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Articles 1 - 9 of 9
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Moving Mountains : A Study Examining Long-Term Impacts Of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining On Mortality In The Appalachian Region Using Geographic Information Sciences Techniques., James Howard Kent Pugh
Moving Mountains : A Study Examining Long-Term Impacts Of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining On Mortality In The Appalachian Region Using Geographic Information Sciences Techniques., James Howard Kent Pugh
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Over the last hundred years, the Appalachian region has been dominated by the coal industry. It has also been and currently is one of the unhealthiest regions in the United States. Recent scholarship has examined the relationship between coal mining and health and mortality rates in the Appalachian region. The first study incorporates air quality and pollution data to examine if coal mining counties have higher levels of pollution and if this pollution contributes to mortality disadvantage. In the second study, I construct a population-based coal-exposure measure to better evaluate the relationship between coal mining and health I find that …
Diversity For Diversity's Sake? The Relationship Between Diversity And School-Level Academic Achievement., Richard Aaron Wisman
Diversity For Diversity's Sake? The Relationship Between Diversity And School-Level Academic Achievement., Richard Aaron Wisman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
There is contention among researchers about how to best operationalize socioeconomic status (SES). This study seeks to provide an explicit definition of one metric of socioeconomic status, the diversity index (DI) of Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) and investigates its efficacy at predicting the aggregate academic achievement of students within a school, relative to other common metrics of SES which are analogous to components of the DI. Another purpose of this study is to investigate possible peer effects of socioeconomic diversity on low SES students. This study utilizes a correlational – multiple regression approach to explore relationships among study variables …
Cranial Morphological Distinctiveness Between Ursus Arctos And U. Americanus, Benjamin James Hillesheim
Cranial Morphological Distinctiveness Between Ursus Arctos And U. Americanus, Benjamin James Hillesheim
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Despite being separated by millions of years of evolution, black bears (Ursus americanus) and brown bears (Ursus arctos) can be difficult to distinguish based on skeletal and dental material alone. Complicating matters, some Late Pleistocene U. americanus are significantly larger in size than their modern relatives, obscuring the identification of the two bears. In the past, fossil bears have been identified based on differences in dental morphology or size. This study used geometric morphometrics to look at overall differences in cranial shape and used step-wise discriminant analysis to identify specific characters that distinguish cranial morphology between …
Niche Modeling For The Giant Panda, Ailuropoda Melanoleuca, And The Original Panda, Ailurus Fulgens: Habitat Preferences And Evolutionary Consequences, Lauren M. Lyon
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The well-known symbol for conservation, the giant panda bear, and the original red panda have been forced into remote habitats due to anthropogenic disturbance, making ecological study difficult. Therefore the first known species distribution model was created to predict the most likely areas of occurrence within the known range of these elusive animals. These models were then projected onto North America and evaluated against existing breeding programs. Additionally, the close proximity of the Gray Fossil Site and the discovery of the most complete fossil red panda specimens in the world allowed ecomorphological comparisons between the modern red panda, Ailurus fulgens …
Local Health Department Adoption Of Health Information Technology And Its Impact On Population Health, Tina Yeung
Local Health Department Adoption Of Health Information Technology And Its Impact On Population Health, Tina Yeung
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Since the enactment of the HITECH Act in 2009, the US has invested billions in building a robust health information technology (HIT) infrastructure that is secure, capable of the electronic transfer of data and allows for real-time access of patient medical data, among others. This empirical study explored the driving forces (coercive, mimetic, and normative) in the adoption of HIT (i.e. EHRs and HIEs) by local health departments (LHDs) and how it has impacted the population health of counties in the US. The researcher conducted a cross-sectional, quantitative study using secondary data sources. The study included data on 505 local …
Swift Foxes In Southwestern South Dakota: Assessing The Current Status Of A Reintroduced Population, Sarah Ann Nevison
Swift Foxes In Southwestern South Dakota: Assessing The Current Status Of A Reintroduced Population, Sarah Ann Nevison
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Swift foxes (Vulpes velox) were reintroduced into Badlands National Park between 2003 and 2006 after being nearly extirpated from South Dakota in the early 1900’s. Genetic analysis provided strong evidence that the reintroduction was successful, but viability analysis indicated the population may be in jeopardy with a high probability of extinction. Recently, the population has declined due to various biotic and abiotic factors (e.g., recent weather patterns, effects of plague [Yersinia pestis], and increased coyote [Canis latrans] numbers). No information on the status of swift foxes has been collected since 2009. Between 2014 and 2016, the objectives of this study …
Measuring Aquatic Organism Responses To Grassland Restoration: Does The Field Of Dreams Really Exist?, David A. Schumann
Measuring Aquatic Organism Responses To Grassland Restoration: Does The Field Of Dreams Really Exist?, David A. Schumann
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Landscape homogenization and the degradation of riparian areas has greatly impaired stream ecosystems throughout North America. Conservation programs may repair riparian ecosystems to indirectly improve water quality and instream habitat heterogeneity in hopes to elicit biological responses. However, focused manipulations on isolated stream fragments have rarely achieved biological goals. Prairie streams with restored riparian areas were appraised (chemical, physical, and biological variables) to quantify the indirect effects of prevalent grassland conservation practices on aquatic resources. Riparian rehabilitation, via passive methods, promoted bank-stabilizing vegetation along all conservation stream reaches. Riparian vegetation and function quickly recovered from previous agricultural disturbances at conservation …
The Reptile Gut Microbiome: Its Role In Host Evolution And Community Assembly, Timothy Colston Colston
The Reptile Gut Microbiome: Its Role In Host Evolution And Community Assembly, Timothy Colston Colston
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
I characterize the endogenous (gut) microbiome of Squamate reptiles, with a particular focus on the suborder Serpentes, and investigate the influence of the microbiome on host evolution and community assembly using samples I collected across three continents in the New and Old World. I developed novel methods for sampling the microbiomes of reptiles and summarized the current literature on non-mammalian gut microbiomes. In addition to establishing a standardized method of collecting and characterizing reptile microbiomes I made novel contributions to the future direction of the burgeoning field of host-associated microbiome research. Through persistent and rigorous fieldwork I amassed the largest …
Identification Of Candidate Cellulose Utilizing Bacteria From The Rumen Of Beef Cattle, Using Bacterial Community Profiling And Metagenomics, Lee Opdahl
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The ruminal microbiome allows ruminant animals to convert cellulosic biomass into food products. A majority of ruminal microorganisms remain uncharacterized due, in part, to the complexity of ruminal microbial communities. In order to gain further insight, selection-based batch culturing from bovine rumen fluid, in combination with metagenomics, was used to identify and characterize previously uncharacterized rumen bacteria capable of metabolizing cellulose, which was supplemented as a purified substrate. 16S rRNA-based population analysis was used to identify rumen bacteria enriched within 14 days of culturing. As a result of 4 independent experiments, seven different candidate cellulose-utilizing species-level operational taxonomic units (OTUs) …