The Florida Everglades ecosystem is threatened by human development, increased pollution, freshwater scarcity, and invasive species; factors that have negatively impacted the Everglades and native species health and populations. Man-made canals and levies have redirected the natural flow of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee into the Florida Everglades, starving central and south Florida ecosystems of necessary fresh water and nutrients. Through the efforts of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project (CERP), freshwater is being redirected back into central and south Florida, returning the sheet flow of water back into the Everglades. Monitoring species abundance in the Everglades is a beneficial conservational tool for assessing restoration efforts from CERP. As a semi-aquatic apex predator, river otters (Lontra canadensis) are a useful health bio-indicator for the Florida Everglades. In order to conduct future population studies of river otters in the Florida Everglades, it must first be ascertained where they can be found and what time of year they are most likely to be sighted. For this study, Moultrie infrared game cameras were used to photograph the presence or absence of river otters within the five main habitats in the Everglades; the pinelands, hardwood hammock, cypress swamp, marsh prairie, and mangrove estuary at two protected areas in the Florida Everglades (Big Cypress National Preserve and Fakahatchee Strand State Park). River otters were most frequently sighted in the hardwood hammock habitat, but were also found in the cypress swamp. The large majority of river otter sightings occurred during dry season, which is thought to be a function of restricted water availability and aquatic mobility. Future population studies of river otters would be most productive in the hardwood hammock and cypress swamp habitats during dry season. Game camera images along with field opportunistic sightings, resulted in a variety of species documented. This provided valuable information of species richness and distribution within and amongst the habitats. The hardwood hammock was found to be the most species rich habitat, having over half the species observed in the study in this habitat. The Aves class was the most abundantly observed in the Everglades, and was most frequently sighted during the dry season. As a refuge for migratory birds, the Everglades house the majority of bird species during the winter months, which occur during dry season. The Aves class was most frequently sighted in the pinelands habitat during dry season. This habitat, being the highest in elevation and therefore the driest, shows a stronger resemblance to most northern bird habitats then does the water-saturated wetlands found throughout the Everglades. The mangrove estuary was the most commonly occurring outlier, having the least species overlap when compared to the other habitats. All other habitats in the Everglades are freshwater wetlands, while the mangrove estuary is a brackish environment, which limits the species that are unable to tolerate saline conditions. Further studies of species abundance throughout the Everglades will aid in monitoring CERP restoration efforts over time.

The Florida Everglades is a highly diverse socionatural landscape that historically spanned much of the south Florida peninsula. Today, the Florida Everglades is an iconic but highly contested conservation landscape. It is the site of one of the world’s largest publicly funded ecological restoration programs, estimated to cost over $8 billion (U.S. GAO 2007), and it is home to over two million acres of federally protected lands, including the Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. However, local people’s values, practices and histories overlap and often conflict with the global and eco-centric values linked to Everglades environmental conservation efforts, sparking environmental conflict. My dissertation research examined the cultural politics of nature associated with two Everglades conservation and ecological restoration projects: 1) the creation and stewardship of the Big Cypress National Preserve, and 2) the Tamiami Trail project at the northern boundary of Everglades National Park. Using multiple research methods including ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, participant observation, surveys and semi-structured interviews, I documented how these two projects have shaped environmental claims-making strategies to Everglades nature on the part of environmental NGOs, the National Park Service and local white outdoorsmen. In particular, I examined the emergence of an oppositional white identity called the Gladesmen Culture. My findings include the following: 1) just as different forms of nature are historically produced, contingent and power-laden, so too are different claims to Everglades nature; 2) identity politics are an integral dimension of Everglades environmental conflicts; and 3) the Big Cypress region’s history and contemporary conflicts are shaped by the broader political economy of development in south Florida. My dissertation concluded that identity politics, class and property relations have played a key, although not always obvious, role in shaping Everglades history and environmental claims-making, and that they continue to influence contemporary Everglades environmental conflicts.

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Wireless communication is increasingly ubiquitous. However, mobility depends intrinsically on battery life. Power can be conserved at the Media Access Control (MAC) layer by intelligently adjusting transmission power level and data rate encoding. WirelessUSB is a low-power, low-latency wireless technology developed by Cypress Semiconductor Corporation for human interface devices such as keyboards and mice. WirelessUSB devices conserve power by employing power-efficient hardware, dynamic power level adjustment and dynamic data rate adjustment. We characterize the effects on power consumption of dynamically adjusting node power using two dynamic power negotiation techniques as well as two reactive techniques. We also characterize the effects of dynamically adjusting data rate using three rate adjustment techniques. We further characterize the effects of collaboratively adjusting both power and data rate. We validate our techniques through simulation and find that such collaboration yields the greatest energy conservation for a wide variety of conditions and usage models.

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Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.) is native to freshwater wetlands of Florida. The vitality of cypress within coastal freshwater wetlands is threatened by saltwater intrusion. Biomarkers to detect sub-lethal salinity stress were developed using a controlled greenhouse study. Cypress saplings maintained at elevated salinities of 4 and 8‰ exhibited a decrease in maximum quantum yield (MQY) and an increase in non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). Cypress leaves exhibited an increase in Na+, H2O2, and free proline content compared to plants maintained in freshwater. These biomarkers were used to detect salinity stress within a population of cypress associated with the lower St. Johns River where saltwater intrusion is occurring. Cypress in a basin swamp exhibited signs of salinity stress with low MQY and elevated NPQ values compared to Cypress at other sites. Cypress leaves at the basin swamp also had the highest Na+, lipid peroxidation, and proline content compared to plants at other sites. Detached Cypress leaf experiments were conducted to explore the mechanisms of salt tolerance. Detached cypress leaves were first exposed to elevated NaCl concentrations for 24, 48, or 72 hours. Elevated salinity caused a decrease in leaf transpiration for all times tested. Total peroxidase activity exhibited an increase in response to salt stress after 48 hours. Enhanced peroxidase activity was found to be associated with the induction of a ~37 kDa peroxidase isoform. Treatment of leaves with clofibrate caused an increase in activity of the ~37 kDa peroxidase. Pre-treatment of leaves with brefeldin A (BFA) blocked the induction of the ~37 kDa peroxidase associated with salt stress. Pre-treatment of Cypress leaves with diphenyliodonium (DPI) blocked the decrease in transpiration associated with salt stress, suggesting that H2O2 is enzymatically produced within the stomata in response to salt stress

Architecture is visuality. Its object is what Norman Bryson has referred to as a screen of signs. "Between subject and the world is inserted the entire sum of discourses which make up visuality, that cultural construct, and make visuality different from vision, the notion of unmediated visual experience. Between retina and the world is inserted a screen of signs, a screen consisting of all the multiple discourses on vision built into the social arena." (Norman Bryson, from Practice; Architecture, Technique, and Representation, by Stan Allen) Architecture and representation are integral to the screen. How do we make architecture? Is the act of making architecture a montage? Can architecture be made through montage? What is the role of montage in an architecture for life and death? The process of making architecture is not a prescribed methodology with a predetermined outcome. Architecture, crafted by the hand of the architect, is a divine act of assemblage of subconscious allegorical thought, image, and tectonics. Through this art of assemblage, an architecture is born capable of instigating a narrative of metaphor and memory. Metaphorical narrative has the innate ability of summoning memory, and is critical in an architecture for life and death. Architecture is the only total sensory means of narrative. / Master of Architecture

La disparition d’Anna Fisher est un roman suivant la vie d’Iwan O’Leary, un vétéran serbo-américain. L’intrigue se déroule dans la petite ville fictive de Liberty (Tennessee,USA), et part de deux drames : la disparition d’Anna Fisher et le meurtre d’Eanna Warren— survenus respectivement dix-sept et quinze ans avant le début du roman. Lorsque le corps d’Anna Fisher est finalement retrouvé, Sal, son beau-père au passé douteux, revient dans les environs pour mener son enquête et mettre la main sur le meurtrier. Son retour secouera Liberty et alimentera les tensions qui l’étouffent depuis des années. Malgré son désir de vivre en paix, Iwan se retrouvera pris contre son gré dans la tempête que les guerres de gangs et la quête de vérité de Sal feront souffler sur la ville. En dépit de ses tentatives de rester à l’écart des ennuis, il sera rattrapé par les démons de son propre passé, qui le pousseront peu à peu à sortir de son immobilité. La seconde partie du mémoire est un essai théorique prenant pour objet le roman Cypress Grove, de James Sallis. Parue en 2003, l’oeuvre est le premier tome d’une trilogie de romans noirs consacrés au personnage de John Turner. Son esthétique particulière l’entraîne cependant au-delà du genre noir; le volet recherche interroge alors la place du roman dans la tradition littéraire et culturelle des blues novels. Au moyen d’une analyse du blues comme genre musical et de l’étude de sa conversion en objet littéraire, l’essai tente de voir comment l’éthos blues teinte la poésie et l’ambiance du roman de Sallis. La majeure part de l’étude est consacrée aux personnages, aux traces de l’éthos blues qu’ils portent, et à l’influence générale qu’ils exercent à ce titre sur l’oeuvre.

In Louisiana, the beds of natural lakes are owned by the state. The locations of property boundary lines separating state property from private lands have usually been set by determining the levels of natural monuments known as ordinary high water marks. The term is confusing and subjective, leading to controversy in reference to its determination. Catahoula Lake in central Louisiana was chosen as a study site because of its large size, its 20-foot variation in water levels, and its low-relief perimeter. Geology, geomorphology, hydrology, archaeology, vegetation, dendrochronology and dendrohydrology of the ancient cypress fringe, nineteenth century land survey records, historical records, and time-series statistics were applied to determine the elevation range of ordinary high water. Research suggests that the level of the ordinary high water natural monument used universally in Louisiana to define lake boundaries is not the correct natural monument. This research suggests that, for example, the natural monument that defines the Catahoula Lake boundary is not a vertical monument, but rather an areal monument that was originally recognized by nineteenth century U.S. government surveyors and embedded in the evidence extracted from their original field notes. The solution coincides with the boundaries of regional land patents and offers a consistent solution to determining the boundaries of thousands of acres of disputed lands. The procedure is applicable to other lake and swamp boundaries in Louisiana and other states.