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From Pointe-a-Pitre To New Orleans: The Bunel Family
No full textKinchen explores her family’s French-American heritage by interviewing her great-grandparents, Jack and Annette Bunel. The Bunels were born in Guadeloupe and immigrated to the United States, eventually settling in New Orleans in the 1950s. The Bunel’s experiences as descendants of wealthy plantation owners lend insight into the dynamics of Guadeloupe in the 20th century when oppressed populations sought to address inequalities caused by centuries of colonization. Kinchen also reflects on her upbringing in Hammond, how she maintained connections to Louisiana while living in Wisconsin, and the role her late Uncle Sonny played in understanding her French heritage
Through the Seventh Ward: A.P. Tureaud Boulevard
No full textJulia Hines writes about her life in the Seventh Ward neighborhood of New Orleans. Her mother, Jamell Hines, has lived in the Seventh Ward for over 25 years, and she describes the demographic and physical transformations happening in the neighborhood. Julia identifies community gathering places and events in the Seventh Ward such as bar rooms, halls, local businesses, public parks, and Super Sunday. Julia and Jamell unpack the causes and implications of gentrification and neighborhood crime
On A Steel Horse
No full textClinton Kuss writes about his passion for riding motorcycles and the community of bikers in New Orleans. Kuss interviews his childhood friend, Jon Paul Burbank about the social aspects of the biking and drag racing scene on Almonaster Avenue in New Orleans East. Burbank and Kuss were both brought up in Kenner, Louisiana, and since both of their mothers have passed away, riding motorcycles has further strengthened their bond and provided an outlet for their grief. Kuss details how biking community members subvert social norms and transcend class distinctions
Size-dependent patterns of reproductive investment in the North American invasive plant species Triadica sebifera (L.) Small (Euphorbiaceae)
Get PDFKnowledge of sex allocation trade-offs with tree growth in insect-pollinated woody plants is limited, particularly in invasive plants. This study examined patterns of growth and reproductive investment in a North American invasive plant species, Triadica sebifera, I hypothesized that the energy limitations of smaller trees may result in the production of more male reproductive structures that are energetically less costly. Diameter at breast height was a significant predictor of seed and catkin mass and regression can describe these relationships across sites. Seed and catkin mass were positively correlated across sites. The relationship between the seed mass:catkin mass ratio and DBH was not significant, nor was seed mass:catkin mass and total investment. Results showed a significant positive relationship between total reproductive investment and tree size across sites. Seed mass:catkin mass ratio and reproduction investment showed substantial variation among individual trees of similar size within sites
Perspective
Get PDFAs an artist, I am interested in understanding how and why humans interact with the natural world. I examine my own individual behaviors and practices and research impacts made on nature by humans as a whole. I am drawn to nature for a multitude of reasons, including aesthetic beauty, psychological wellness, unraveling the mysteries of the universe and trying to understand the origins of life. As an artist I explore the dialectic relationship between everything we perceive outside of ourselves as the environment, and the way we think of ourselves in relation to that environment. I believe in the interconnectedness of all living things and I am interested in understanding why humans are the only species which act against their best interests in preserving the habitat that is necessary for survival. These questions bring me to address the issues of greed, consumption, and control over resources in my art practice
Motion Dynamics of Dropped Cylindrical Objects
Get PDFDropped objects are among the top ten causes of fatalities and serious injuries in the oil and gas industry. Objects may be dropped during lifting or any other offshore operation. Concerns of health, safety, and the environment (HSE) as well as possible damages to structures require the prediction of where and how a dropped object moves underwater. This study of dropped objects is subdivided into three parts. In the first part, the experimental and simulated results published by Aanesland (1987) have been successfully reproduced and validated based on a two-dimensional (2D) theory for a dropped drilling pipe model. A new three-dimensional (3D) theory is proposed to consider the effect of axial rotation on dropped cylindrical objects. The 3D method is based on a modified slender body theory for maneuvering. A numerical tool called Dropped Objects Simulator (DROBS) has been developed based on this 3D theory. Firstly, simulated results of a dropped drilling pipe model using a 2D theory by Aanesland (1987) are compared with results from 3D theory when rolling frequency is zero. Good agreement is found. Further, factors that affect the trajectory, such as drop angle, normal drag coefficient, binormal drag coefficient, and rolling frequency are systematically investigated. It is found that drop angle, normal drag coefficient, and rolling frequency are the three most critical factors determining the trajectories. In the second part, a more general three-dimensional (3D) theory is proposed to physically simulate the dynamic motion of a dropped cylindrical object underwater with different longitudinal center of gravity (LCG). DROBS has been further developed based on this 3D theory. It is initially applied to a dropped cylinder with LCG = 0 (cylinder #1) falling from the surface of calm water. The calculated trajectories match very well with both the experimental and numerical results published in Aanesland (1987). Then DROBS is further utilized to simulate two dropped cylinders with positive LCG (cylinder #2) and negative LCG (cylinder #3) in Chu et al. (2005), respectively. The simulated results from DROBS show a better agreement with the measured data than the numerical results given in Chu et al. (2005). This comparison again validates and indicates the effectiveness of the DROBS program. Finally, it’s applied to investigate
the effects of varying LCG on the trajectory and landing points. Therefore, the newly developed DROBS program could be used to simulate the distribution of landing points of dropped cylindrical objects, as is very valuable in the risk-free zone prediction in offshore engineering. The third part investigates the dynamic motion of a dropped cylindrical object under current. A numerical procedure is developed and integrated into Dropped Objects Simulator (DROBS). DROBS is utilized to simulate the trajectories of a cylinder when dropped into currents from different directions (incoming angle at 0o; 90o; 180o; and 270o) and with different amplitudes (0m/s to 1.0m/s). It is found that trajectories and landing points of dropped cylinders are greatly influenced by currents. Cylinders falling into water are modeled as a stochastic process. Therefore, the related parameters, including the orientation angle, translational velocity and rotational velocity of the cylindrical object after fully entering the water, is assumed to follow normal distributions. DROBS is further used to derive the landing point distribution of a cylinder. The results are compared to Awotahegn (2015) based on Monte Carlo simulations. Then the Monte Carlo simulations are used for predicting the landing point distribution of dropped cylinders with drop angles from 0o to 90o under the influence of currents. The plots of overall landing point distribution and impact energy distribution on the sea bed provide a simple way to indicate the risk-free zones for offshore operation
Banking and Microfinance Performance: Market Power, Efficiency, Performance, Outreach and Sustainability Perspectives
Get PDFThis dissertation consists of two empirical papers that explore recent phenomena in Banking and Microfinance Performance. Chapter 1, “Market Power and Bank Performance in MENA Countries,” examines the determinants of market power in 12 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), specifically within six Gulf Cooperation Countries and six non-Gulf countries. We examine the dynamics of bank competition in MENA countries, provide an up-to-date assessment of market power, investigate the factors impacting bank competition, and explore the evolution of market power during the financial crisis. Our results show an overall increase in market power following the GFC for both regions. We find that bank size, capitalization, and diversification affect market power differently in the pre-crisis and post-crisis years. Larger banks enjoy cost advantages and the diversification impact on market power has decreased in the post-crisis years and the impact of capitalization on market power increased during the GFC. Overall, banks with higher capitalization can better weather the crisis. Chapter 2, “The impact of firm-level characteristic and county-specific attributes on the performance and efficiency of the Microfinance institutions,” estimates the impact of country-specific macro-variables and firm-specific attributes on the financial performance and the efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs). We use a large international up-to-date database consisting of over 10,000 firm-years for MFIs over 89 countries during the period 2008-2015. Several interesting findings emerge: a) regulation and outreach are negatively correlated. b) There is a negative and highly statistically significant correlation between the percentage of female borrowers and loan size, which is evidence of “mission drift”. c) An increase in the percentage of female board member has positive and statistically significant effect on MFIs profitability and ROA; which emphasizes the importance of female participation in leading position in MFIs
An Experimental Study in the Hydroelastic Response of an Aluminum Wedge in Drop Tests
Get PDFSlamming of marine planing craft is expected to arise due to the high speed nature of their operating conditions. High hydrodynamic forces are inevitably induced causing the shell plating to deflect, which in turn can influence the flow physics surrounding the hull. In order to study the hull’s hydroelastic response due to a slamming event, wedge drop experiments were performed with an aluminum wedge of 57 inches in length, 47 inches in breadth, and 20 degree deadrise with 1/4 in. thick unstiffened bottom panels. The elastic behavior of the hull plating was measured via two methods. The first method uses strain gages to analyze the wedge’s deadrise panel deflections, and the second method is a Stereoscopic- Digital Image Correlation (S-DIC) technique. In the present investigation, an S-DIC code has been developed and utilized to study the deflections and to advance the capabilities of future research. Comparisons are made between the methods and also with theoretical studies. The deflections measured are approximately 0.1 in. on a panel spanning 24.5 inches, and the predictions made using S-DIC and strain gages differ by approximately 23%
Paleohydrology and Paleoecology of the Neogene Siwalik rocks, Nepalese Himalaya using multi-proxy lipid biomarker isotopic study
Get PDFThis study deploys compound-specific multi-proxy isotopic study of lipid biomarkers to understand Neogene climatic and ecological variabilities in the Himalayan foreland. The investigation of compound-specific carbon and hydrogen isotopes along with glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) is the first of its kind for the Nepalese Siwalik. A total of 49 mudstone (and some paleosol) samples were collected from the paleomagnetically age-constrained Siwalik strata in the Surai Khola and Karnali River sections.
δ13C results suggest a domination of C3 trees between 12 and 8.5 Ma, and a stepwise expansion of C4 grasses starting gradually at 8.5 Ma and culminating rapidly around 5.5 Ma. δD results show an overall gradual increase in rainfall since 12 Ma, with a rapid intensification around 5.5 Ma. The negative correlation between rainfall and GDGT-derived paleotemperature prior to 5.5 Ma indicates that the region experienced higher rainfalls during colder periods and vice versa. We propose that this negative correlation could be related to the strong presence of mid-latitude westerlies in the region because of the subdued Himalayas, when summer monsoon winds were weaker, that brought enhanced winter-precipitation particularly during colder periods. After 5.5 Ma, our data show a conspicuous positive correlation between rainfall and annual temperature, indicating the onset of modern-style seasonality in rainfall in the Indian subcontinent, which generates more rainfall during summer than during winter. Notably, this initiation of the Indian monsoon around 5.5 Ma favored the dominance of C4 grasses over C3 trees that is reflected in our δ13C data
