Digital Commons Network^™

Health Professionals’ Roles In Animal Agriculture, Climate Change, And Human Health, Aysha Z. Akhtar, Michael Greger, Hope Ferdowsian, Erica Frank

Michael Greger, MD, FACLM

What we eat is rapidly becoming an issue of global concern. With food shortages, the rise in chronic disease, and global warming, the impact of our dietary choices seems more relevant today than ever. Globally, a transition is taking place toward greater consumption of foods of animal origin, in lieu of plantbased diets. With this transition comes intensification of animal agriculture that in turn is associated with the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases, environmental degradation, and the epidemics of chronic disease and obesity. Health professionals should be aware of these trends and consider them as they promote healthier and more …

Giscience Driven R&D: Interdisciplinary Gist Group At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Marie Urban

Purdue GIS Day

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is the largest DOE multi-research facility in the US and is located in Oak Ridge, TN. One of the signature strengths of ORNL is Computational Science and Engineering and the Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST) group contributes to that strength as part of the Computer Sciences and Engineering Division (CSED) within the Computer Sciences Directorate. The GIST group is at the forefront of High Resolution Population and Social Dynamics research and development resulting in innovative products such as LandScan Global (population distribution at 30 arc seconds) and now LandScan HD (population distribution at 3 …

Measurable Outcomes Of Safety Culture In Aviation - A Meta-Analytic Review, Benjamin J. Goodheart, Maryjo O. Smith

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Though the complimentary concepts of safety culture and safety climate have become increasingly popular over the past three decades, they have only infrequently been central to research designed to examine the empirical relationship between safety culture and safety performance. This tenuous link between culture and safety performance outcomes is especially prevalent in the aviation sector. This study systematically examined the existing literature for empirical evidence and explored the available data via meta-analysis to determine whether safety culture was significantly predictive of safety performance in an aviation operational environment. Although a broad, careful review of the literature was accomplished, the results …

Climate Change Survey Measures: Exploring Perceived Bias And Question Interpretation, Tarik Abdel-Monem, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Tonya K. Bernadt, Nicole Wall

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

Climate change has become an important yet politically divisive topic in recent years. Further complicating the issue are assertions that climate change– related public opinion surveys used by social scientists are biased or otherwise problematic. We conducted a pilot study to explore questions concerning bias and interpretation of climate change surveys. Our study sample was composed of adult residents of Nebraska (n = 115). We augmented our survey findings with cognitive interviews of a subsample of respondents (n = 20). We assessed study participants’ attitudes about climate change, and perceptions of bias and interpretation of survey questions drawn from previously …

Exploring The Relationship Between Faculty Perceptions Of Chairperson-Faculty Member Communication Exchanges And Department Climate, Jodi Lynn Hallsten Lyczak

Theses and Dissertations

Leadership communication has many consequences: those that affect an organization and its outcomes, and those that affect the followers. In academia, one of the most important leadership roles is that of the departmental chairperson. Through her or his communication, the academic chairperson influences nearly every aspect of departmental life for faculty, including organizational climate. In fact, it can be argued that the chairperson helps both create and sustain the department climate for faculty.

One perspective of leadership and communication posits that leadership is enacted in the dyadic communication that occurs between the leader and the follower. According to Leader Member …

Climate Drivers Of Wildfire Activity In The Magdalena Mountains Of New Mexico, U.S.A., Elizabeth Anne Schneider

Masters Theses

In recent years, crown fires have raged through mixed-conifer forests in the American Southwest that historically experienced frequent, low-severity wildfires. Land management agencies now wish to restore wildfires to their historical range of variability, but this requires information on fire regimes before Euro-American disturbance took place. We characterized the historical fire regime of a high elevation, mixed-conifer forest in the Magdalena Mountains, New Mexico. This research evaluated the different climate drivers, represented by the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), that influence the occurrence of …

Impacts Of Spatial, Environmental, And Compositional Differences On Community-Level Flowering Phenology, Isaac William Park

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates three important topics related to flowering phenology throughout the United States. First, this work evaluates the utility of herbarium records for estimating historical variation in community-level flowering phenology, and evaluate the relationship of such estimates to satellite-derived greenup timing at regional scales. This dissertation then reconstructs historical variations in flowering phenology throughout the spring, summer, and autumn across South Carolina for the years 1951 through 2009. These estimates will then be compared to seasonal temperature variations throughout this period. Finally, this dissertation develops novel herbarium-based methods to separate intraspecific phenological variations over space from changes in flowering …

A Case Study Of An All Female Workplace: The Coffee Crew, Ashley C. Henry

Senior Honors Projects

Dealing with different personalities and gender roles is nothing new in the workplace. Today, the workplace is filled with an abundance of elements that affect the overall climate of the work environment. The elements have a direct influence on the ways in which co-workers interact with one another on a daily basis. In order to see how an organization works, it is important to observe the employees of the organization. The employees each play vital roles in the company and add to the organization’s overall climate and dynamics.

Typically at organizations, there are both male and female employees. However, I …

Analysis Of Building Resiliency In An Ethiopian Pastoral System: Mitigating The Effects Of Population And Climate Change On Food Insecurity, Brigham Forrest

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Worldwide expenditures on international development in the form of assistance or “aid” have continued to increase as developed countries look to both help and influence developing countries. In 2011, more than $140 billion in development aid was distributed globally, more than double the amount expended for international development aid in 2003. Many of the countries that are in need of aid have governments that do not have the resources, the experience, political stability, or well-functioning institutions to effect long-term structural change to bring their people out of poverty.

Ethiopia is a country receiving large amounts of development aid, and one …

Climate Change In Native American Communities: Challenges Of Comprehension, Context, & Communication, Patrick Austin Freeland

Open Access Theses

Very little literature exists which details how climate change impacts Indian Country. This study first investigates how US newspaper stories published from 1991 to 2011 present American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) perceptions, and observations, of environmental changes resulting from climatic change. Several specific risk, impacts, and vulnerabilities were documented, and observations of climate change from AI/AN perceptions were analyzed for content to identify three frames of perspective: pan-Indian, tribally-specific, and individual perceptions. By law, ethical considerations are paramount when dealing with research in Native American tribes and communities. While each nation is supposed to review research to assess the risk and …

Repositioning Urban Governments? Energy Efficiency And Australia's Changing Climate And Energy Governance Regimes, Pauline M. Mcguirk, Robyn Dowling, Harriet Bulkeley

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Urban local governments are important players in climate governance, and their roles are evolving. This review traces the changing nexus of Australia's climate policy, energy policy and energy efficiency imperatives and its repositioning of urban local governments. We characterise the ways urban local governments' capacities and capabilities are being mobilised in light of a changing multi-level political opportunity structure around energy efficiency. The shifts we observe not only extend local governments' role in implementing climate change responses but also engage them as partners in conceiving and operationalising new measures, suggesting new ground is being opened in the urban politics of …

Predictors Of Academic Success Among African American College Students, La Toya Bianca Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

African American students are graduating from high school and enrolling in higher educational institutions at greater rates than in previous years (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). Yet, they have not achieved the same level of academic success as their racial counterparts (American Council on Education, 2010; Ross, 2012). Ultimately, this disparity has resulted in only 17.7% of the African American population 25 years of age and older having at least a Bachelor’s degree (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2012). Many researchers have employed comparative study designs to explore this disparity. Additionally, researchers commonly study academic success through the exploration of intrapsychic …

Distributed Leadership: Building Capacity For Interdisciplinary Climate Change Teaching At Four Universities, Aidan Davison, Paul Brown, Emma Pharo, Kristin Warr, Helen Mcgregor, Sarah Terkes, Davina Boyd, Pamela Abuodha

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Purpose - Interdisciplinary approaches to climate change teaching are well justified and arise from the complexity of climate change challenges and the integrated problem-solving responses they demand. These approaches require academic teachers to collaborate across disciplines. Yet, the fragmentation typical of universities impedes collaborative teaching practice. This paper aims to report on the outcomes of a distributed leadership project in four Australian universities aimed at enhancing interdisciplinary climate change teaching. Design/methodology/approach - Communities of teaching practice were established at four Australian universities with participants drawn from a wide range of disciplines. The establishment and operation of these communities relied on …

A Combined Experimental And Simulation Method For Appraising The Energy Performance Of Green Roofs In Ningbo's Chinese Climate, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Jo Darkwa, Kate Yuan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

A passive means of lowering the energy demand of buildings is the application of green roofs. The complexity between heat and moisture exchanges in green roof layers and the large variations of green roof types make the need for experimental or simulation assessments necessary for quantifying the energy benefits from green roofs. The current treatment of green roofs in simulation programs is either over-simplistic, for example by ignoring heat and moisture exchanges such as evapotranspiration, or the more advanced models have limitations and require inputs that are rarely available in practice. In this paper a combination of experimental and modelling …

Integrated Dehumidification And Downdraft Evaporative Cooling System For A Hot-Humid Climate, Sriraj Gokarakonda, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Unlike in hot-dry climates, in hot-humid climates evaporative cooling techniques are not readily suitable for space cooling. In order to effectively use evaporative cooling in hot-humid climates, dehumidification of ambient air is necessary before it passes over an evaporative medium for cooling. The present study explores the combined process of dehumidification and evaporation and its effect on thermal comfort in a typical small residential building located in a hot humid climate. A novel system has been investigated with the combination of an Earth Tube Ventilation (ETV) (for pre-cooling of air), a rotary wheel desiccant dehumidifier (for dehumidification) along with a …

Climate Change Mitigation With Integration Of Renewable Energy Resources In The Electricity Grid Of New South Wales, Australia, Md Abu Abdullah, Ashish Agalgaonkar, Kashem M. Muttaqi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The implementation of climate change mitigation strategies may significantly affect the current practices for electricity network operation. Increasing penetration of renewable energy generation technologies into electricity networks is one of the key mitigation strategies to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Additional climate change mitigation strategies can also contribute to emission reduction thereby supplementing the renewable energy generation participation, which may be limited due to technical constraints of the network. In this paper, the penetration requirements for different renewable energy generation resources are assessed while concurrently examining other mitigation strategies to reduce overall emissions from electricity networks and meet requisite …

Changing The Intellectual Climate, Noel Castree, William Adams, John Barry, Daniel Brockington, Bram Buscher, Esteve Corbera, David Demeritt, Rosaleen Duffy, Ulrike Felt, Katja Neves, Peter Newell, Luigi Pellizzoni, Kate Rigby, Paul Robbins, Libby Robin, Deborah B. Rose, Andrew Ross, David Schlosberg, Sverker Sorlin, Paige West, Mark Whitehead, Brian Wynne

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Calls for more broad-based, integrated, useful knowledge now abound in the world of global environmental change science. They evidence many scientists' desire to help humanity confront the momentous biophysical implications of its own actions. But they also reveal a limited conception of social science and virtually ignore the humanities. They thereby endorse a stunted conception of 'human dimensions' at a time when the challenges posed by global environmental change are increasing in magnitude, scale and scope. Here, we make the case for a richer conception predicated on broader intellectual engagement and identify some preconditions for its practical fulfilment. Interdisciplinary dialogue, …

Climate Change And Australia, Lesley Head, Michael Adams, Helen Mcgregor, Stephanie Toole

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Australia has had a variable and mostly arid climate as long as humans have been on the continent. Historically observed trends toward increased warming, with rainfall increases in many tropical areas and rainfall decreases in many temperate areas, are projected to continue. Impacts will be geographically variable but mostly negative for biodiversity, agriculture, and infrastructure. Extreme events such as bushfires and floods will increase in frequency and intensity, concentrated in summer. With an economy heavily dependent on coal for domestic electricity generation and as an export commodity, Australians are high per capita contributors to anthropogenic climate change. A quarter-century of …

Pliocene To Pleistocene Climate And Environmental History Of Lake El'gygytgyn, Far East Russian Arctic, Based On High-Resolution Inorganic Geochemistry Data, V Wennrich, P S. Minyuk, V Borkhodoev, Alexander Francke, B Ritter, Norbert R. Nowaczyk, M A. Sauerbrey, J Brigham-Grette, Martin Melles

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

The 3.6 Ma sediment record of Lake El'gygytgyn/NE Russia, Far East Russian Arctic, represents the longest continuous climate archive of the terrestrial Arctic. Its elemental composition as determined by X-ray fluorescence scanning exhibits significant changes since the mid-Pliocene caused by climate-driven variations in primary production, postdepositional diagenetic processes, and lake circulation as well as weathering processes in its catchment. During the mid- to late Pliocene, warmer and wetter climatic conditions are reflected by elevated Si / Ti ratios, indicating enhanced diatom production in the lake. Prior to 3.3 Ma, this signal is overprinted by intensified detrital input from the catchment, …