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 of these interviews focuses on linguistic structures and inherent frames of worldview. Juxtaposing interviewers intentions regarding the Festivals mission with what the activists consider a continued marginalization of black culture, I highlight moments of both conflict and heightened self-awareness amongst the participants.

Ground level ozone (O3) is a pollutant of great public health concern. Spatial interpolation techniques provide powerful tools in estimating O3 exposure, but many fall short when predicting O3 on complex surfaces, especially given the high local variability typically associated with O3 data. Like most other locations, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, O3 non-attainment zone (BRNZ) is plagued by a sparse density of O3 monitoring stations. This research explores land use regression (LUR) as an alternative spatial prediction method in and around the BRNZ. Multiple years of data are used to partially compensate for the small sample of spatial points. To better associate O3 measurements with the localized land cover, deviations-from-the-regional mean (devRM) are utilized rather than direct observations (DO). Land cover data used did not perform well in predicting the daily maximum O3 but performed moderately well for longer averaging periods. A model using the monthly mean O3 maxima averaged over a three-year period was able to explain 42.04% of the variance in devRM data. Predicted devRM using this model accounts for 4.55% of the variance in DO, the regional mean accounts for 88.65% of the variance, and when summed, the regional mean and modeled devRM account for 93.50% of variance in DO O3 data. These results are useful for future refinement of LUR models and will be useful to environmental planners and epidemiologists as they evaluate and mitigate the effects of O3 in Louisiana.

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 significantly wider sacrum and longer costal processes for S1 than black South Africans. Two possible interpretations of the results were addressed, size variation is due to: (1) nutritional differences related to socioeconomic status, or (2) climatic adaptation based on thermoregulatory principles.

In this thesis, I examine the production, use, and decoration of ceramic vessels at the Early Horizon center of Caylán (800-1 B. C. E.) on the Peruvian North Central-Coast. Pottery sherds are artifacts ubiquitously recovered at archaeological sites, especially in sedentary agrarian societies. Most studies of ceramics in Peru have focused on typological sequences. Recently investigators in the Nepeña Valley have focused on ceramic pastes and technologies. The materials examined in this thesis were excavated from Caylán. Caylán is an incipient urban center, which developed during the Early Horizon (900-200 B. C. E.). Cayláns dense urban core consists in 43 residential, walled compounds built around communal plazas. A monumental mound sits in front of a large public area. Archaeologists from the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Caylán conducted excavations in 2009 and 2010. Six excavation units and sixteen test pits were placed throughout the site to sample the diversity of architecture and material remains. I conducted a macroscopic analysis of a sample of pottery sherds (n=11,270) from three excavation units in the Main Mound, Plaza-A, and Compound-E. My analysis was conducted at the Museo Regional de Casma Max Uhle where the Cayláns materials are stored. The analysis was a visual identification and classification of raw materials used to produce pottery. Early Horizon sherds were classified into paste and ware groups based on their features and mineral inclusions. I identified ten Early Horizon ware groups based on the minerals visible in the analyzed sherds. Ware Group 6 is the most common. It was associated with all units, all vessel forms, and all surface finishes and decorations The mixed sand inclusions were likely from deposits close to the ancient settlement where pots were produced, used, broken, and discarded. Paste groups, divisions within ware groups, varied in size from very coarse to fine. Inclusions were likely screened before being added to the clay. Comparative studies indicate that Caylán wares align with ceramics recovered from the coeval sites Huambacho and Samanco. This study provides a first glimpse into the composition of Early Horizon ceramics and their making, opening up future avenues for other compositional analyses.

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 methodsRandom 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 Lakes 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.

Spatial and temporal trends in temperature and precipitation extremes were investigated for the Southeast United States for the period 1948 to 2012 using 27 extreme indices developed by Working Groups headed by the World Meteorological Organization. Results show region-wide warming in extreme minimum temperatures and cooling in extreme maximum temperatures. As a result, diurnal temperature ranges are decreasing for most stations. The intensity and magnitude of extreme precipitation events appear to be rising overall, though eastern sites are experiencing increasing dryness in some indices. Seasonal trends suggest that warming in minimum temperatures is most pronounced in summer and least pronounced in winter. Fall is becoming significantly wetter, while spring and summer are getting drier, on average. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to develop a regionalization of extremes for the Southeast. Results based on temperature extreme indices divided the Southeast into roughly equal western and eastern regions, suggesting that western and eastern stations tend to covary but in opposite directions. This likely reflects synoptic scale weather patterns that frequently affect the region throughout the year. A PCA based on precipitation extreme indices resulted in a greater number of small groups exhibiting similar modes of variability. A seasonality of extremes was further characterized for the Southeast. Extreme seasons tend to follow traditional 3-month definitions of seasons. An extended winter season may be defined as November to March, while summer occurs from June to August, peaking in July. Based on analysis of state and local planning and policy from six case study sites across the Southeast, this research suggests that many existing efforts may contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation. Similarities appear in sector-based planning, largely in response to federal mandates, though levels of engagement differ between sites. Threats from changing temperature and precipitation extremes are addressed only to a limited extent. Leadership priorities, federal actions, wealth, population, and experience with hazards seem to influence state and local actions. Recommendations are offered to guide future climate planning and policy. Findings can benefit planners, policy analysts, decision makers, and hazards specialists engaged in climate adaptation and hazard mitigation in the Southeast and beyond.

Electrical resistivity was used at the Livonia Mound site (16PC1) to identify construction breaks, possible human burials, and other cultural activity below the surface. Resistivity transects traveled across the mound and the level surface directly south of the mound; this latter section was called Area A. Four transects stretched across the north, south, west, and east slopes of the mound; as a result, four vertical profiles were created from the apparent resistivity (âa) values. The standard deviation of each transect was computed using the âa values from the four pseudo-sections to establish the base-line for analysis. âa values for Area A were figured separately because of the differences in temperature at the times the surveys were taken which impact the moisture within the soil. Four areas of high âa were identified; these anomalies could represent human burials or other cultural activity beneath the surface. Area A and the west transect produced anomalies hinting at cultural activity below the surface, although no definitive evidence of human burials was found. The vertical profiles from the east and west transect show evidence that the top 3.0 m were deposited in a single construction episode. High âa anomalies in the north and south transects distort the profiles; thus there was no conclusive evidence to support or refute a single-phase construction episode for the top 3.0 m of the remaining mound.

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 remembering, forgetting, minimizing, and misrepresenting plantation slavery. While tourists have not been ignored, less information has been developed about how they participate in remembering the past at historic sites associated with the plantation and slavery. Through their presence, written and spoken comments and questions, and other actions tourists influence the social process of remembering plantation slavery. To understand some of the ways that tourists shape how slavery is connected to the memory of a place, I analyzed postcards and participated in house tours with other tourists. I learned that while there are often efforts on the part of local stakeholders to frame a sites connection to slavery in certain ways, visitors often transform these associations. In some cases, the associations between a place and slavery are shaped, in other cases, tourists participate in marginalizing the memory of enslaved people. Whether by postcard, things said or even the things within a plantation museum that they touch, tourists try to connect themselves to the past. The connections that visitors make are part of the process of remembering the past. Understanding tourists better is an important step towards a fuller remembering of slavery at historic sites like plantation house museums.

A series of hotspot mapping theories and methods have been proposed to predict where and when a crime will happen. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. In addition, the predictive accuracy of each hotspot method varies depending on the study area, crime type, parameter settings of each method, etc. The predictive accuracy of hotspot methods can be quantified by three measures, which include the hit rate, the predictive accuracy index (PAI), and the recapture rate index (RRI). This thesis research applied eight hotspot mapping techniques from the crime analysis field to predict crime hotspot patterns. In addition, these hotspot methods were compared and evaluated in order to possibly find a single best method that outperforms all other methods based on the three predictive accuracy measures. Identifying the single best method is carried out for all Part1 Crimes combined and individually, for five of the nine Part 1 Crime. In addition to the spatial analysis, a spatialtemporal analysis of the same crime dataset was conducted to investigate the distribution of crime clusters from both the space and time dimensions. The reported crime data analyzed in this study are from the city of Houston, TX, from January 2011 to December 2012. The results show that the predictive accuracy is affected by both the hotspot mapping method and the crime type, although the crime type has a more moderate effect. Considering the use of the three predictive accuracy measures, the kernel density estimation could be identified as the method which could most accurately predict the overall Part1 Crimes for the city of Houston. The nearest neighbor hierarchical clustering and kernel density estimation could be identified as the methods which are best at predicting each of the five crime types examined based on PAI and RRI, respectively. Also, spatial-temporal analysis indicates that more crimes occurred during September to December, 2011 around the center and in the southwestern part of the city of Houston, TX.

How do we define sacred space? I suggest that sacred spaces are not sacred for reasons geographers have traditionally accepted - due to connections to a religions creation myth, holy person, or event. Instead, places are made sacred by the negotiations of the sacred made there by visitors mostly women who visit scared spaces. Through ethnographic and autoethnographic research at the shrines of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Washington Heights, New York City, New York and Cabrini High School, New Orleans, Louisiana, I explore what makes shrines sacred for the women who visit them and how they use these shrines to confront life and death. I also highlight the power women have in making the sacred in shrines associated with the Catholic Church, which is run by an entirely-male hierarchy. The shrines allow for a place where women can exercise power over the sacred on their own terms. This work contributes to the emerging fields of emotional geographies and autoethnography, as well as challenging the traditional ways in which geographers have explored and ignored sacred space