metodologia caracterizada pela pesquisa exploratória, utilizando-se o método transversal simples no processo de coleta dos dados. Foram adotados no estudo dados secundários, provenientes de artigos, livros, dissertações, teses e internet, além de dados primários, coletados com a aplicação de questionários à população-alvo. Partindo-se de uma amostragem aleatória estratificada, essa população foi constituída pelas mulheres acima dos 18 anos, por representarem consumidoras potenciais de produtos cosméticos. No tratamento dos dados dos 500 questionários validados, contemplouse a utilização do coeficiente Alpha de Cronbach e da técnica multivariada de análise fatorial exploratória. Um modelo de regressão múltipla foi testado para explicar o comportamento de compra de cosméticos ecológicos. Os resultados deixam evidências de que as variáveis Normas Subjetivas (NS), Afeto Ecológico (AE), Preocupação Ecológica (PE) e Conhecimento Ecológico (CE) foram consideradas estatisticamente significantes para explicar as variações em Comportamento de Compra de Cosméticos Ecológicos (CCCE), com um R2 de 0,555. Entre as variáveis demográficas testadas, verificou-se que apenas a faixa etária e a classe social exercem influência moderada sobre a variável dependente. Tais resultados sinalizam similaridade entre os resultados obtidos na mensuração da correlação múltipla entre as variáveis independentes, a variável dependente e aqueles observados na teoria sobre a influência da primeira sobre o comportamento de compra de produtos ambientalmente corretos. Os resultados desta tese oferecem uma compreensão adicional sobre os fatores que afetam o processo de decisão de compra do consumidor. Considera-se, portanto, que este trabalho constitui um avanço no estado da arte das pesquisas sobre a relação entre os fatores ambientais e o comportamento dos consumidores, uma vez que foram investigados aspectos não contemplados em estudos anteriores. / Research which seeks to investigate the relationship between environmental factors and the consumer behavior is still embryonic in Brazil, which is a unique opportunity for those studies that relate the purchasing behavior of consumers to environmental issues. In this perspective, the goal of this research was to ascertain whether there is correlation between the following constructs: ecological knowledge, ecological affection, ecological concern, subjective norms and green purchase behavior. In pursuit of achieving the proposed objectives, a methodology characterized by exploratory search was used, adopting the simple transverse method in data collection process. In the study, secondary data from articles, books, dissertations, theses and the internet were used, in addition to the primary data, collected with the application of questionnaires to the target population. Based on a stratified random sampling, the population was constituted by women over 18 years old, since they represent potential consumers of cosmetic products. Regarding the data processing of 500 validated questionnaires, the use of Cronbach\'s Coefficient Alpha and multivariate exploratory technique of factor analysis were contemplated. A multiple regression model was tested to explain the behavior of buying ecological cosmetics. The results produce evidence that Subjective Norms (SN), Ecological Affection (EA), Ecological Concern (EC) and Ecological Knowledge (EC) variables were considered statistically significant to explain the variations in Purchase Behavior of Ecological Cosmetics (PBEC), with an R2 of 0.555. Among the demographic variables tested, it was found that only the age and social class exercise moderate influence over the dependent variable. Such results indicate similarity among the results obtained in the measurement of multiple correlations among independent variables, the dependent variable and those observed in theory concerning the influence of the former over the purchasing behavior of environmentally correct products. The results of this thesis offer additional insight about the factors that affect the purchase decision process. Therefore, it is considered that this work is an advance in the state of the art of research about the relationship between environmental factors and the consumer behavior, since aspects not covered in previous studies were investigated.

Kaohsiung's corridor of wetlands is the first of its kind in Taiwan. Therefore, the wetland-related knowledge, attitude, and behavior of the junior high school students are worth exploring and realizing. The main purpose of this study is to explore the student¡¦s background variables (sexual, grade, family socioeconomic status, experience of wetlands, school location) to find out the difference on students¡¦ knowledge, attitude, behavior, and realize the correlation among the ecological conservation of wetlands. The instrument used in this study is the self-compiled questionnaire titled the Kaohsiung junior high school students¡¦ wetland ecological conservation knowledge, attitude, and behavior. The subjects are 891 junior high school students in Kaohsiung city. The data collected are analyzed by descriptive statistics, t tests, single-factor variations data analysis, Pearson product-moment correlation, and etc. The main findings are as follows: 1. The major source of ecological wetland conservation of junior high school students were from the TV & internet, secondly from teachers, parents, and the least was from broadcasting. 2. The students¡¦ knowledge of ecological conservation of wetlands described as good, attitude towards consent and positive, but behavior toward negative. 3. In students¡¦ knowledge of wetland ecological conservation, different grade, family socioeconomic status, and school location exhibited significant differences. However, different sex, and experience of wetlands revealed no significant differences. 4. In students¡¦ attitude of wetland ecological conservation, the experience of wetlands showed significant differences. No significant differences were observed in different sex, grade, family socioeconomic status, and school location. 5. In behavior of wetland ecological conservation, significantly differences were found in different grade, experience of wetlands, and school location. Different sex and family socioeconomic status revealed no significant differences. 6. There was significantly positive correlation between the knowledge and attitude towards wetland ecological conservation of junior high school students; and the significant positive correlation was also found between the attitude and behavior of wetland ecological conservation. There was no significant correlation between the knowledge and behavior towards wetland ecological conservation of junior high school students. Based on the results, several suggestions may be offered for the junior high school in Kaohsiung city, related-educational associations, and future research.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe how child and youth care practitioners experience their engagement in community level interventions. Five child and youth care practitioners, who identified themselves as engaging in community level interventions in their work, were interviewed and data were analysed using a combined narrative and thematic approach. Eight themes emerged from the data that describe participants’ experience with community, community change and community level interventions. Results show how community level interventions have a tendency to target the micro, meso and occasionally exo, rather than macro, levels of communities. Thus, multi-level interventions are recommended as a way to shift child and youth care practice from an emphasis on interventions with individuals, towards greater emphasis on interventions that are aimed at the multiple levels of the child and youth’s ecological system. The study identifies implications for post-secondary curriculum, professional practice, agency mandates and job descriptions. / Graduate

Pesquisas em que se procura investigar a relação entre os fatores ambientais e o comportamento dos consumidores são ainda embrionárias no Brasil, o que constitui uma oportunidade para estudos que relacionam o comportamento de compra dos consumidores com as questões ambientais. Nessa perspectiva, o objetivo da presente pesquisa foi verificar se existe correlação entre os construtos: conhecimento ecológico, afeto ecológico, preocupação ecológica, normas subjetivas e o comportamento de compras verdes. Na busca do alcance dos objetivos propostos, adotou-se uma metodologia caracterizada pela pesquisa exploratória, utilizando-se o método transversal simples no processo de coleta dos dados. Foram adotados no estudo dados secundários, provenientes de artigos, livros, dissertações, teses e internet, além de dados primários, coletados com a aplicação de questionários à população-alvo. Partindo-se de uma amostragem aleatória estratificada, essa população foi constituída pelas mulheres acima dos 18 anos, por representarem consumidoras potenciais de produtos cosméticos. No tratamento dos dados dos 500 questionários validados, contemplouse a utilização do coeficiente Alpha de Cronbach e da técnica multivariada de análise fatorial exploratória. Um modelo de regressão múltipla foi testado para explicar o comportamento de compra de cosméticos ecológicos. Os resultados deixam evidências de que as variáveis Normas Subjetivas (NS), Afeto Ecológico (AE), Preocupação Ecológica (PE) e Conhecimento Ecológico (CE) foram consideradas estatisticamente significantes para explicar as variações em Comportamento de Compra de Cosméticos Ecológicos (CCCE), com um R2 de 0,555. Entre as variáveis demográficas testadas, verificou-se que apenas a faixa etária e a classe social exercem influência moderada sobre a variável dependente. Tais resultados sinalizam similaridade entre os resultados obtidos na mensuração da correlação múltipla entre as variáveis independentes, a variável dependente e aqueles observados na teoria sobre a influência da primeira sobre o comportamento de compra de produtos ambientalmente corretos. Os resultados desta tese oferecem uma compreensão adicional sobre os fatores que afetam o processo de decisão de compra do consumidor. Considera-se, portanto, que este trabalho constitui um avanço no estado da arte das pesquisas sobre a relação entre os fatores ambientais e o comportamento dos consumidores, uma vez que foram investigados aspectos não contemplados em estudos anteriores. / Research which seeks to investigate the relationship between environmental factors and the consumer behavior is still embryonic in Brazil, which is a unique opportunity for those studies that relate the purchasing behavior of consumers to environmental issues. In this perspective, the goal of this research was to ascertain whether there is correlation between the following constructs: ecological knowledge, ecological affection, ecological concern, subjective norms and green purchase behavior. In pursuit of achieving the proposed objectives, a methodology characterized by exploratory search was used, adopting the simple transverse method in data collection process. In the study, secondary data from articles, books, dissertations, theses and the internet were used, in addition to the primary data, collected with the application of questionnaires to the target population. Based on a stratified random sampling, the population was constituted by women over 18 years old, since they represent potential consumers of cosmetic products. Regarding the data processing of 500 validated questionnaires, the use of Cronbach\'s Coefficient Alpha and multivariate exploratory technique of factor analysis were contemplated. A multiple regression model was tested to explain the behavior of buying ecological cosmetics. The results produce evidence that Subjective Norms (SN), Ecological Affection (EA), Ecological Concern (EC) and Ecological Knowledge (EC) variables were considered statistically significant to explain the variations in Purchase Behavior of Ecological Cosmetics (PBEC), with an R2 of 0.555. Among the demographic variables tested, it was found that only the age and social class exercise moderate influence over the dependent variable. Such results indicate similarity among the results obtained in the measurement of multiple correlations among independent variables, the dependent variable and those observed in theory concerning the influence of the former over the purchasing behavior of environmentally correct products. The results of this thesis offer additional insight about the factors that affect the purchase decision process. Therefore, it is considered that this work is an advance in the state of the art of research about the relationship between environmental factors and the consumer behavior, since aspects not covered in previous studies were investigated.