Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

On Muddy Banks: An Ecoethnography Of A River Island Community, Nicholas Baxter

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this study, I examine the relationship between a river and a community. Specifically, I analyze the processes and patterns that organize the nature-society relationship and define the river town of Sabula, IA. To guide my historical and ethnographic analysis, I utilize a co constructionist posture (Rice 2013), which sees culture, community, economy, and physicality as much a product of bio-physical forces as social forces. My aim is to understand how Sabula is conjointly constructed and reveal the nuanced interconnections between human communities and nature through which social and environmental problems play out. My analysis clarifies patterns in residents’ identity …

On The Human Factors Impact Of Polyglot Programming On Programmer Productivity, Phillip Merlin Uesbeck

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Polyglot programming is a common practice in modern software development. This practice is often considered useful to create software by allowing developers to use whichever language they consider most well suited for the different parts of their software. Despite this ubiquity of polyglot programming there is no empirical research into how this practice affects software developers and their productivity. In this dissertation, after reviewing the state of the art in programming language and linguistic research pertaining to the topic, this matter is investigated by way of two empirical studies with 109 and 171 participants solving programming tasks. Based on the …

Using Archaeological Remote Sensing To Evaluate Land Use And Constructed Space In Chaco Canyon, Jennie O. Sturm

Anthropology ETDs

Archaeological remote sensing includes a suite of non-invasive methods that can be used to study elements of the archaeological record that may not be achievable otherwise. Using primarily geophysical remote sensing, and especially ground-penetrating radar (GPR), three studies involving questions of “use” were conducted in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The first used GPR to study the built interior features of a single room in Pueblo Bonito to evaluate use and function of that room. Three categories of features were identified in the GPR data and confirmed with subsequent excavation. The second study used GPR to re-evaluate an enigmatic land use …

A Survey Of Single-Use Plastic Foodware Ordinances Of The San Francisco Bay Region, Christopher Slafter

Master's Projects and Capstones

Municipal jurisdictions in the San Francisco Bay Region (SFBR) are passing comprehensive single-use plastic (SUP) foodware ordinances in response to growing public pressure, and a California mandate to achieve zero waste. SUP foodware items have become an issue of concern because they are readily available in the restaurant industry, and are regularly among the top-ten pollutants collected during beach cleanups. SUP foodware items pose a danger to marine wildlife and contribute to rising carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Policy makers in the SFBR are creating local ordinances that regulate the distribution and use of a variety of SUP foodware …

A Desire Fulfillment Theory Of Digital Game Enjoyment, Owen M. Schaffer

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

Empirical research on what makes digital games enjoyable is critical for practitioners who want to design for enjoyment, including for Game Design, Gamification, and Serious Games. But existing theories of what leads to digital game enjoyment have been incomplete or lacking in empirical support showing their impact on enjoyment.

Desire Fulfillment Theory is proposed as a new theory of what leads to digital game enjoyment and tested through research with people who have recently played a digital game. This theory builds on three established theories: Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory, Theory of Basic Human Desires, and Flow Theory. These three theories are …

The Effects Of Climate On Suicide Rates In 36 Oregon Counties, Elshadai Hailu, Maria Hernandez

Student Scholarship - College of Business

This study looked at average temperature, amount of rainfall and amount of sunshine in all 36 Oregon counties and how they affect suicide rates. Climate information was gathered over the past 30 years and suicide rates were measured between the years 2013 and 2016. It was hypothesized that there would be a negative relationship between low temperature and suicide rates. It was also predicted that there would be a negative relationship between high temperatures and suicide rates. This study found that there was a negative relationship between average high temperature and sucide rates. It also found there is to be …

A Game Modeling Of A Closed-Loop Supply Chain In A Water-Energy Nexus: Technology Advancement, Market Competition And Capacity Limit, Nabeel Hamoud

Theses and Dissertations

Water and energy are two scarce and concerning resources interconnected in the water-energy nexus. In the nexus, production of energy needs water, and production of water needs energy. For better management of these resources in the nexus, this research considers a supply chain that consists of water suppliers, power suppliers, and consumers of these commodities. In the chain, water suppliers purchase power from power suppliers, and power suppliers purchase water from water suppliers. Other consumers can also buy these resources at the water and power markets. Each firm tries to maximize its own profit. The suppliers of water and power …

Rhetsec_ | Rhetorical Security, Jennifer Mead

Culminating Projects in English

Rhetsec_ examines the rhetorical situation, the rhetorical appeals, and how phishing emails simulate "real" emails in five categories of phishing emails. While the first focus of cybersecurity is security, you must also understand the language of computers to know how to secure them. Phishing is one way to compromise security using computers, and so the computer becomes a tool for malicious language (phishing emails and malware) to be transmitted. Therefore to be concerned with securing computers, then you must also be concerned with language. Language is rhetoric's domain, and the various rhetorical elements which create an identity of the phisher …

Strategies To Improve Forage Utilization By Sheep Offered Forage Mixtures, Valens Niyigena

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first experiment, alfalfa and novel endophyte-infected tall fescue (NE+) forages were harvested after a killing frost, then mixed to formulate 4 different treatments; alfalfa alone, 67% alfalfa +33% fescue, 33% alfalfa + 67% fescue, or 100% fescue. After 3 months of storage as silage, Dorper ewe lambs (n = 20; mean BW = 34.7 ± 6.65 kg) were fed silage for ad libitum consumption, using 5 animals per treatment. Increasing the proportion of NE+ tall fescue improved (P < 0.05) silage total acids and lactic acid concentrations and decreased silage ammonia concentration. Digestible dry matter and organic matter intake and nitrogen utilization parameters decreased with increasing inclusion of NE+ in diet. In the second experiment, 16 Dorper ewe lambs (41.8 ± 4.61 kg BW) were assigned to 4 different treatments; alfalfa silage alone (0 g/kg; CONT) or alfalfa silage mixed with chopped sericea lespedeza (SL) hay to provide 90 (LOW), 180 (MED), or 270 g/kg SL (HIGH) on a dry matter basis in a randomized complete block design experiment with 2 period to provide 4 observations per treatment for each experimental period. Increasing the proportion of sericea lespedeza in the diet decreased dry matter and organic matter digestibility but did not affect feed intake. Fecal nitrogen (g/kg N intake) increased linearly (P < 0.01) while urinary N (g/ day and g/ kg of N intake) tended to decreased linearly and quadratically (P ≤ 0.1) with increasing the proportion of SL in diet. In the third experiments, 16 gestating Dorper ewe lambs (49.1 ± 4.61 kg BW) were allocated to 4 treatments; alfalfa silage alone (0% g/kg; CONT) or alfalfa silage mixed with lablab purpureus(LP) hay to provide 90 (LOW), 180 (MED), or 270 g/kg LP (HIGH) on a dry matter (DM) basis, in a randomized complete block design experiment with a total 8 replication per treatment. Supplementation of LP in diet increased quadratically (P ≤ 0.04) forage dry matter, organic matter intake, digestible dry matter and digestible organic matter intake (P < 0.05). Nitrogen apparently absorbed and urinary N both decreased linearly (P < 0.01) with adding more LP hay in diet. Harvesting and mixing alfalfa and fescue after a killing frost improved silage fermentation characteristics and supplementation of tannins from SL and polyphenol from LP altered N excretion.

Key words: lablab, sericea lespedeza, alfalfa silage, nitrogen, sheep.

The Cognition Of Controversy: Examining Policy Elites’ Narrative Cognition And Communication Around Hydraulic Fracturing Practices In The U.S., Rachael M. Moyer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of hydraulic fracturing (HF) technologies to extract oil and gas in the United States has sparked contentious policy debates, producing inconsistent and inefficient policies that have done little to address the impacts of HF in any comprehensive way. Debates are accompanied by competing policy narratives that position HF as either an environmental threat or an economic opportunity, but little is known about how policy narratives around HF are used by individuals. This dissertation systematically examines how individuals cognitively internalize elements of competing HF policy narratives. Organized into three empirical chapters, this dissertation analyzes narrative cognition (Jones, Shanahan, and …

Participatory Modeling Of Tidal Circulation On Maine Mudflats To Improve Water Quality Management Of Shellfish Areas, Gabrielle V. Hillyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, researchers have become increasingly aware of the vital role stakeholder knowledge plays in understanding complex social and environmental problems. Incorporating stakeholder knowledge into understanding complex problems allows for greater awareness and identification of community needs and can help build partnerships to support the development of applied research. In this thesis, I demonstrate the value of stakeholder knowledge and research partnerships by focusing on the soft-shell clamming industry in Maine and how a complex collaboration between clammers, municipal officials, representatives from state agencies, researchers, and other partners relied on and build adaptive capacity to address complex water …

Using A Discrete Choice Experiment To Estimate Willingness To Pay For Location Based Housing Attributes, Kristopher C. Toll

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 1993, a travel study was conducted along the Wasatch front in Utah (Research Systems Group INC, 2013). The main purpose of this study was to assess travel behavior to understand the needs for future growth in Utah. Since then, the Research Service Group (RSG), conducted a new study in 2012 to understand current travel preferences in Utah. This survey, called the Residential Choice Stated Preference survey, asked respondents to make ten choice comparisons between two hypothetical homes. Each home in the choice comparison was described by different attributes, those attributes that were used are, type of neighborhood, distance from …

Sentiment Analysis, Quantification, And Shift Detection, Kevin Labille

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on event detection within streams of Tweets based on sentiment quantification. Sentiment quantification extends sentiment analysis, the analysis of the sentiment of individual documents, to analyze the sentiment of an aggregated collection of documents. Although the former has been widely researched, the latter has drawn less attention but offers greater potential to enhance current business intelligence systems. Indeed, knowing the proportion of positive and negative Tweets is much more valuable than knowing which individual Tweets are positive or negative. We also extend our sentiment quantification research to analyze the evolution of sentiment over time to automatically detect …

Interpreting Potential Groundwater Policies Through Modeling Of Market And Non-Market Benefits And Costs, Grant H. West

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current policies leveraging financial incentives and improved irrigation efficiency to mitigate groundwater scarcity have not proven to curtail trends of resource depletion. Groundwater benefits cannot be appropriately valued solely on market forces, and so deeper policy consideration is warranted under a framework that considers the importance of groundwater across all its values to society. Understanding time preferences for groundwater management and preferences for alternative policies is vital to inform efficient policies. Furthermore, climate change remains politically controversial yet has important consequences for critical groundwater resources and their sustainable long-term management. Proliferating policy narratives concerning climate change could influence the way …

Communications And Methodologies In Crime Geography: Contemporary Approaches To Disseminating Criminal Incidence And Research, Mitchell Ogden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many tools exist to assist law enforcement agencies in mitigating criminal activity. For centuries, academics used statistics in the study of crime and criminals, and more recently, police departments make use of spatial statistics and geographic information systems in that pursuit. Clustering and hot spot methods of analysis are popular in this application for their relative simplicity of interpretation and ease of process. With recent advancements in geospatial technology, it is easier than ever to publicly share data through visual communication tools like web applications and dashboards. Sharing data and results of analyses boosts transparency and the public image of …

Getting Over The Dam: Overcoming Institutional Barriers To The Recovery Of Atlantic Salmon By Navigating The Social-Science/Policy Interface, Melissa E. Flye

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term governance has undergone somewhat of an evolution since its inception, originally describing the act of governing, it has come to represent a more collaborative form of governing which is distinct from hierarchical control models (Marin and Mayntz, 1991). Collaborative governance refers to the systems associated with public policy decision making and resource management which span the jurisdictional boundaries of public agencies, levels of government, and/or public and private spheres in order to pursue a public policy goal or outcome (Emerson et al., 2012). Environmental management is often considered an inherently collaborative effort, as ecological systems and species rarely …

Mammal Species Inventory Using Various Trapping Methods In Zone 4 Of Billy Barquedier National Park, Belize During Rainy Season, Mersady Redding

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Belize is a small country, but it is extremely ecologically diverse. Based on the few studies conducted in Belize, the abundance of mammals is low but diversity is high. Particular findings note the number and identity of species differed between four sites in the Maya Mountains of Belize, indicating that a data set from a single site is not representative of the Neotropical region. Insufficient data is available to estimate current species richness of many areas in Belize, including Billy Barquedier National Park (BBNP). The objective of this study was to explore trapping and documentation methods of terrestrial mammals in …

Suitability Assessment For Integrated Urban Development In Makkah City Of Saudi Arabia, Mislat Alotaibi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Makkah – the third most populated city in Saudi Arabia with a population of 1,684,408 according to the 2010 demographic survey conducted by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics – is experiencing urban sprawl, which can be defined as an unplanned urban expansion that might degrade the environment and diminish the aesthetic view. This is a persisting problem in Makkah driven by multitude of processes involving the random expansion in its undeveloped land and the removal of its historic mountains surrounding Al-Masjid Al-Haram (the Holy Mosque) in an attempt to push the city limit of urban capacity within its administrative …

Cost Effectiveness Of Greenhouse Gas Reductions Through Afforestation Of Agricultural Land In The Arkansas Delta, Karli A. Moore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sequestration of atmospheric carbon in forested lands offsets carbon emissions from other industries. Conversion of private lands, particularly agricultural tracts in marginal areas, to forests can bolster carbon abatement. The United States government agencies administer some voluntary, incentive-based programs to encourage landowners to adopt production practices with positive environmental outcomes. This policy stream can be used to increase transition of marginal agricultural land to forests, thereby creating new carbon sinks. We analyze an eleven-county study area in the Arkansas Delta to determine feasibility for a subsidy focused on carbon abatement through afforestation. This study area is significant for two reasons: …

Improving Earthquake Disaster Models With Post-Event Data: Insights From The 2015 Gorkha, Nepal Earthquake, Bradley Steven Wilson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Immense amounts of data are collected following earthquake disasters. Yet, it remains unclear how researchers’ might take full advantage of diverse post-disaster datasets. Using data from the 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake, this dissertation explores three ways in which post- disaster survey and assessment datasets can be used to inform models of seismic risk, vulnerability, and recovery processes. The first article presents an empirical analysis of scale issues in disaster vulnerability indices using a novel dataset of 750,000 households. This study finds that using aggregated household data to create social vulnerability indices can produce results that are meaningfully different from equivalent …

Comparative Assessment Of Downscaling Methods And Application Towards Analysis Of Climate Change Impact On Urban Regions, Markus Eichenbaum

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Global climate models (GCM) are sophisticated numerical models used to make long term climate projections. However, the resolution of their output is too coarse for climate change related local impact studies on urban regional scales. Downscaling efforts are taken to address this and increase GCM projection resolution. Physical Scaling (SP) downscaling methodology attempts to incorporate the physical basis of dynamical downscaling efforts with the computational efficiency of statistical methods. In this study, North American Regional Reanalysis surface skin temperature and precipitation data for a 1°x1° region centered on Houston, TX are downscaled to a resolution of 500m via SP and …

Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Lake Water Quality Indicators On Small Lakes, Lake Bloomington And Evergreen Lake In Central Illinois, Using Satellite Remote Sensing, Gare Ambrose-Igho

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the use of Sentinel-2 satellite to determine the spatiotemporal patterns of lake water quality indicators (e.g. chlorophyll a) in Lake Bloomington and Evergreen Lake. Lake water quality issues related to algal blooms is a serious problem in basins with abundant agricultural lands causing harmful effects to freshwater ecosystems such as pollution of beaches, taste and odor problems in drinking water, depletion of oxygen levels causing fish kills and the issue of water exceeding safe drinking water standards. Developing monitoring techniques using various water quality indicators of algal blooms is crucial. In this project, remote sensing and field …

Development Of A Holistic Framework For Shipyard Energy Management : A Case Study On Production Facilities And Technology, Morné Irshkin Sinden

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Potentials And Challenges For Egypt To Achieve Blue Growth: An Sdg 14 Perspective, Mamdouh Awad Abdelrahman Shahhat

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Case Study Of The Implementation And Enforcement Of Marpol Annex Vi Sulphur Regulations In Kenya, Annette Wangari Muriithi

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Identify Monitoring Needs And Emerging Technology To Support Ecosystem Based Management (Ebm) And Sustainable Blue Growth In Nigerian Ports: Case Study : Lagos Ports (Lagos Pport Complex And Tin Can Island Port Complex), Roland Oladipo Ijabiyi

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Environmental Regulation Of Emerging Offshore Oil And Gas Activities In Somalia, Abubakar Mohamud Abubakar

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Limitations Of Integrating Energy And Environmental Standards Into Seaports Of Small Island Developing States, Matthew Kensen

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan: Analysis Of Biofouling Effect On Co2 Emission Performance Of Iraq Non-Trading Fleet, Oudah Salim Mohammed Ali Alshawi, Tsitskishvili Avtandil

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Significance Of Marine Autonomous Surface Ships: Prospects To The Philippine Maritime Industry, Dennis A. Pandeagua

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.