The Texas barrier islands have been studied and well documented in relation to barrier island evolution and morphology (Leatherman, 1979; Morton, 1994; White and Weise, 1980). The detailed analysis and mapping of various dune types and systems that comprise Padre Island National Seashore, specifically parabolic dunes, is the focus of this research. Dune surveys and doqqâs, along with wind and weather records were used to develop an improved morphodynamic model for parabolic dunes. The wind records were provided by the Padre Island National Seashore, the National Data Climate Center, and the Texas Coastal Ocean Observation Network. Individual dune surveys were preformed on three separate parabolic dunes for this research. These dune surveys were converted to digital elevation models and raster data, were geospatial analysis was performed. This research project investigates the geomorphic process of parabolic dunes in three parts. The first part/question of this project will be to access the accuracy and completeness of current models (Pye, 1982; Thompson, 1983) in a barrier island environment different from the environments used in previous model development. The second part of the project will attempt to answer if long term wind and weather data provide insights into conditions that are related to dune growth or change. The third part of this project utilized the recent surveys and GPS data, along with doqqâs from 1996 and 2004 to assess the migration of parabolic dunes on Padre Island National Seashore. Rates of parabolic dune movement ranged from 1.7 m a-1 for dune 1, to 17.7 m a-1 for dune 3. A new parabolic dune model was developed involving seven separate stages. The model may help to provide an increased understanding of the geomorphic evolution of parabolic dunes.

Coastal cities throughout the Caribbean Sea are evaluated to determine the geographical distributions of landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes. A strike model is used to measure tropical storm and hurricane force winds. Twenty-six specific locations in the Caribbean are studied over a time period of over one hundred years from 1901 until 2006. The Caribbean Sea geographically covers a small area of the world; however, this analysis demonstrates the wide variability of the frequency of tropical storms and hurricane strikes in this region. The southernmost portions of the Caribbean, for example Oranjestad, Aruba and Willemstad, Curacao, generally experience lower frequencies of strikes with a major hurricane return period of over 100 years in Oranjestad and Willemstad. Futhermore, Willemstad never experienced a major hurricane strike in the time period. Analyses of the northern parts of the Caribbean including Nassau, Bahamas, Nueva Gerona, Cuba, and Jamaica are locations that experience numerous instances of tropical storm and hurricane landfalls. Temporal variability is apparent and fluctuates greatly in different regions of the Caribbean Sea. Locations that experience higher frequencies of tropical storm strikes tend to have return periods of two to five years. Other areas with less frequent landfalls have return periods of up to fifteen years. For severe hurricanes, the range is from ten year return periods at Nassau, Bahamas to over 100 years at sites to the south in the study region. Specific events of landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes, or lack there of, are directly related to La Niña and El Niño events. The 1933 active hurricane season coincides with a significantly strong La Niña event. Less active hurricane seasons often take place during stronger El Niño years.

Technological advances are fundamental to the development of spatial analysis tools and methodologies available and used within the criminal investigative process. This research focuses on one such methodology for serial crime analysis: Journey-to-Crime (JTC) Geographic Profiling (GP). JTC or the study of the travel behavior between an offenderâs residence to and from the crime scene has been a subject of study within criminology for many years. GP, based on such travel behavior, is a spatial analysis and decision support tool that is used by law enforcement agencies to determine or predict the likely location of a serial offenderâs residence or âhavenâ. The tool uses locations of a connected series of crimes and applies various functional distance measures to them which have been avoided by traditional analytical methodologies. GP models are probability density distributions of crime trips, which help to narrow down the geographical search area or the offense domain for an offender. This research uses 135 serial property crime incidents from Baltimore County, Maryland between 1994 and 1997 for three different crime types - auto theft, larceny and burglary. The objective is to analyze the accuracy of individually (i.e., by crime type and distance decay functions) calibrated JTC GP models by comparing them with the default-valued (available in CrimeStat® 3.1) JTC GP models. The JTC GP accuracy assessment is conducted on the following three measurements: a) Euclidean distance error â the straight-line distance between the actual home location and the predicted home location. b) Top profile area â the area of all cells with a probability score equal to or higher than the probability score assigned to the actual haven. c) Hit score percentage â the ratio of the area searched before the offenderâs residence is found, to the total study area. The smaller the value of the above measures, the better the model predicts. Results indicate that for most cases there are no statistically significant differences between the individually calibrated and default valued JTC GP models. Thus it could be concluded that police department and other investigative agencies using CrimeStat® 3.1 will save resources (personnel, time and financial) if they use the default values for the JTC distance decay functions parameters instead of individually calibrating the data while creating GP models for serial offenders.

A ~5000 yr history of modern and prehistoric hurricane landfall and environmental change has been reconstructed from coastal lake sediments of the northern West Indies. Hurricane overwash layers and environmental shifts were identified by changes in biological and sedimentary stratigraphies, core lithology, and loss-on-ignition techniques. 14C and 137Cs were used to establish a chronology of events. Many hurricane-induced overwash layers were identified within the lake sediments. Evidence indicates distinct periods of temporal shifts in hurricane activity for the Northern Caribbean islands of Anguilla, Barbuda, and Acklins Island, Bahamas, providing the first paleotempestological records for the region. The northern Caribbean record appears to exhibit an anti-phase relationship with the results from the U.S. Gulf coast, in apparent agreement with the Bermuda High hypothesis. Comparison with studies basin-wide indicates three temporal shifts in basin-wide activity occurring at ~1000, 2500, and 3500 yr BP.

The unique configuration of the human clavicle and mastoid process suggests a functional connection between the head and shoulders in humans. The hypothesis in this study is that the clavicle, scapula and head form a functional complex and are interconnected by the sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles. In this complex, the trapezius muscles attach to the skull and become active when loads are carried. The sternocleidomastoid muscles are anchored to the clavicles; when loads are being carried, they act as guy ropes for the head, thereby keeping the head from being extended by the force of the contracting trapezius muscles. These muscle actions can be expected to leave evidence on the bones to which they attach, and this evidence could be measurable. The hypothesis was tested by comparing the mensural and morphological bilateral asymmetries of 15 skeletal features, most of which would likely be affected by the functioning of this complex in individuals. The hypothesis is supported by the results which show that four character pairs of the functional complex (i.e., rise of the superior nuchal line, width of the mastoid, breadth of the scapula, diameter of the humerus) display significant directional asymmetry in right-handed individuals; the sample size of left-handed individuals was too small to provide meaningful results.

This dissertation explores the spatial ecology and potential pathways of infection of anthrax, Bacillus anthracis, in North America. A multi-scale approach was used to evaluate the components required for disease agent survival in the environment, interactions with wildlife, and the potential role that vectors play in anthrax transmission. First, ecological niche modeling with the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP) was used to predict the geographic distribution of anthrax in the continental U.S. using case data from outbreaks between 1957 and 2005. These results were then used to produce the first quantitative, continental scale predictions of anthrax in Mexico. At the meso-scale, the route of transmission in white-tailed deer is unknown, despite a large number of outbreaks in wild deer in Texas in recent years (2001 2005). To determine the interactions between deer and potential anthrax sources, two pilot studies were conducted on 1) the distribution of biting flies in relation to anthrax cases to evaluate the potential role of hematophagous flies as vectors, and 2) the summer home ranges of deer in relation to fly densities and carcass locations. The results of the GARP studies support the use of the technique for modeling the niche of this disease and suggest a central corridor of anthrax habitat from southwest Texas to the Canadian border, with disjunct areas in the Pacific Northwest and California. Mexicos predicted areas were extensions of the Texas and California ranges. The deer study suggests that deer interactions with spores occur within a limited home range in Texas and long-distance movement of spores is unlikely by individual deer. Biting fly densities were highest in areas of known anthrax infection and lowest in areas where case-positive deer have not been identified, suggesting that flies may play a role in disease transmission, either through mechanical transmission or through increased nuisance that leads to immuno-suppression in deer. This dissertation presents the first continental-scale predictions for the geographic distribution of anthrax in the U.S. and Mexico. Additionally, this is the first known study to evaluate spatial patterns between known cases, fly densities, and animal movements.

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in monetary losses from hurricanes along the U.S. coastline. The vast majority of the damage resulted from major hurricanes (Category 3-5), with 2005s Katrina, Rita, and Wilma producing an estimated $60 billion in insured losses alone (Insurance Information Institute, 2008). In light of these record damages, it is crucial to have a better understanding of the atmospheric and oceanic conditions that produce the most powerful hurricanes. Prior research has focused on interseasonal variability in tropical cyclones, but much less attention has been devoted to intraseasonal variability. Maloney and Hartmann (2000a) showed that hurricanes are four times more likely to form in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico when the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is in its "enhanced convection" phase. This study follows the work of Maloney and Hartmann but focuses on intense tropical cyclones (Category 3-5). Formation points of intense tropical cyclones were overlaid on plots of MJO indices extending from the western Pacific to the eastern Atlantic. For each tropical season, tropical cyclones were classified as having formed during favorable (enhanced convection), unfavorable (suppressed convection), or neutral phases of the MJO. Chi-squared testing was performed to determine the degree to which associations could be made between the MJO and tropical cyclone variability in the Western Pacific (WPAC), Eastern Pacific (EPAC), and Atlantic (ATL) basins. It was found that the MJO is not linked to overall tropical cyclone frequency variability in these three basins. However, testing did reveal some significant associations through time. These results do not corroborate those of Maloney and Hartmann (2000a). Two key changes in methodology are the likely driving forces behind the differing results. First, this study uses an MJO index from the CPC based on 200 hPa velocity potential anomalies, while Maloney and Hartmann (2000a) used an MJO index based on 850 hPa wind anomalies. Second, the study period here is 1978 2006, while Maloney and Hartmann (2000a) used data from 1949 1997. Future research should be conducted to examine the relationship between the MJO and tropical cyclones in more detail.

This study reports on the demographics and evidence of pulmonary disease in the Poole-Rose Ossuary which was excavated in 1990 under the direction of Heather McKillop. The bones are being studied at the request of the Alderville First Nation. Radiocarbon dated to A.D. 1550 ± 50 years, the skeletal material is a co-mingled collection that is consistent with a mass secondary burial event known as the Feast of the Dead often associated with the Huron. The ribs were used in this study. The condition of the ribs was highly fragmented. The minimum number of individuals for this study was 49 based on the presence of the transverse facet of rib 1. The incidence of degenerative joint disease is low and affects the right side twice as much as the left. The most severe cases of degenerative joint disease occur in ribs 10 and 12. Periosteal reactions on the shaft of the rib suggest the presence of pulmonary disease. Lytic lesions present on the head and neck of the ribs suggest the presence of tuberculosis in the Ossuary. Overall, the ribs of the Poole-Rose Ossuary suggest a healthy population. However, lesions on the ribs occur in approximately eight percent of tuberculosis cases suggesting that there are cases of the disease within the population that are not reflected within the skeletal material.

The written and historical record is frequently flawed, as it most often written by a single dominant group. The history of Morganza Elementary, an early twentieth century African American school in Morganza, Louisiana, was both omitted from the historical record and as a result, was slowly being erased in the minds of the community. Archaeological excavations were undertaken in order to better understand the lifeways of both the community and the students as well as the daily practices of both. In conjunction with the archaeological excavations, oral histories were completed with former students. Through this combination, new light was shed on not only the educational conditions of the school, but also the interactions between community members. As a result, the daily life of African Americans living in the Jim Crow-era South can now be fully understood.

This thesis explores the ways in which Vodou is practiced in New Orleans today. Tourism has capitalized off the exotic appeal of Vodou but that does not rule out the actual practice of the religion in these public retail settings. Generations of New Orleanians have been raised in the religion and while their practices are often secret, Vodou lies beneath the surface of spaces and events going on in the city. Immigrants and converts that have been trained in Haitian Vodou have come into New Orleans, influencing and interacting with the spirituality of the Crescent City. These practices separate themselves into different spheres but they intersect along a web of shared meanings, symbols and spaces. The hybridity of Vodou in New Orleans means that the believers history and the present is constantly being reinterpreted and recreated while still maintaining meaningful ties to the past.