Riparian Vegetation Susceptibility to Wind and Flooding Impacts of Hurricanes

Vegetation in riparian zones of southern Texas largely consist of woody trees, shrubs, and vines that grow densely within a short distance from the river. The rich and productive nature of these environments provides critical habitat for aquatic and terrestrial species of commercial and recreational value. This study examines how woody vegetation within the Mission River riparian zone has been impacted by Hurricane Harvey that brought category 3 winds and significant flooding to the areas around the Mission River. To determine the density and the species composition of the vegetation on the riparian zone of the Mission River, vegetation was surveyed in plots that are located along the river. Density and composition of woody riparian species within these plots were determined using measurements of diameter at breast height (DBH) and compared to the findings from previous studies on the Mission River riparian zone. Based on preliminary analyses of ground and aerial images and literature on hurricane impacts to riparian zones, it is expected that Hurricane Harvey caused widespread snapping of trunks/limbs and weakened roots of larger woody vegetation. Structural compromise to woody vegetation can also reduce their ability to stabilize their crowns, resulting in a high volume of downed trees while making way for pioneering species. There are limited studies on disturbance to riparian systems that is induced by hurricanes and this research increases our understanding of how these systems respond to these types of extreme events

Cracking the Door to State Recovery from Federal Thrifts

In the midst of the Great Depression, Congress created the Office of Thrift Supervision (“OTS”) to oversee and regulate the federally chartered thrift industry. Congress granted the OTS the power to create regulations to examine thrifts, ensure they were sound, and to preempt state laws affecting their operations, but not the power to provide remedies to a thrift’s customers. Over the next 70 years, the courts consistently interpreted Congress’ grant of regulatory authority as plenary—preempting almost any state law that affected, even minimally, the operation of a federal thrift. The Seventh Circuit, in In re Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC Mortgage Servicing Litigation, reinterpreted the regulations governing when a state law may incidentally affect thrift operations. More importantly, the court went further than other courts in opening the door to state regulation. While nominally applying the same precedent, the court fluidly interprets the meaning of what it means to “incidentally affect” lending operations of a federal thrift. The court’s analysis allows it to nominally follow precedent while increasing court and state oversight of federal thrifts. The court effectively cracks the door to a more active role for the states in ensuring consumers are protected and that banks are ultimately held accountable when they fail to uphold fair business ethics

WOMEN OBJECTIFYING WOMEN: THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL POWER

Objectification Theory (OT) states that women’s humanity is reduced to being a physical object whose sole purpose is to give men physical pleasure; OT explains why men objectify women, and why women objectify themselves, but does not explain why women objectify other women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Research has found that participants primed to experience high- or low-power objectified others in a work relationship more than those primed to experience equal-power (Schaerer et al., 2018). The current study aimed to examine if this finding would replicate to women engaging in sexual and beauty objectification and dehumanization towards other women. 330 cisgender, heterosexual college women were primed to experience high-, equal-, or low-power via a writing prompt. After being primed to a power condition, participants filled out measures of sexual objectification, beauty objectification, dehumanization, sense of power, and desire for power. A multivariate analysis of covariance was used to determine if beauty objectification, sexual objectification, or dehumanization varied by power condition. No significant differences were detected. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to examine if a continuous sense of power variable could predict women’s beauty objectification, sexual objectification, or dehumanization of others. Results indicated that sense of power is related to objectification and dehumanization, but their relationships with sense of power differ. Sexual objectification has a curvilinear relationship with sense of power, dehumanization has a linear positive association with sense of power, and beauty objectification has no relationship with sense of power. If we understand what levels of power lead to the greatest objectification and dehumanization, we can identify who to target when creating prevention methods for objectification and dehumanization. Objectification and dehumanization were not related to the primed power condition but were related to a continuous self-report measure of sense of power. This finding indicates that there may be some limitations of priming participants to a temporary (state) power condition rather than assessing the impact of trait power levels. Future research should work to identify what trait power levels are associated with objectification and dehumanization. Those findings can then be used in objectification and dehumanization prevention and intervention efforts

Utilizing community media to facilitate cross-cultural communication between LSU AgCenter field and state agents and Louisiana agricultural producers

The primary purpose of this study was to determine how Louisiana agricultural producers get information related to their crops. Specifically, this study examined how Louisiana agricultural producers used the Louisiana State University AgCenter’s website and other media sources so that it could be determined which form of community media could be used to facilitate cross-cultural communication between LSU AgCenter field and state agents and Louisiana agricultural producers. Data for this study were obtained from 187 usable surveys completed by Louisiana agricultural produceragricultural producers. The data were analyzed to determine if producers utilized the LSU AgCenter website, the frequency they utilized it, detect the trust Louisiana producers had in information provided by the LSU AgCenter on its website, ascertain what additional information Louisiana producers would like to see provided on the LSU AgCenter’s website, determine if social media was an acceptable means of communicating with producers, and identify factors related to how and when information provided by the LSU AgCenter was used in Community media vehicles. The study’s findings indicated The Delta Farm Press was the source producers used to get agriculture-related information. Ag consultants were the second most used source that Louisiana agricultural producers used to receive information. LSU AgCenter agents/offices were the third highest source and the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation was listed as the fourth highest source for agriculture-related information. It was also found that the largest number of producers who accessed the LSU AgCenter’s website did so on a monthly basis and that they trusted material provided by the LSU AgCenter. In addition, the study found Louisiana producers wanted a mobile weather application, as well as more information about markets, more interactive material, and information available in Spanish. In addition, several of the producers indicated they were not aware of all of the services offered on the LSU AgCenter’s website. For instance, weather information is one of the services producers indicated they would like to see on the website. Weather information is available on the website, but it may not be structured so that it is easily found by visitors to the website

Senior Recital

Senior recitals of Kimberley Attaway and Alexis Morgan for MUAP 4040. Accompanied by Susan Monroe and Phyllis Walker on piano

Riparian Vegetation Susceptibility to Wind and Flooding Impacts of Hurricanes

Vegetation in riparian zones of southern Texas largely consist of woody trees, shrubs, and vines that grow densely within a short distance from the river. The rich and productive nature of these environments provides critical habitat for aquatic and terrestrial species of commercial and recreational value. This study examines how woody vegetation within the Mission River riparian zone has been impacted by Hurricane Harvey that brought category 3 winds and significant flooding to the areas around the Mission River. To determine the density and the species composition of the vegetation on the riparian zone of the Mission River, vegetation was surveyed in plots that are located along the river. Density and composition of woody riparian species within these plots were determined using measurements of diameter at breast height (DBH) and compared to the findings from previous studies on the Mission River riparian zone. Based on preliminary analyses of ground and aerial images and literature on hurricane impacts to riparian zones, it is expected that Hurricane Harvey caused widespread snapping of trunks/limbs and weakened roots of larger woody vegetation. Structural compromise to woody vegetation can also reduce their ability to stabilize their crowns, resulting in a high volume of downed trees while making way for pioneering species. There are limited studies on disturbance to riparian systems that is induced by hurricanes and this research increases our understanding of how these systems respond to these types of extreme events