Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

2019

Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Hydro-Climatic Dynamics Of Lake Watershed Systems In A Changing Climate, Mussie Tekie Beyene Dec 2019

Hydro-Climatic Dynamics Of Lake Watershed Systems In A Changing Climate, Mussie Tekie Beyene

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the northern hemisphere, winter climate conditions are showing dramatic year-to-year swings. To date, implications of a changing winter climate pattern on individual or regional lakes are poorly understood, particularly in cold regions where seasonal ice appears on lake surfaces. This dissertation investigates the significance of yearly winter climate condition on the health and function of freezing lakes by modeling and characterizing the response of lake ice phenology (and related socio-ecological systems) to winter weather-climate variability. In Chapter 2, several case studies on winter limnology are reviewed to develop a tentative socio-ecological framework that demonstrates the local and regional implications …


Between Earth And Sky: Crafting An Architecture Of Presence, Holly-Lynn Tedder Dec 2019

Between Earth And Sky: Crafting An Architecture Of Presence, Holly-Lynn Tedder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A duality exists within the experience of architecture. For many years, architects have privileged the intellectual or conceptual dimensions of design over the haptic experience of architecture, compounding a split between mind and body within our highly technologized society. We need an architecture that brings us back to the present moment. By uniting haptic experience with intellectual understanding of place, an Architecture of Presence can create a complete human experience. Explored through the design of an ecological research field laboratory in Shelby Forest, thoughtful crafting of spatial experience using material and light, modulated by contrast, leads to increased awareness and …


Deep Benthic Coral Habitats Of Glacier Bay National Park And Preserve, Alaska, Elise C. Hartill Aug 2019

Deep Benthic Coral Habitats Of Glacier Bay National Park And Preserve, Alaska, Elise C. Hartill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Southeast Alaska is a system of fjords that presents an ideal natural laboratory to study terrestrial, aquatic and marine patterns of succession due to its unique and recent history of deglaciation. The patterns of deep benthic community assemblages in the fjords of Glacier Bay were investigated by quantitative assessment of underwater photo-quadrats collected using a remotely operated vehicle. The percent cover and diversity of species were lowest near the glaciated heads of the fjords and highest in the Central Channel and at the mouths of the fjords of Glacier Bay, where oceanographic conditions …


"The Dream Is In The Process:" Environmental Racism And Environmental Justice In Boston, 1900 To 2000, Michael J. Brennan Aug 2019

"The Dream Is In The Process:" Environmental Racism And Environmental Justice In Boston, 1900 To 2000, Michael J. Brennan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following work explores the evolution of a resident-directed environmental activism that challenged negative public perception to redevelop their community. Beginning in the 1950s, city leaders justified the dislocation of non-white residents from Boston’s South End with the argument that they failed to maintain personal property and degraded community institutions. Most of these minority residents were forced to move to Roxbury. From 1963 to 1983, Roxbury lost 2,200 housing units. The vacant lots led to illegal dumping, and increased toxicity in the air, water, and soil from undesirable land use businesses such as asphalt plants. As a result, banks, supermarkets …


When Humanity Meets Technology: Contemplating Neil Postman's Critique Of Advertising, Yingwen Wang May 2019

When Humanity Meets Technology: Contemplating Neil Postman's Critique Of Advertising, Yingwen Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to contemplate Postman’s critique of advertising and offer insights to understand Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) in today’s mediated environment. As an essential component of IMC, the history of advertising demonstrates and documents that the medium of communication has an extensive influence on IMC practices. The concern about how communication media affect human perception, understanding, and behavior, resides within the central claim of the study of media ecology. Thus, this project investigates IMC through the lens of Postman’s media ecology perspectives, and argues that Postman’s prescient ideas provide both hope and constructive insights. Moreover, Postman’s thermostatic perspective, rooted …


Video Games, Influence, And Identification: The Perpetuation Of Culture Through Digital Worlds, Steven Zwier May 2019

Video Games, Influence, And Identification: The Perpetuation Of Culture Through Digital Worlds, Steven Zwier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video games, through their widespread popularity and appeal, transmit meaningful ideas, beliefs, and attitudes via the use of digital worlds, narratives, characters, and play. Play has always held a key role in human life, but the video game medium accentuates and accelerates the reach and impact of play on human users. Jacques Ellul’s philosophy of social propaganda and Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical theory each offer important implications to the persuasiveness of video games; however, when placed in conversation with one another, the union of Ellul and Burke leads to a more complete understanding of how video games have such an effect …


The Postman Always Rings Twice: Neil Postman's Views On Education Are Relevant Again In The 21st Century Classroom, Jennifer Spiegel May 2019

The Postman Always Rings Twice: Neil Postman's Views On Education Are Relevant Again In The 21st Century Classroom, Jennifer Spiegel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The public education system in America has long been criticized for its inability to prepare students for success as adults. While some engage in a narrative of blame, others ask what can be done to solve this problem. This dissertation examines a narrative crisis in the 21stcentury classroom through the lens of Neil Postman, a 20thcentury media ecologist whose fears about television may finally be realized with the advent of the personal digital device and its impact on the educational sphere. First the past narratives that guided the American school system will be traced from colonial …


Resource Allocation Across Urban And Rural Counties: A Tennessee Case Study, Dontarious Damarco Cowans Apr 2019

Resource Allocation Across Urban And Rural Counties: A Tennessee Case Study, Dontarious Damarco Cowans

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses how resource allocation of mobility-promoting organizations vary by characteristics of Tennessee counties. More specifically, I examine the variation of resources provided across urban and rural counties. Building on previous studies of mobility-promoting organizations, this study moves away from neighborhood analysis and updates to larger spatial units to a county level analysis. Including county-level data provides an opportunity to explore potential explanations for the observed regional variation in rates of poverty. Furthermore, this study analyzes aspects of disadvantage and organizational density. I utilize the Social Vulnerability Index and the Relative Rurality Index in combination with U.S. Census and …


Comparative Nutrient Removal With Innovative Green Soprtion Media For Groundwater And Stormwater Co-Treatment, Dan Wen Jan 2019

Comparative Nutrient Removal With Innovative Green Soprtion Media For Groundwater And Stormwater Co-Treatment, Dan Wen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As indicated by the National Academy of Engineering, the understanding of nitrogen cycle has been deemed as one of 14 grand challenges in engineering of the 21st century. Due to rapid population growth and urbanization, the stormwater runoff increased in quantity as well as its nutrient concentrations, which may trigger serious environmental issues such as eutrophication in aquatic systems and ecosystem degradation. This study focuses on stormwater and groundwater quality control via Biosorption Activated Media (BAM) which can be applied to enhance the nutrient removal potential as an emerging Best Management Practices (BMPs). BAM was tested in this study with …


Long-Term Carbon And Copper Impact On Nutrient Removal Via Green Sorption Media In Dynamic Linear Ditch Environments, Diana Ordonez Jan 2019

Long-Term Carbon And Copper Impact On Nutrient Removal Via Green Sorption Media In Dynamic Linear Ditch Environments, Diana Ordonez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient-laden stormwater runoff causes environmental and ecological impacts on receiving water bodies. Biosorption Activated Media (BAM) composed of the sand, tire crumb, and clay have been implemented in stormwater best management practices due to its ability to efficiently remove nutrients from stormwater runoff, such as in roadside linear ditches, via unique chemophysical and microbiological processes. In this study, a set of fixed-bed columns were set up to simulate some external forces in roadside linear ditches and examine how these external forces affect the performance of BAM. In our experiment, scenario 1 simulates the impact that animals such as tortoises, moles …


Ribbeting Results: Emergent Infectious Diseases In Wetland Systems, Ariel Horner Jan 2019

Ribbeting Results: Emergent Infectious Diseases In Wetland Systems, Ariel Horner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

North American amphibians have recently been impacted by two major emerging pathogens, the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and iridoviruses in the genus Ranavirus (Rv). Environmental, seasonal and host factors may play important roles in disease dynamics, but few studies incorporate these components into their analyses. Here, we investigated the role of environmental, seasonal, genetic and location effects on driving Bd and Rv infection prevalence and severity in a biodiversity hot spot, the southeastern United States. We used quantitative PCR to characterize Bd and Rv dynamics in natural populations of three amphibian species: Notophthalmus perstriatus, Hyla squirella and Pseudacris ornata and …


Quantifying Early Risks Of Species Invasions: Factors Regulating South To North Bivalve Colonization Of Novel Habitats, Zhiqiang Xia Jan 2019

Quantifying Early Risks Of Species Invasions: Factors Regulating South To North Bivalve Colonization Of Novel Habitats, Zhiqiang Xia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Management of species invasions ideally requires early detection of species at low abundance, which is often challenging for traditional methods. Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides a promising tool with enhanced sensitivity relative to traditional methods. As an emerging method, however, detection of species at low abundance based on eDNA needs to be optimized to improve detection rate and reduce false negatives. I conducted a meta-analysis, the results of which suggested the significance of using the highly sensitive PCR method and extensive sampling (i.e., replicates sampling and large water volume) to improve detection rate in eDNA-based, low-abundance species detection programs. Needs for …


The Role Of Local Adaptation On Biting Performance In Trinidadian Guppies, Hannah E. Cohen Jan 2019

The Role Of Local Adaptation On Biting Performance In Trinidadian Guppies, Hannah E. Cohen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Divergent selection pressures in populations that occupy different environments can result in phenotypic differentiation in traits that provide a local fitness advantage. Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) populations are separated by physical barriers such as waterfalls which result in repeated shifts in selective pressures from predator avoidance in high predation environments towards resource competition in low predation environments. Such shifts in selection pressures have previously shown that a range of locally adapted morphological and behavioral traits are changed. However, the role of local adaptation on biting behaviors remains unclear. I analyzed morphological differences such as body length, jaw position, …


Acoustic Ecology And Sound Mapping The University Of Central Florida Main Campus, Robert Clarke Jan 2019

Acoustic Ecology And Sound Mapping The University Of Central Florida Main Campus, Robert Clarke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"Acoustic Ecology and Sound Mapping the University of Central Florida Main Campus" explores the intersection of place and space, sound studies and acoustic ecology, visualization, and archives. The end result consists of a collection of "soundwalk" and stationary recordings conducted from 2016-2019 at the University of Central Florida (UCF) main campus in Orlando presented as an online Sound Map. This archive previously did not exist and provides a snapshot of the various sounds heard throughout the campus as well as a starting point and context for future research into this still-emerging field of acoustic ecology and sound studies. While the …


Investigating The Effectiveness Of A Six-Week Exercise Program For Mental Health Outcomes Among University Students, Kieran Galen Hawksley Jan 2019

Investigating The Effectiveness Of A Six-Week Exercise Program For Mental Health Outcomes Among University Students, Kieran Galen Hawksley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a six-week exercise program on university students’ mental health outcomes. The participants included 10 individuals enrolled at a Canadian university, representative of a range of educational programs (e.g., education, engineering, science) and varying year of study (first year to graduate studies). Using the Mental Health Inventory-38 (MHI-38) as a measure of Psychological Distress, Psychological Well Being, and overall mental health (Mental Health Index), paired samples t test demonstrated a nonsignificant change in the Mental Health Index scores, t(9) = 0.75, p > .05 and Psychological Well-Being, t(9) = -0.55, p …


Investigating The Late Woodland Climate Of Old Tampa Bay, Florida, Jaime Rogers Jan 2019

Investigating The Late Woodland Climate Of Old Tampa Bay, Florida, Jaime Rogers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tampa Bay and the broader Central Gulf Coast region of Florida bear evidence of site reduction and population decline during the onset of the Late Woodland period (AD 500-1000). Concomitantly, Weeden Island culture flourished to the north, while climatic instability loomed to the south. It is unclear if the site abandonments in the area between the two are related to social or cultural change, an unstable climate, or a combination thereof. Interdisciplinary research has provided evidence for climate change and sea level regression during the sixth and seventh centuries in Southwest Florida, but these variables have yet to be investigated …